Thread by @sandhyaravishan

A lot of debate around #ArnabGoswamiArrested and whether journalists should stand by him or not. Key debate points: (a) He does not do journalism; (b) FIR has nothing to do with his work; (c) Suicide note named him.

So let me see if I can break this down. #Thread (1)

(a) He does not do journalism: Agreed. @republic largely produces misinformation and opinionated content leaning in favour of the current ruling party at the centre. There is little real reportage and does not tick the boxes of journalistic rigour.

Now onto the next point. (2)

(b) FIR has nothing to do with his work: Technically correct. Case relates to abetment of suicide charges. But let us not forget that the state & police are notorious for using/foisting charges unrelated to the actual "offending" work done. Cases in point are Jagendra Singh (3)

who was going to be arrested over a false complaint filed against him by another journalist saying that Jagendra had attacked him. The police came to arrest him, allegedly poured petrol over him & set him on fire. He died a week after. This type of narrative is seen often. (4)

More often than not, the charges filed have NOTHING to do with a journalist's work. So it is important to look at context & background. It is no secret that #ArnabGoswami had taken on the Mumbai police commissioner & the Maharashtra government. He had been going after them (5)

for some time now. Whether his tirade was justified or not, it cannot be denied that the police & state were miffed with his work. So no, I do not see this as being "unrelated to his work".

(c) Suicide note blamed him: Yes he was named along with 2 others in the note. (6)

But a suicide note alone is not enough for conviction. As per Sec 107 IPC, there needs to be active instigation or conspiracy to push a person to suicide. Is this proof available? We don't know. @republic says they have paid back 90% of the dues to the Naik family. (7)

True? No idea. They also claim they had requested the Naik family to come to office to collect full dues & sign off that debts were cleared, but that the family refused. True? We don't know. The family is also not clearing the air on this. So what do we know? (8)

We know that police filed closure report under A summary - meaning case remains undetected. As a journalist friend pointed out, this was done during @Dev_Fadnavis govt. And this point holds a lesson for all journalists, anchors, owners of media houses. What lesson? (9)

That no matter how close you may be to a political party or the ruling establishment, they will always hedge their bets. #Arnab 's arrest also shows that no matter which party is in power, all state govts will use anything they can to crush voices critical of them. (10)

Lesson for journalists who support ruling party: They will do an A summary on you instead of a B summary. Be wary. Don't support blindly, stupidly.

Lesson for journalists who support opposition parties: They will come for you at some point when they are in power. (11)

Those journalists who remain balanced & argue points with coherence, logic and facts are the only ones who have the greatest chance of surviving.

The rest will bite the dust. At some point. So make your choice. Journalists are not as powerful as they seem to think. (ends)