Thread by @seekingsrishti

From Bangalore, to Paris, to Berlin and finally in Delhi, nearly nine months of reporting for #storykillers is now published by Forbidden Stories and their partners.

forbiddenstories.org/story-killers/…

Some findings here :

Picking up where Lankesh left off, Forbidden Stories investigated Postcard News.

I found that in the years following Lankesh’s killing, Hegde grew closer to the BJP, co-founding a company that lists an active BJP advisor as a director.

web.archive.org/web/2023021502…

In August 2021, Hegde co-founded a PR firm, Wise Index Media, which lists two additional directors: Shrikanth Kote and Beluru Sudarshana.

web.archive.org/web/2023021503…

Sudarshana – a former journalist – is special advisor for e-governance under the current BJP Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai.

He was first elevated to the post by former chief minister BS Yediyurappa in 2019 and again in December 2021 after a cabinet change.

Bommai did not respond to requests for comment. Through a spokesperson, Yediyurappa refused to comment.

On its website, Wise Index Media claims to specialize in “Digital Media Management, Political communication, Profiling and Public Relations management, Image Building, Political strategy placement and Data Analysis.”

web.archive.org/web/2023021503…

While the Wise Index Media site makes no direct mention of Postcard News, hyperlinks under the “about us” section redirect to Postcard pages.

Kote, the co-founder of Wise Index Media, told Forbidden Stories the company was created to provide visibility to grassroots initiatives and welfare projects in Karnataka but did not comment on the identity of its clients.

Sudarshana, Kote added, was “not an employee of the BJP” but was an advisor working on digitization of government initiatives.

( This resume says otherwise )
scribd.com/document/37766…

On his personal website, Hegde brags about having played a “pivotal role” in Modi’s 2019 reelection campaign. He also appears to have used Wise Index Media as a fundraising vessel for the BJP.

In September 2022, he called on temples to make donations to celebrate Modi’s 72nd birthday in a series of social media posts. A handful of these temples drew out checks to Wise Index Media.

In a WhatsApp message, Hegde responded: “Please send me more jokes.” When Forbidden Stories tried calling, he reiterated that he was “not interested” in responding to our questions.

Forbidden Stories’s findings align with Hegde’s past statements about his proximity to the BJP, including allegedly telling police that he “had the blessings of several top right-wing leaders” after he was arrested for spreading disinformation in March 2018.

The lawyer who initially represented Hegde in court in this case, Tejasvi Surya, is now a prominent member of the BJP and head of the party’s youth wing. Surya did not respond to our multiple requests for an interview.

@joyopal at Michigan, said in recent years, there has been a “gradual mainstreaming” of media organizations at least loosely affiliated with right-wing entities, including Postcard, The Frustrated Indian and Sudarshan News, a right-wing TV channel.

“What they do much more than fake news is suggestion,” he said. “These organizations are often run by very thin staff, and they tap into these mid-level influencers in the pyramid structure [of right-wing groups online].”

“Once they get to a certain point of outreach, they start getting more and more extreme because they need to be even further out than whatever television will say,” he added.

In late 2016, about a year before she was killed, Gauri Lankesh's name trended negatively on Twitter after she was convicted of libel and released on bail. Social media posts described Lankesh as a “commie,” “naxalite,” and “prestitute,” a term combining “press” and “prostitute.”

It is during that period that one widely shared post by Postcard News described Lankesh as a “known Hindu hater.”

The Postcard news article, which linked to a now-removed YouTube video of a 2012 speech by Lankesh was allegedly shown to at least 5 of her presumed assassins, was shared on social media by Postcard co-founders Mahesh Vikram Hegde and Vivek Shetty.

According to local police sources, the video – downloaded onto accused's laptop from YouTube – was one element in a “gradual indoctrination” process.

Using open-source tools, researchers found evidence of eight different YouTube links that were shared widely on Facebook, including three that had more than 100 million interactions (likes, shares and comments).

In 2014, the official page for the BJP in Karnataka shared the video with a warning: “The next time we hear such speeches we should give a fitting legal reply.”

BJP Karnataka disconnected the call after listening to questions.

This article on legacy and life of Gauri Lankesh is a team effort. @NeogiOishika @prajwalmanipal conducted interviews amid risk and exposure. @hoeflingern, @suryamattu and @mynameisfiber got essential context and the story was written with flair and precision by @PhineasJFR.

In 2017, Gauri Lankesh was assassinated in Bangalore days before she planned to publish an article about disinformation. Over 5 years later, Forbidden Stories pursued Lankesh’s work on fake news and explored new leads in her murder case.

Read here : forbiddenstories.org/story-killers/…