News Broadcasting
Salman-Ash tapes: How many had them?
NEW DELHI: Bollywood hero Salman Khan’s alleged dalliances with the underworld, which, reportedly led to an acrimonious separation from his arm candy and former world beauty queen Aishwarya Rai, not only made Hindustan Times’ Mumbai debut much talked about, but also gave TV news channels some spicy stuff to follow up on 14 July.
Even as news channels clamoured to put together a story, which was broken by HT yesterday, at least two of the channels claimed to be first with the news on the small screen, including visuals.
What is more surprising is that some of the news channels also claimed to be in possession of the tape (conversation between Salman and Ash) on the basis of which HT lead with a story in its inaugural Mumbai edition.
“We had the tape for some time, but held it back from airing it as we were doing some more investigation,” Jagran TV COO Piyush Jain told Indiantelevision.com today. Ditto for India TV chairman Rajat Sharma, who said, “We anyway have done controversial stories in the past and as usual wanted to verify the veracity of the Salman-Ash tape before putting it out.”
The Mumbai police has now gone on record saying the tape would be investigated as also the alleged connection of the underworld with Bollywood. Salman’s lawyer has dubbed the tape a ‘doctored’ one as Salman is a “soft target” for people with vested interests.
If, as claimed by two news channels, they had the tape, why did they wait for HT to show them the way? Explained Jain, “We were doing some additional investigations to be 100 per cent sure of the facts. When HT broke the story, we thought we might as well put out the story.”
Though by early afternoon most news channels had started running stories on the alleged Salman-Ash-underworld affair, how did the news channels acquire a copy of the tape is itself a mystery. Nobody is ready to admit the source.
“We haven’t given any news channels any tape, though it’s nice of some TV news channels to give us the credit,” HT Mumbai resident editor Avirook Sen said.
While Star News acknowledged HT’s contribution in breaking the story even though later in the day doing its “own value additions,” HT’s Sen appeared on a NDTV channel for a programme hosted by Abhigyan Prakash.
Meanwhile, Indiantelevision.com has learnt that the HT correspondent who broke the story actually had been working on the matter for some months when he was, reportedly, working for a TV news channel. The tape was in his possession since then. And, then the journalist hopped over to HT in Mumbai taking along with him the tape and the story that had all the ingredients of a Bollywood potboiler.
The rest, as they say, is history!
Still, what is rather odd about this whole affair is that the “leak” of the tapes has been to more than one media outlet. While answers are not forthcoming at present over why the Mumbai police “sat over” the matter for over four years, it is also clearly evident that more than one party that had access to the tapes have been sitting on it for varying periods of time.
Mumbai eveninger Afternoon Despatch & Courier put forth an interesting point in its Diary column today: “If, indeed, Salman does know the underworld as closely as he claims, and he is truly their main man in Mumbai, then where is the wisdom in letting him run around loose and unchecked? Are the police sitting on the tapes because they want to use them at a later and appropriate date? Perhaps, to their own advantage? Or do the police know that the tapes are not genuine, after all, but are enjoying the tamasha of the media carrying out this witch-hunt against a star they have never really liked?”
Questions, questions…
News Broadcasting
Rajesh Sundaram joins NDTV Profit as senior editor, assignment
The 32-year newsroom veteran has launched channels on three continents and covered everything from 9/11 to South African television
MUMBAI: NDTV Profit has bolstered its newsroom with a hire who has done rather more than most. Rajesh Sundaram, a journalist with over three decades of editorial, managerial and consultative experience across India and international markets, joins as senior editor, assignment, tasked with sharpening the network’s newsgathering and real-time response.
Sundaram’s career reads like a tour of Indian media’s most formative moments. He began at Businessworld in 1994, moved to Zee News as bureau chief across Mumbai and Chennai, then joined NDTV in 2002 as part of its political bureau during a particularly febrile period in Indian politics. A stint as India correspondent for Al Jazeera International followed, where he covered key geopolitical developments and got his first serious taste of the global newsroom.
What sets Sundaram apart, however, is his serial channel-launching habit. At NewsX, he helped get the operation off the ground. At Headlines Today, part of the India Today Group, he served as editor. At News Nation, he helped launch the Hindi news channel and its digital ecosystem. He then crossed continents to lead the launch of ANN7 in South Africa as editor-in-chief, overseeing both television and digital. Back in India, he launched Tamil news channels News7 Tamil and Cauvery News, and later served as principal consultant for the launch of Marathi channel Lokshahi. Most recently, he helped build and lead the Press Trust of India’s video service and content studio, before stints consulting for Business Today and The Himalayan Times.
Rahul Kanwal, chief executive and editor-in-chief of NDTV, left little doubt about what Sundaram is expected to deliver. “The assignment desk is where a newsroom’s intent becomes action,” he said. “Rajesh brings a rare combination of field experience and leadership in building news operations at scale.”
Sundaram has reported from across India and the world, covering elections, civil conflicts, the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks and the 2008 US presidential election.
At NDTV Profit, he will lead the assignment desk, driving editorial coordination and real-time response across markets and breaking developments. For a business news network sharpening its focus on speed and multi-platform delivery, it has hired a man who has built newsrooms from scratch on three continents. The assignment desk is in good hands.
