Chyetanya Kunte Vs Barkha Dutt & NDTV - A Fiasco

To those who are new to the Chetan Kunte ( Chyetanya Kunte) Vs. Barkha Dutt & NDTV s fiasco. Here are the salient points:-

Barkha Dutt reports live during the Mumbai attacks orchestrated by Pakistan sponsored terrorists and shows live coverage of NSG commando’s movements on national TV, thus possibly compromising the whole operation. This is well known in the media and the media have come under critism for the same from the San Fracisco Chronicle and The Christian Science Monitor.

The Chief of the Naval Staff, Admiral Sureesh Mehta and The Information & Broadcasting Ministry, has expressed anger at the electronic media’s coverage of the Mumbai terror attacks & Kargil War. Hindu reported on “the famous shot” which killed 3 soldiers as below. The following quote from The Hindu summarizes it well.

The competition among news channels to score brownie points reminded him of the “famous shot” during the Kargil War that led to the destruction of an ultra-powerful artillery gun of the Army. Three soldiers died and the Colonel, who yielded to a woman reporter’s entreaty to fire the gun for the camera’s benefit was dismissed from service.

Senior government officials have been chafing at the “intrusive coverage” by the electronic media.

Admiral Mehta said he was disturbed by the “extra heavy reporting” on the attacks. “When operations are taking place, you are reporting that two commandos are going inside. They [terrorists] were in live contact with their masters, who were telling them what the channels were reporting. I think it requires a certain amount of restraint in ongoing operations. Do you really have to give minute-by-minute coverage? Media is an enabling instrument. Today it is a disenabling instrument.

Coming back to the Mumbai Attacks, Kunte writes a post entiteled “ Shoddy Journalism” – see Google cahe – scroll all the way to the bottom of the page.

• Following that Barkha & NDTV sends him a lawyer’s notice for libel here (See Barkha Dutt's comment) and Kunte takes down his post and publishes an apology.

* If you read the content of Kunte's apology carefully- he makes the points again that he has made in the post "Shoddy Journalism" and cleverly drafts an apology!


This has led to the a wave of anger in the blogosphere, on the David Vs Goliath situation. Obviously, Kunte has retracted his post as he is no match to the behemoth NDTV’s muscle.

What is ironic that the people ( read Barkha Dutt & NDTV) who espouse freedom of speech and shout about it from every nook and corner are the first ones who have tried to curtail the freedom of speech of another, in this case Kunte!

“We The People” (Tongue in Cheek) for Barka Dutt’s program on NDTV, have disliked this kind of behaviour so much that bloggers have been writing about this incident all over the world.

There are numerous Facebook groups that have become a medium for expressing an outrage for the common people, as this is being perceived a justifiable criticism of Barkha Dutts reporting.

The various groups protesting are:-

* Barkha Dutt for worst Jounalist on the planet

* Take Barkha Dutt off air.

* Barkha Dutt wants to Gag Free Speech.


To say that the behaviour of Barkha Dutt is beyond comprehension, even egregious, is a foregone conclusion.

If they had not reacted in such a manner and all this storm in a teacup would not have happened and Kunte's post might have have generated any reaction. The obvivous boomerang effect has been that bloggers have taken up Kunte's case and created a media hype which Barkha Dutt and NDTV will regret. This has forced Barkha & NDTV on a defensive.

The Indian journalists feel that they are the High and mighty and should not be criticised, esp. by a bloke with a computer. Barkha has wondered whether blogs should be regulated in the past and so has this kid.

This just goes to show that the Indian Journalists have not come to accept the point that Sousveillance is here to stay and that bloggers have the freedom to express their viewpoint.


The following are the reactions in The Blogosphere. Is NDTV & Bakra Dutt going to sue them all & Wikipedia and Twitter.

BTW, I read this NDTV's shot in its own foot and I am sure you will enjoy Reading CKunte's blogpost on NDTV as much as I did. It has since been removed, but thanks to Rohit who has made a PDF file availabe for us to read and grin. ;-)

Watch this space for further updates......

Edit: I thought this will be a small list - but I am surprised by the number of Bloggers who have taken up Kunte's cause and the number of people who have signed up on The Facebook. They are in the thousands!! Is Barkha listening to "We the people"???

* Desi Pundit writes about a Blogger is silenced By NDTV

* Shipriya - Shame on NDTV & Barkha Dutt

* Lekhni - writes a bed time Story about Blog freedom

* bangalore Bytes - Shame Shame NDTV

* The comic Project - Throw The constitution Away

* Rohit says that NDTV's assault on Free Speech

* Prem Panicker on When Free Speech Bears a Price Tag

* Sandeep says Barkha Dutt & NDTV - The Joke is on you

* Falstaff harks about Da Butt

*Vimoh writes - An Open Letter to NDTV

* Gaurav writes on Bullying By NDTV

* Prateek's take on Muffling a Blogger

* Gaurav condems Barkha Dutt & NDTV

* Amit's take on this incident

* Slacker slams NDTV

* NSG criticises Media

* Gaurav from vantage Point writes about NDTV

* Another Abhishek's take on NDTV

* Monterio's take is here

* Sanjukta's writes here

* Beyond work writes on NDTV

* Venkatesh Sridhar on Why NDTV lost His respect

* Amrutha writes about Intimidation By NDTV

* Trailblazer on Shoddy Intimidation

* Prasoon on Freedom of speech

* Naavi on NDTV need to Apologize

* Churumuri on Will Bakra & NDTV sue Facebook

* Rahul Siddharthan on a fan Letter to Barkha.

* Nanopolitician on Congratulations NDTV

* Arzan on Barkhagate

* Harini on Losing the Plot

* Amrit on Barkha Dutt

* Kufir on NDTV, Listen to the Defiance

* Binu on why barkha should walk the talk

* Vinod Sharma on Barkha Dutt & Free- Doom of Expression

* Binary on Mr Goliath, every action has a ten times large reaction

* Jo on Are we a free Country

* Rezwan on Indian Blogger silenced

* Mad Momma on We, The bloggers.

* Subaltern media on NDTV Vs Kunte

* Aditya Mhatre on Kunte vs NDTV

* Stop watching NDTV

* Veena on Libel & Truth Defense

* Pragmatic on Reject The biased media

* Chandni on You disappoint me Barkha Dutt

* Nick Farell on Indian Blogger Silenced

* Rakesh on Pigeon Heads

* Sandeep's take on Fragile basis to Support barkha Dutt

* Cyril Gupta on What's Wrong with barkha Dutt

* Barbar Indian's on taliban media

* Kufir at Blogbharti 0n Hail Barkha Dutt

* Manasi writes a balanced review on Withdrawl Symptoms

* Kiran's appeal on stop watching Empty Tv & Parkha Strutt

* Balaji on Screw barkha Dutt

* Shubho on The Megalomania of barkha Dutt

* Online Journalism Blog's here

* Arzhan on BarkhaGate

* Hemant Morajkar on Mediaah again: Indian blogospehere takes on NDTV

* Mayank on CKunte,NDTV and Barkha Dutt and the big farce of freedom of speech

Media Stories

* Firos at Miday - Why Bloggers are angry With Barkha Dutt

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