The News Editor Kunal Majumder and Managing Editor Rishi Majumder of Vice India resigned last week, due to alleged editorial interference on the part of the management, which involved censoring stories related to the Narendra Modi led Bharatiya Janata Party. They had been leading the editorial team of the company after the resignation of Pragya Tiwari as the head of content, towards the end of February.
The Ken had reported at the beginning of this month in a piece titled ‘All’s not well in India’s Viceland’ on the strained nature of the partnership between Vice Media and the Times Group. The TV channel’s launch has been delayed and is expected to be towards the end of this year due to some issues it is having with the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.
However, the gravity of the issue can only be truly gauged if one goes into the alleged circumstances in which both Rishi and Kunal Majumder handed in their resignations to the company.
The Wire got access to the resignation letters of both Kunal and Rishi Majumder. The reasons they highlighted in those letters were how the current CEO Chanpreet Arora and the ‘chief of content’ wanted to bury a particular story of a gay Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad activist by Kunal Majumder, due to the fear that they might offend the current Bharatiya Janata Party government led by Narendra Modi.
The Resignation of Kunal Majumder
In the resignation letter of Kunal Majumder on March 12, he wrote, “I cannot work in an organization that takes a call on stories based on double guessing what the ruling party’s president will like.”
In the letter, he also alleged that CEO Chanpreet Arora told him, “We cannot get a call from Amit Shah.” She had allegedly said this in an editorial meeting before this as well.
The Resignation of Rishi Majumder
Rishi Majumder wrote a resignation letter a few days after Kunal Majumder quit. He wrote, “The Vice India CEO [Chanpreet Arora] added yesterday that the stories on our slate that she sees as being really problematic are ones that deal with Hindutva.”
In the resignation letter, he pointed out his objections to setting up a ‘Political and Cultural Sensitivity Committee’, whose role is to ‘clear sensitive stories’, which already have the approval of the editors.
Did Legal Vetting Become A Way To Censor Stories On Vice?
In the resignation letter of Rishi, he highlighted how the legal team was at the forefront of the editorial process. Rishi writes about how after the resignation of Kunal, he received a mail from one of the junior lawyers of the company, who had flagged issues with three stories.
According to Rishi, in the email, the lawyer had listed down three reasons why the gay ABVP activist story might have resulted in legal troubles for VICE India:
1. The piece disclosed the commission of an offence under Article 377 and that the writer, as a result, may have been required to make public their source.
2. The defamatory nature of the piece in case the interview lacked original documentation.
3. It was described as a piece which was ‘extremely politically sensitive and may result in violent outbursts from the parties named therein’.
Past Of Chanpreet Arora
Chanpreet Arora, whose alleged actions resulted in the resignation of both Kunal and Rishi, had joined VICE India in January 2018. Prior to this, she had been the head of sales operations and revenue strategy at the Times Internet Limited for two years.
Troubles In VICE India?
There were plans by the company to launch a website and a TV channel, in collaboration with the Times Group. However, neither of them have been launched yet.
According to the sources of The Wire in the Mumbai team, the video team was heavily discouraged from pursuing a documentary on censorship in the country.
Not The First Partner Of Times Group To Be In Trouble
The partnership of online portal Huffington Post with the Times of India also came to an abrupt end in October 2017. Huffington Post blamed it on ‘editorial interference’ of the head of content strategy of Times Bridge.
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Featured image source: Mohd Zakir/Hindustan Times via Getty Images
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