Taking note of the WhatsApp chats exchanged between Republic TV’s Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami and former BARC India CEO Partho Dasgupta, the News Broadcasters Association (NBA) on Monday demanded the suspension of Republic TV’s IBF membership till the case related to alleged manipulation of ratings is pending in court.
“These messages clearly establish collusion between the two in manipulating ratings to garner greater viewership numbers for Republic TV month after month by fraudulently manually reducing ratings of other channels to give Republic TV an unfair advantage,” the NBA Board said in a statement.
The NBA Board also demanded that Republic TV should be kept out of BARC rating system till court passes the final judgement in the case.
Expressing shock over the leaked WhatsApp chats, the association said that these messages confirm the allegations made by NBA in the last four years that ratings were being manipulated by a non-NBA member broadcaster in connivance with BARC’s top management officials.
“NBA has already conveyed to BARC that ratings are unreliable as far as we can see and should continue to be suspended in light of the recent revelations which shows the arbitrary nature of functioning at BARC. It shows that there are no checks and balances and the ability of a few within BARC to easily change the ratings as they deemed fit, making the system subjective to the whims and fancy of the management versus being an objective transparent system. The Oversight Committee with no representation of broadcasters and just consultants paid by BARC is an eyewash to show autonomy. NBA strongly demands that action should be taken by BARC against these dubious actors, legal and police action should also be taken against those who are responsible for ruining the credibility of BARC and threaten to damage the credibility of the news broadcast business have hitherto gone about their business without any consequences or fear thereof,” the statement read.
Earlier, Mumbai Police had told the court that Arnab Goswami had allegedly bribed Dasgupta with "lakhs of rupees" to ramp up the news channel's viewership numbers fraudulently.
Meanwhile, Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh said that they are looking into the matter and a meeting has been called on Tuesday to decide the next course of action.
“We are gathering information about the leaked chats between Arnab Goswami & Partho Dasgupta. Some highly sensitive things including the Balakot airstrike & the Pulwama attack have been mentioned in the chats,” he said.
(Edited by : Aditi Gautam)
First Published: Jan 18, 2021 5:56 PM IST
