oppn parties Alarmist Stories On Covid-19 Are Disgusting And Irresponsible Journalism

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  • Allahabad HC said that the UP Police is acting as law unto themselves as they detained a person unlawfully even before his arrest
  • Kolkata witnesses traffic snarls on the first day of the Durga Puja festival as revellers start pnadal-hopping
  • Neha Bora was subsequently released and Dipke is to appear before a magistrate today at noon
  • Delhi Police detained Cockroach Janta Party founder Abhijeet Dipke, Neha Bora of AISA, student leaders and supporters ahead of a rally in Connaught Place demanding Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar's resignation. The protest followed the detention and jailing of two CJP leaders earlier in the week over demonstrations at Jantar Mantar
  • The Reserve Bank of India is considering further monetary tightening to counter capital outflows and increase the cost of betting against the rupee, according to bankers and analysts cited by Reuters. The measures follow recent rate increases and steps to drain liquidity as pressure on the currency and inflation concerns persist
  • India directed oil marketing companies to stop diverting sugar-based feedstocks for ethanol production in the 2026–27 supply year, according to a new tender issued on Friday. The companies have invited bids for 11 billion litres of ethanol made from alternatives including corn and broken rice, amid concerns about domestic sugar supplies and prices
  • Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said India's trade imbalance with China was growing sharply and attributed the problem partly to restrictions on Indian goods and services entering the Chinese market. China subsequently said it was ready to work with India to address mutual economic and trade concerns; India's trade deficit with China reached $69 billion in the first half of FY2026–27, up 27% year-on-year
  • Indian equity benchmarks extended their recovery on Friday, with the Sensex rising 413.66 points to close at 74,729.27 and the Nifty 50 gaining 148.80 points to settle at 23,146.15. Information technology shares, including Tech Mahindra, Infosys and TCS, helped lift the indices
  • India defeated Zimbabwe by four wickets in the opening women's T20 International in Raipur, taking a 1–0 lead in the three-match series. Deepti Sharma and Niki Prasad combined in an 82-run stand after India's top order collapsed, helping the hosts chase down Zimbabwe's total of 114 for five
  • Indian wrestler Komal won bronze in the women's 59 kg category at the Under-23 World Wrestling Championships in Las Vegas, defeating Kazakhstan's Viktoriia Khusainova 7–2. Fellow Indian Amruta Pujari advanced to the women's 72 kg final after recording two pinfall victories
  • Indian shuttler Jagsher Singh Khangurra secured a bronze medal at the BWF World Junior Badminton Championships in Cairo
  • The Supreme Court of India upheld the Bombay High Court's decision quashing the 2020 write-off of ₹8,415 crore in additional tier-1 bonds issued by Yes Bank (Yes Bank). The court ruled that the bank's administrator lacked the authority to extinguish the bonds under the final reconstruction scheme, strengthening bondholders' claims
  • The Supreme Court issued notices to the Election Commission of India, Delhi Police and opposition leaders, including Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav, in separate petitions concerning electoral-roll revision and protests held in Delhi on October 10–12. The court also directed the preservation of CCTV footage linked to allegations of police excesses
  • The Supreme Court ruled that a person converting from Hinduism to Islam cannot automatically claim backward-class reservation benefits in the new religious community solely on the basis of their previous caste status. The judgment upheld the Madras High Court's decision striking down a 2024 Tamil Nadu government order that permitted such certification for specified communities
  • The Election Commission of India ordered a Special Summary Revision of electoral rolls in 14 states and three Union Territories, using January 1, 2027, as the qualifying date for voter eligibility. The draft rolls are scheduled for publication on November 12, claims and objections will be accepted until December 11, and the final rolls are due on January 4, 2027
Delhi HC refuses to ban CJP's Tiranga rally at Central Park in Connaught Place today /////// Police says will control and regulate it /////// NDMC closes the park for the public on Friday and Saturday
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Alarmist Stories On Covid-19 Are Disgusting And Irresponsible Journalism

By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2020-03-29 10:06:57

About the Author

Sunil Garodia Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator. Author of Cyber Scams in India, Digital Arrest, The Money Trap and The Human Hack

Any crisis, especially a pandemic like Covid-19, is the time when the media has a huge role in keeping the people updated with genuine news. This is so because, at such times, know-alls come out of the woodwork to spread all kinds of rumours and cures. With social media getting hyper-activated in times of the lockdown and self-isolation, these mischievous handouts from obscure sources, unfortunately, get spread exponentially. Hence, it is upon the media to scotch these rumours and help prevent the people from getting alarmed unnecessarily.

Obviously, this does not mean that the media will not point out the shortcomings of the government in fighting the epidemic. It would be failing in its duty if it does not inform the people of how and why the government is being lax in combating the pandemic. The people have the right to know if the government is doing the right things, in the right ways and at the right times to fight the epidemic. But that does not give media the license to twist news or try and 'create' one when it does not exist. This license is not available to the media at any time but in times of such crisis, it has an added responsibility to shun alarmist tendencies.

Hence, it is disgusting that a news website put out an alarmist story about India having already entered the third stage of Covid-19 transmission. That it used inputs from obscure sources to put the story together perhaps fits well with its self-declared mission of telling "stories no one else is willing to tell". But did it gel with its other stated objective of asking its contributors to "dig deep, long and hard for the truth"? Truth was obviously going to be the first casualty when the person whose inputs formed the basis of the story was not qualified to make those statements. He had no authority and the website tried to 'build' that authority around him to convince the readers into believing what he was saying was true.

Read the original article here 

India may yet enter the third stage due to other lapses on part of the government, but jumping the gun and announcing it as a done thing when it has not yet progressed to that stage is not responsible journalism. If the third stage does happen, the website might say "we told you so" with glee, but that is not the way to do things. The media should wait for confirmation and collate news from different sources to be doubly sure before putting out such alarmist stories.

Readers are advised to form their own opinion after reading the original (updated later) article and the article that exposed the story as fake.

Read the article that exposed it as fake here

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