The video discusses the crisis at Indian news channel ABP News and the alleged government pressure on its journalists. The crisis began when renowned journalist Prasoon Bajpai exposed the truth behind a video conference between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and farmers, where a farmer claimed her income had doubled. However, Bajpai's investigation revealed that the claim was false and the farmer was instructed to say so by a team from Delhi.
The government responded by putting pressure on ABP News, with BJP ministers tweeting against the channel and accusing it of having an agenda against the Prime Minister. The channel's Managing Director, Milind Khandekar, was reportedly pressurized to keep Bajpai in control, and the channel was even blacked out during Bajpai's show.
Bajpai eventually resigned, along with another journalist, Abhisar Sharma, who had also been critical of the government. The video suggests that the government has a monitoring team that watches news channels and decides what content should be shown, and that this team has been used to silence critical journalists.
The video also discusses the decline of independent media in India and suggests that the solution lies in supporting independent journalism through donations.
Here are the key facts extracted from the text:
1. On June 20, 2018, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a video conference with farmers.
2. During the conference, a farmer named Chandramani said her income had doubled.
3. ABP News sent reporters to verify Chandramani's claim and found that her income had not doubled.
4. The truth was aired on ABP News' show "Master Stroke" on July 6, 2018.
5. BJP ministers, including Rajyavardhan Rathore, tweeted against ABP News, accusing them of trying to defame PM Modi.
6. A website called mynation.com published an article and video claiming that Chandramani's income had doubled due to her work with custard apples.
7. ABP News' reporters again visited the village and found that the women in Chandramani's group had not seen an increase in their income.
8. The channel's Managing Director, Milind Khandekar, resigned on August 1, 2018.
9. Punya Prasoon Bajpai, the host of "Master Stroke," resigned on August 2, 2018.
10. Bajpai wrote a blog post for The Wire explaining that he was told to stop taking PM Modi's name on his show.
11. Bajpai also wrote that the Modi government has a monitoring team of 200 people to manipulate news.
12. The team works under three levels: monitoring news channels, shaping narratives, and reviewing content.
13. The team's findings are compiled into a report and presented to the Information and Broadcasting minister.
14. The minister then issues directives to news channel editors on what to broadcast and what to remove.
15. Bajpai stated that even if a news channel shows PM Modi in a positive light 90% of the time, if they criticize him 10% of the time, BJP spokespersons will stop appearing on the channel.
16. Bajpai also mentioned that 106 new government schemes were announced between 2014 and 2018, all of which featured PM Modi's name and face.