Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru
Bengaluru, May 10: As many as 16 journalists have been arrested in the last one year in Karnataka, mostly for blackmail, extortion and false propaganda.
A report that appeared in The Print gives instances on how prominent journalists used unethical journalism practices for their benefit.
Just as recent as May 5, the city crime branch arrested Hemanth Kumar, the MD of defunct channel Focus TV. Kumar allegedly tried to extort Rs 50 lac from Arvind Limbavali, the BJP MLA from Mahadevapura, with fake studio and video clips. However, his plan backfired when Limbavali's assistant approached the police.
In another case, prominent TV journalist Kiran Shanbhag, who worked with TV9 blackmailed an Ayurvedic doctor for Rs 25 lac with ‘objectionable’ content that can make him lose his medical licence. While the doctor paid the amount, he approached the police when the demands increased.
Prasanna Deshpande, district correspondent of the Kannada news channel Suvarna News, his cameraman Sangamesh Kambar and Ravi Bisanalara of Kannada weekly Sangrama tried to extort money from a doctor who was illegally carrying out sex determination tests. While initially the trio demanded Rs 50 lac, the amount was reduced to Rs 10 lac. Suvarna News editor Ajit Hanumakkanavar dismissed the reporter and the cameraman.
Hemanth Kashyap of Public TV was also sacked after he blackmailed well-known doctor and Padma Shri awardee Dr Raman Rao with clips that exposed his alleged illicit affair. The journalist was sent to judicial custody and later released on bail.
On 27 April, Bengaluru based journalist, S A Hemanth Kumar was arrested for allegedly circulating a ‘fake’ letter purportedly written in 2017 by current Karnataka home minister M B Patil to the then-Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
The letter in question has an explanation on how the Lingayat separate religion tag will benefit Congress.
While Patil claimed the letter to be fake, cybercell inspector general Hemant Nimbalkar said Kumar’s arrest was based on credible information and evidence corroborated by the oral statement of another accused.
Postcard News founder Mahesh Vikram Hegde has several cases of fake news registered against him. He was arrested for spreading false news of a Jain monk being attacked by a Muslim youth who sustained severe injuries. He was recently again arrested over the above mentioned fake letter issue.
It is said that chief minister H D Kumaraswamy who noticed the rise in cases against journalists due to unethical practices, shifted the government’s media centre from within the Vidhan Soudha (Karnataka assembly) premises to the office of the department of information and publicity, also called Vartha Soudha.
Other journalism professionals who have been arrested in the past include Lakshmiprasad Vajpayee, CEO of news channel Janasri, who had allegedly blackmailed and threatened a businessman for Rs 10 crore.
Karnataka Lokayukta Justice Bhaskar Rao’s son Ashwin and two journalists were booked for extortion. The trio demanded a Bengaluru city corporation engineer to pay Rs 1 crore to avoid Lokayukta raids on him.
"Don’t blame individuals but blame the society that thrives on money and power. I am not surprised about allegations of blackmail because the media is only the fourth pillar of society, and consists of people from society for whom money wields power," Santosh Hegde, former Lokayukta of Karnataka told The Print.