NEW DELHI – Barkha Dutt, the renowned face of Indian media, has claimedthat she was receiving veiled threats and messages from powerful people inthe establishment, questioning the state of security in the country.
Barkha fired a series of tweets on Thursday and revealed that her familywas under surveillance adding that she was threatened of a smear campaignto stop her from launching new projects.
In another message, the Washington Post columnist asked ministers to takenote of chilling threats, divulging that she was being bared to perform herduties in the news media.
The journalist said that she never thought of hiring private security forher and to getting her house debugged.
‘Today it is conveyed to me that sections of the Establishment have decidedto use any tool available to stop me from working,’ stated the mediapersonality.
Dutt confirmed that special meetings were convened to stop her fromcarrying out her professional duties using phone recordings, income taxcases and other tools.
“Those associated with the ruling party have warned me not to work on newTV projects,” said the TV anchor.
She said that a 45 minute meeting was held to discuss how to stop, smear,malign and tap her.
Barkha Dutt – the former face of NDTV – is reportedly launching her ownEnglish news channel, following the footsteps of her colleague, ArnabGoswami.
Dutt, who shot to fame with her matchless reporting of Kargil conflict forNDTV , has not revealed the name and exact date of launch of the purportedchannel; the threats seem to pertain to the same media outlet.
India, the world’s largest democracy, is becoming unsafe for newsmen, aharbinger of which is killing of three journalist within 24-hours in March.
Earlier, in November, a journalist named Sudip Dutta Bhaumik was gunneddown by an Army officer at a paramilitary base in the remote northeasternstate of Tripura.
According to World Press Freedom index 2018, India lies at 138th placeamong a total 180 countries with a score 43.24 – Pakistan lies just apoint below its nuclear-armed neighbor.