Barkha Dutt received severe threats from Indian establishment
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NEW DELHI – Barkha Dutt, the renowned face of Indian media, has claimed that she was receiving veiled threats and messages from powerful people in the establishment, questioning the state of security in the country.
Barkha fired a series of tweets on Thursday and revealed that her family was under surveillance adding that she was threatened of a smear campaign to stop her from launching new projects.
In another message, the Washington Post columnist asked ministers to take note of chilling threats, divulging that she was being bared to perform her duties in the news media.
The journalist said that she never thought of hiring private security for her and to getting her house debugged.
‘Today it is conveyed to me that sections of the Establishment have decided to use any tool available to stop me from working,’ stated the media personality.
Dutt confirmed that special meetings were convened to stop her from carrying out her professional duties using phone recordings, income tax cases and other tools.
“Those associated with the ruling party have warned me not to work on new TV 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 own English news channel, following the footsteps of her colleague, Arnab Goswami.
Dutt, who shot to fame with her matchless reporting of Kargil conflict for NDTV , has not revealed the name and exact date of launch of the purported channel; the threats seem to pertain to the same media outlet.
India, the world’s largest democracy, is becoming unsafe for newsmen, a harbinger of which is killing of three journalist within 24-hours in March.
Earlier, in November, a journalist named Sudip Dutta Bhaumik was gunned down by an Army officer at a paramilitary base in the remote northeastern state of Tripura.
According to World Press Freedom index 2018, India lies at 138th place among a total 180 countries with a score 43.24 – Pakistan lies just a point below its nuclear-armed neighbor.
