Indo-Asia News Agency found itself amid a pool of controversy after the wire news agency had put up a story about the Union Cabinet approving a new pro-farmer scheme, using an expletive to describe Prime Minister Narendra Modi in it.
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— Nishant Saxena (@nishant9717) September 13, 2018
The story which was on the wire for nearly an hour on Wednesday September 12, referred to the Prime Minister as – ‘Prime Minister Narendra Bakhchod Modi’. The same story was published by many media websites using the same expletive but later pulled down after IANS issued a clarification and retracted the story.
Then
NEWS ADVISORY: STORY KILL (19:00)
Attention Editors: IANS is withdrawing a story “Cabinet approves scheme on remunerative crop prices” which moved at 1756 hours. It contains inaccuracies. Please guard against its publication. A substitute version has moved at 1844 hours.— Nishant Saxena (@nishant9717) September 13, 2018
In less than an hour, an advisory was issued, stating that the story was being withdrawn and later the updated version of the story was put.
Several news publications later reached out to IANS Managing Editor Hardev Sanotra for a comment regarding the withdrawal of the story and confirmation about the reporter’s suspension.
“IANS deeply regrets the wholly inadvertent incursion of an unparliamentary reference to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in one of its reports yesterday,” said the officials, adding that “We apologise profoundly to our subscribers, readers and the Hon’ble Prime Minister for the error and assure them of our continued endeavour to produce the objective, accurate and high quality reportage.”
The concerning authorities further said that, “the reporter concerned has been suspended with immediate effect pending an urgent ongoing investigation. A show-cause notice has also been issued to the concerned editor.”