When it comes to journalism, something that all journalists and media houses must ensure is the content we put out for our readers is verified and authentic. And the kind of reports we see nowadays really makes us question the ethics of journalism.
Recently, a leading daily, Times of India, made a gaffe in an article titled ‘Man kills estranged wife in Bengaluru, mom-in-law in Kolkata’.
Apparently they put out a wrong picture of the couple instead of the one related to the story. The TOI article was about a 42-year-old Amit Agarwal who allegedly shot himself after killing his mother-in-law at her flat here after flying down from Bengaluru where he had killed his wife Shilpi Agarwal, a Kolkata police officer said.
In a bizarre move, TOI had instead used a picture of Amit Agarwal and Shilpi uploaded on their Facebook profile from a different location who, by the way, is doing perfectly fine. The couple put out a video explaining the same.
Here are some tweets:
Indian journalism explained in just 51 seconds. Watch what @timesofindia did. Gutter level journalism. pic.twitter.com/12enxugyiN
— Atul Ahuja (@atulahuja_) June 23, 2020
Wtf. Imagine waking up to such a news about yourself. https://t.co/YSLSeAWMtb
— No Name (@twingaling26) June 23, 2020
However, after the couple whose picture was used by TOI went public about the blunder, the website changed the image to a representative one and apologised for the error.
Times Group has been in trouble. Earlier, in 2011, SC had asked Times Now to deposit Rs 100 crore after it declined to relax a Bombay HC order in a case filed by ex SC Judge.
