Reporters Without Orders Ep 220: Pawan Jaisawal’s death, Bihar child’s encounter with CM

This week, host Basant Kumar is joined by Newslaundry’s Tanishka Sodhi and freelance journalist Vishnu Narayan.

Tanishka talks about her recent report on the death of rural journalist Pawan Jaiswal and how he struggled to pay for his cancer treatment. Noting that his death underlines grave problems with the journalism industry, she says, “Pawan was considered a star reporter but he was earning barely enough to survive. We cannot point fingers at others when we ourselves don’t see a fellow journalist’s plight.”

Vishnu discusses his report on the viral video of a young child named Sonu and his encounter with Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar. Sonu asks Nitish to fund his education as his father is an alcoholic, which is quite ironic given that a ban on liquor is one of Nitish’s pet policies.

This, and a lot more, as they talk about what made news, what didn’t, and what shouldn’t have.

Tune in.

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Watch a part of the conversation here:

Timecodes

00:00 - Introduction

01:07 - Pawan Jaiswal's death

20:55 - Bihar kid’s encounter with CM

47:00 - Recommendations

Recommendations

Tanishka

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Vishnu

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Basant

Deadly Force

Produced and recorded by Tehreem Roshan, edited by Samrendra K Dash.