Cobrapost on Friday released a preview of part 2 of Operation 136 on its Hindi Facebook page, along with a cover story on its website. Its YouTube playlist indicates 51 such videos, some of which are yet to be made public.
Like its previous sting, the current batch of videos purportedly shows the willingness of media houses to run pro-Hindutva stories for a fee.
While in part 1 of the operation, journalist Pushp Sharma had stung prominent media houses including Dainik Jagran, Amar Ujala, DNA, Punjab Kesari, ScoopWhoop, India TV, Rediff and UNI earlier, the latest sting features some of the biggest names of mainstream media.
This includes Times of India, India Today, Hindustan Times, Zee News, Network 18, Star India, ABP News, Dainik Jagaran, Radio One, Red FM, Lokmat, ABN Andhra Jyothy, TV5, Dinamalar, Big FM, K News, India Voice, The New Indian Express, MVTV and Open magazine.
The details of the sting were made available despite a Delhi High Court injunction order that refrained Cobrapost from releasing the contents of the sting in the public domain. The court stay came after Dainik Bhaskar appealed to the court stating that the said sting was being released with the sole intention to sully its reputation. The court has set the next date of hearing on July 4.
Citing the court’s order in its May 25 cover story, Cobrapost stated:
“We have received an exparte stay order from the honourable Delhi High Court on the evening of 24th May, 2018, which debars us from including the Dainik Bhaskar Group in our investigation. The honourable High Court has passed the injunction in favour of Dainik Bhaskar without hearing our side of the case, and we shall consequently be challenging the court order in the interest of truth and justice.”