Jindal execs meet media panel over Zee News row

Jindal had accused Zee of extorting ad commitments to stop a negative story about its involvement in Coalgate scam

The fight between Congress MP Naveen Jindal-headed Jindal group and Subhash Chandra-promoted news broadcaster Zee News doesn't seem to be getting over, with both parties making serious allegation against each others.

Last week, Jindal had filed a police complaint against Zee News, alleging that its senior journalists had asked for advertising commitments worth Rs 100 crore, to stop a negative story about the company's involvement in the coal block allocations scam. Jindal Steel & Power Ltd (JSPL) has also filed an FIR with the anti-extortion cell of the Delhi Police's crime branch, which is investigating the allegation.

JSPL has provided video-tapes of 20 minutes length, which the police has sent for forensics tests and is awaiting the report.

Zee News had said that Jindal misbehaved with a team of its reporters after they sought clarifications from him on the charges levelled against his company for alleged irregularities in allocation of coal bocks.

On Monday, Punit Goenka, MD, Zee News and MD & CEO of Zee Entertainment Enterprises, said on the sidelines of a press meet, “This kind of allegation (made by Jindal against the Zee group) has happened in the past and may happen in the future. It doesn't make any difference to us and we will stick to the truth. These are all pressure tactics.”

Later senior executives of the Jindal group met a three-member fact-finding committee formed by the Broadcast Editors' Association (BEA), which will be looking into allegations made by Jindal against the editor and journalists of Zee News. The committee will be submitting its report in two weeks. It consists of BEA general secretary N K Singh, Headlines Today managing editor Rahul Kanwal and BEA member Dibang.

“We met and presented evidence in support of a complaint that we have filed against Zee News. They demanded advertisement commitments to block airing a story about the company. Now it is upto the committee to uphold the standards of journalism,” Jindal Group dirctor – HRD Rajeev Bhaduria told Business Standard.