Zee News is an Indian Hindi-language news channel owned by Subhash Chandra's Essel Group.[1] It launched on 27 August 1999 and is the flagship channel of the Zee Media Corporation.[2][3]
The channel has been involved in several controversies and has broadcast fabricated news stories on multiple occasions.[4] The channel has been subjected to an ongoing criminal defamation case against legislator Mahua Moitra as of March 2020.
History
Zee Media Corporation Limited (formerly Zee News Ltd.) was founded by Essel Group and incorporated on 27 August 1999 as Zee Sports Ltd. It was a subsidiary of the Zee Telefilms Ltd (later renamed to Zee Entertainment Enterprises). The company was reincorporated on 27 May 2004 as Zee News Ltd.[5] It was demerged as a separate company of the Essel Group in 2006.[6] In 2013,[7] Zee News Ltd changed its name to Zee Media Corporation Limited.[7]
The chairman of the group is Subhash Chandra Goenka, who is a Bharatiya Janata Party-backed member of the Rajya Sabha.[3] The channel itself is included by critics among "Godi media" news outlets who report favourably for the BJP and Narendra Modi.[8]
Early years
The channel was established in 1993 as EL TV, which mainly broadcast in English and regional language.[9] On 10 January 1998, it was renamed Zee India, as part of a restructuring of the Zee TV package, while becoming an all-news channel in the process. The entertainment programmes moved to the main Zee channel and the music output to Music Asia.[10]
Programming
Sudhir Chaudhary was the former editor-in-chief of Zee News and also the former anchor of the prime time show on the channel.[11]
Controversies
Cases of fabrication
Jawaharlal Nehru University sedition controversy
Zee News reported that students from the Democratic Students' Union (DSU) raised "anti-India" slogans such as Bharat ki barbadi (Destruction of India) and Pakistan Zindabad (Long live Pakistan) in an event on the Jawaharlal Nehru University campus.[12] In a letter Vishwa Deepak, a journalist working at the channel gave a statement that "our biases made us hear Bhartiya Court Zindabad (Long live Indian courts) as Pakistan Zindabad." Vishwa Deepak later resigned from the channel after expressing reservations over its "biased coverage". The footage on the newscast of Zee News had formed the basis of charges filed by the Delhi Police.[13] Sudhir Chaudhary, editor and prime time anchor of the channel however on a telecast made a statement saying "our channel only showed what was happening there, whatever we have shown is 100% authentic."[14]
See also
- Sudarshan News
- Zee Media Corporation
External links
References
- Our Companies: Zee Media Corporation Limited esselgroup.com, retrieved 25 February 2020^
- Director Reports, Company Results of Zee Media Corporation NDTV Profit, retrieved 25 February 2020^
- Archis Mohan. Subhash Chandra bets on BJP support for Rajya Sabha entry