This week, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Raman Kirpal, Manisha Pande and Anand Vardhan are joined by The News Minute’s Dhanya Rajendran and digital creator Akash Banerjee aka TheDeshbhakt.

On sustainable and profitable revenue models for news, Anand says that the subscription model might be prone to the problem of becoming “a groupspeak”, where “financial influences have been insulated, but the editorial leadership has a view” that becomes the identity of the platform. Abhinandan responds to this, saying, “This is not the limitation unique to the subscription model, but a limitation of the human condition.”

Dhanya adds to the subject, saying the paywall adds a lot of pressure on reporters, who judge the value of their work based on whether it goes behind paywall or not.

On the difference between journalists and digital content creators, Akash says creators are appropriating information available through journalistic platforms. Dhanya says that the line between commentators and journalists is already blurring.

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Timecodes

00:00:00 - Introduction

00:05:50 - Headlines

00:18:41 - Models of news

01:00:50 - Abhinandan on why NL doesn’t take ads

01:08:15 - Journalists and digital commentators

01:40:09 - Final thoughts and recommendations

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Produced and recorded by Aryan Mahtta, edited by Hassan Bilal and Umrav Singh.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What started as a mass student protest against job quotas escalated into a deadly uprising in Bangladesh, with over 150 people killed so far.

Muktadir Rashid, a journalist in Bangladesh who has been reporting on the clashes from the ground, speaks to Newslaundry about the challenges to reporting in such circumstances, the incident in which he was shot at, how two journalists were killed, and the struggle for media in Bangladesh to be independent.

Rashid also discusses the triggers behind the protests, and how it’s become one of the biggest challenges Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has faced in her two-decade tenure.

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After the spate of allegations against IAS probationer Puja Khedkar, last week the UPSC said she had misused the disability quota and filed a case against her. But this changed the course of the conversation, with several bureaucrats raising questions on the need for the quota.

Arman Ali, executive director of the National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People, spoke to Newslaundry about why putting the blame on people with disability is a harmful narrative and would result in pushing back people of disability by decades.

Ali also spoke about a case he recently filed against prominent cricketers for allegedly mocking people of disability and the need to include disability in mainstream conversations.

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Nearly a year after violence broke out during the Brij Mandal religious yatra in Haryana’s Nuh, killing at least six people, preparations are underway for another yatra on July 22. And Bittu Bajrangi, cow vigilante and key accused of last year’s violence, has claimed to lead the procession this year.

Bajrangi, who was arrested by the Haryana police last year and subsequently granted bail, told Newslaundry that he is set to lead the yatra. He has also been urging people to participate in the yatra in huge numbers.

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Bihar is now the first state in India to simultaneously recruit three transgender persons as sub-inspectors in the state police. Among the 1,275 candidates who cracked the sub-inspector recruitment examination held by the Bihar Police Subordinate Services Commission, three of them broke several stereotypes – Manvi Madhu Kashyap, who identifies as a transwoman, and two transmen, Ronit Jha and Bunty Kumar.

The three of them prepared for the exam at the coaching centre of Guru Rehman, alias Motiur Rehman Khan in Patna, after they were refused training by several coaching centres. Rehman, who is also popular as “Daroga Guru” in Bihar, spoke to Newslaundry about the many challenges faced by his transgender students and breaking stereotypes.

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The cancellation of the FCRA licence “has nothing to do with technicalities. It [the government] is weaponising FCRA and using it as a political tool against organisations that are critical of the government,” said Joe Athialy, executive director of the Centre for Financial Accountability. Last week, the FCRA licence of the CFA’s parent entity, India Institute for Critical Action Centre, was cancelled citing “errors” in tax filings.

In a conversation with Newslaundry, Athialy alleged that the government has “double standards” for civil society groups and India Inc. “Consider that a company had some erroneous filings. This doesn’t mean that tomorrow the company will shut down.”

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Manickam Tagore, a three-time Congress MP from Tamil Nadu’s Virudhunagar, is one of the fierce opposition voices in the Parliament. In the 18th session of the Lok Sabha, Tagore raised the issue of the restricted media access to the parliament.

In a conversation with Newslaundry, the Congress leader spoke about the changes in parliamentary proceedings, INDIA bloc’s strategy for the next five years, Rahul Gandhi’s stance on media, and the NEET controversy.

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Samajwadi Party leader Pushpendra Saroj had turned 25 years old just two weeks before the announcement of the Lok Sabha polls. He managed to win UP’s Kaushambi seat by defeating the BJP’s Vinod Sonkar, a two-time MP, with a margin of over 1 lakh votes.

In a conversation with Newslaundry, he spoke about his decision to contest the elections, his political agenda, and the role played by youth in the country’s politics.

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