Social media platform X was abuzz with discussion over recent developments at ZEE news. Reports surfaced that CEO of Zee News, Abhay Ojha, had to put in his papers owing to poor performance of the channel in recent times. There were also claims made on X by several journalists and handles that ZEE news had blocked the coverage of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's rallies for close to 48 hours now. However, that claim could not be verified.
With the Lok Sabha Elections 2024 underway, changes at the channel which was once deemed to be close to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has naturally given rise to a number of speculations.
According to reports, Dr Idris Loya has now taken over as the CEO of ZEE news after Abhay Ojha was told to resign. There are also reports and claims that journalist and TV psephologist Pradeep Bhandari has also been told to go off-air in the coming days.
What has also added to the speculations is the video of ZEE news founder Dr Subhash Chandra on World Press Freedom Day on Friday, May 3. In the video, Chandra was seen rueing the fact that India ranks at 159th spot out of 180 countries when it comes to World Press Freedom index.
Chandra also claimed in the video that over 100-150 crore people watch Zee News and that has immense impact. However, his sudden appearance and the tone of the message sent out a message of its own.
Chandra's cryptic tweet on May 5 also did the work of adding fuel to fire.
Critics of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and independent journalists also commented on the development at ZEE news. Deepak Sharma - a journalist with over 28 years of experience - who nows runs his own YouTube channel analysing burning topics of the day claimed that there was more to the ZEE news saga than what meets the eye.
Several posts on X claimed that the turmoil in ZEE news were signs that the news channel was beginning to sense the change in narrative and said that it was only a matter of time before other channels would follow suit. Given that ZEE news is among the oldest private TV news network in the country, the changes at the media organisation is closely followed by the industry as well as the viewers.
