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The New Indian Express Group denied the Cobrapost allegations, stated that they only met with the advertisement team who never promised "news" coverage and only discussed "advertisements", and alleged that their report had "conveniently buried" the cautionary statements about "legal vetting", checks and approval told to Cobrapost.<ref name=tw05262018/> The Zee group similarly stated that the Cobrapost report presents a "deliberate and fraudulent misinterpretation and concoction of actual facts", by "craftily editing the video clips, the essence of the conversation has been distorted in a manner that the truth is compromised and a different issue is portrayed in order to harm and hurt the reputation of Zee Media".<ref name=tw06062018/> In June 2018, Cobrapost denied Zee's statements and alleged that it "has not falsified, fabricated, concocted, tampered, doctored or altered in any manner whatsoever".<ref name=tw06062018>[https://thewire.in/media/zee-media-legal-notice-cobrapost-sting-operation As Zee Threatens Defamation on Sting, Cobrapost Sees Attack on Media Freedom], The Wire (6 June 2018)</ref> | The New Indian Express Group denied the Cobrapost allegations, stated that they only met with the advertisement team who never promised "news" coverage and only discussed "advertisements", and alleged that their report had "conveniently buried" the cautionary statements about "legal vetting", checks and approval told to Cobrapost.<ref name=tw05262018/> The Zee group similarly stated that the Cobrapost report presents a "deliberate and fraudulent misinterpretation and concoction of actual facts", by "craftily editing the video clips, the essence of the conversation has been distorted in a manner that the truth is compromised and a different issue is portrayed in order to harm and hurt the reputation of Zee Media".<ref name=tw06062018/> In June 2018, Cobrapost denied Zee's statements and alleged that it "has not falsified, fabricated, concocted, tampered, doctored or altered in any manner whatsoever".<ref name=tw06062018>[https://thewire.in/media/zee-media-legal-notice-cobrapost-sting-operation As Zee Threatens Defamation on Sting, Cobrapost Sees Attack on Media Freedom], The Wire (6 June 2018)</ref> | ||
According to Cobrapost, it did not finance the sting operations, an independent reporter Pushp Sharma self-financed the cost of meeting and secretly recording the owners and senior executives of 27 media houses in India. Once Sharma approached Cobrapost, it purchased the work product from Sharma. Cobrapost's founder Aniruddha Bahal admitted that the sting operations never made any payment to any media group or executive, and the tapes were "all about showing intent".<ref name=ie5192702/> | According to Cobrapost, it did not finance the sting operations, an independent reporter [[Pushp Sharma]] self-financed the cost of meeting and secretly recording the owners and senior executives of 27 media houses in India. Once Sharma approached Cobrapost, it purchased the work product from Sharma. Cobrapost's founder Aniruddha Bahal admitted that the sting operations never made any payment to any media group or executive, and the tapes were "all about showing intent".<ref name=ie5192702/> | ||
=== DHFL allegations === | === DHFL allegations === | ||
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===Operation Karaoke=== | ===Operation Karaoke=== | ||
Cobrapost carried out around 36 sting operations on popular comedians, Bollywood celebrities and small screen actors. The undercover reporters disguised themselves as the marketing team of different political parties and tried striking deals with the celebrities to do indirect marketing for their client 9 months in advance to the [[2019 Indian general election]]. Indirect marketing included posting of tweets, [[Instagram]] and [[Facebook]] posts from the actors' private accounts in support of the party's "good works" and defense of other works. The content on social media was to be presented in a non-political manner rather as a personal ideology. The celebrities demanded payment ranging from lakhs to crores on frequency or monthly basis, mode of payment being cash so as to evade taxes. The reporters convinced [[Vivek Oberoi]], [[Rajpal Yadav]], [[Ameesha Patel]], [[Sunny Leone]], [[Mahima Chaudhry]], [[Minissha Lamba]], [[Poonam Pandey]], [[Sonu Sood]], [[Raju Srivastav]], [[Ganesh Acharya]], [[Jackie Shroff]], [[Kailash Kher]], [[Mika Singh]], [[Rakhi Sawant]], [[Shakti Kapoor]], [[Shreyas Talpade]], [[Krushna Abhishek]] among others. [[Abhijeet Bhattacharya]] went a step ahead and offered to create hateful content. However, a handful of celebrities declined the offer including [[Vidya Balan]], [[Saumya Tandon]], [[Arshad Warsi]] and [[Raza Murad]] citing their non-political stand and ideology. | Cobrapost carried out around 36 sting operations on popular comedians, Bollywood celebrities and small screen actors. The undercover reporters disguised themselves as the marketing team of different political parties and tried striking deals with the celebrities to do indirect marketing for their client 9 months in advance to the [[2019 Indian general election]]. Indirect marketing included posting of tweets, [[Instagram]] and [[Facebook]] posts from the actors' private accounts in support of the party's "good works" and defense of other works. The content on social media was to be presented in a non-political manner rather as a personal ideology. The celebrities demanded payment ranging from lakhs to crores on frequency or monthly basis, mode of payment being cash so as to evade taxes. The reporters convinced [[Vivek Oberoi]], [[Rajpal Yadav]], [[Ameesha Patel]], [[Sunny Leone]], [[Mahima Chaudhry]], [[Minissha Lamba]], [[Poonam Pandey]], [[Sonu Sood]], [[Raju Srivastav]], [[Ganesh Acharya]], [[Jackie Shroff]], [[Kailash Kher]], [[Mika Singh]], [[Rakhi Sawant]], [[Shakti Kapoor]], [[Shreyas Talpade]], [[Krushna Abhishek]] among others. [[Abhijeet Bhattacharya]] went a step ahead and offered to create hateful content. However, a handful of celebrities declined the offer including [[Vidya Balan]], [[Saumya Tandon]], [[Arshad Warsi]] and [[Raza Murad]] citing their non-political stand and ideology. | ||
Once the videos were out, they attracted no mainstream media attention and the celebrities refused to comment on the same. The operations have raised a major doubt on the credibility of the celebrities' political stands and ideologies. | Once the videos were out, they attracted no mainstream media attention and the celebrities refused to comment on the same. The operations have raised a major doubt on the credibility of the celebrities' political stands and ideologies.{{Citation needed|date=November 2021}} | ||
==References== | ==References== | ||
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[[Category:Magazines established in 2003]] | [[Category:Magazines established in 2003]] | ||
[[Category:Magazines published in Delhi]] | [[Category:Magazines published in Delhi]] | ||
[[Category:Investigative journalism]] | |||