Created by Newslinger
Last edited March 23, 2026



Newslaundry
Available inEnglish, Hindi
Key peopleAbhinandan Sekhri, Madhu Trehan, Prashant Sareen
Websitewww.newslaundry.com
Launched6 February 2012; 14 years ago (2012-02-06)
Current statusActive

Newslaundry is an Indian media watchdog[1][2][3][4] that provides media critique, reportage and satirical commentary.[5] It was founded in 2012 by Abhinandan Sekhri, Madhu Trehan and Prashant Sareen, all of whom earlier worked in print or television journalism.[6] It was India's first subscription-driven website when launched, and since then other platforms have followed a similar non-advertising model, like The Wire.[7] In 2016, executive editor Manisha Pande and Sandeep Pai reported on how the politicians misuse the public sector undertakings in India.[8] It won the Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Award for investigative reporting.[9] The platform also hosts podcasts dedicated to politics, culture and entertainment.[10][11]

Lawsuits

BCCL Defamation Suit

On the 19th of January, 2021, the Bennett, Coleman, and Company Limited (BCCL), also commonly known as The Times Group, filed a civil defamation suit of in the Bombay High Court ₹100 crore. The suit alleged that Newslaundry had defamed the director of the BCCL Vineet Jain, and Rahul Shivshankar and Navika Kumar who are the editor's of their news channel Times Now. It claimed that an episode of Newslaundry's TV Newsance uploaded on October 10th, 2020[12] which criticised the news channel on its coverage on the arrest of actress Rhea Chakraborty was “beyond the realm of satire, parody or spoof” and “false, baseless and highly defamatory”. It further also claimed that the video uploaded on their channel on 27th November, 2020 titled Explained: How to rig TRP[13] defamed and maligned the images of Shivashankar and Kumar.

Newslaundry responded to this suit by claiming that the legal notices was an attempt to silence criticism.[14][15][16]

References

  1. Sachdev, Alisha (9 April 2018). "How Fake News Spreads in India". The Diplomat.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  2. "Study finds SC and ST journalists missing from Indian media". Telegraph India. 4 August 2019.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  3. "English newspapers are worse than Hindi on representing Dalit, Adivasi writers: Oxfam India report". The Caravan (magazine). 3 August 2019.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  4. Buncombe, Andrew (7 November 2013). "The family feud which is gripping India's media: Editor of 'The Hindu' newspaper resigns". The Independent.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  5. Upadhyay, Venkatesh (21 July 2013). "The third wave of digital news". Livemint.
  6. "Can the digital revolution save Indian journalism?". Columbia Journalism Review.
  7. Harlow, Summer; Chadha, Monica (26 April 2019). "Indian Entrepreneurial Journalism". Journalism Studies. 20 (6): 891–910. doi:10.1080/1461670X.2018.1463170. S2CID 150110223.
  8. "RNG Awards: Winners in Print, Television and Digital media". 6 November 2016.
  9. "Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Awards 2015: Full list of winners". 3 November 2016.
  10. Bansal, Shuchi (27 October 2016). "The big digital paywall question". Livemint.
  11. Venkataramakrishnan, Rohan. "Why the Indian podcasting industry needs more 'high-quality crap' in 2019". Scroll.in.
  12. Toadies Banega Tu? | TV Newsance Episode: 107, retrieved 17 March 2021
  13. EXPLAINED: BARC's TV audience measurement system is rotten | NL Cheatsheet, retrieved 17 March 2021
  14. Staff, Scroll. "Times Group files Rs 100-crore defamation case against 'Newslaundry' for videos on TV anchors". Scroll.in. Retrieved 17 March 2021.
  15. "Times of India parent company sues media watchdog Newslaundry for $13.7 million". Committee to Protect Journalists. 29 January 2021. Retrieved 17 March 2021.
  16. "Times Group sends notice to Newslaundry for Rs 100 crore, unfazed NL does a takedown of notice". The News Minute. 21 December 2020. Retrieved 17 March 2021.

External Links