Chairs fall short at The Credible News launch event

The Credible News was launched at the Press Club of India.

On the day of August Kranti Diwas, when The Credible News website was being launched, there were as many people outside the Press Club of India hall as there were inside. The hall ran out of chairs. The unexpected crowd and the enthusiasm on everyone's faces to witness every moment of the event were at their peak. As per the schedule, guests started arriving for the event at 6 PM on 9th August. Despite the humidity and heat, all the chairs in the Press Club of India hall were filled in no time.

The formal launch of The Credible News was done by Vinod Sharma, former political editor of Hindustan Times.

On this occasion, a discussion on the topic 'Crisis of Democracy and Media' was also organised. The discussion was presided over by Justice Iqbal Ansari, former Chief Justice of Patna High Court.

The Managing Editor of The Credible News, Ashok Kumar Pandey, explained in detail in his address before the start of the discussion session why The Credible News will be different from other news websites amidst this noise.

He said that we read news on X, Facebook, Instagram, and at most, search on Google, but we remain unaware of the news behind the news. The news we bring will also have analysis, and it will be from the perspective of the public, not the power. Through the website, we will also communicate with people and bring their concerns to the forefront.

We want to bring a website where the reader is also its writer.

Senior journalist Vinod Sharma expressed his views in the discussion, stating that this is the era of corporate media. In this, there are more big advertisers than readers, on whose strength newspapers and news channels run. At such a time, when there is talk of a free press and readers demand that whatever is written or shown should be the real truth, you will also have to spend money for such media. Press freedom is nowhere today. In reality, it is the freedom of advertisers.

If at such a time you want them to provide credible news, true news, and you consume it, then you should also be prepared for its cost.

Uttar Pradesh Congress spokesperson Manish Hindvi said that today, when we all have gathered on this auspicious occasion, many serious questions are before us. Are the clouds of crisis hovering over Indian democracy? Is the mainstream media unable to fulfill its role? If we talk about the first question, it has become as clear as a mirror that the current regime has destroyed all democratic values in the last 12 years. All constitutional institutions have been enslaved.

The situation worsened when this fire reached the Election Commission. Any healthy democracy has two foundations: the right to vote and fair elections. Both these rights are in serious danger. Hindvi said that the mainstream media creates fake narratives for the government. It covers up their wrongdoings, spreads lies. When the government starts getting trapped, it creates new discourses. It helps the government in increasing social discord.

Gandhian social worker and retired IIT Delhi professor Prof. V K Tripathi shared his thoughts on the question of the crisis of credibility amidst the noise of news. He cited an example of newspaper reporting during the 1992 Aligarh riots, saying that he learned about a riot in Diabi. He rushed to Diabi and asked a cobbler sitting on the street if there had been a riot there, to which he replied no. He asked another shopkeeper, who also said no such riot had occurred. He was surprised, so he went to two people in the city whom both Hindus and Muslims trusted.

A shopkeeper told him that it was just a rumor, but the day their government comes, they will hang every truth-teller.

Social activist and journalist Sheeba Aslam Fehmi raised serious questions about the role of mainstream media during the Jantar Mantar movement, saying that mainstream media is the biggest culprit in weakening democracy. Mainstream media journalists and their anchors tried every possible way to prove students as terrorists and to defame the protest. But all their conspiracies and intentions were exposed in front of the determination of the students and Gen Z.

Sheeba Aslam Fehmi said that Muslims have been marginalized in democracy for the last 12 years.

Head of the History Department at Delhi University, Prof. Aniruddha Deshpande discussed print capitalism in his speech, saying that there are many examples of free press alongside print capitalism in history. Even then, doing journalism with the truth was dangerous, and today it is even more dangerous.

In his presidential address, former Chief Justice of Patna High Court Iqbal Ansari said that Ashok provides us with credible information about history through Credible History, and in this matter, I am a fan of his, and now he is thinking of providing credible news, but this will only be possible if their reporters do impartial reporting. At the end of his speech, he made a statement that is enough to trouble today's power and time.

Justice Ansari said that I have never seen in my lifetime what I am seeing today. Today's judiciary is the most scared and intimidated. I had never seen this before.

On this occasion, besides many important people from the fields of journalism, politics, and social service, a large number of youth and common people were also present.