NL Hafta

In this week’s episode, host Abhinandan Sekhri is joined by Madhu Trehan, Raman Kirpal, Manisha Pande and journalist Supriya Nair. The podcast opens with the panel discussing the ongoing doctors’ strike all over the country following the attack on doctors by a deceased patient’s relatives in West Bengal. Abhinandan references a study, which will be unveiled at August's The Media Rumble, on the share of women's sports stories in newspapers. He asks Supriya for her views since she's a sports columnist with Mumbai Mirror. Supriya says even though there are prominent female sports journalists, the coverage of women’s sports in general is quite low. However, things are improving, she says, especially after recent victories of women athletes like PV Sindhu. The panel moves to the attacks on journalists across India, from the attack on Amit Sharma in UP, to the arrest of Prashant Kanojia, to the attack on a group of journalists in Karnataka. They discuss partisanship in journalism and how loyalties now determine facts. Madhu says that “journalism has been reduced to a fish market”. Newslaundry’s Ayush Tiwari also pays this week's Hafta a visit to talk about his ground report on the Aligarh murder case. He recalls how the village of Tappal has become a hot spot of communal violence and how the police did a commendable job of calming them down. The podcast wraps up with a discussion between Abhinandan and Supriya on the difference between a game and a sport, and whether cricket is a sport or not. Abhinandan says, “There needs to be a certain sense of athleticism in order for a game to be a sport, carrom could be a sport.” Supriya retorts: "So your argument is that cricket is not a sport just because a few athletes are fat?” For this and more, tune in!