Staff correspondent, NewsCrunch
The ultra-competitive Indian TV industry hit a new low on Monday night when a reporter tried to remove lapel mike of a rival channel from a man being interviewed on a live show.
It did not matter that the man, Varun Thakur, was grieving the murder of his eight-year-old son who was found in school in a pool of blood.
The reporter, an employee of Republic TV, has not been identified. She was desperate to get Thakur’s time, who was being interviewed at his home, by a rival channel Times Now.
Thakur was scheduled to speak to Times Now till 9.15 pm and then switch to Republic TV.
But he spent a little more time on Times Now and then announced that he was cutting short the TV interviews as he had to attend to a very important guest, who had come to meet him.
It was then the Republic reporter decided to grab him by his collar.
Viewers of the Times Noack w show were baffled to see a pair of hands cutting into the frame to remove the mike and another pair of hands restoring them.
There were five instances where a hand could be seen trying to remove the microphone from Thakur’s lapel.
Activist Tehseen Poonawalla shared a behind the scenes video of the ugly incident.
It shows the Republic reporter distracting and arguing with Thakur when he was on the live show. As she tries to snatch away the mike, she is pulled back another unidentified woman, who restrains her. The agitated TimesNow crew can also be seen protesting.
The incident drew widespread condemnation as a transgression of media ethics.
Thakur’s son Pradyuman was murdered by a school worker, who tried to sexually assault him in the washroom, and then slashed his throat. The unfortunate boy died of his injuries in the hospital later.