You may have gotten tired of hearing us talk about why the media needs to be independent.
But hey this isn’t just a slogan- it’s a warning.
And events panning out in the southern state of Telangana show us exactly why the media has to be independent
In Telangana today two journalists were jailed.
For running a television news story built entirely on gossip.
It had no documents, no evidence, and no named sources
And it ended with journalists in jail and a raging political battle.
Not a sting, not an investigation, just sleaze on prime time.
And beneath that sleaze lies something far more dangerous - a supposed battle over business interests and power, fought using television studios as weapons.
What’s playing out in Telangana is not an isolated controversy.
It is a textbook example of what happens when media houses are owned by politicians and businessmen - and journalism and journalists become collateral damage.
I'm Pooja Prasanna
And let me explain.
On January 7, NTV, a Telugu news channel, aired a story.
It did not name anyone. It did not show documents. It did not point to corruption.
Instead, it relied on insinuation — hinting that a senior minister from Nalgonda had an inappropriate relationship with a woman IAS officer.
No names were taken. But the hints were loud enough.
This wasn’t investigative journalism. This was pure sleaze- broadcast on prime time television.
The fallout was swift. The IAS Association lodged a police complaint.
A case was registered. And two journalists from NTV were arrested.
Though his name was not mentioned, Komatireddy Venkat Reddy - a minister in the Telangana cabinet - held a press conference.
His response was emotional, almost desperate.
Now here’s the question everyone began asking.
Why would a news channel do this?
Why risk arrests, backlash, and credibility for a story with no evidence?
Two theories were floating- that Revanth Reddy was targeting his own minister using the channel
That some other minister was using the channel to settle scores etc
Ten days later, another powerful voice entered the conversation.
Vemuri Radhakrishna- better known as RK- the owner of ABN Andhra Jyothy.
In his weekly column and television show, RK made a serious allegation.
He claimed that NTV’s story had nothing to do with journalism.
According to him, this was a proxy business war - triggered by a fight over a coal block.
To understand this claim, you have to look at who owns NTV.
As of its last AGM in September 2024,
66% of NTV is owned by businessman Narendra Choudary Tummala, his wife, and their company, Rachna Media.
Nearly 23% is owned by Megha Engineering and Infrastructures Limited or MEIL.
Another 11% is held by the My Home Group.
These are not just media investors.
These are some of the biggest infrastructure and engineering players in the country.
MEIL, in particular, was among the largest donors through electoral bonds donating over Rs 1,100 crore to political parties- mainly to the BJP
Narendra Choudhury is a businessman who owns several media companies
His daughter is married to the son of businessman Sabbineni Surendra Babu
Surendra Babu and his family own several companies, prominently the Coastal Group and are into all kinds of civil work businesses including thermal plants, irrigation tunnels and coal handling plants.
MEIL recently acquired a thermal factory in Neyveli
Now look at the other side.
Komatireddy Venkat Reddy’s brother, Komatireddy Rajgopal Reddy, is one of Telangana’s richest politicians.
His family owns Sushee Infra and Mining - a company deeply involved in coal mining
So you have media owners with infrastructure interests on one side.
And a politically powerful mining family on the other.
According to RK, the flashpoint was a coal block owned by Singareni Collieries Company Limited - a coal company that’s owned 51-49 by the Telangana government and Union government.
Singareni is preparing to auction a coal block in Odisha.
RK claimed that the Choudhury family’s interests were affected by Komatireddy family and this triggered the news story,
He also alleged that Deputy Chief Minister Bhatti Vikramarka, who handles Singareni, was opposed to the Komatireddys.
Now if you are from Telangana or Andhra Pradesh, you must have heard of many other theories.
That this is a proxy war between CM revanth and his ministers.
That ABN is doing this story not out of virtue but because they support another mining company
Let’s be clear. These are allegations. Including what RK said.
There is no documentary proof in the public domain yet.
But even as allegations, they expose something deeply troubling.
Because even if every single allegation here turns out to be false, the structure and problem remains real.
When media houses are owned by people with mining interests, infrastructure contracts, political ambitions, or proximity to power, journalism stops being a public service.
It becomes leverage.
In Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, we have seen this pattern before.
When governments change, advertising flows change.
When power shifts, editorial lines shift.
And newsrooms quietly realign.
ABN news and Radhakrishna Vemuri which is now batting for journalism - has also been accused several times of being a proxy for Chandrababu Naidu and his TDP.
Look at this table
When TDP was in power between 2014- 2019
121 crores to Eenadu - a paper ideologically close to the TDP
72 crores to Andhra Jyothi
And 30 crores to Sakshi newspaper- owned by rival Jagan Mohan Reddy’s family
And when Jagan was in power between 2019- 2024- everything reversed
Family paper Sakhi got 371 crores
Eenadu 243 crores and not even a crore to Andhra Jyothi.
Going by this- the trend would have reversed now as TDP is in power.
This is why all this together- it’s a dangerous cocktail
So today, it’s a minister or a bureaucrat being targeted.
Tomorrow, it could be anyone who refuses to play along.
This is the real danger of a captured media.
Not fake news.
Not bias.
But the slow conversion of journalism into a battlefield - where truth doesn’t matter, only who owns the weapons.
If you are convinced that independent media is essential for democracy today, then what are you waiting for? If you are not already a subscriber of The News Minute and Newslaundry, here’s your chance.
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Produced by Megha Mukundan, script by Dhanya Rajendran, camera by Ajay R, edited by Nikhil Sekhar ET