What ails IANS?

A once-professionally managed journalists’ agency is slowly but surely being nailed to the ground. Read this account from Hardev Sanotra:

In many ways, the agency is now being used regularly to further the narrow agenda of an industrialist and there is no one to draw any lines. If anything, Bamzai and those he brought with him are more loyal than the king and are only too willing to further the subversion. None of N. Ram’s devastating articles in The Hindu on the Rafale deal saw reflection in the news agency.  A recent three-part series – totally source-based – in IANS seemed to blame Lockheed Martin, the competitor, for the Rafale problems. It has the imprimatur of having come from the top. My advice: At the very least, show the courtesy of removing the agency’s tag line.

Many journalists have been asked to leave. Recently, the head of arts and culture section, a fine writer and reporter, was told not to come to office to serve his notice period on the grounds that he had retweeted critical material about the prime minister on his personal handle, which mentioned him as an IANS journalist. Executive editor V.S. Chandrasekar, who had earlier headed the PTI desk for almost four decades, left a couple of weeks ago, I believe, unhappy with the unprofessional way news was being handled.

Read the full report here