NBA: Suspend IBF membership of Republic TV

In a statement on alleged “collusion” between Republic TV editor Arnab Goswami and former CEO of Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) Partho Dasgupta, the News Broadcasters Association (NBA), an industry body of news channels, on Monday demanded that Indian Broadcasting Federation, a body of television channels of the country, should suspend the channel’s membership.

NBA is headed by India TV’s Chairman and Editor-in-Chief Rajat Sharma.

The NBA said it is “shocked to see hundreds of WhatsApp messages” exchanged between Goswami and Dasgupta, and the “messages clearly establish collusion between the two in manipulating ratings to garner greater viewership numbers for Republic TV month after month by fraudulently manually reducing ratings of other channels to give Republic TV an unfair advantage”.