Sakshi () is an Indian

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India *Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language ** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode S ...

-language media group. The group owns the daily newspaper '' Sakshi'', 24-hour news channel

Sakshi TV Sakshi TV () is an Indian Telugu-language 24-hour news channel. It was launched on 1 March 2009, by Indira Television Ltd. owned by Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy. It is currently run under the chairmanship of Y. S. Bharathi Reddy, wife of Jagan Moha ...

, and associated digital ventures. Its first asset, ''Sakshi'' newspaper, was launched on 23 March 2008 by Jagati Publications Ltd. owned by

Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy Yeduguri Sandinti Jagan Mohan Reddy (born 21 December 1972) also known as Y. S. Jagan or mononymously Jagan, is an Indian entrepreneur and politician serving as the 17th and current chief minister of Andhra Pradesh since 30 May 2019. He is the ...

. Sakshi TV was launched on 1 March 2009, by Indira Television Ltd., also owned by Reddy. The group is currently run under the chairmanship of Y. S. Bharathi Reddy, wife of Jagan Mohan Reddy. As of 2019, ''Sakshi'' newspaper had an average daily circulation of 10.64 lakh, ranking second in circulation among Telugu daily newspapers behind ''

Eenadu ''Eenadu'' () is the largest circulated Telugu-language daily newspaper of India sold mostly in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.sixteenth in India across languages. The newspaper and TV channel are widely regarded as propaganda outlets for Jagan Mohan Reddy and his party

YSR Congress Party The Yuvajana Shramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP or YCP; ) is an Indian regional political party based in the state of Andhra Pradesh. Its president Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy serves as the state's chief minister. It is currently the fifth la ...

Sakshi newspaper

''Sakshi'' newspaper is promoted by Jagati Publications Ltd. The newspaper was launched on 23 March 2008 with 23 editions nineteen editions from Andhra Pradesh, and four from

New Delhi New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament Ho ...

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' fin ...

Bangalore Bangalore (), List of renamed places in India, officially Bengaluru (), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan area, metropolitan population of a ...

, and

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

. At a price of 60 per month, ''Sakshi'' was marketed as a less expensive alternative to all other prominent Telugu dailies at the time which were priced at 96100 per month. To stand out from its competition, ''Sakshi'' adopted high-quality production values. It had 30-pages, all of them in colour broadsheet format. The paper's layouts were designed by Mario Garcia. Of the total Andhra Pradesh Government budget of about 200 crore for print media commercials for the years 2008-11, ''Sakshi'' newspaper was allotted over 50% amounting to 101.63 crore. This was attributed to the undue preferential treatment ''Sakshi'' newspaper received during the chief ministership of Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy. Circulation According to the Audit Bureau of Circulation, from July to December 2019, ''Sakshi'' had an average daily circulation of 10.64 lakh. It ranks second in circulation among Telugu daily newspapers behind ''

Eenadu ''Eenadu'' () is the largest circulated Telugu-language daily newspaper of India sold mostly in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.sixteenth in India across languages.

Sakshi TV

Sakshi TV started airing on 1 March 2009. It is promoted by Indira Television Ltd., with

, son of then

Chief Minister A chief minister is an elected or appointed head of government of – in most instances – a sub-national entity, for instance an administrative subdivision or federal constituent entity. Examples include a state (and sometimes a union terri ...

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (, abbr. AP) is a state in the south-eastern coastal region of India. It is the seventh-largest state by area covering an area of and tenth-most populous state with 49,386,799 inhabitants. It is bordered by Telangana to the ...

, Y. S. Rajashekhara Reddy, as the Chairman. The channel was initially named Indira Priyadarsini. According to Ramakrishna Reddy, the first Editor-in-Chief of the channel, it was renamed to cash in on the popularity of the ''Sakshi'' newspaper which was launched a year before the channel by Jagan Mohan Reddy. At its launch, the channel claimed to be the first

HDTV High-definition television (HD or HDTV) describes a television system which provides a substantially higher image resolution than the previous generation of technologies. The term has been used since 1936; in more recent times, it refers to the g ...

channel in the country. It was marketed as being primarily targeted at the youth. Of the nearly 40 crore

Government of Andhra Pradesh Government of Andhra Pradesh, abbreviated as, GOAP, or, Andhra Government, is the subnational government for the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is an elected government with 175 MLAs elected to the Legislative Assembly of Andhra Pradesh fo ...

spent on ads in

electronic media Electronic media are media that use electronics or electromechanical means for the audience to access the content. This is in contrast to static media (mainly print media), which today are most often created digitally, but do not require el ...

for the years 2009-12, Sakshi TV got advertisements worth over 17 crore. This was attributed to the undue preferential treatment Sakshi TV received during the chief ministership of Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy. Sakshi TV has been found to be in breach of the News Broadcasting Standards Authority (NBSA) code of ethics on various occasions.

Digital assets

* Sakshi.com - Telugu-language news portal. Publishes news in politics, business, crime, sports, science, entertainment, technology etc. * Sakshi Post - English-language news portal, hosted on Sakshi.com at english.sakshi.com. Initially launched as Sakshipost.com in October 2012. * Sakshi e-paper - Digital version of the Sakshi daily newspaper. Also contains archives of previous editions. * Sakshi Live TV - Live video feed of Sakshi TV. Also contains video snippets and archives of previously telecasted shows.

Sakshi Excellence Awards

''Sakshi Excellence Awards'' is an annual awards ceremony organized by Sakshi media group to honour and recognize the individuals and institutions of various fields. Launched in 2015, it primarily rewards the people from the Telugu-speaking community across the world.

Criticism

The newspaper and TV channel are widely regarded as propaganda outlets for Jagan Mohan Reddy and his party

(YCP). They are criticized for their biased coverage of the political rivals of Reddy and YCP. Sakshi TV has been found to be in breach of the News Broadcasting Standards Authority (NBSA) code of ethics on various occasions. According to a CBI chargesheet filed against Jagan Mohan Reddy, most of the investments in the media group were quid pro quo bribes by those people who had benefited from their unfair deals with his father Y. S. Rajashekhara Reddy's government. Sakshi group is part of a recent trend, wherein businesspersons-turned-politicians across India launched their own media organisations as a political strategy to influence public opinion to further their political interests. Rajasekhara Reddy's death and conspiracy theory In January 2010, Sakshi TV broadcast a conspiracy theory by the American journalist

Mark Ames Mark Ames (born October 3, 1965) is a Brooklyn-based American journalist. He was the editor of the biweekly '' the eXile'' in Moscow, from its founding in 1997 until its closure in 2008. Ames has also written for the ''New York Press'', '' PandoDa ...

in the Russian online tabloid ''

The eXile ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...

'', on the death of Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy, father of Sakshi TV promoter Y. S. Jaganmohan Reddy, in a helicopter crash on 2 September 2009. It alleged that Ambani brothers of Reliance group of companies orchestrated the death of Rajasekhara Reddy. TV5 channel broke the story while Sakshi TV and

NTV NTV may refer to: Television * NTV (Bangladesh), a Bengali-language satellite television channel in Bangladesh * NTV (India), Telugu regional channel * NTV (Kenya) * NTV (Mongolia), a television channel based in Mongolia * NTV (Newport Televis ...

relayed the report aired by TV5. The report led to massive attacks against the business establishments owned by the two Ambani brothers in Andhra Pradesh. On 8 January 2010, criminal cases were filed against Sakshi TV and NTV while two senior journalists of TV5 were arrested.

Editors Guild of India Editors Guild of India (EGI) is a non profit organization of journalists based in India. The organization has declared "objectives of protecting press freedom and for raising the standards of editorial leadership of newspapers and magazines". I ...

asked the channels to desist from "irresponsible reporting" and condemned the reporting as sensational and against the principles of journalism.

References

External links

* * {{Authority control Telugu-language mass media Companies based in Hyderabad, India Publishing companies established in 2008 2008 establishments in Andhra Pradesh