Times Now is an English

news channel News broadcasting is the medium of broadcasting various news events and other information via television, radio, or the internet in the field of broadcast journalism. The content is usually either produced locally in a radio studio or televis ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

owned and operated by

The Times Group Bennett, Coleman and Company Limited, (abbreviated as B.C.C.L. and d/b/a The Times Group), is an Indian media conglomerate headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra. The company remains a family-owned business with Sahu Jain family owning a majority ...

. The channel launched on 23 January 2006 in partnership with

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency was estab ...

. It is a

pay television Pay television, also known as subscription television, premium television or, when referring to an individual service, a premium channel, refers to Subscription business model, subscription-based television services, usually provided by multichan ...

throughout India. Until 2016, it was India's most popular and the most viewed English news channel.

History

In 2016

Arnab Goswami Arnab or Arnav is a first name popular in India, and means "ocean" in Sanskrit. It also means "rabbit" in Arabic. Notable people with the name include: * Arnab Basu, game designer, video-games producer; known for Tomb Raider series * Arnab Chakra ...

(the earlier editor-in-chief) left the channel to launch

Republic TV Republic TV is a free-to-air Indian right-wing English-language news channel launched in May 2017. It was co-founded by Arnab Goswami and Rajeev Chandrasekhar, before the latter relinquished his stake in May 2019, leaving Goswami as the m ...

Distribution

Along with the other Times group channels (

Zoom Zoom may refer to: Technology Computing * Zoom (software), videoconferencing application * Page zooming, the ability to magnify or shrink a portion of a page on a computer display * Zooming user interface, a graphical interface allowing for image ...

ET Now ET Now is an English-language business and finance news channel in India, owned and operated by Bennett Coleman & Company Limited. It has evolved to also encompass the areas of Politics, Governance, Environment, Technology under its domain of ...

and

Movies Now Movies Now is an Indian high-definition television channel featuring Hollywood films. It was launched on 19 December 2010 with a picture quality of 1080i and 5.1 surround sound. It is also available in Tamil feed for specific movies. The chann ...

), Times Now is distributed by Media Network and Distribution (India) Ltd (MNDIL), which is a joint venture between

and Yogesh Radhakrishnan, a cable and satellite industry veteran, under the brand Prime Connect.

Employees

Rahul Shivshankar Rahul Shivshankar (Hindi: राहुल शिवशंकर) (born 22 January 1975) is an Indian TV anchor who works as the editor-in-chief at Times Now. Before joining Times Now, Shivshankar worked in print and TV journalism. He has anchore ...

– Editor-in-chief * Navika Kumar – Group editor *

Maroof Raza Maroof Raza (born 1959) is a retired Indian Army officer with experience in counter-insurgency operations. He is a well known media commentator on global, military and security issues. His ‘talks’ range from the ‘threats of terrorism’ t ...

– Consultant and strategic affairs expert

Lawsuits

On 15 November 2011, in the country's highest defamation suit, the

Supreme Court A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

upheld the Bombay High Court's order requiring Times Now to pay ₹100 crore. The channel had erroneously run the picture of Supreme Court judge P.B. Sawant picture instead of someone similarly named as part of a

Provident Fund Provident fund is another name for pension fund. Its purpose is to provide employees with lump sum payments at the time of exit from their place of employment. This differs from pension funds, which have elements of both lump sum as well as monthly ...

scandal, and the payment went directly to Sawant. In 2018, Times Now aired derogatory remarks about activist Sanjukta Basu. She filed a complaint with the News Broadcasting Standards Authority in March 2019. In October 2020 she moved Supreme Court claiming that her case was pending with NBSA. Before the case could be listed for hearing in the Supreme court, NBSA released the judgement on her complaint. NBSA ordered Times Now to air apology on live TV at 8PM and 9PM during the

prime time Prime time or the peak time is the block of broadcast programming taking place during the middle of the evening for a television show. It is mostly targeted towards adults (and sometimes families). It is used by the major television networks to ...

and submit DVD copies of the same. NBSA found that Times Now had not contacted Basu to get her version and failed to verify the facts before broadcasting. This conduct was judged to be a violation of NBSA guidelines. The NBSA order noted that "there was an absence of neutrality in the programme".

Violation of Code of Ethics and Broadcasting Standards

Times Now was accused of misrepresenting facts regarding an interview of an alleged eve teaser. The News Broadcasting Standards Authority asked Times Now to apologize and fined them ₹50,000. The National Broadcasting Standards Authority (NBSA) reprimanded the channel for a bias in their coverage of the

Tablighi Jamaat Tablighi Jamaat (, also translated as "propagation party" or "preaching party") is a transnational Deobandi Islamic missionary movement that focuses on exhorting Muslims to be more religiously observant and encouraging fellow members t ...

congregation on 23 June 2016 for violating the Code of Ethics and Broadcasting Standards.

2020 Delhi riots

In 2021, the National Broadcasting and Digital Standards Authority (NBDSA) found that debates by two Times Now anchors – Rahul Shivshankar and Padmaja Joshi on the topic 2020 Delhi riots were not conducted in an "impartial and objective manner". NBDSA found that the anchors had "violated the Fundamental Principles as enumerated in the Code of Ethics and Broadcasting Standards and various Guidelines issued by NBDSA". In his order NBDSA chairperson Justice (retired) A.K. Sikri directed Times Now to take down videos of from YouTube and websites. NBDSA had ordered this responding to the complaint filed against Shivshankar accusing him of selectively showing the observations of the courts and the police to make it appear as if the anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act protestors were responsible for the religious violence. The order quoted, "The coverage was done to target a community that is critical of the Delhi Police’s investigation and project them and their critique in a negative light, thereby unduly hindering the right of the viewer to have a fact based view on the matter and amounted to a sustained campaign to challenge a position, without intimating to the viewers what that position is in its entirety or allowing panellists to explain the same".

Reception

The channel is accused of practicing biased reporting in favour of the ruling

Bharatiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; ; ) is a political party in India, and one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the ruling political party in India under Narendra Modi ...

(BJP) and is considered to be a Godi-media by critics. According to a 2022 ''

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadca ...

'' article, several Indian news anchors including Times Now's Shivshankar are known to shout down their panelists and ranting during their show, and have been accused of bias towards India's governing party,

and Prime Minister

Narendra Modi Narendra Damodardas Modi (; born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician serving as the 14th and current Prime Minister of India since 2014. Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Parliament from ...

. In 2020, ''

Newslaundry ''Newslaundry'' is an Indian media watchdog that provides media critique, reportage and satirical commentary. It was founded in 2012 by Abhinandan Sekhri, Madhu Trehan and Prashant Sareen, all of whom earlier worked in print or television j ...

'' reported that Shivshankar had used several

dog whistle A dog whistle (also known as silent whistle or Galton's whistle) is a type of whistle that emits sound in the ultrasonic range, which humans cannot hear but some other animals can, including dogs and domestic cats, and is used in their training ...

s to negatively portray the Indian Muslims. On 6 September 2021, Times Now was criticised for a report using video that suggested a

Pakistan Air Force , "Be it deserts or seas; all lie under our wings" (traditional) , colours = , colours_label = , march = , mascot = , anniversaries = ...

jet was hovering over

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

Panjshir Valley The Panjshir Valley (also spelled Panjsher or Darah-I-Panjshir; Pashto/Dari: – ''Dare-ye Panjšēr''; literally ''Valley of the Five Lions'') is a valley in northeastern Afghanistan, north of Kabul, near the Hindu Kush mountain range. It is di ...

. The video was soon revealed to be a

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...

F-15 The McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle is an American twin-engine, all-weather tactical fighter aircraft designed by McDonnell Douglas (now part of Boeing). Following reviews of proposals, the United States Air Force selected McDonnell Douglas's ...

jet filmed by a

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

airplane enthusiast in

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

filming the jet within the

Mach Loop The Mach Loop (also known as the Machynlleth Loop) is a series of valleys in the United Kingdom in west-central Wales, notable for their use as low-level training areas for fast aircraft. The system of valleys lies east of Barmouth between th ...

three months before.

References

External links

*
News Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Times Now Mass media in Mumbai Mass media in Maharashtra English-language television stations in India 24-hour television news channels in India The Times Group Television channels and stations established in 2006 Television channels of The Times Group Television stations in Mumbai 2006 establishments in Maharashtra