Trichromatic Posted August 7, 2021 Posted August 7, 2021 Quote Far from offering the accountability that was promised, AAP appears to have plucked its media policy from the BJP playbook. Quote Ever since the Covid-19 pandemic struck, Kejriwal and the deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia have resorted to addressing the media and the public through a live webcast. The webcast lasts barely a few minutes with the chief minister providing daily updates on the government’s initiatives and the number of Covid-19 cases. But they do not answer any questions from reporters. Instead, for over a year, there has been no way for reporters to send their questions during the webcast, multiple reporters covering the Delhi government told Scroll.in. Quote One reporter in the city put it more bluntly: “We are reduced to doing PR [public relations] for them.” Quote “If you put out a slightly critical story then they stop taking your calls,” said another reporter. “All questions are stonewalled... I bombard them with queries everyday but they never respond.” Quote “Ministers from the government have told me they don’t want to speak to me because I am always writing ‘negatively’ about them,” said one reporter who has been covering the Delhi government for two years. “They only want you to praise them otherwise sorry, access denied.” Quote But reporters claimed it was difficult to question the government at the time on why they fell short on their preparations. The state health minister Satyendar Jain was known to not pick up calls from reporters, said the journalist who has been covering the government for four years. Quote Others said the health department made it impossible for them to report on the number of deaths that took place at the time. “We knew there was underreporting,” said the reporter on the beat for two years. “But when I contacted the health department to ask for the data for a particular month, they said they did not have it,” she said. “That is just lies.” Quote In May, the chief media coordinator of the Delhi government unexpectedly removed seven journalists from the Hindustan Times from its WhatsApp group on which it shares daily updates, reported Newslaundry. The reason for this was a report published on May 6 that detailed five things that the Delhi government had failed to do to avert the oxygen crisis, according to the website. https://scroll.in/article/1001795/access-denied-how-the-delhi-government-has-stonewalled-reporters-in-the-capital
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