News X: Jinxed!?

NEW DELHI: In a world of loud television media, even the underdogs manage to survive with corporate donors ever ready to bail out, or buy news the moment they sense an opening. TV news channels often on the verge of closure suddenly get a new lease of life through monies---overt or covert---that is pumped to deepen corporate control out of the realisation that it is cheaper to keep a channel afloat than to start a new venture altogether.

News X, however is probably the one channel that has gone through sustained bad luck. And has been hit by an unusual series of ‘scams’ directly and indirectly. And this has made it again the subject of discussion, and jokes, in the current scenario.

The news channel was founded by Peter Mukerjea and his new wife at the time Indrani Mukherjea. The channel never saw the light of day, and after struggling with a host of issues ---mostly financial reflected in the hiring and firing of staff--- the couple exited and sold off the channel. The Indrani Mukherjea murder case has renewed interest in News X---now of course under a new management---with old employees being interviewed for further insights into her personality. More so as she was a hands on owner and founder.

The channel was sold by the Mukjerjeas to ostensibly Nai Duniya, a media concern and Jehangir Pocha. Under the the new management it did finally go on air. However just as it was settling down, and moving away from the alleged misdemeanours of the Mukherjea’s relating to money and firing of staff, the financial scam involving a lobbyist Nira Radia broke. And for the first time journalists in the channel learnt from media reports that the controversial Radia was the owner of the channel in real terms.

Audio conversations between her and Pocha were leaked to sections of the media to establish the authorities claim that she was the person behind NewsX. India Today quoting from the documents at the time wrote, 'Radia and Jehangir Pocha have been in touch with Chhajlani from Nayi Duniya. They wanted Nayi Duniya to front for someone else who wants to control a news channel in India, which later as per conversation turns out to be NewsX taken over from Peter and Indrani Mukherjee.'

'There appear to have been some cross-border transactions in this acquisition (of NewsX).’

News X was unable to survive this scam. And was sold again. This time to Kartikeya Sharma who now is the Managing Director of Information TV Media network (ITV Media Pvt Ltd), which runs India News, NewsX and The Sunday Guardian. He is also with the hotel and hospitality business. His father is Venod Sharma who is was with the Congress party, split to form his own party, and has been a Minister and a Member of Parliament. Kartikeya Sharma’s, perhaps more famous brother, is Manu Sharma accused of killing model Jessica Lal in 1999. The case rocked the capital of India, with Manu Sharma now serving life imprisonment.

Jehangir Pocha remained in the employ of the new management. He died fairly recently from a heart attack.