BY PRIYANKA JHA

A group of farmers started a Kisan Sansad at Jantar Mantar in Delhi as soon as the monsoon session of Parliament commenced on July 22. The Delhi police made heavy security arrangements at Jantar Mantar during the protest. On the first day of the Sansad, News18 anchor Amish Devgan claimed in his show ‘Aar Paar’ that his cameraman reporting on the ground was ‘attacked’. “This is a picture of News18 cameraperson Nagendra Gosain. A News18 cameraperson goes out to get coverage as usual. When he hears a man hurling abuses at the media there, he tells them such language should not be used, also because there are women present too. And in response, he is himself beaten up. They try to hit him on the head with an iron rod. He tries to shield himself with his hands, which get injured in the process. He is then rushed to the hospital for treatment.”

The channel tried to suggest that farmers were behind the attack. At one point in the video, Amish Devgan can be heard saying, “Attacking this News18 video journalist is no way to protest.”

Amish Devgan also tweeted that News18 cameraperson Nagendra had been attacked.

Amit Malviya, head of the BJP IT cell, shared the visuals, writing, “News18’s cameraman Nagendra beaten up at farmer protest…” (Archive link)

Some social media users who have been found spreading misinformation on several occasions in the past amplified the video. They wrote that farmers attacked media personnel and beat them up. These include Rishi Bagree, Atul Ahuja, and @ExSecular. In addition, OpIndia claimed that a female protester had attacked a News18 cameraperson.

Fact-check

In order to verify this claim, we first assessed how the incident was covered by other media channels. A July 22 report by India TV stated, “The cameraperson of a leading Hindi news channel was injured after he was allegedly attacked by a freelance journalist.” It also quoted Nagendra Gosain as saying that the assailant Prabhjot Singh was abusing a woman while recording her. When she protested, he attacked her.

We came across a video posted by a Facebook page titled ‘Pyara Hindustan’. The 9-minute clip depicts the entire incident before the cameraperson was injured and the aftermath. A few seconds after the 1:56 mark, cameraperson Nagendra gets injured

The chronology of the incident is as follows. Reporting for Pyara Hindustan, a female correspondent says in an impassioned voice “There is heavy barricading on all sides of the site, including a complete ban on the movement of vehicles. This protest will now run from July 22 to August 9. You can see that for all these days the common people of Delhi may have to run into the protesting farmers. They will not be able to drive their vehicles through this route and will have to divert. They may even get late for work. It will pose a lot of challenges for them. It has been posing lots of challenges, because this agitation has been going on for over 8 months now, with no end in sight…”

It is at this moment that the camera pans to another reporter who is filming this correspondent. She turns to him and asks, “What did you just call me?”

While continuing to record her, he replies, “Shameless.”

The two subsequently get into a heated argument. A group of bystanders snatch freelance journalist Prabhjot Singh’s phone from his hands and begin stomping on it when it falls on the ground. News18 cameraperson Nagendra can also be spotted.

We noticed that a Facebook page called ‘Ambedkar Mission News Channel’ was covering the incident live. This video captures the same incident from a different angle. It clearly shows how Nagendra was injured. You can watch the first few seconds of this video below.

Prabhjot then picks up his phone, swings his tripod a few times and injures Nagendra in the scuffle. A few seconds later, Nagendra can be seen holding up his injured hand.

A fight that broke out between two journalists was portrayed by News18 as an ‘attack’ on a channel cameraperson by farmers.

Alt News reached out to Nagendra Gosain. “He was not a farmer but a supporter of farmers. He was taking a video recording of media personnel and hurling abuses at them. And he also verbally attacked a woman. When we tried to stop him, he attacked me with a light stand. When I tried to shield myself using my hands, the stand unfolded and fell on my hand. And that’s how I was injured. He had a United Kisan Morcha ID card around his neck,” he explained.

We also contacted Prabhjot Singh who said, “Godi media was spreading misinformation about farmers. That’s why I went live on social media and called them shameless. This enraged bystanders and they dropped my phone. I was only doing a Livestream. They tried to break my phone. In response, I also hit back with the tripod to get my phone back. The cameraperson got hurt in all of this. Afterwards, the police held me for nine hours for questioning. I was eventually released.”

DCP Deepak Yadav confirmed to Alt News that the scuffle was between two journalists. They were both carrying recording equipment. The DCP also said that no complaint was filed in the matter.

This story first appeared on altnews.in