Godi media

Godi media (lit. 'media sitting on lap'; idiomatic equivalent: 'lapdog media';)  is a pejorative term coined and popularised by veteran journalist Ravish Kumar for the "sensationalist and biased Indian print and TV news media, which supports the ruling BJP led NDA government (since 2014)". The term is a pun on the name of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and has become a common way to refer to television and other media that are perceived as "mouthpieces" of the leading party of the NDA, the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Background
As per an opinion piece by Debasish Roy Chowdhury for Time magazine, Modi's ascension to national power, in 2014, led to the taming of India's media. His rise coincided with a reorganisation of the editorial authority of some of India's most important news institutions, particularly national television networks. The previous generation of senior editors, who were viewed as more devoted to India's liberal outlook than the BJP's Hindu nationalist ideology, were moved out, and new channels and news leaders with devotion to the BJP and Modi were developed. Because of their large state and party advertising budgets, India's state and central governments hold considerable control over media companies. In the 2019-20 fiscal year, the central government alone spent roughly inr 19500000 on advertisements per day. Access to power and business favours are additional incentives for the media to continue with the pro-BJP messages. This ensures that bad news never affects the government or goes public. With a few exceptions, the government has made sure that the media outlets seek government approval for their reporting.

International perspectives
The phenomenon of Godi Media is not unique to India. Media bias and the influence of political power on journalism are global concerns. A thematic comparison of Kazuo Ishiguro's novels and the post-2014 Indian media highlights the failure of individuals not taking a stand against the tide of the times and instead going with the flow. This interdisciplinary approach situates the issue of Godi Media in a broader, global context.

Coinage
The term was coined and popularised by a veteran journalist Ravish Kumar, about the sensationalist and biased Indian print and TV news media supporting the NDA government. The term translates to "media sitting on the lap". In one of his shows, Kumar used silent actors to mime "godi media". This was accompanied by miming what the currently ruling party leaders wanted to listen to, using the Hindi film song "Bagon Mein Bahar Hai".

Usage and popularity
In 2018, on World Press Freedom Day, many journalists and social activists held a demonstration which protested, among other things, against the "godi media". The term was also widely used at the time of the Citizenship Amendment Act protests, and the 2020–2021 Indian farmers' protest, with the claim that the protest and the farmers were not being represented fairly.

Detractors of Godi media allege that instead of practising honest journalism, such media publishes fake news and inflammatory stories, which are often untrue, working in the interest of the BJP government, corporate and elite sources for their benefit. Media houses and news entities alleged as Godi media include Zee News, Times Now, India Today, Republic Bharat, Republic TV, Aaj Tak, ABP News, Sudarshan News, CNN-News18, India TV, OpIndia, the TV Today Network, NDTV and others.

Rajdeep Sardesai, an Indian news anchor and author, said that "a large section of the Indian media… has become a lap dog, not a watchdog".

The News Broadcasting & Digital Standards Authority (NBDSA) called for several television news programmes to be taken down and fine paid, for their role in spreading Islamophobia and communal disharmony. Arnab Goswami of Republic TV attained notoriety by portraying an assembly of migrant workers at Bandra railway station demanding from the government to make arrangements for them to return back home during the COVID-19 lockdown as an assembly of Muslims gathered purportedly on the orders of the imam of a local mosque in an attempt to deliberately spread the viral infection among Hindus in an act of jihad, following reports of similar accusations of biological terrorism being levied against Muslim vegetable sellors in Uttar Pradesh by the BJP IT cell in the backdrop of a Tablighi Jamaat event in Delhi being classified as a superspreader of the disease.

In the run-up to the 2024 general elections, the Congress led Opposition alliance had decided to boycott talkshows hoisted by 14 anchors including Goswami & others like Amish Devgan, Shiv Aroor & Sudhir Chaudhury, all of whom were renowned for their sycophancy towards the BJP & were considered as the representative faces of "godi media". Another anchor, Rajat Sharma, who became renowned for his flattery of Narendra Modi during the elections, was caught on live camera hurling derogatory abuses towards a Congress spokesperson.