News 18 Tamil Nadu Senior Editor Gunasekaran tendered his resignation after popular Youtuber Maridhas exposed the links between the journalist, DK, DMK and the Communists.
Gunasekaran is the son-in-law of Kali Poongundran (Kaliamurthy Naidu) who is also the Deputy President of Dravida Kazhagam (DK).
In his letter to colleagues, Gunasekaran said that News 18 Tamil Nadu had grown into a big news channel due to the collaborative efforts of all the members at the channel. He claimed in his letter that the channel “echoed the sentiments of Tamil people” and functioned as a mirror to the society.
He recalled about a question put forth to him by one of his friends who was concerned if the channel can carve a place for itself in an already competitive media space in Tamil Nadu. Later that person had sent him a congratulatory note.
Gunasekaran claimed in his letter that the channel was instrumental in exposing the alleged police vandalism during the Jallikattu protests which was actually hijacked by anti-social elements affiliated to some of the fringe groups. He also said that the channel was able to make a mark for itself by extensively covering on issues like NEET, GST, demonetisation, ‘social justice’ and other issues and claimed that the channel broadcast the ‘actual’ views of the people.
News 18 Tamil Nadu’s viewership lags much behind than other channels.
The latest data. End of the day, the channel management would have rubbished all nonsense in the light of such pathetic performance. #news18tamilnadu #TRP #tamilnews pic.twitter.com/7ZknK13ynO
— murali (@muralwrites) July 31, 2020
He said that his channel’s mike extended not towards politicians or others in power but towards the ‘voiceless’.
He also said that he and his channel put forth human values denied that he did not favour any particular party under his leadership as alleged and that ‘party leaders were aware of this’.
He said that during his time at the channel he had interviewed Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami, DMK chief MK Stalin, and former CM Jayalalithaa’s aide VK Sasikala.
He also went on to pat himself on the back saying that he had launched the careers of several enthusiastic youngsters.
Gunasekaran’s resignation comes in the wake of Maridhas exposing his links with DK and DMK groups.
Maridhas had traced the links of News 18 Tamil Nadu journalists to an organization called Centre of Media Persons for Change (CMPC) (www.cmpc.in) which seems to be an extension of communists, DK groups. Maridhas in his video had mentioned that some of the persons associated with CMPC and content writers in news channels like News 18, Puthiyathalaimurai trace their history to One Mind Generation Research whose directors are Mohan Karthik, and Anbil Poyyamozhi Mahesh. Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi (son of former MLA and close confidante of MK Stalin Anbil Poyyamozhi), Mohan Karthik (son of current Anna Nagar MLA M.K. Mohan of DMK).
Apart from Gunasekaran, Maridhas also exposed connections between Haseef Mohamed, Senior Anchor at News 18 Tamil Nadu and Karuppar Koottam, the Youtube channel that had put vile and abusive videos against Hindus and Hindu Gods.
Through his video, he has also urged everyone to send a mail to the Network 18 group to take action against Gunasekaran and Hasef Mohamed for their actions.
A few days later, Maridhas had claimed that he had received a mail from the News 18 group acknowledging his mail. However, this email was refuted by Vinaya Sarawagi, Editor at News 18, as fake. But Maridhas has stood by his allegations. It is being suspected that a protonmail could have been used by a user to create the fake mail.
Gunasekaran, recipient of Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Award is also known for sensationalizing the Naveena – Senthil case which had caused the death of the 17 year old girl. Read more about it here.