OpIndia

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OpIndia Logo
Type of site News
Available in English, Hindi
Owner Aadhyaasi Media And Content Services
Website www.opindia.com/about/

OpIndia is an Indian right-of-centre [1] digital news media portal founded in 2014 by Kumar Kunal Kamal and Rahul Raj. It publishes opinions, analyses of issues, news reports and fact-checks articles. The current editor of OpIndia.com is Nupur J Sharma. Its extended team includes staff writers in various cities and its registered and corporate office is in New Delhi.

OpIndia is also available in Hindi here. [2] [4]

History

OpIndia was founded in 2014 by Rahul Raj and Kumar Kunal Kamal as a current affairs and news website. In October 2016, it was acquired by Kovai Media Private Limited, a Coimbatore-based company of TV Mohandas Pai, that also owns the right-leaning magazine Swarajya. [4]

In July 2018, it disassociated from the group and became a separate entity owned by Aadhyaasi Media And Content Services, a private limited company formed in India in the same year. [2]

Ownership and Financing

Aadhyaasi Media And Content Services is partly funded by its founders, by Rahul Roushan and Nupur Sharma. Kaut Concepts, an independent private investment fund based in Delhi has also invested in the company. It invites micropayments from common readers and visitors too. [2]

Content

OpIndia claims it does not endorse any political party and is non-partisan in fact checking, however, Sharma has clarified that they are not ideologically neutral and are right leaning. [3] [5]

OpIndia has accused multiple prominent media outlets like The Wall Street Journal, BBC, NDTV, Scroll.in, The Wire, IFCN certified AltNews and others of spreading fake news and leftist propaganda. Details are in the 'Fact Checks' section below.

In February 2019, the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN), an affiliate of the Poynter Institute, rejected OpIndia's application to be accredited as a fact-checker. While noting full compliance on a number of categories and not citing a single instance of inaccuracy in OpIndia's fact checking, the IFCN controversially rejected the application on grounds of political partisanship, a need for additional funding details and the lack of certain hygiene factors such as solicitation of user fact checks and a standard format for reporting corrections. [3] The rejection disqualified OpIndia for fact-checking contracts with web properties owned by Facebook and Google.

Sharma had rejected the IFCN assessment entirely and demanded that networks accept of outlets with both right and left leaning bias so that the sum total of whats fact checked is neutral. She added this was how it networks operated in United States. [6]

Fact Checks

OpIndia's body of fact checks can be found here. It has cited numerous instances of incorrect reporting by mainstream media such as:

  1. BBC
  2. Wall Street Journal
  3. NDTV
  4. The Wire
  5. Scroll.In
  6. IFCN certified AltNews

IFCN certified fact-checkers AltNews, Boom and others have cited instances of incorrect news being reported by OpIndia. [7] [8]

Citations in Public Interest

In November 2019, the Solicitor General of India, Tushar Mehta, cited OpIndia's article in the Supreme Court while arguing against an adverse impact of the communication shut-down in Kashmir after the abrogation of Article 370. OpIndia's article debunked claims made by The Wire's and IndiaSpend's articles that alleged a rise of mental illness cases in Kashmir following the abrogation due to a limited access to healthcare facilities. [7] [9]

In March 2019, Republic Media, one of India's leading English TV channels, used OpIndia's article to show a link between Rahul Gandhi and arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari via a controversial land deal. This was in context of the Rafale jet deal. [10] [11]

References

  1. "Arnab's Republic hints at mainstreaming right-wing opinion as a business". Business Standard India. an 27, 2017
  2. About Us-OpIndia Website OpIndia Retrieved Mar 17, 2020
  3. "Conclusions and recommendations on the application by OpIndia.com". International Fact-Checking Network. Archived from the original on 10 March 2019. Retrieved 12 December 2019.
  4. "Right vs Wrong: Arundhati Roy, Mohandas Pai funding fake news busters". Business Standard India. Retrieved 10 November 2019.
  5. "Busting fake news: Who funds whom?". Rediff. Apr 08, 2018
  6. "Can fact-checking emerge as big and viable business?". The Economic Times. May 07, 2019.
  7. AltNews Website on OpIndia AltNews. Retrieved Mar 20, 2020.
  8. Boom Website on OpIndia Boom. Retrieved Mar 20, 2020.
  9. Solicitor General cites OpIndia report in SC to debunk misleading report by IndiaSpend and The Wire on KashmirOpIndia. Nov 21, 2019
  10. As Rahul Gandhi continues Rafale lies, his own link with an arms dealer could spoil his pitchOpIndia. Mar 12, 2019
  11. Congress admits to Rahul Gandhi’s land deals, but keeps mum on HL Pahwa and Sanjay Bhandari linkOpIndia. Mar 13, 2019

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