Advocate Prashant Bhushan has shared screenshots of leaked WhatsApp conversations between Republic TV
Executive Editor Arnab Goswami and Partho Dasgupta, Ex-CEO of Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) on Twitter on Friday. The Ex BARC CEO is also accused in the TRP scam case along with the Republic Executive Editor.
These are a few snapshots of the damning leaked WhatsApp chats between BARC CEO & #ArnabGoswami. They show many conspiracies&unprecedented access to power in this govt; gross abuse of his media&his position as power broker. In any Rule of law country, he would be in jail for long pic.twitter.com/6aGOR6BRQJ
— Prashant Bhushan (@pbhushan1) January 15, 2021
The TRP scam came in light in the month of October last year when a complaint was registered against certain TV channels, which includes Republic TV, alleging about rigging their Television Rating Points (TRP).
BARC measures viewership of the TV channels which shows the percentage of people viewing the programme. This helps advertisers favour a particular channel as a higher TRP suggests a bigger audience.
The Mumbai Police alleges that the former BARC CEO misused his position to conspire with Arnab Goswami to manipulate the TRP ratings and bring Republic TV to the number 1 position by accepting a hefty sum of money since 2017.
The Mumbai Police crime branch is probing the role of Republic TV, Fakt Marathi, Box Cinema, News Nation, Mahamovies and Wow music channel for inflating viewership figures. The channels are accused of paying money to households where barometers were installed for keeping the channels on.