On March 23, 1782, a prominent newspaper was shut down and its owner arrested, after he called the then-Governor General of India, Warren Hastings, “the miserable successor of Lord Clive.” Its printing presses were dismantled and taken away, while its founder and editor, James Augustus Hicky, languished in jail (soon released, however).
It was the end of India’s first newspaper – Hicky’s Bengal Gazette. Hicky, the owner, toyed with mocking the government, and crossed the law in the process.
This week, the New Delhi Television Limited (NDTV), one of India’s prominent news outlets, faced the aftermath of a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) investigation into the company’s loan history. The backdrop is the running animosity between the channel and the ruling government – not entirely dissimilar to Hicky’s feud with the Governor General.
Newspaper feuds in India are as old as the oldest newspapers themselves. As NDTV respond to the allegations against them, we look back to the scandal that dominated India’s (and even Asia’s) first newspaper, the Bengal Hicky’s Gazette.
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