Barkha Dutt

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Barkha Dutt

Barkha Dutt at the World Economic Forum

Born 18 December 1971 (age 39)

New Delhi, Delhi, India

Education St. Stephen's College, Delhi

Jamia Millia Islamia
Columbia University

Occupation Journalist

Title Group Editor-English

NewsNDTV

Notablecredit(s) We the People

The Buck Stops Here

Official website

Barkha Dutt (Punjabi: ਬਰਖਾ ਦੁੱ ਤ) (Hindi: बरखा दत्त) is an Indian TV journalist and

columnist. She is currently the Group Editor, English News at New Delhi Television.[1]

Dutt gained prominence for her reportage of the Kargil War. She has won many national and
international awards, including the Padma Shri, India's fourth highest civilian honor by
congress party headed government. She writes a column for The Hindustan Times, called
"Third Eye." In 2010 she was one of the journalists taped in the 2G lobbying Radia tapes
controversy.[2][3]

Contents
 [hide]

1 Early life
2 Career
3 Awards and accolades
4 Portrayal in Popular Culture
5 Controversies
o 5.1 Kargil War and Mumbai
Attacks
o 5.2 Legal notices against
bloggers
o 5.3 Radia tapes controversy
6 References
7 External links
Early life

Barkha Dutt was born in New Delhi to her father, S.P.Dutt, an official in Air India and
Prabha Dutt who was a well-known journalist with the Hindustan Times. Barkha credits her
journalism skills to her mother, Prabha, a pioneer among women journalists in India. Prabha
Dutt died in 1984, when she was in her prime, due to a brain haemorrhage. Barkha's younger
sister Bahar Dutt[4] is also a T.V. journalist working for CNN IBN

Career

Barkha studied in Modern School, New Delhi and graduated from St. Stephen's College,
Delhi with a degree in English literature. She received a Master's in Mass Communications
from Jamia Millia Islamia Mass Communication Research Center, New Delhi. She started her
journalistic career with NDTV and later rose to head the English news wing of the
organization. She also got a master's in journalism from Columbia University's Graduate
School of Journalism, New York assisted by a Inlaks Shivdasani Foundation scholarship.[5]

Many noteworthy Indian personalities and peers have eulogized her for display of immense
dedication and excellence in the field of journalism as can be seen from an interview where
she said, "One thing I have learnt in my journalistic life is that to be disliked is the flip side of
being liked. I respect criticism but then...I have been congratulated by people like N.R.
Narayana Murthy, Shashi Tharoorand Salman Rushdie, among many others, for my and my
channel’s reporting ."[6] NR Narayana Murthy was an independent director of NDTV at the
time he aired his view on Ms Dutt.[7]

Awards and accolades

Dutt was conferred the Padma Shri, a civilian honor in India by Congress government in
2008, for her coverage of the 2004 Tsunami [8] Barkha also received the Commonwealth
Broadcasting Association award for Journalist of the Year, 2007. Her Sunday talk show has
won the most awards for any show across television channels, winning the Indian Television
Academy award for Best Talk Show five years in a row.[9] In 2008, Dutt received the Indian
News Broadcasting Award for the Most Intelligent News Show Host.[10] She has been
awarded the Global Leader of Tomorrow Award twice by the World Economic Forum (2001,
2008).[11] She has also received Society's Young Achievers Award. [12] She has been
nominated as a member of India's National Integration Council by Congress Government.[13]
[14]
 She was also Asia Society Fellow in 2006 and serves on the International Advisory
Council of the Asia Society.[15]

Portrayal in Popular Culture

Barkha Dutt has been portrayed in the film Lakshya, directed by Farhan Akhtar. The script
was written by Javed Akhtar and the role of Romilla Dutta played by Preity Zinta. [16] [17] She
was the model for the principal protagonist in the The Peddler of Soaps, a political novel by
writer-activist Anand Kurian. [18] In recent times, the role played by Rani Mukherjee in the
film No One Killed Jessica is loosely based on her.[19]

Controversies

Kargil War and Mumbai Attacks

Her reporting of the Kargil conflict in 1999, including an interview with Captain Vikram
Batra, brought her to prominence in India. Indian Navy Chief Admiral Sureesh
Mehta insinuated that she may have compromised the security of the troops by giving away
troop locations.[20] Barkha disagreed, claiming that the then Chief of Indian Army, Gen VP
Malik, indicated otherwise in his personal memoirs.[21]She has since covered conflicts
in Kashmir, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq. Newswatch, a media watchdog, observed that
her style of reporting was full of theatrics and had the merit to reduce complex issues to
sound bytes.[22] She responded to such studies by remarking that the medium (of Television)
lent itself to such shrillness.[23] Amita Malik, a prominent film and television critic, described
her to be intrusive into the private lives of people with a long list of trite questions.[24] Sevanti
Ninan, a media critic, thought of her as being a representative of the popular malaise
afflicting the news media.[25] Barkha, according to many publications, was the journalist who
came in for the most criticism for sensationalist coverage after the Mumbai Terrorist Attacks.
[22][26][27]
 Vanity Fair Magazine carried a report citing that her broadcasts were used by terrorist
handlers in Pakistan to relay orders back to those in Mumbai.[28]

Legal notices against bloggers

Ms. Dutt served legal notices to a number of bloggers, notably Chyetanya Kunte, who
allegedly had criticized her for "breaking every rule of ethical journalism in reporting
the Mumbai mayhem." through one of his blog posts. Many Indian Bloggers have expresses
their sharp dissatisfaction towards her and her employer, NDTV for attempting to censor their
right to Freedom of speech by way of such legal actions.[29] Barkha's reports
on Naxalite Violence in Dantewada have been found to be factually incorrect and naive by
some observers.[30]

Radia tapes controversy

Main article: Radia tapes controversy

In November 2010, OPEN magazine carried a story which reported transcripts of some of the
telephone conversations of Nira Radia with senior journalists, politicians, and corporate
houses, many of whom have denied the allegations. The Central Bureau of Investigation has
announced that they have 5,851 recordings of phone conversations by Radia, some of which
outline Radia's attempts to broker deals in relation to the 2G spectrum sale.[31] In one of the
tapes Barkha, assures Radia of getting Ghulam Nabi Azad, Congress general secretary to talk
to Karunanidhi to get the portfolios in the Union cabinet fixed.[32][33][34] Barkha has denied
acting on any promise to pass on messages to the Congress. In a subsequent tape, Nira Radia
is heard saying ‘Barkha has got Congress(political party) to issue a statement’.[35][36] This
scandal has also been called Barkhagate[37] Dutt denies the allegations.[38]