WION (World is One News) is an Indian multinational

English language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the ...

news channel News broadcasting is the medium of broadcasting various news events and other information via television, radio, or the internet in the field of broadcast journalism. The content is usually either produced locally in a radio studio or telev ...

headquartered in

New Delhi New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament Ho ...

. It is owned by the

Essel Group Essel Group, (also known as Zee Group) is an Indian multinational conglomerate holding company and corporate promoter headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. The company has had business interests in mass media, infrastructure and packag ...

and is part of the Zee Media network of channels. The channel covers global news and current affairs. As of Dec 2022, WION has a followership of 7 million subscribers on Youtube and 470K followers on Twitter, and 2 million followers on Facebook.

History

Zee Media hired

Rohit Gandhi Rohit Gandhi is an Indian journalist and cameraman. He was the Editor-in-chief of World is One News (WION) and DNA India. Education In 1989, Gandhi enrolled in University of Delhi for his undergraduate education. He was awarded the degree of Ba ...

as the founder and first editor-in-chief to build the channel in August 2015. Gandhi spent the first 6 months in building the vision, branding, and technology of the network. In May 2016, he hired his former student Mandy Clark, former

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

correspondent, as his deputy for running the network. He then hired the senior management team, which included Mithaq Kazimi as Managing Producer, and senior journalists Surya Gangadharan as head of TV output and Padma Rao head of input. The founding team, led by Rohit Gandhi, spent over a year interviewing 2300 people to select about 200 journalists, with two HR professionals, Varsha Sinha and Vancha Garg, to select his team. The founding hired correspondents in countries throughout the world. Bureaus were established in zones in conflict with India, such as

Taha Siddiqui Taha Siddiqui is a Pakistani journalist based in Paris. He is the alumnus of Institute of Business Administration, Karachi and a winner of the Albert Londres Prize. He is also founder of the ''SAFE Newsrooms''. In January 2018, in Islamabad gu ...

in Pakistan was one of his hires who later had to seek asylum after Gandhi exited from the network. He also hired journalists, including Saad Hammadi, Bangladesh bureau chief and former correspondent for ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', Archith Seshadri, former

CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...

anchor, and Anchal Vohra as the Beirut and conflict region at large Correspondent. Its website was launched in many countries as a

free-to-air Free-to-air (FTA) services are television (TV) and radio services broadcast in unencrypted form, allowing any person with the appropriate receiving equipment to receive the signal and view or listen to the content without requiring a subscripti ...

satellite service on 15 June 2016. The television channel began airing on 15 August 2016. WION is India's first privately owned international news channel.

Team

Past Team

Sudhir Chaudhary served as its editor-in-chief after Gandhi until he left in 2021. Palki Sharma Upadhyay served for 4 years and resigned in September 2022.

Current team

The current team includes Sidhant Sibal of

DD News DD News is an Indian news channel of Doordarshan, it is India's only 24-hour terrestrial TV news channel broadcasting solely in Hindi, and formerly in English. The Prasar Bharati Board approved the proposal to start a 24-hour news channel in p ...

joined the organization on 1 April 2018. Sumit Chaturvedi, who was previously with

ET Now ET Now is an English-language business and finance news channel in India, owned and operated by Bennett Coleman & Company Limited. It has evolved to also encompass the areas of Politics, Governance, Environment, Technology under its domain of ...

and CNBC TV18, currently looks after the business news content and conducts morning and evening business shows called "WALLET". The former news anchor of

Republic TV Republic TV is a free-to-air Indian right-wing English-language news channel launched in May 2017. It was co-founded by Arnab Goswami and Rajeev Chandrasekhar, before the latter relinquished his stake in May 2019, leaving Goswami as the m ...

, Akanksha Swarup, joined WION in 2018, becoming one of the channel's leading faces. Sayed Mustafa Kazemi became the

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

correspondent for the channel in February 2020. Associated journalists include Naveen Kapoor, Digvijay Singh Deo, Rabin Sharma, Ieshan Wani, Kartikeya Sharma, and Alyson le Grange. The channel's Pakistan bureau chief,

, was forced into exile after a failed kidnapping attempt in Islamabad. He was replaced by Anas Mallick.

Content

WION is a traditional news channel that includes anchored programming as well as special programming listed below.

TV programs

* ''Gravitas'': WION's prime-time show which brings viewers news and discussions on concurrent issues from India and abroad. Created by Palki Sharma. * ''Gravitas Plus'': A digital exclusive (Youtube and other social handles including official website) show. * ''Global Leadership Series'' (''GLS''): An interview-based program featuring a selection of heads of state or government. * ''WION World Order'': A platform for mutual dialogue on foreign policies. * ''The Diplomacy Show'': Interviews with diplomats. * ''WION Sports'': Covers global sports. * ''Top Stories'': Brings the breaking news of the hour from India and abroad. * ''WION Speed News'': A news segment of WION which brings the top stories of the morning. * ''WION Wallet'': Coverage of finance and the economy * ''WION Fineprint'': An analysis of international news and developments regarding social and economic issues * ''Your Story'': information on the most trending stories of the day from India and abroad. * ''WION Pitstop'': An auto-show covering previews, launches, first-drive/ride reports, comparisons and motorsport action from India and abroad. * ''WION Tech It Out'': a weekly technology show * ''WION Wings'': India's first aviation show on television, covering flying, air shows, pilots, airlines and general aviation * ''WION MELT'': interviews with marketing profession * ''WION Edge'': One of WION's most viewed programs, focusing on stories and people from India and abroad. Created by Mithaq Kazimi * ''World at War'': A special program delivered during the Russian invasion in Ukraine. * ''WION Pulse'': A Global news section starting to stream since 7 November 2022 * ''World of Africa'': A weekly program that concentrates on African politics, society, and cultures * ''Tale of two cities'': A special program delivered by architect Dikshu Kukreja * ''The India Story with Vikram Chandra''

Previous shows

* ''Democracy & Dictatorship'', created and hosted by

(2016–2017) * ''Konversations'' created and hosted by Mithaq Kazimi (2016-2017) * ''This Also Happened'', created by Mithaq Kazimi and hosted by Archit Sheshadri and Sana Khan (2016-2018) * ''Wion 360° VR'' created by Mithaq Kazimi, hosted by various anchors (2016-2017) *"#MixTape" Created by Mithaq Kazimi, hosted by various hosts (2017) * ''WION Breakfast'', hosted by various anchors (2016–2017)

Awards

Best Anchor, 2021, by India Chapter of the International Advertising Association
Channel of the Year, 2020, by Exchange4media News Broadcasting Awards

Partnerships

WION has partnered with a number of media organizations, including Voice of America and Carnegie India.

Controversies

Appointment of M. J. Akbar

In 2021, the appointment of

M. J. Akbar Mobasher Jawed Akbar (born 11 January 1951) is an Indian journalist and politician, who served as the Minister of State (MoS) for External Affairs until 17 October 2018. Akbar is a Member of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha, and was inducted i ...

, an Indian journalist and politician who has been accused of sexual assault by women, to WION as an "editorial consultant" was met with controversy, with more than 150 journalists signing a statement demanding that Akbar be removed by WION and

Zee News Zee News is an Indian Hindi-language news channel owned by Subhash Chandra's Essel Group. It launched on 27 August 1999 and is the flagship channel of the Zee Media Corporation. The channel has been involved in several controversies and ha ...

2022 YouTube block

On 22 March 2022, WION was blocked from

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

for "violating Youtube's community guidelines". YouTube had taken objection to a video posted on 10 March broadcasting a speech by

Sergey Lavrov Sergey Viktorovich Lavrov (russian: Сергей Викторович Лавров, ; born 21 March 1950) is a Russian diplomat and politician who has served as the Foreign Minister of Russia since 2004. Lavrov served as the Permanent Represe ...

, head of Russia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, denying the

2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which began in 2014. The invasion has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths on both sides. It has caused Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. ...

. YouTube unblocked the channel on 26 March after a social media campaign by WION.

Lawsuit against former anchor Palki Sharma

After former anchor Palki Sharma Upadhyay announced her retirement from WION and the creation of new talk show in

CNN-News18 CNN-News18 (originally CNN-IBN) is an Indian English-language news television channel founded by Raghav Bahl based in Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India. It is currently co-owned by Network18 Group and Warner Bros. Discovery. CNN provides internation ...

, WION filed a lawsuit to Upadhyay, by saying that "confidential and proprietary Zee information" are taken by Upadhyay, and demanded that Upadhyay should continue to work for WION until December 2022 and pay for damages worth Rs. 2 crore. However, the Delhi High court refused WION's appeal, and the next hearing of the case would be delayed until March 2023.

References

External links

* {{Television news in India 24-hour television news channels in India Zee Entertainment Enterprises Television stations in Delhi Essel Group Television channels and stations established in 2016 English-language television stations in the United Kingdom 24-hour television news channels in the United Kingdom Television channels in the United Kingdom Multilingual news services English-language television stations in India 2016 establishments in Delhi