Janam TV is an Indian
Malayalam language
Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry ( Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India. Malayalam wa ...
free to air news channel owned by Janam Multimedia Limited. It was launched on 19 April 2015. The channel is headquartered in
Thrissur
Thrissur (, ), Renaming of cities in India, formerly Trichur, also known by its historical name Thrissivaperur, is a city and the headquarters of the Thrissur district in Kerala, India. It is the List of most populous urban agglomerations in Ke ...
,
Kerala
Kerala ( , ) is a States and union territories of India, state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile ...
.
History
In 2012, a promoter group consisting of Indian and
non-resident Indian businessperson had applied for permission to launch Janam TV. The clearance for the launch continued to be delayed by the
Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I&B) for two years. According to the COO Rajesh Pillai, the channel was flagged due to connections between the promoters group with the
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS,, ) is an Indian right-wing politics, right-wing, Hindutva, Hindu nationalist volunteer paramilitary organisation. It is the progenitor and leader of a large body of organisations called the Sangh Parivar ( ...
and the
Bharatiya Janata Party
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; , ) is a political party in India and one of the two major List of political parties in India, Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. BJP emerged out from Syama Prasad Mukherjee's ...
, a claim that Pillai himself denied.
In 2014, the ruling
United Progressive Alliance
The United Progressive Alliance (UPA; Hindi: Saṁyukta Pragatiśīl Gaṭhabandhan) was a Political group, political alliance in India led by the Indian National Congress. It was formed after the 2004 Indian general election, 2004 general ele ...
government was dislodged from power and the Bharatiya Janata Party led
National Democratic Alliance formed a new government. The I&B Minister,
Prakash Javadekar took up the cause for issuing clearance for the channel. The
Ministry of Home Affairs granted the I&B Ministry with a report which acknowledged the connections but dismissed any concerns over adversity with the company or its promoters group.
It was reported that the Bharatiya Janata Party was attempting to raise the authorised capital of for the company. Janam Multimedia Limited was the company which would operate the channel and the film director
Priyadarshan
Priyadarshan Soman Nair (born 30 January 1957) is an Indian film director and screenwriter. He has worked primarily in Malayalam cinema, Malayalam and Hindi cinema, Hindi cinema since 1982, directing over 90 films in multiple Indian languages, ...
was appointed as the chairman of its board of directors.
In February 2015, the
United Arab Emirates
The United Arab Emirates (UAE), or simply the Emirates, is a country in West Asia, in the Middle East, at the eastern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is a Federal monarchy, federal elective monarchy made up of Emirates of the United Arab E ...
based
chartered accountant and the director of the proposed channel, U. S. Krishnakumar issued a statement that the capital had been raised and Priyadarshan denied that the company had any political backing while stating that the channel was owned by 5,000 shareholders who had made investments in the company. The channel went on air from 19 April 2015 onwards, and was endorsed by the Kerala state president of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Content
Among notable events in its news coverage, the channel promoted the idea that the Hadiya case was a result of
Love Jihad,
a
conspiracy theory
A conspiracy theory is an explanation for an event or situation that asserts the existence of a conspiracy (generally by powerful sinister groups, often political in motivation), when other explanations are more probable.Additional sources:
* ...
developed by proponents of
Hindutva
Hindutva (; ) is a Far-right politics, far-right political ideology encompassing the cultural justification of Hindu nationalism and the belief in establishing Hindu hegemony within India. The political ideology was formulated by Vinayak Da ...
. During the protests over the
2017 Unnao rape case and the
Kathua rape case, it ran uninterrupted coverage of a "hoax hartal" in Kerala which depicted a violent ''
hartal'' () by Muslim organisations.
Sabarimala
The channel took a hardline stance against the
entry of women to Sabarimala.
It ran continuous programming of the development around the dispute at the
Sabarimala temple,
claiming that only it showed the "truth" about the events.
Its coverage presented an alternate reality on the events at the site of the temple.
In one of its reports, it falsely reported that women were entering the temple with blood stained sanitary napkins and trying to throw them at the idol.
The canard was picked up by a number of other websites and eventually referred to by the then I&B Minister,
Smriti Irani as desecration of a sacred site.
According to the data on television rating points of the
Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC), the channel became the second most popular news channel in the state,
during the period between 3 and 9 November 2018.
The rise in ratings of the channel was commended by the official Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh magazine
''Organiser'', which published an article stating that Janam TV would bring electoral gains for the Bharatiya Janata Party in upcoming election in Kerala and that it signaled a growing acceptance for Hindutva in the state. According to former representative and media critic
Sebastian Paul, the popularity was a temporary phenomenon and that the data itself was questionable due to the methodology used by BARC.
In 2020, BARC became the primary subject of a
ratings manipulation case. During this period, the
WhatsApp
WhatsApp (officially WhatsApp Messenger) is an American social media, instant messaging (IM), and voice-over-IP (VoIP) service owned by technology conglomerate Meta. It allows users to send text, voice messages and video messages, make vo ...
conversations of the CEO were leaked where it was revealed that he had discussed the ratings of Janam TV with his COO at the time of the Sabarimala dispute. The CEO in the conversation had also claimed that the
Prime Minister's Office had taken note of the rise in popularity.
Tamil Janam
Tamil Janam is a
Tamil-language news channel owned by
Marudham Multimedia Limited (owner of Tamil Janam TV). It is launched in 2024. It's available on Tata Play channel no 1570 and Airtel channel no 797. Janam is also planning to launch in
Kannada
Kannada () is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly in the state of Karnataka in southwestern India, and spoken by a minority of the population in all neighbouring states. It has 44 million native speakers, and is additionally a ...
,
Telugu and other South Indian languages soon. A latest technology studio is under construction and expected to meet the future technology upgradation in the home theatre and television experience.
Channels
References
https://www.keralatv.in/janam-tv/
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Janam Tv
Malayalam-language television channels
24-hour television news channels in India
Television stations in Thiruvananthapuram
Television channels and stations established in 2015
2015 establishments in Kerala