Rajdeep Sardesai (born 24 May 1965) is an Indian journalist, news anchor, reporter and author. He is a consulting editor and anchor of India Today Television.[3][4] He was the Editor-in-Chief of Global Broadcast News, that included CNN-IBN, IBN7 and IBN-Lokmat, before resigning in July 2014.
Sardesai worked with The Times of India for six years, after joining it in October 1988,[8] and was the city editor of its Mumbai edition. He entered television journalism in 1994 as political editor of New Delhi Television (NDTV). He was the Managing Editor of both NDTV 24X7 and NDTV India and was responsible for overseeing the news policy for both. He hosted popular shows like The Big Fight at NDTV.
He quit NDTV on 17 April 2005[9] to start his own company, Global Broadcast News (GBN), in collaboration with the American giant CNN and Raghav Bahl's TV18.[3] The latter broadcasts the Indian Edition (in English) of CNBC called CNBC-TV18, the Hindi consumer channel, CNBC Awaaz and an international channel, SAW. The new channel with Sardesai as the Editor-in-Chief was named CNN-IBN. It went on air on 17 December 2005. Channel 7 has also come under this umbrella after Sardesai's company bought a 46 per cent stake in the channel. Channel 7 was later renamed IBN7.
On 29 May 2014, Reliance Industries Ltd announced it would be acquiring control in Network 18 Media & Investments Ltd, the parent of CNN-IBN, IBN7 and CNBC-TV18.[10] The board of RIL approved funding of up to ₹40 billion (US$470 million) to Independent Media Trust (IMT), of which RIL is the sole beneficiary, for acquisition of control in Network 18 and its subsidiaries.[11] Subsequently, on 1 July 2014, Sardesai, editor-in-chief of CNN-IBN, along with the entire founding team — editorial and managerial — resigned from the Network18 group.[12]
He is married to journalist, author and Trinamool Congress leader Sagarika Ghose.[14] Sardesai and Ghose have two children, son Ishan who is ENT surgeon,[15] and daughter Tarini.[16]
Legal issues
Sardesai and others were acquitted of defamation by a Hyderabad court in November 2019 after issuing an unconditional apology to IPS officer Rajiv Trivedi for false reporting on his role in the death of Sohrabuddin Sheikh.[17][18]
In January 2021, Sardesai was taken off TV for two weeks by India Today while also cutting his monthly salary for alleging in a retracted tweet that Navreet Singh was killed in a police shooting during 2020–2021 Indian farmers' protest. Delhi Police claimed that his tweet on the cause of death was not accurate and referred to the CCTV footage of the incident of Singh's death.[19][20] Later, Sardesai was booked for sedition over the Republic Day violence and the FIR stated that they shared misinformed news and ‘instigated violence’ on 26 January.[21] Several journalists and politicians who reported about the 2021 Farmers' Republic Day parade were charged with sedition by the Delhi police and 5 BJP-ruled state police.[22]Siddharth Varadarajan called the police FIRs "malicious prosecution".[23][24] Press Club of India (PCI), the Editors’ Guild of India, the Press Association, the Indian Women's Press Corps (IWPC), the Delhi Union of Journalists and the Indian Journalists Union in a joint press conference asked the sedition law to be scrapped.[22][25] Editors Guild of India spoke against invoking of the sedition charge on journalists. The guild termed the FIRs as an "attempt to intimidate, harass, browbeat and stifle the media".[26]
In July 2024, Rajdeep Sardesai posted a video clip on X claiming that BJP spokesperson Shazia Ilmi had abused his cameraperson after his debate show. She subsequently filed a defamation suit in the Delhi High Court against Sardesai.[27]Shazia Ilmi responded, stating, "The show was over, my consent was over. Thereafter, I can't be continuously recorded in my private space without my consent."[28]Delhi High Court opined that the video was recorded by India Today cameraperson after Ilmi had removed herself from the show.[29] The court ordered Rajdeep Sardesai to immediately remove the video, take down the post and remarked, "You had no authority to record and no authority to use."[29][30] On 5 April, Delhi High Court imposed a fine of Rs. 25,000 on Ilmi for hiding facts with regards to her allegations against Sardesai.[31]
^Cached version of Indus View 2.1 (January 2006) The degree of Bachelor of Laws (LLB) is not awarded by Oxford University and here is a mistake for Bachelor of Civil Law (BCL), a postgraduate degree in law. All Bachelors of Arts and of Fine Art upon commencing their twenty-first term from matriculation may supplicate for the degree of Master of Arts Rajdeep Gupta
