Journalist flees from Gupta TV

Says he was pursued by bodyguard

THE Gupta-owned news channel ANN7 might be the butt of jokes, but for a senior Indian journalist the chaos at the station is no laughing matter.

While some presenters continue to provide cringeworthy moments, consulting editor Rajesh Sundaram, who came to South Africa from Delhi three months ago to help launch the channel, says he is not willing to risk his reputation any longer.

As a result, Sundaram and his former bosses have resorted to mudslinging. Yesterday ANN7 released the senior journalist’s letter of resignation, which was full of praise for the channel’s management. Sundaram, in turn, said he wrote the letter because he was merely trying to leave in peace.

A journalist for more than 20 years, Sundaram said he had worked in conflict zones for

What goes on there in Midrand is the worst I’ve ever encountered

respected international broadcasters. He said he was told by people close to the Gupta family that the bad press they have been getting was from “apartheid era-controlled” media houses and that the new channel would focus on “real” South African issues.

Yet on Friday, after what he claims was relentlessly bad treatment at the hands of Gupta family patriarch Atul Gupta, he fled the Midrand-based studios with one of the family’s bodyguards in pursuit.

“I resigned and they tried to force me to sign a document that said I would only get pay for six days,” said Sundaram yesterday. “When I refused, one of Atul’s bouncers tried to force me to sign and even followed me when I left the building.

“I’ve worked in a lot of places, also in conflict areas, but what goes on there in Midrand is the worst I’ve ever encountered.”

The 40-year-old claims he worked 18-hour days for the past three months and his health deteriorated to a point where he had to be rushed to a doctor.

“I have a wife and two kids whom I’ve not seen for three months. I worked really hard to get this ready, but it’s just been a nightmare.”

He said the disastrous launch that saw the ANN7 channel become a laughing stock on the internet could be blamed on the Gupta’s family’s rush to go live.

“I’ve been involved in startups and you have to do at least a month of dry runs before you go live. This was not done and to this day [two weeks after launch] some staff have still not been trained.”

Sundaram described Atul Gupta as a tyrant who interferes with editorial decisions and shouted at staff.

The cosy relationship between the Gupta family and President Jacob Zuma was something that he, a journalist, found worrying, he said.

Sundaram claimed he accompanied ANN7’s top management on a visit to Zuma three times before the channel launched, where he showed the president presentations of the channel’s vision on his laptop.

Atul Gupta referred questions to group CEO Nazeem Howa, who hit back by saying Sundaram has “made several outlandish allegations which are not worthy of response” and that the journalist “made certain financial demands to which he is not entitled”.

Howa also released Sundaram’s letter of resignation, which spoke in glowing terms of the start-up being “by far the best phase in my career”.

Asked about the letter, Sundaram said: “It was in fact meant as sarcasm.”

One of ANN7’s presenters, former model Sheena Deepnarain, blasted critics of the station this week, saying someone needed to take a chance and “invest in the youth of the media and entertainment industry and that was ANN7”.

Yesterday, radio talkshow host Eusebius McKaiser, referring to incorrect reports that former president Nelson Mandela had been discharged from hospital, tweeted: “ANN7 reports Mandela has NOT been discharged from Robben Island.”

It could almost be true.