Even as the debate on how to curb fake news menace heats up, everyone is busy dishing out opinions, many even defending the serial offenders when it comes to fake news peddlers.

Amidst all this, author Chetan Bhagat tried to ‘defend’ ‘free media’ by taking a dig on the Indian public service broadcaster Doordarshan.

I would rather have some #fakenews (which I can usually detect anyway) than every channel become a Doordarshan clone. — Chetan Bhagat (@chetan_bhagat) April 3, 2018

In his tweet, Bhagat states how he’d rather have some ‘fake news’ instead of every other news channel turning into a Doordarshan clone, whereby it appeared as if he implies that Doordarshan peddles fake news.

Many Twitter users came out to defend Doordarshan, one of the world’s largest broadcasting organisations.

Sab aap ki tarah IIM IIT se nahi padhe hote, they can’t detect fake news and rumours spread and we have already scene their consequences. I would rather watch doordarshan clones than country being burnt due to fake news. Set the priorities right sir. — Anmol Saraswat (@imanmolsaraswat) April 3, 2018

Please watch Doordarshan! I think you Wil get peace after viewing it! Rest is just noise! — Madhur Bardia (@b_micks) April 3, 2018

- Advertisement -

Amongst them, one person who came defending Doordarshan was Shashi Shekhar, CEO of Prasar Bharti, the parent organisation of Doordarshan.

Frivolous comment on Doordarshan. No commercial TV channel invests in broadcasting content from a public service standpoint in India as much as Doordarshan channels do.https://t.co/qR5YqZcgGR — Shashi Shekhar (@shashidigital) April 4, 2018

He slammed Bhagat for a ‘frivolous’ comment on Doordarshan. He also said that no commercial TV channel invests in broadcasting content from a public service standpoint in India as much as Doordarshan channels do.