Stories that can bring a positive change 'deserve to be called news': Binu Mathew

By Abhay Kumar*

At a time when the Indian media is increasingly being controlled by the rich and dominated by the caste elites, Countercurrents.org has set up an example of giving space to multiple voices. On the 22nd birth anniversary of the news website, Binu Mathew, the editor, talks to Abhay Kumar on his two-decade-long journey.

The independent and critical news portal Countercurrents.org was established on March 27, 2002, after the Gujarat communal violence. It completed its journey of 22 years on March 27, 2024.

During this conversation, the editor says that his criterion for the selection of the news stories and commentaries is if they are going to change the world in a positive way in whatever little way they can.

In this interview, Binu Mathew expresses his views on a wide range of issues including the state of mainstream Indian media, the exclusion of the marginalized sections from the newsrooms, the challenges before independent and critical journalists as well as the international issues such as Palestine and the climate change.

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*Ph.D. (Modern History), Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi

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