Four days after a young NDTV reporter covered the CJP protest at Jantar Mantar, her mother was surrounded in a neighbourhood park by people demanding to know why her daughter had lied.

They had watched a viral video of the journalist and told the mother: “Why did your daughter lie? She is a liar, Godi media.”

By then, the reporter had already spent days absorbing worse. A group told her at the protest site: “Pimp, pig, you sleep with your father, your mother is …”. Online, she received rape threats and death threats. She has since taken leave from work. According to a source close to her, she now wears a mask when she steps out so that she isn’t recognised.

Within the last four days at Jantar Mantar, reporters from various media channels have been heckled and, in at least two instances, physically targeted by sections of the crowd – one of them chased into a police vehicle that was later pelted with stones. The pattern exposes a problem the television industry has largely refused to confront: public anger at prime-time news, accumulated over years, is being taken out on the people with little say in what goes on air. 

‘NDTV ki dalli aurat hai’

The NDTV reporter went to Jantar Mantar on July 18, the day Sonam Wangchuk was taken away by the Delhi Police. She had previously covered the NEET paper leak and questioned the accountability of the National Testing Agency. She was among the few reporters present when Wangchuk was taken away in an ambulance.

Reporting live, she said Wangchuk had been forcibly taken away and that protesters saw the action as an attack on the Constitution. When the anchor asked for the police version, she quoted the DCP’s statement – issued after the detention – that the police had acted peacefully and exercised restraint.

That was when the crowd turned. Some protesters began shouting “NDTV ki dalli aurat hai” (She is a pimp from NDTV). Others joined in. She was called “Dalal media” and “Godi media”, told she had come from Modi’s guest house, and told to leave. Someone recorded her.

The video was posted by a social media account and clocked 60 million views. Links to her personal accounts were circulated; her photographs were posted in the comments. 

She received threats but returned to cover the protest the next day anyway. This time she was recognised and surrounded. Protesters made sexually explicit remarks, called her “suwar” and “dalal”, said she slept with her father, and pulled at her shirt. The evening after that, her mother was confronted in the park.

‘They took away my phone’

Two videos of Times Now reporter Dev Kotak circulated on social media, showing an assault by a section of the crowd. In one, two protesters are seen leading him away while he appears to be in shock. “You are safe now,” they tell him. Kotak can be heard asking, “Where is my phone?” His shirt was torn. His phone had been snatched.

Is this a protest or mob violence? A Times Now reporter covering the CJP protest was allegedly chased, assaulted, and hospitalised. His clothes were reportedly torn, his phone and wallet stolen, and his spectacles broken.#Delhi #ViralVideo pic.twitter.com/jKDxShA2Dy— Smriti Sharmaa (@SmritiSharma_) July 22, 2026

Is this a protest or mob violence? A Times Now reporter covering the CJP protest was allegedly chased, assaulted, and hospitalised. His clothes were reportedly torn, his phone and wallet stolen, and his spectacles broken.#Delhi #ViralVideo pic.twitter.com/jKDxShA2Dy

One of the men who pulled him out said: “We put in a lot of effort to save his life. There is a lot of anger against the media among the people, but something like this should not happen at all. Some youngsters did wrong, but we saved him and brought him here.”

Have known Dev since our college days. He is truly a gem of a person- calm, composed, and not easily provoked. While I understand the frustrations with the media house he works for, there is no justification whatsoever for attempting to mob-lynch a journalist. An unruly crowd… https://t.co/Ys9rmGv1IF pic.twitter.com/WRaXC5ILzC— Piyush Rai (@Benarasiyaa) July 21, 2026

Have known Dev since our college days. He is truly a gem of a person- calm, composed, and not easily provoked. While I understand the frustrations with the media house he works for, there is no justification whatsoever for attempting to mob-lynch a journalist. An unruly crowd… https://t.co/Ys9rmGv1IF pic.twitter.com/WRaXC5ILzC

In the second video, Kotak describes what happened: “From six different directions, 100 punches, kicks, slaps, water, and bottles were thrown at me. They took away my spectacles. As my spectacles were not there, I was not able to see clearly. I was telling them that I was not able to see without my spectacles and asking them not to beat me on my face … I was telling them that I had not done anything wrong and that I was just leaving, but they pushed me down and started kicking me. They snatched away my mobile phone, watch, and........

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