'Not pleasing egos'

The 40-year-old editor-in-chief of the Mumbai-based channel has been anchoring the debate show The Newshour since 2006. He is also the host of the interview program Frankly Speaking with Arnab, and has interviewed prominent figures such as the former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and Afghan President Hamid Karzai. The Times Now channel is watched by half the English-speaking population of the country, according to media research organization TAM India.

Goswami, who originally hails from the northeastern State of Assam, is also the only journalist to have interviewed Rahul Gandhi, the vice president of the Congress Party, ahead of the April-May 2014 general elections. In a DW interview, Goswami talks about what makes his style of journalism so popular and the rapid changes taking place in Indian media.

DW: You have been criticized for being an opinionated journalist. How do you respond to the criticism?

We are absolutely pure as far as our facts are concerned. We have now been broadcasting this channel for eight years and my program has been on air since then. We have never been factually incorrect. Now, when events happen where basic human rights of people are violated, people have opinions, and so my debate program is a forum in which people freely express their opinions.

That is more or less the spirit of India right now, and it goes with the fact that we are the world's largest democracy. People have strong points of view, we have just come out of an election and political parties have disagreed with each other strongly, I can't create an artificial consensus in the program.

But you have a tendency to corner people with your opinion?

I do a debate show, and I think a good debate is one where you provoke the other side to come out with their point of view. If you notice my program The Newshour, you will see we have the same number of guests with different points of view. We make no attempt to silence anyone and in the course of the debate we all express our point of view freely, including me. I think it is just the format of the show. It's like an uncensored debate.

Your style, however, is often criticized as being very aggressive. Why is that?

It's on a relative scale. I think it is the responsibility and duty of a journalist to be as direct as possible. Sometimes people regard this as being aggressive, I think the new India, which I am a part of, is direct and the time has come for journalism in India to be more direct and pointed.

In terms of asking questions, we are all trained to go as far as possible to ensure that the person replies. My channel and I are not in the business of pleasing people or pleasing egos, People will eventually watch a channel and a journalist who they believe has credibility. Eventually, it's all about credibility.

Given the fact that the Times Now channel is watched by half the English speaking population of the country,do you consider yourself an opinion-maker?

I consider myself an ordinary journalist in the passage of time and I am fortunate that people watch the channel. We work very hard to make sure we get the maximum amount of viewers. What makes me very happy is that English news in India is now really crossing all kinds of boundaries.

We have hundreds and millions of people in India who are watching and consuming English television news and that is tremendous. In fact, our coverage of the recent general elections was broadcast in 70 countries across the world, so everywhere from Middle East to Singapore to the US, people were following us. This is all part of a gradual evolution of Indian news channels.

You are the only journalist who has interviewed Rahul Gandhi, how do you think this impacted the election results?

People tell me that, but I don't believe it. I believe there was a lot more to the overall campaign than just this one interview. It sort of had an impact because Rahul Gandhi had not talked to the media at length before. It also showed me how television can shape public opinion. My challenge was to ask all the questions that could have been asked, because it was his first TV interview.

How do you respond to analysts criticizing you for being much tougher in your interview with Rahul Gandhi than with Narendra Modi, who was at the time the BJP's prime ministerial candidate?

Different people are asked different questions. My job is to ask these questions and it is the job of the person being interviewed to answer them. I am not above criticism, so if people feel I did a good job in one interview and a bad job in another one, that's alright. I am open to all forms of criticism. I have a clear view: a story is more important than an interview. We will never compromise our editorial credibility and independence to get an interview from anyone.

How do you see Indian media evolving?

I believe Indian TV channels are at a critical point of evolution. They have grown a lot, and it's a matter of time before they increase their coverage of global events. We have been seeing a rapid improvement in three areas.

One is the quality of TV production. For example, in this past election we used 3D animation. Second, the process of news gathering has intensified and last but not least, the use of English as a language in Indian media has also grown. I think the next 10 years are going to be absolutely terrific for Indian media.