38 Facts About Arnab Goswami

1.

Arnab Ranjan Goswami was born on 7 March 1973 and is an Indian right-wing news anchor and journalist.

2.

Arnab Goswami is the managing director and editor-in-chief of Republic Media Network, a conservative news organisation oriented towards Hindu nationalism.

3.

Arnab Goswami hosted a special television programme Frankly Speaking with Arnab.

4.

In November 2016, Arnab Goswami resigned as editor-in-chief of Times Now.

5.

Arnab Goswami wrote various columns, books and was the recipient of the Asam Sahitya Sabha Award in 2017.

6.

Arnab Goswami's paternal grandfather Rajani Kanta Goswami was a lawyer.

7.

Arnab Goswami's maternal grandfather, Gaurisankar Bhattacharyya, was an elected legislator from the Communist Party of India and served as the leader of the opposition in Assam for many years.

8.

Arnab Goswami's maternal uncle, Siddhartha Bhattacharya is a member of the Assam Legislative Assembly for the BJP from Gauhati East constituency.

9.

Arnab Goswami headed the Assam unit of BJP until 2015.

10.

Arnab Goswami is a journalist and a co-owner of Republic TV.

11.

The couple has a son, Che Arnab Goswami, named after the revolutionary Che Guevara.

12.

An army officer's son, Arnab Goswami attended schools across various parts of India.

13.

Arnab Goswami completed his 10th grade of school from the Mount St Mary's School, New Delhi and his 12th grade from Kendriya Vidyalaya in Jabalpur Cantonment.

14.

Arnab Goswami has a Bachelor's degree in Sociology from the Hindu College in Delhi University.

15.

In 1994 Arnab Goswami completed his Master's in Social Anthropology from St Antony's College, at Oxford University, where he was a Felix Scholar.

16.

Arnab Goswami started his career with The Telegraph in Kolkata, as a journalist; less than a year later, he moved to Delhi and joined NDTV.

17.

Newsnight, hosted by Arnab Goswami, won him an award for the Best News Anchor of Asia 2004 in the 2004 Asian Television Awards.

18.

In 2006, Arnab Goswami left NDTV to join the newly launched Times Now news channel, as its editor-in-chief.

19.

Arnab Goswami hosted a special programme, Frankly Speaking with Arnab, which has featured personalities such as Benazir Bhutto and former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai, retired head of state of the Tibetan Government in Exile, the Dalai Lama and former United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

20.

Arnab Goswami was the first television anchor to interview Prime Minister Narendra Modi after he took office in 2014.

21.

Arnab Goswami resigned as editor-in-chief of Times Now on 1 November 2016 citing editorial differences, lack of journalistic freedom and newsroom politics.

22.

Arnab Goswami hosted the last edition of his flagship show The Newshour Debate, a fortnight later.

23.

Arnab Goswami stated that he took this decision since he officially joined the BJP and it was in the best interest of Republic TV's brand and team that he no longer serve on the board.

24.

Arnab Goswami was the managing director as well the Editor-in-Chief; the channel was launched on 6 May 2017 as a free-to-air channel.

25.

Later Republic Media Network released a statement stating that Arnab Goswami personally owns over 82 per cent stake in Republic TV and that the company owns 99 per cent equity in the downstream digital entity that controls the digital assets of the network.

26.

Arnab Goswami accused Shekhar Gupta of leading the compromise on journalism for not speaking on incidents like this.

27.

In 2002, Arnab Goswami wrote a book: Combating Terrorism: The Legal Challenge.

28.

Arnab Goswami has been noted for his opinionated reporting in support of Bharatiya Janata Party and Hindutva across a wide spectrum of situations including by uncritical reproduction of government narratives, avoiding criticism of figures from the ruling party and presenting political opponents in a negative light.

29.

On 25 August 2018, according to The Week news magazine, Arnab Goswami was lambasted on social media after a 30-second video clip of him purportedly calling "a group" the "most shameless bunch of Indians I have ever seen" went viral on social media while discussing blocking foreign aid destined for the flood hit state of Kerala.

30.

Keralites have showered the Facebook and Twitter accounts of Republic TV and Arnab Goswami with ridiculing comments in protest.

31.

In October 2019, RepublicTV was again asked to broadcast a public apology, after the channel declined to co-operate in a case accusing Arnab Goswami of violating the standard prohibitions on racial and religious stereotyping and instead commented on NBSA to have engaged in "intense pseudo-judicial oversight".

32.

Republic TV did not abide by the order; incidentally, Arnab Goswami was the convener of the committee that drafted the code, years back.

33.

In connection with the 2020 Palghar mob lynching case, several first information reports were filed against Arnab Goswami, regarding his alleged use of inflammatory language, as well as claims of misinformation.

34.

Arnab Goswami alleged that the leaders of the Shiv Sena had threatened cable operators to "black out" Republic Bharat, Republic TV's Hindi channel.

35.

Arnab Goswami was arrested on 4 November 2020 in a 2018 suicide case of Anvay Naik under Section 306 and Section 34 of IPC by Mumbai Police.

36.

Arnab Goswami was released on interim bail ordered by the Supreme Court of India on 11 November 2020.

37.

On 20 January 2021, Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh stated that he was considering initiating legal action against Arnab Goswami for violating the Official Secrets Act 1923.

38.

Arnab Goswami had won the Ramnath Goenka Award for Excellence in Journalism in 2008.