Swati Chaturvedi

Some Lesser Known Facts About Swati Chaturvedi

• Swati Chaturvedi is an Indian print and broadcast journalist, freelance reporter, columnist and panellist for NDTV and Gulf News, and author of two books.

• She started her journalism career as a trainee reporter in the crime beat with The Statesman newspaper and has over 2 decades of experience in the industry.
• According to Swati, her father often discuss current issues with her. She took to Twitter to reveal that she considers her father the calmest man she has ever known.

  

• Chaturvedi is an investigative journalist who is known for breaking many important news stories, and she has worked in the Special Investigative Bureau of The Indian Express. At the media house, she covered special stories on Delhi Police, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Enforcement Directorate (ED), and The Intelligence Bureau.

• She also contributes regular stories and analyses to The Wire, News Central 24×7, NDTV, and Gulf News. She is also a regular face on television as a political commentator.

• In the early 2000s, Swati was the Deputy Editor of Zee News, and she anchored a show “Kahiye Janab” for 5 years on the channel. In the show, she interviewed many celebrities and politicians including Narendra Modi.

• Swati has also worked for several other Indian newspapers and channels, including The Tribune, Hindustan Times, Deccan Herald, and DailyO, during the course of her journalism career.

• She has been interviewed by some prestigious international media outlets like The Daily Mail, BBC, The Washington Post, Public Radio, The New York Times, The Associated Press, and The Guardian.

• The journalist has an engaging and controversial presence on social media with many of her tweets going viral. Swati is well known for openly criticising the right-wing propagators, and attracting online hate. When she was asked about the consequences of her attitude, and if she feared backlash from the establishment, ^[17]FactorDaily Swati said,
  

  If the government decides to target me, there’s not much I can do. I have been 20 years a journalist, my personal or professional life are not defined by fear. I am not scared. They are free to do what they want.”

• In September 2016, Swati debuted as an author with her fiction novel “Daddy’s Girl,” published by the Penguin Random House.

  

• While talking about her debut book, Swati revealed in an article why she wrote Daddy’s Girl, which is largely based on her experiences of extensive on-field reporting. Describing her profession, Swati said, ^[18]SheThePeople.TV
  

  I still think that the core of all journalism must be to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. The rest is just public relations. It’s not our job to tell the world what good those is power are doing but, to speak truth to power and make it accountable. When people these days attack journalism using filthy terms like “presstitutes” it appals me. Journalism is hard and nerve-wracking and good journalists need to have unlimited courage.”

• Her second book “I Am a Troll: Inside the Secret World of the BJP’s Digital Army,” which came out just three months after the release of her debut novel, highlighted the subject of BJP’s large network of right-wing trolls spread on social media. According to her book, these trolls incite online communal tension and abuse and sexually harass journalists or anyone who question their ideology or their leader. In a conversation about her second book, Swati said, ^[19]SheThePeople.TV
  

  I am a journalist and not a cheerleader of the government. My job is to bring to light what the government is seeking to hide. Narendra Modi follows only about 1500 people and he has given RTIs as replies which say that he manages his own account. So as a citizen of India, I want to ask the PM- why does he follow abusive trolls who give death threats and rape threats and who have been suspended by twitter? And there have been actual BJP ministers’ hashtags trending to get those accounts back.”

  

  She spent two years reporting on online trolling and conducting thorough investigations including interviews with top politicians, bureaucrats, and trolls to produce this book. Her book “I Am a Troll” fetched her the “Prize for Courage” in 2018 by the Reporters Without Borders. ^[20]Brut India Instagram

• In October 2020, Swati accused Rana Ayyub of plagiarism and started a Twitter war. She referred to Ayyub as ‘PMO India stooge’ in The Washington Post and started a debate of tweets. ^[21]OpIndia

• Allegedly, Swati was also one of the journalists who was selected for surveillance in the highly controversial and massive Pegasus Data Leak of 2021. ^[22]Forbidden Stories ^[23]Haaretz