Media Bistro – by Chris Ariens
A reporter for the channel News Express in India has been fired after shooting a stand-up while covering flooding in the Uttarakhand region, sitting on the shoulders of a flood victim.
“You cannot ride on someone’s back for a story,” said News Express head Nishant Chaturvedi. “We terminated him on Tuesday.”
But Narayan Pargaien is blaming his cameraman for the stunt and says he was just doing it as a way to help the man.
“This was entirely the cameraman’s fault, who, it seems, almost tried to sabotage my career by shooting from that distance and angle and releasing the video mocking this whole incident, and making me the villain,” Pargaien said.
“It wasn’t my idea to begin with, but there was this man who took me to his home and asked me to report the damage he had suffered. His house was in a miserable condition and he had lost a lot in the flood, and was left with very little food and water.”
“We helped him with some food and some money and he was grateful to us and wanted to show me some respect [by carrying me across the river], as it was the first time someone of my level had visited his house,” Pargaien says.
You can’t do “stand-up” if you’re not standing up.