Sidhu stated that slogans of Jo Bole So Nihal were misconstrued as being in favor of Pakistan. Sidhu accused Zee News of playing a doctored video and threatened to file a defamation suit against Zee News. Zee News telecasted a video with the claim that the slogans of Pakistan Zindabad were raised at a rally in Alwar presided over by the Indian National Congress politician, Navjot Singh Sidhu. The presence of "nano GPS" in the currency notes has been classified as a hoax being spread on social media. The Reserve Bank of India has also given a statement that no such chips are present in the currency notes. The Minister of Finance, Arun Jaitley dismissed the report as being rumours. GPS Chips in ₹2000 currency notesĪnchor Sudhir Chaudhary ran a Daily News and Analysis program announcing that the Indian 2000-rupee note issued after the 2016 Indian banknote demonetisation by the government have GPS chips which will allow the government to track currency, thereby reducing corruption. Sudhir Chaudhary, editor and prime time anchor of the channel however on a telecast made a statement saying "our channel only showed what was happening there, whatever we have shown is 100% authentic." A forensic report of the Delhi Police however later stated that the footage was doctored. The footage on the newscast of Zee News had formed the basis of charges filed by the Delhi Police. In a letter Vishwa Deepak, a journalist working at the channel gave a statement that "our biases made us hear Bhartiya Court Zindabad (Long live Indian courts) as Pakistan Zindabad." Vishwa Deepak later resigned from the channel after expressing reservations over its "biased coverage". Zee News reported that students from the Democratic Students' Union (DSU) raised "anti-India" slogans such as Bharat ki barbadi (Destruction of India) and Pakistan Zindabad (Long live Pakistan) in an event on the Jawaharlal Nehru University campus. Main article: 2016 JNU sedition controversy Content Cases of fabrication Jawaharlal Nehru University sedition controversy Sudhir Chaudhary is the editor-in-chief of Zee News and the anchor of the prime time show on the channel.
On 9 July 2020, Nepal's satellite and cable television operators banned Zee News and some other Indian privately owned news channels, citing "propaganda and defamatory report against Nepal government". In July 2018, the Jindal Group withdrew the case against Zee News and both parties to the litigation stated that an out of court settlement had been reached which remains undisclosed.
Zee News denied the charges and made counter claims of Jindal offering them ₹200,000,000 (equivalent to ₹350 million or US$4.6 million in 2020) to halt their investigations against Jindal Steel's involvement in the scam but filed no charges. Naveen Jindal had accused the two journalists of trying to extort ₹1,000,000,000 (equivalent to ₹1.8 billion or US$23 million in 2020) in advertisements for Zee News from him through blackmail by threatening to air stories against his company in the Coalgate scam. The two were sent to 14-day judicial custody in Tihar jail and were ultimately released on bail. Two senior journalists Sudhir Chaudhary and Sameer Ahluwalia were arrested. The channel was tried for allegedly extorting ₹1 billion from the Jindal Group revealed through a sting operation. The chairman of the group is Subhash Chandra, who is a Bharatiya Janata Party-backed member of the Rajya Sabha. In 2013, Zee News Ltd changed its name to Zee Media Corporation Limited. It was demerged as a separate company of the Essel Group in 2006. it was a subsidiary of the Zee Telefilms Ltd (later renamed to Zee Entertainment Enterprises).The company was reincorporated on, as Zee News Ltd. and it was incorporated in Augas Zee Sports Ltd. Zee Media Corporation Limited (formerly Zee News Ltd.) was founded by Essel Group.