Firstpost

History

Firstpost began in 2011 as an online news portal of Network18. In May 2013, the news group was merged with the Indian edition of Forbes India whose four top editorial heads, including editor in chief Indrajit Gupta, were dismissed. The event led to a media furor. Thereafter on 31 May 2013, Firstpost took over a satirical website Fakingnews.com for an undisclosed amount. According to Scroll.in, "Network18, with its online outlet FirstPost, famously lost its primetime anchors in 2014 because of a diktat against criticising Modi."

In 2015, The Caravan reported on censorship in Firstpost over criticism of political leaders such as Arun Jaitley. In January 2019, a weekly English-language print edition of Firstpost began, and then ended in June 2019, with publication of Firstpost continuing online. As of April 2020, Jaideep Giridhar is the executive editor of Firstpost in Mumbai, while Sanjay Singh is the deputy executive editor. On 26 January 2023, the prime-time show Vantage was launched, hosted by managing editor Palki Sharma Upadhyay, formerly of WION.

Fact-checkers have found Firstpost to have posted incorrect information on multiple occasions. In 2023, it misreported a photo of a grave with an iron grille as having been taken in Pakistan, even though the grave was actually located in Hyderabad, India. In 2023, it falsely reported that Atiq Ahmed's vote had 'saved' the United Progressive Alliance government in 2008. In 2025, it passed off an unrelated image from a 2021 video as being that of the perpetrator of the 2025 Pahalgam attack.

References

References

1. Chatterjee, Swasti. (3 June 2020). "News18, Firstpost Tweet Old Video of Waterspout as Cyclone Nisarga".
2. (30 April 2023). "Media misreport: Viral photo of grave with iron grille is from Hyderabad, not Pakistan".
3. (4 January 2012). "Reliance enters media by opening purse strings for Network18". [[The Indian Express]].
4. (9 June 2013). "'Forbes India' editors sacked for demanding stock ownership". [[The Hindu]].
5. "Why Forbes' editors in India were sacked". [[Rediff]].
6. (16 November 2013). "No country for good journalists?". [[Business Standard]].
7. (31 May 2013). "Firstpost buys current affairs satire portal FakingNews.com". [[Hindustan Times]].
8. (3 June 2016). "Vadra investigation: Congress attacks NDTV as FirstPost gets praise – what's going on?". [[Scroll.in]].
9. Dev, Atul. (15 August 2015). "Why is Firstpost Being Asked to Refrain from Criticising Three Top Leaders from the BJP?".
10. (23 January 2019). "Firstpost newspaper targeted at niche, discerning audiences". [[Mint (newspaper).
11. (28 January 2019). "Making news — Zee's financial woes, Firstpost launch and BJP's WhatsApp 'fake news'". [[ThePrint]].
12. (6 June 2019). "Network18 suspends publication of Firstpost newspaper". [[Mint (newspaper).
13. "About Firstpost - Firstpost".
14. "Palki Sharma's Vantage - Changing geopolitical landscape through the Indian lens".
15. Varma, Aishwarya. (18 April 2023). "Fact-check: Did Atiq Ahmed's Vote 'Save the Upa Govt' in the 2008 Trust Vote?".
16. Majumder, Shinjinee. (2025-04-24). "Kashmir Terror Attack: Media outlets use screengrab from 2021 video, claim it shows terrorist from Pahalgam incident".