8 sourcesFirst reported yesterday at 06:12, updated 19 h ago
Rahul Gandhi acquitted in defamation case
Photo: The Times of India
Neutral summary
A special MP-MLA court in Sultanpur, Uttar Pradesh, acquitted Congress leader and Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Monday (26 October) in a 2018 criminal defamation case over remarks he allegedly made about Amit Shah, then BJP president, at a Bengaluru rally during the 2018 Karnataka campaign. The case was filed by local BJP member Vijay Mishra. Gandhi attended the verdict in person, and his supporters celebrated outside the court, according to TV footage. His counsel, Kashi Prasad Shukla, confirmed the acquittal. Mishra's counsel had earlier sought to match Gandhi's voice with the rally recording, a request rejected by lower courts and the Allahabad High Court. The court had heard final arguments on 12 October. Congress's Uttar Pradesh unit welcomed the verdict.
Where accounts differ. The Hindu reports a separate Jharkhand case in Chaibasa, in which Gandhi was granted bail in August 2025, and says he denied the statements in court; the other outlets do not mention this case or its details.
The Times of India
The Indian Express
bdnews24.com
Banglavision
Written by AI from these outlets' articles: facts they report, claims attributed, numbers checked against the sources. It may still contain errors; read the originals.
Article analysis
Band BLocalised faults
The Times of IndiaNeutral
Reports the acquittal plainly in headline and narration, attributing the 'objectionable' characterisation to counsel, though it omits the court's reasoning and background on the murder-case reference.
Six of the eight outlets that covered this event headlined it neutrally.
The faults are local; the reporter's narration stays descriptive.
1 Straight reporting10 Campaigning
The same event, two framings
The earliest headline of each kind. Marked words are judgements in the headline itself: stated as fact or in quotation marks.
Neutral 6 of 8
Rahul Gandhi acquitted in defamation case over 2018 remarks against Amit Shah
The Indian Express
In quotation marks 2 of 8
Rahul Gandhi 'Not Guilty' In Defamation Case Over 2018 Amit Shah Remarks
NDTV
How the 3 was worked out
The model answers seven fixed questions from 0 to 3 and cites evidence for each. The score is calculated from the answers in code, so any disagreement points to one question.
-
G1
Reporter's own voiceNarration is descriptive throughout.0
-
G2
HeadlineReports the event or the speech act; contested claims are attributed.0
-
G3
Other side missingEvery party involved responds substantively.0
-
G4
Weight of the unanswered allegationNo allegation against an identifiable party.0
-
G5
Loaded quotesSome evaluative words in quotes, in proportion to the event. Evidence 21
-
G6
Unattributed claimsEvery disputable claim is attributed.0
-
G7
Missing contextMinor context is missing. Evidence 11
Evidence
1Cherry pickingReporter voice
"He referred to him as an accused in a murder case," he added.
Only the complainant-side counsel is quoted, with no defence response or explanation of the court's reasoning for the dismissal.
2Word choiceAttributed quote voice· not scored
made objectionable remarks
Counsel characterises the remarks as objectionable; this is attributed and the reporter hedges it as 'alleged' elsewhere.
Show the calculation
S = G2 + … + G7 = 0 + 0 + 0 + 1 + 0 + 1 = 2 G1 = 0, below 2: not band D Not band C or A: band B Band B: S ≤ 3 gives 3, 4 to 6 gives 4, 7 or more gives 5. Score 3
Checks applied in code. f3: reporter voice inside a quotation, dropped.
Every headline, in order
-
The Indian Express
South Asia
First to report
Neutral
Rahul Gandhi acquitted in defamation case over 2018 remarks against Amit Shah
Headline changed; now
Rahul Gandhi acquitted in 2018 defamation case over remarks against Amit Shah
26 Oct, 08:53 -
NDTV
South Asia
In quotes
Rahul Gandhi 'Not Guilty' In Defamation Case Over 2018 Amit Shah Remarks
-
The Times of India
South Asia
Analysed above
Neutral
Rahul Gandhi acquitted in 2018 defamation case over remarks on Amit Shah
-
The Hindu
South Asia
In quotes
Rahul Gandhi gets bail over ‘defamatory remarks’ against Amit Shah in 2018
-
Banglavision
Bangladesh
Neutral
-
bdnews24.com
Bangladesh
Neutral
-
Ekattor TV
Bangladesh
Neutral
-
Kaler Kantho
Bangladesh
Neutral
About this method
Method. Bias types follow the Table of Media Bias Elements and the Media Bias Taxonomy (both CC BY 4.0). The impartiality rules follow the BBC Editorial Guidelines and the Ofcom Broadcasting Code. This analysis was made by claude-opus-5-5 on rubric 1.0.0. The score is calculated from the seven answers, never generated.
What this is not. No outlet gets a standing bias rating, and there is no left/right axis, because that axis does not describe Bangladeshi politics. Each analysis covers one article about one event. Members' analytics count how each outlet's headlines were labelled over a chosen period, with the number of headlines behind every share, and also show the average score of an outlet's scored articles: that average describes those articles (mostly each story's lead), not the outlet, and outlets are never ranked by it or by any share.
Known limits. Headlines are grouped into stories automatically, so an unrelated headline sometimes slips in; it is shown faded rather than hidden. Where outlets carry the same wire copy, the comparison has little to show. Human annotators agree on bias in Bangla news only moderately (κ = 0.574 at best), which limits what any automated score can claim.