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Sue the Messenger

non-fiction work by Subir Ghosh

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJan 13, 2026
Entity authorityQ24211086
Source-derived summary

Sue the Messenger: How legal arm-twisting by corporates is shackling reportage and undermining democracy in India is a book written by Subir Ghosh, with Paranjoy Guha Thakurta. The book was released at a gathering in New Delhi on 4 May 2016.

Overview

Lead author Ghosh said in an interview the day before the launch: "In an era where unabated corporatisation of the media, prevalence of unprofessional/sub-standard journalism, and the widespread malaise of paid news seem to be the order of the day, we felt that there are still those who try to write/report to the best of their ability and means, but are prevented from doing so through legal coercion by corporate entities, or are harassed later on for simply doing their work." Speaking about the book which establishes a link between politics and corporate crime, Ghosh told India Legal magazine, "If you stop journalists from doing their work and writing about corruption, the public will be robbed of their right to know. Ultimately, it is the democratic process that takes a hit. SLAPP suits are intended to have a chilling effect on others, apart from persecuting journalists who are doing their job."

The context of the book was elaborated by lead author Ghosh in an interview: "It is our understanding that there is a problem with reportage about Indian corporates and the hounding of writers and journalists that comes along with that. When journalists and writers are stopped from or prosecuted for reporting, writing or analysing [these issues], it is the citizenry that is deprived of their right to know. We felt that the people of this country need to know about this issue, and hence the book."

The book has been published by Guha Thakurta, with the publishing facilitation being done by AuthorsUpFront.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Sue the Messenger” as non-fiction work by Subir Ghosh. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2016—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 2016-01-01. The account is most persuasive where Messenger, non-fiction and work can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as non-fiction work by Subir Ghosh. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jan 13, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q24211086. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2016.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Sue the Messenger” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.