Chaudhary has been working in the television news industry since the 1990s. Belonging to the first generation of television journalists, he was in live television reporting and then 24 hours news television. Chaudhary was told to have been in the squad which has covered the Vajpayee–Musharraf Indo-Pak meeting at Islamabad, after the Lok Sabha attackin 2001. In 2003, he left Zee News. He was instrumental in the launch of Sahara Samay, the Hindi news channel of the Sahara group. He also joined India TV for a brief time. In 2012 he rejoined Zee News, where he hosts the news showDaily News & Analysis .
Controversies and criticism
Blackmailing charges and arrest
In November 2012, Chaudhary was arrested, alongside his colleague, Sameer Ahluwalia on charges of extortion. This followed a complaint that had been filed by Congress MP and businessman, Naveen Jindal. Jindal had alleged that the two journalists had tried to extort Rs. 100 Crore worth of advertisements from his company in exchange for dropping stories that linked the Jindal Group with the Coalgate scam. The two were sent to 14-day judicial custody in Tihar jail and were ultimately released on bail. The Broadcast Editors Association suspended Chaudhary as its Treasurer in the wake of these charges. Having scrutinised video footage from the incident, it determined that Chaudhary had acted in a manner prejudicial to the interests and objectives of the Association. In July 2016, the Supreme Court ordered Chaudhary and Ahluwalia to provide voice samples to the investigating agencies to further the investigation. In July 2018, the Jindal Group wrote to the investigating agencies requesting them to withdraw the allegations against the journalists and file a closure report in the case.
Chaudhary accused Trinamool MP Mahua Moitra of plagiarising speech of Truman Longman pointing out early signs of fascism in India while both Longman and Moitra had denied of plagiarising the speech. Mahua Moitra filed criminal defamation case against Sudhir Chaudhary after which Chaudhary on his daily prime time show accepted that only a part of Mahua Moitra's speech was broadcast and showed his regrets. Zee Media also filed a defamation case against her for calling it 'chor' and 'paid' news.
