Ambedkar anniversary irony

IN Media Watch Briefs | 15/04/2015

The politics around the B R Ambedkar anniversary makes news: on April 15 several papers had stories on the RSS and Congress competing to celebrate him in order to claim the Dalit vote. But atrocities against Dalits which continue to happen claim far less attention. A February 18th incident of three Dalits being burnt alive in Nagaur, Rajasthan, managed to appear only in two English publications, including Scroll, and one TV channel, NDTV. The Hindi papers did better. On Ambedkar's anniversary no media was recalling this latest atrocity or reporting on whether the accused had been arrested.

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Amazon resisting voluntary censorship

The new term for self censorship is voluntary censorship, as proposed by companies like Netflix and Hotstar. ET reports that streaming video service Amazon Prime is opposing a move by its peers to adopt a voluntary censorship code in anticipation of the Indian government coming up with its own rules. Amazon is resisting because it fears that it may alienate paying subscribers.

Let the games begin

Clearly, the run to the 2019 elections is on. A journalist received a call from someone saying they were from Aajtak channel and were conducting a survey, asking whom she was going to vote for in 2019. On being told that her vote was secret, the caller assumed she wasn't going to vote for 'Modiji'. The caller, a woman, also didn't identify herself. A month or two earlier the same journalist received a call, this time from a man, asking if she was going to vote for the BSP.