Bizarre election coverage

IN Media Watch Briefs | 15/09/2015

What exactly is Dainik Bhaskar upto? Its web edition on Sept 15 announced that pegged to the Bihar elections it was starting a flashback series on glimpses of Bihar's historical events. So the first episode has a headline which says "Muslim sashak ne lagwai thi Nalanda mein aag, hazaron ki karai thi hatya." (A Muslim ruler had set Nalanda on fire, and slaughtered thousands.) Then follows a garbled story about Bakhtiyar Khilji seeking treatment from an Ayurvedic acharya at Nalanda and being provoked by the treatment advised, to burn the university. All of this on pages one and two, and then upto page 9 follows only a description of various facets of Nalanda. But nine times in bold type you have the headline about a Muslim ruler slaughtering thousands, repeated.

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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.