CM's priorities

IN Media Watch Briefs | 02/08/2011

 

This surely is without  precedent. An union minister has to meet a chief minister in her state in a TV channel's premises because she is busy giving her first television interview.  Last week Jairam Ramesh flew into Kolkata to meet CM  Mamata Banerjee to discuss the new draft of the National Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill. The meeting lasted 20 minutes as reported by The Telegraph, along with a photograph with the caption "Mamata Banerjee and Jairam Ramesh before their meeting at the STAR Ananda office on Saturday" . (The paper and the channel share the same proprietor.)  The Times of India termed it as something 'unheard of' in its next day's Kolkata edition.
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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.                   

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.                 

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