Divided

IN Media Watch Briefs | 18/01/2010

An appropriate sign of how times have changed in India by the time Jyoti Basu came to die, is how the Delhi edition of the Hindu looked on the 18^th morning. The national daily most sympathetic to Basu?s party displayed a vertical split on page 1. Half the page was devoted to Basu, and the other half to an ad which stretched from masthead down to the bottom of the page. Ideological convictions must share space with commercial imperatives.

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Media Watch Briefs

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.