Freedom curtailed

IN Media Watch Briefs | 03/05/2014

In its latest report, the US-based watchdog Freedom House claimed India slipped down the global press freedom list due to “increased interference in content by media owners in the run-up to the 2014 elections”. The Annual Index of Media Freedom-2014 lowered India’s press freedom score by a point to 39, thus placing it at 78th rank among 197 countries and territories. Stating that media owners’ interference led to the “dismissal of key editorial staff in several instances”, the Index placed India among counties with “partly free media”.

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Freedom curtailed

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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.

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