Inconveniencing SoBo

IN Media Watch Briefs | 02/02/2016

Mumbai saw a 3-4000 strong morcha against Rohith Vemula's suicide on Feb. 1, unusual by the city's apathetic standards. Traffic in the commercial hub of South Mumbai was held up. Predictably, that was the aspect emphasised in the English press. TOI Mumbai said on page 1: ``Rohith death: Stir hits SoBo traffic.'' The brief ended with, ``As many as 500 people participated.'' On Page 3, its report put the number of participants at ``over 3000''! IE didn't find the news worthy of Pg 1 at all; it carried it on page 3 without a pic. The Mumbai Mirror gave it a full page inside, but focused on police incompetence on page 1. DNA's page 1 pic was captioned ``students' fury'', but inside, its headline was about traffic chaos in SoBo.' Only HT on page 6, focused on the morcha: ``Thousands from city demand justice for Rohith''. The traffic jam was put inside a box.

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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.