Loaded parallels

IN Media Watch Briefs | 27/04/2010

DNA executive editor R Jagannathan wrote a column on Sunday on corruption in IPL and other fields.It devoted two paragraphs to TOI. "The preference for monopoly is widespread. We know about IPL’s policy of exclusion. In the media business, The Times of India follows the same policy. To stifle competition, when DNA entered the field, it got into market-share agreements and private treaties with advertisers to ensure that DNA suffers commercially.Advertisers who agreed to exclude DNA were given sweetheart deals ??" exactly as Modi tried to do at IPL by excluding non-favoured bidders. It is another matter that DNA had no intention of obliging The Times, but that doesn’t mean the latter did not try."

Subscribe To The Newsletter

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.