No longer toothless

IN Media Watch Briefs | 15/09/2017

DAVP which releases govt ads to newspapers has suspended publications censored by the Press Council of India from its panel for two months. The list of empanelled newspapers who have been thus punished include Dainik JagranThe Times of India Bhubaneshwar, and Maharashtra Times, Pune.The PCI censure is for a range of reasons and covers 51 newspapers. The action lend bite to the PCI's censures, given that it is always described as toothless.

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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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