Policy censorship

IN Media Watch Briefs | 26/12/2013

A press statement condemning the Sec 377 judgment was issued by Javed Anand of Muslims for Secular Democracy and Hasina Khan of Muslim Women's Rights Network in Mumbai last week. While it got published in the TOI and DNA, this was the response from Mumbai's Urdu Times: "Salaam! Sorry. Urdu Times does not have the policy to print your news, deeply regret." The Urdu newspaper Inquilab did however carry it.

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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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