Politically incorrect

IN Media Watch Briefs | 09/06/2012

After cartoons and newspapers, now panel discussions on television channels have come under the scanner of Mamata Banerjee's government in West Bengal. Debashish Sarkar, assistant professor, Jhargram Raj college, has been issued a show cause notice by the state higher education department asking him to explain his "anti-government views on television". Sarkar is a regular on at panel discussions on 24x7 Bengali news channels. Apparently, his views on the recent petrol price hike, expressed during one such panel discussion, has not down too well with people in government. The state higher education department issued the notice to Sarkar after a retired school teacher wrote to the state education minister alleging that Sarkar was speaking against the government on private television, leading to "academic disturbance".

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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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