Sedition circular stayed

IN Media Watch Briefs | 22/09/2015

Justice Kanade of the Bombay High Court has stayed the Maharashtra government's controversial sedition circular which seeks to bring into its purview negative comments against elected representatives. Adv Mihir Desai, who appeared for petitioners (cartoonist Aseem Trivedi, womens' rights activists Sandhya Gokhale, NJ Hasina and anr.) pointed out discrepancies in the Marathi translation of the guidelines mentioned in the court's order in the Aseem Trivedi case. Justice Kanade termed the govt. circular 'scandalous' and said that by this logic, everyone in opposition would go behind bars! The govt. has said it will come forward with a fresh circular. The case comes up next on Oct 20.

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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.