Seeking another controversy

IN Media Watch Briefs | 28/09/2010

Whatever the motives of the Times of India in unleashing a wave of stories on the Commonwealth Games, the outcome was positive. it had a salutary impact in that the Organising Committee was forced to speed up and get its act together. However, its front page story today is quite contrived. It describes Britain as 'Empire' and India as a 'colony' - the 'e' capitalised for good effect. And the headline, "Who will open the Games? Prince Charles of Prez Patil?' is another case in point when in the very third para the 'paper says there is an agreement between the Commonwealth Games Federation and the Organising Committee that the games will be declared open by the Queen or her representative, who, in this case, is Prince Charles". Times of India ought to know that Indian President is not a representative of the Queen of the Empire on which the sun had set long, long ago.

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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.