Selective outrage

IN Media Watch Briefs | 12/01/2015

On Jan. 3rd, four days before the Charlie Hebdo shooting in Paris which killed 17, Boko Haram militants in Nigeria attacked the border town of Baga and surrounding villages, slaughtering the residents – majority of them women, children and elderly. The death toll has been reported to be more than 2,000 so far, and the attack is ongoing. (Nigeria has presidential elections next month and it’s said the violence might further escalate.) The mammoth killings, however, haven’t generated even a fraction of coverage, or even sympathy, in the media the world over, including the Indian media. It rated coverage on the international pages of the Hindu, TOI, Express and HT, but no big headlines even there.

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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.