Teddy bear offence

IN Media Watch Briefs | 10/08/2012

Two Belarus journalists have been arrested and fined for posing for pictures with teddy bears, after hundreds of stuffed animals were dropped from the sky into the country as part of a pro-democracy stunt. Irina Kozlik, 27, a journalist for Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper, and Yulia Doroshkevish, 31, a press photographer, were each fined 3 mn Belarussian roubles, or around 400 dollars. The fines came the same day Alexander Lukashenko, the country's authoritarian president, announced that he believes the Swedish embassy in Minsk had a part in the July 4 stunt, in which a plane chartered by the Swedish PR firm, Studio Total, dropped 800 teddy bears bearing pro-democracy messages over Belarus airspace.

TAGS

Teddy bear Belarus

Subscribe To The Newsletter

Media Watch Briefs

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.