TOI - Govt jugalbandhi

IN Media Watch Briefs | 04/07/2017

Is The Times of India now the government's unofficial mouthpiece? It would seem so if you look at its edit page over the last few days. On June 30, 2017, Jayant Sinha, Union Minister for Civil Aviation wrote an edit page article, 'The Big Bang Has Come,' focussing on Modi's 3.0 reform; on July 1, it was the turn of known BJP sympathiser, Ashok Malik: 'New Dawn at Midnight'. And on July 3, party spokesperson GVL Narasimha Rao wrote an article, entitled, 'GST in Modi's New India'. The daily does not carry an edit page in its Sunday edition (July 2). On July 4 the GOI returned the favour. Timed with the Modi-Netanyahu summit the two PMs wrote a joint edit page piece 'exclusively' for the TOI.

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Govt jugalbandhi The Times of India New Dawn at Midnight

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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.