TOI looks for skull caps

IN Media Watch Briefs | 23/06/2015

``Muslims stretch, but not much’’ went the 5 column heading on top of page 12 in TOI, June 22. ``Bengal, Jabalpur & Ujjain see fewer skull caps than Kerala, Bhopal & Nagpur’’ was the strap line. The story began, ``Even as the nation set new records on the first International Yoga Day…there were mixed reports of participation by Muslims…’’ – immediately juxtaposing ``the nation’’ with ``Muslims’’. The rest of the story however was about Muslims doing yoga from ,Kerala to Aligarh to Hyderabad. But the reporter mentions plans changing in West Bengal “ when the issue of minority vote bank came to the fore.’’ So now reports directly refer to Muslims as ``skull caps’’ and ``vote banks’’. During Modi’s election rallies, the BJP made sure there were enough skull caps on display. Looks like the TOI was looking for them too on Yoga Day, the way Ram Madhav was looking for one particular bearded gent. An RSS functionary couldn’t have written a better report.

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.