Welcome to the Simhasth Kumbh

IN Media Watch Briefs | 22/04/2016

The Simhasth Kumbh at Ujjain sprang upon our consciousness on April 22 via full page ads in the highest circulated English and Hindi dailies. There was careful omission of any mention of the government of Madhya Pradesh, except for the chief minister's smiling visage. But the ads seemed to have been put in by MP Tourism. It announced that from 4 am there would be a direct telecast on Doordarshan. Competing with the devotional channels on television?

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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.