The Media in 2008

BY hoot| IN Media Practice | 02/01/2009
As can be seen from this calendar, it was a year of channel and newspaper launches, increasing censorship, more political ownership of media, controversial coverage, market value dips, editorial exits, viewer and reader brickbats, and much else.
THE HOOT documents the year’s media events. Tell us what we have missed out.

January  

 

  • NDTV Imagine launches
  • Global affairs quarterly, IGA launched by Sakal group
  • Deccan Chronicle owner is among the franchisees of IPL cricket.
  • Nano launches, the media freaks out.
  • Vir Sanghvi quits as CEO of INX News

 

 

February

 

  • Economic Times and Business Standard start Hindi dailies in Delhi.
  • Outlook Profit launches
  • Newspaper owner T Venkatram Reddy buys cricket players at auction.

 

March

 

  • Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Rajshekhar Reddy¿s family launched Sakshi in Andhra Pradesh 
  • INX launches its news channel

 

April

 

  • New Pakistan  government introduces bill to reduce restrictions on press
  • Sri Venkateswara Bhakti Channel (SVBC),  launched from Tirupati
  • Newsprint prices touch record highs
  • Chattisgarh daily Deshbandhu comes to Delhi

 

May

 

  • Arun Bhatnagar, a former IAS officer handpicked by Sonia Gandhi, is  appointed chairman Prasar Bharati. Has no media experience.
  • Coverage of Arushi and Hemraj murder case turns controversial
  • Gujarat Commissioner of Police files sedition and treason  case against the Ahmedabad edition of the Times of India.

 

June

 

  • Kumar Ketkar, editor of Loksatta attacked in Mumbai.
  • The editor of Andhra Jyothy, K Srinivas, is arrested along with two other news contributors on a complaint of casteism.
  • Salman Khan makes his first appearance as a reality show host on Sony TV.
  • Hindustan Times Lucknow   announces a new resident editor after the previous one was asked to stay home from the first week of May
  • Business Bhaskar launches

 

 

July

 

  • Colours launched.
  • Balika Vadhu, a serial on child marriage and other social issues makes its debut on prime time satelliteTV entertainment.
  • Sri Lankan newspapers carry full page ads saying stop the war on journalists, the day before the SAARC inaugural.
  • CNN IBN does a sting related to the trust vote in Parliament on the UPA government and then declines to telecast it.

 

August  

 

 

  • TV channels censored in Kashmir, newspapers don¿t come out either.
  • Censorship in China during the  Olympic Games.

 

 

September

 

  • Coverage of Batla house encounter at Jamia turns controversial
  • Tenth  anniversary of Google
  • In Mysore  satellite-based interactive TV is used to reach sex workers as part of fight against  HIV
  • Vogue india¿s fashion spread using poor people turns controversial.

 

 

October

 

  • The Self Regulatory Authority appointed by the News Broadcasters Association comes into existence.
  • Krishna Prasad becomes Editor, Outlook
  • Asianet launches its Telugu entertainment channel Sitara.
  • Sangam radio, the first community radio run  by rural women starts.
  • Share prices of media companies crash.
  • Copies of the Hindu burnt in Coimbatore and Erode by pro-LTTE outfits in protest against its article on the dangers of Tamil chauvinism.
  • Nai Duniya comes to Delhi

 

 

November

 

  • In the US a combination of  mainstream and new media help to deliver elections to Barack  Obama
  • Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi ends its eight-year run on  Star Plus.
  • Sakal Times tells  its staff in Delhi they are not needed any more. First post-slowdown media firings.
  • News television¿s live 60-hour telecast of Mumbai¿s terrorist siege turns controversial.

 

 

December:

 

  • Najam Sethi  of the Daily Times and Friday Times wins Golden Pen of Freedom Award
  • A prime time serial on issues of class, Utaran, debuts on Colours.
  • Sukumar becomes editor, Mint.
  • Mint announces departure of its founder editor Raju Narisetti.