Assam’s NRC: doing justice to its complexities
IN Media Practice | 2018-08-19
Was it really about ethnic cleansing? Reporting in the English press shows that the issue is far more layered. But the BJP’s political rhetoric is drowning out other aspects.
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |11/03/2018
Assam police lathi-charged journalists during a protest by Mizo students at the Assam-Mizoram border area in Kachurthal on Saturday. Police paid no heed to the journalists' protestations that they were covering the protest. Emmy Lawbei, journalist with a television channel was mercilessly beaten up by the police though she showed..
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |23/02/2018
The Hindu, The Times of India and Hindustan Times reported the most controversial parts of the Army chief's Feb 21 speech on immigration in the North East and the growth of the AIUDF as a party. It was only Indian Express that reported a longer excerpt, in which he spoke of amalgamation rather than..
The sinning health minister of Assam
BY TERESA REHMAN| IN MEDIA PRACTICE |24/11/2017
Himanta Biswa Sarma sinned against reason and compassion when he said cancer was divinely ordained. He won his 15 minutes of notoriety
“Abused for my journalism” - a chronicle of online hate
BY Neha Dixit| IN OPINION |02/03/2017
Neha Dixit received the Chameli Devi Jain Award for “Operation Babylift” and other stories. We reprint her acceptance speech.
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |08/11/2016
The NDTVIndia ban has been put on hold but what is the MIB's decision on the one day ban on News Times Assam, also scheduled for Nov 9? Tuesday's newspapers simply ignored this part of the ban story, not even asking the question. ..
And now, Puja selfies on prime time
BY TERESA REHMAN| IN REGIONAL MEDIA |23/10/2016
Assam’s TV channels have come up with a new gimmick to increase television rating points at festival time,
BY TERESA REHMAN| IN MEDIA PRACTICE |08/10/2016
A talent show in Assam features people with disabilities but the judges and anchor ruin the effort with their patronising talk.
BY Abdul Kalam Azad| IN MEDIA PRACTICE |23/09/2016
Cast as the ‘other’, dubbed ‘Bangladeshi’ and incessantly victimized, the Bengal-origin Muslim is fair game, with the media actively whipping up hatred.
Kuldeep’s homecoming, live on television
BY TERESA REHMAN| IN REGIONAL MEDIA |11/09/2016
Released by his abductors, a young man in ULFA’s captivity for a month, returns home to hounding by the TRP brigade.
BY TERESA REHMAN| IN COMMUNITY MEDIA |07/09/2016
Through its news portal, Moirabari Press Club in Assam helps farmers, women and students by giving them the news and information they need.
Outlook refuses to be muzzled by FIR over its story
BY GEETA SESHU| IN MEDIA FREEDOM |10/08/2016
The filing of a complaint against an Outlook investigation on child trafficking in Assam is the latest attempt to silence the media.
Hitting the wrong note in Assam
BY ANURAAG BARUAH| IN MEDIA PRACTICE |04/06/2016
The media got the story of the Muslim boy who topped the Class 10 exam wrong. His religion was irrelevant.
Overhyping the Ajmal Factor in Assam polls
BY RAJEEV BHATTACHARYYA| IN REGIONAL MEDIA |26/05/2016
Sections of the media failed to see the BJP wave and made the mistake of over-estimating the role of AIUDF’s Ajmal.
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |19/05/2016
On NDTV India Ravish Kumar was pursuing his theory about the BJP's victory in Assam having its roots in the RSS's pre-independence entry into that region and its presence there since then. On Zee News Sudhir Chaudhary was doing a soliloquy on the decline of the Congress. He first compared..
NDTV’s Battleground Assam: wrong on history and facts
BY AMAN WADUD| IN MEDIA PRACTICE |12/04/2016
Prannoy Roy classifies all Muslims in Assam as migrants and Ahoms as Assamese but the earliest Muslim settlers came before the Ahoms did,
Mamata, Gogoi fight without media support
BY SUBIR BHAUMIK| IN REGIONAL MEDIA |09/04/2016
Without the TV channels their parties could count on in the last elections, both CMs have aggressive media to reckon with.
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |27/11/2015
Assam Tribune reports that two miscreants attacked four journalists belonging to different media houses when they went to cover news at 9 Mile, Baridua. The journalists had gone to 9 Mile after being tipped-off about illegal sale of Marijuana in the locality. Sylbester Majaw of T7 news channel of Meghalaya..
IN MEDIA FREEDOM |24/11/2015
The Governor of Assam and Nagaland, PB Acharya gives the Assam Rifles-Naga Press controversy a fresh lease of life.
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |02/11/2015
Pratidin Time, the news channel in Assam which ran a story on women wearing skirts, faced a huge attack on its sexism and has apparently now tendered an apology for the story it carried. The editor of the channel apologised on Facebook. The original story was titled, ‘Scantily-clad girls, a summer-time nuisance!’..
BY KAKOLI THAKUR| IN MEDIA PRACTICE |11/09/2015
Nearly 1.5 million people were affected in this year’s floods but our media was busy focusing on the Sheena Bora case as if Assam had no other news to offer.
Assam TV lectures women on how to dress
BY Anuraag Baruah| IN MEDIA PRACTICE |21/08/2015
“Scantily-clad girls are a summer-time nuisance” says an Assam news channel, highlighting the paternalistic approach towards women that has become common.
Of the people, and for the people
IN REGIONAL MEDIA |18/04/2015
The mouthpiece of the people in Golaghat district in Assam, the weekly Saptahik Dhansiri has just turned 35.
IN MEDIA PRACTICE |02/04/2015
Not a single satellite TV channel in Assam has a news bulletin in English, depriving the region of a wider audience in the country.
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |20/02/2015
Here is an unusual request from a journalists' body. The Journalists’ Forum Assam (JFA) has "fervently" requested the media to avoid naming the parents of the arrested journalist Santanu Saikia when reporting on his case. The release says they were Assam’s best-known journalists and authors "contributing immensely to our society," and..
IN MEDIA PRACTICE |09/02/2015
The latest incident of sexual assault has highlighted the hostile conditions in which Assamese women journalists work.
BY Anuraag Baruah| IN REGIONAL MEDIA |27/12/2014
This headline in the Assam Tribune was a reflection of the state of English journalism in Assam -- mindless and communal,
BY TERESA REHMAN| IN MEDIA PRACTICE |28/11/2014
The scramble for TRPs distorts the truth and hinders justice.
AIUDF's court offensive against NewsX
BY SUBIR BHAUMIK| IN MEDIA PRACTICE |17/11/2014
By filing 22 defamation cases against the news channel in 22 districts, for linking it with jihadi activities, the AIUDF is countering what it calls media terror with its own legal terror,
The 'witches' let down by the media
BY TERESA REHMAN| IN REGIONAL MEDIA |30/10/2014
Witch hunting is a disturbing crime against women in Assam, but the media's approach has been disappointingly simplistic and crass,
Is media painting a true picture of Assam's displaced Muslims?
BY Abdul Kalam Azad| IN MEDIA PRACTICE |08/10/2014
Does the professional ethics of journalism permit anyone to create a 'risk perception' out of context to make a particular community vulnerable to persecution, humiliation and marginalisation?
In Assam too, scribes take the plunge
BY TERESA REHMAN| IN REGIONAL MEDIA |08/04/2014
The star attraction this election in Assam is prolific journalist and former Deputy Editor of the television news channel DY 365, Manorom Gogoi.
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |31/03/2014
The All Assam Media Employees Federation has expressed concern after the management of 'Sangbad Lahiri' announced the closure of the publication w.e.f. April 1, 2014, due to reasons "beyond its control", leaving over 50 direct and 100 indirect media employees jobless overnight. The management has offered one month's salary to..
BY JAYANTA MADHAB TAMULY| IN MEDIA PRACTICE |28/02/2014
From the time of immolation to the death announcement, there was enough time to collect and telecast the news nationally. But it found no space in the national media,
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |01/02/2014
Journalists of Assam have written to Dainik Jagran, India Today, India TV and News X protesting at their using photographs of the late Parag Kumar Das while reporting on the conviction of ULFA leader Paresh Barua a couple of days ago. Parag Das was the executive editor of Asomiya Pratidin..
Outlawing the reporting of a 'bandh'
IN OPINION |27/11/2013
The Assam government's move to penalize the media for covering a bandh is ill-advised and must be dropped forthwith,
Fake video and a riot, yet again!
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |09/09/2013
The recent history of the fake videos that circulated on the Assam riots and led to the exodus of people from the North-East, appears to have repeated itself in the horrific Muzzafarnagar riots, that also claimed the life of a journalist. The fake video was two years old, UP officials.
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |20/08/2013
Former Congress MP, Mani Kumar Subba, on August 19 , slammed a Rs 25 cr defamation case against Jayanta Barua (owner of Asomiya Pratidin) for allegedly showing a sex-related visual of him on his channel News Time Assam, in N. Lakhipur court of eastern Assam. Earlier, Subba also alleged attempted..
IN REGIONAL MEDIA |01/05/2013
A photograph of the Assam Cricket Association secretary with film actors was distributed at a press meet.
Assam media upheld artistic freedom
IN OPINION |23/04/2013
LETTER TO THE HOOT: When ULFA issued a diktat against Hindi songs at Bihu celebrations, the Assamese media sprang into action.
No association with a political party
BY Zakir Hussain| IN OPINION |21/10/2012
I would like to state that the newspaper "Gana Adhikar" is fully owned by Unity Media and Infrastructure Ltd and has no direct or indirect affinity or link with Sri Ajmal or the political party All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF).
BY KABIR ALI| IN MEDIA PRACTICE |24/09/2012
The reportage in Urdu newspapers was substantially responsible for the after-effects of Assam violence.
The rumour mills on social media
BY Geeta Seshu| IN MEDIA PRACTICE |14/09/2012
Internet and mobile media inflamed the situation while traditional media failed to counter the damage done.
BY TERESA REHMAN| IN MEDIA PRACTICE |17/08/2012
Singers, artists, writers and academics were inspired by a TV talk show 'Prasangokrome' on DY 365, to make a spontaneous visit to the strife-torn areas in the Bodoland Territorial Area District.
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |14/07/2012
Is information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni going to ask her party to demand any explanation from Himanta Biswa Sarma, the cabinet minister of the Congress Government of Assam, whose family owns the Newslive channel? The channel has been a major offender in the Guwahati live telecast of the molestation..
BY TERESA REHMAN| IN REGIONAL MEDIA |30/03/2012
Likened to the ubiquitous Indian black bird, the Opposition MLAs in the Assam Assembly boycott the House for two days in a row.
IN MEDIA BUSINESS |12/02/2012
While some large media houses have been doing everything possible not to implement wage revision for their employees, a newspaper house in the North-East has become a trend-setter with its worker-friendly action.
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |11/02/2012
The Assam Tribune Group has decided to implement the recommendations of the Majithia Wage Board for journalists and non-journalists with effect from January this year under an agreement with its trade unions. The group, which has about 450 employees on its rolls, thus became the first newspaper to implement the award. ..
Bhupenda's funeral: non stop coverage
BY TERESA REHMAN| IN MEDIA PRACTICE |10/11/2011
A channel announced,"There will be two classes of people in this world. Those who attended Bhupen Hazarika's funeral and those who did not." And NETV chose to intrude on his estranged wife's privacy,
Assamese newspapers losing out to local news channels?
BY Nava Thakuria| IN REGIONAL MEDIA |08/10/2011
Two recent IRS quarterly surveys have shown that readership of newspapers is declining in Assam.
BY TERESA REHMAN| IN MEDIA PRACTICE |20/08/2011
Assamese channel News Live aired an emotional reunion between a mother and her son and daughter after 40 long years. And the story, they claimed, had created television history as it involved three countries
Family owned channel captures minister’s post-election dynamism
BY TERESA REHMAN| IN REGIONAL MEDIA |03/06/2011
Newly appointed ministers of the Assam government are taking lazy and corrupt official to task, with TV cameras in tow. One of them surprised a languid education department, while another stopped unfit buses on the road.
Assam channels re-enact poll wars
IN MEDIA PRACTICE |17/05/2011
The Assam election process has been completed and the Congress has been returned to power with a thumping majority.
TV transforms Assam's election experience
BY TERESA REHMAN| IN MEDIA PRACTICE |18/03/2011
Today, television has brought elections closer home. And common people are giving vent to their pent-up feelings and frustrations on the various shows on television.
IN MEDIA PRACTICE |04/01/2011
As freed ULFA chairman Arabind Rajkhowa returned home to a rousing reception and intense coverage by the media, veteran journalists recalled a time when such reportage would have been frowned upon.
BY TERESA REHMAN| IN MEDIA PRACTICE |13/10/2010
The triumphant husband accused his wife of adultery in full media glare, an amazing instance of intrusion of privacy and character assassination by TV channels.
BY Uddipana Goswami| IN CENSORSHIP |10/08/2010
Frantic posts for and against well-known social activist Akhil Gogoi on a facebook fan page forced a ‘shut down’ of the page on August 4, days before a crucial offline protest was to be held,
BY TERESA REHMAN| IN MEDIA PRACTICE |27/05/2010
Lending controversy to the exotic heritage aspect of Majuli which has nurtured the Vaishnavite culture for centuries, a travel editor insinuated "in the absence of women, are these monasteries a breeding ground for child abuse and homosexuality?"
Assam: journalists living on the edge
IN REGIONAL MEDIA |23/05/2010
Despite a phenomenal growth in the media, journalists here have to put up with poor wages and working conditions, and the hazards of working in an insurgency troubled state.
Journalists’ unions unite in Assam
BY TERESA REHMAN| IN MEDIA PRACTICE |27/03/2010
Journalists' organizations in the state recently came together to rally for their joint concerns.
ULFA leader writes, readers respond
BY A correspondent| IN MEDIA PRACTICE |05/01/2010
it is intriguing that readers have reacted to a top-rung militant leader’s write-up and were bold enough to express their views without any fear. Excerpts from letters Assamese readers wrote in response to Paresh Barua’s series in Amar Asom.
Militant handover morphs into saas bahu soap opera
BY A correspondent| IN MEDIA PRACTICE |29/12/2009
Critics believe this dramatization by the three television channels only glorifies the ULFA by negating the misdeeds of and killings by the outfit in the past 30 years of their ?armed struggle for sovereignty?.
BY A correspondent| IN MEDIA PRACTICE |24/12/2009
Paresh Baruah uses a page one anchor series in Amar Asom to try and rouse the Assamese masses to build a greater Assamese society, and help Bangladeshis assimilate.
The pen is mightier than the gun
BY A correspondent| IN REGIONAL MEDIA |11/11/2009
MILITANT TO JOURNALIST Part III. Earlier, it was only a public relation exercise that I was doing for the ULFA. It gives me a sense of power now as I can even criticize the ULFA if I think it fit.
Assam TV channels live off conflict
BY Monideepa Choudhury| IN MEDIA PRACTICE |21/10/2009
The political ownership is reflected in the coverage since allegiance to a political party colors objectivity and reality,
BY A correspondent| IN MEDIA PRACTICE |14/10/2009
FROM MILITANCY TO JOURNALISM, PART I. I have always felt more empowered with a pen than a gun, says Sunil Nath, former publicity secretary of the ULFA, and now a writer at large.
Media cautiously optimistic about Black Widow surrender
BY Monideepa Choudhury | IN MEDIA PRACTICE |08/10/2009
Surrenders by militant groups are par for the course in Assam, which is why the surrender of 340 DHD(J) militants on October 2 merited single column stories in most papers, with not even an editorial comment in the Dainik Agradoot,
Reporting Assam's ethnic cauldron
BY sevanti ninan| IN MEDIA PRACTICE |01/10/2009
Mainstream Amnesia, Part II. Assam burned in the two months under review but with the exception of the Indian Express and the Hindu there was no analytical reporting.
Press clubs in a conflict zone
BY A correspondent| IN REGIONAL MEDIA |19/07/2009
"It is ironical that we journalists speak up for everyone but there is nobody to fight for us." District press clubs in remote areas of Assam provide support to journalists caught between state and non state actors,
Assam editor’s death takes toll to 22
BY Samudra Gupta Kasyap| IN MEDIA PRACTICE |26/03/2009
Mazumdar (40) was gunned down in front of his Rajgarh Road residence as he was returning from office at Ulubari around 10.30 pm.
BY s r ramanujan| IN MEDIA PRACTICE |01/11/2008
It was quite evident that the news managers of these channels perhaps thought the ghastly blasts in Assam were happening in a neighbouring country.
Sensational story, dubious ethics
BY Hoot Desk with Nava Thakuria| IN MEDIA PRACTICE |09/09/2008
Bangladesh’s leading English daily was linked with ULFA by two publications, neither of which sought a response from the people and publications named in the story.
Assam journalists discuss corruption in media
BY Nava Thakuria| IN MEDIA PRACTICE |28/06/2008
Speakers in the meeting were unanimous in asserting that Mukul could never be the only or the last tainted reporter, working in Assam for various media
Nellie revisited—in more ways than one
BY NavaThakuria| IN MEDIA PRACTICE |04/03/2008
Except for the first few paragraphs the write up on NDTV is a rehash of an earlier article written for Tehelka.
Saving the rhino or saving the minister?
BY Nava Thakuria| IN MEDIA PRACTICE |11/02/2008
The IANS reporter in Guwahati was silent on the demand for a CBI enquiry by the NGO.
BY Pallavi Barua| IN MEDIA PRACTICE |26/12/2007
Letter to the Hoot: Is it civilized on the part of the Media to resort to such means to ‘sell’ the dead?
Guwahati violence and the media
BY Nava Thakuria| IN MEDIA PRACTICE |02/12/2007
A section of media projected the incident simply as an unprovoked attack on the Adivasi demonstrators by the residents of Guwahati.
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |09/04/2007
Protesting police high-handedness, journalists in Assam Sunday evening boycotted Prime Minister Manmohan Singhøs function to launch a mega project. Scribes trying to enter the venue of the function here came under a barrage of verbal assault from
BY nagamallika| IN OPINION |15/02/2007
One positive story on each day of the National games could have gone a long way in promoting that much needed assurance that Assam is part of India
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |12/02/2007
The National Games being held in Assam saw the publicity committee of the Games withdraw accreditation to a TV channel which had reported that ULFA took money from the Assam government to remain silent during the Games. The Supreme Court stepped..
Journalists defy militants’ diktat in Assam
BY Nava Thakuria| IN REGIONAL MEDIA |29/01/2007
Despite boycott calls by insurgent groups and their invective against mediapersons, Republic Day is celebrated…
No media zone¿ on Burma border
BY nava t| IN MEDIA PRACTICE |18/07/2006
The 24 Assam Rifles prevented local reporters assigned to cover counter insurgency operation in the state from entering
Asom media hits back at militantøs diktat
BY nava| IN REGIONAL MEDIA |20/06/2006
The meeting of journalists condemned the audacity of the outlawed outfit in issuing threats to media persons
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |12/06/2006
The Journalists Union of Assam (JUA) has strongly condemned the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) for its latest threats to four Guwahati based journalists. In a recent e-mail message to the scribes, the armed outfit, had threatened four journal
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |14/05/2006
The victory of the Congress in Assam proved wrong the stateøs press which, barring a few, had predicted a landslide victory for the AGP, saying the alleged corruption and lack of development would lead to a Congress debacle. A popular TV channel in..
BY khelkoodkar| IN OPINION |11/04/2006
What happened in Guwahati this Sunday gave some much-needed ammo to our sports writers.
Assam’s newspapers root for Debojit
IN REGIONAL MEDIA |02/02/2006
Assam’s newspapers root for Debojit
Martyr in the cause of environment
BY nava t| IN REGIONAL MEDIA |16/01/2006
His reports exposed the illegal activities of some forest officials who were hand-in-glove with the timber mafia.
IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |11/01/2006
Prahlad Goala, an active journalist writing on environmental issues of Assam and a local correspondent of Asomiya Khabar, was murdered on the night of January 6 at Thuramukh near Nambar reserve forest. Forest ranger KZ Zaman Jinnah had threatened to
Assam’s media ignores a new Sena
IN REGIONAL MEDIA |26/12/2005
Till date no major newspaper of Assam had either published editorials on Asom Sena or analytical pieces on the development.
Did IPS put out a plagiarised feature?
IN MEDIA PRACTICE |16/09/2005
"The writer has quoted me, but he has never taken the trouble of speaking to me or the other people quoted in the story above."
Defying the militant diktat on Independence Day
BY Nava Thakuria| IN MEDIA PRACTICE |19/08/2005
After 1998, this is the first time journalists that celebrated Independence Day in the Guwahati Press Club complex.
IN REGIONAL MEDIA |29/07/2005
In a rare consensus, the media backs the Supreme Court judgment on the controversial IMDT Act.
A media minority – women journalists in Assam
BY Nava Thakuria| IN MEDIA PRACTICE |26/06/2005
Even as the print media flourishes in Assam, women journalists find themselves on the margins of their profession
‘Bhagya’ will enrich scribes in Assam
IN REGIONAL MEDIA |10/09/2004
Assam media changes its attitude to Ulfa
IN REGIONAL MEDIA |03/09/2004
After the Independence Day blasts which killed civilians, the press in Assam turns against the Ulfa.
Booming media, exploited journalists in Assam
IN REGIONAL MEDIA |02/08/2004
Newspaper editions are multiplying across the state but more than 60 per cent newspaper employees in Assam are deprived of basic minimum facilities.
BY ninan| IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |02/07/2004
400 working journalists in Gauhati have signed a memorandum to the governor of Assam requesting allotment of a plot of land for a permanent multistoried building for the Guwahati Press Club. The governor apparently said that as the Press Club is a pi
