IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-06-04
TV anchors conduct communally provocative debates, and our self-regulating TV industry does nothing about it. On June 1 this News 24 news show conducted a debate titled 'Has the Muslim vote bank reappeared in India's politics?' When one of the panelists gave a measured reply the anchor would say 'you are mincing..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-06-04
The Tribune reports that the Delhi Minorities Commission has served a notice to Sudarshan TV for a report it aired allegedly referring to some local people of the Bawana area of North Delhi, as “Rohingyas” and “Bangladeshis”. The channel has been asked to reply by June 12 with proof to..
IN Books | 2018-06-02
Ravish Kumar’s chronicling of fear and hate in the times of The Great Leader and his IT Cell.
Mint's Kochar exclusive denied
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-06-01
This Mint exclusive on June 1 about Chanda Kochar being asked to go on indefinite leave until the probe on her announced by the bank is over, has been denied by the ICICI board. The Mint report said the decision was taken on advice of a majority of the 7 independent directors..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-05-30
The I and B ministry under the new minister may have dropped the idea of regulating online media but will now monitor it. Bloomberg reports that the ministry has posted a tender online calling for a company to provide analytical software and professionals to "power a real time New Media..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-05-28
For what its worth, here's what we have on Pushp Sharma, who did the Cobrapost sting, in our archives. Just to provide more inputs on the narrative developing around him on WhatsApp. Halfway down this article is what we have on the circumstances surrounding the March 2016 arrest. And this brief tells you..
IN Digital Media | 2018-05-28
Social media in Kerala has been spreading falsehoods and panic over the Nipah virus
Amateurish sting traps gullible media managements
IN Media Business | 2018-05-26
That so many fell for this sting says a lot for the amorality that may have begun to pervade the media business.
How the Spy Chronicles took shape
IN Books | 2018-05-24
Reflections on working with Dulat and Durrani and what it took to make their experiences readable and gripping
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-05-23
Paid news falls within the citizen's right to free speech and the Election Commission has no business trying to stop it, according to the Delhi High Court. ET reports that while the EC thinks paid news is a major challenge to conducting free and fair elections, and 15 cases of paid news..
IN Opportunities | 2018-05-23
Deccan Chronicle is looking for journalists in three states.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-05-22
Journalists covering the ongoing protest of residents of the coastal town of Thoothukudi in Tamil Nadu were at the receiving end of police violence and found their cameras and cellphones snatched. The residents were demanding immediate closure of Vedanta Sterlite's copper operations and the agitation turned bloody, leaving 9 persons..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-05-21
According to this report 34 people who were employed by ABP Ltd through contractors for different departments, and were fired, have been protesting outside the ABP premises for almost a month now but there has been no media coverage. Their troubles began when they formed a union in response to not..
Fake news and religious hatred on WhatsApp in Karnataka elections
IN Digital Media | 2018-05-19
Real news about fake news: fake audio on WhatsApp in India, and a fake pre-election poll purportedly sponsored by the BBC, showing a big victory for the BJP.
Fake news rides on election outcome
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-05-18
Fake news propagators are active in Karnataka following the hung assembly results. Boomlive reports that posts like this one on Twitter are fake news, using a video dating back to attacks on churches in Karnataka in 2008, to claim that BJP cadres in Mangalore had just attacked a church to "to install bhagwa and..
Tom Wolfe elevated journalism into enduring literature
IN Opinion | 2018-05-18
He was one of the New Journalists, who wrote nonfiction using the techniques of fiction.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-05-17
Editorial writers on Thursday morning either did some plain speaking on what they thought of the Karnataka governor's decision to swear in a BJP government--ET, TOI, and Business Standard--or looked for other subjects to write on--HT, The Hindu and Mint. The Indian Express chose to ignore the messy ground reality and focus loftily on..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-05-15
When the morning's leads dissipated to a final number short of the halfway mark in the Karnataka Assembly, you got the sense that Times Now anchors Rahul Shivshankar and Navika Kumar were feeling even more let down than the BJP itself. Shivshankar could not stop fuming and spluttering at a..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-05-15
Rajyavardhan Rathore, the new I and B minister decided to thank the prime minister for his elevation by suddenly appearing on TV to deliver a monologue on how the BJP's strong performance in Karnataka was a vindication of the prime minister's approach to ruling the country, aiming to uplift the..
Now C'garh police use sedition against journalist
IN Media Freedom | 2018-05-15
Journalist Kamal Shukla waits for a court verdict about the sedition charge against him over posting a cartoon on Facebook
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-05-15
NDTV was trailing early on in getting the accurate trend in Karnataka, compared to CNN News18 which lead all the channels in coming closest to the eventual result. It announced early on that it had is own reporters in every counting centre in Karnataka, and was showing the yawning gap..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-05-14
Smriti Irani's ten months in the I and B Ministry were tempestuous to put it mildly. She transferred at least 120 officers of the Information Service cadre, some of them against posts which did not exist. She restructured the publicity units of the ministry, and then took to making pronouncements..
Speaking up for frustrations of ordinary people
IN Opinion | 2018-05-14
Ravish Kumar chooses issues that affect large numbers of ordinary people in small towns. And the authorities are taking note.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-05-13
Rajya Sabha TV is on a recruitment spree, and has advertised 28 media positions, the salaries ranging from Rs 30,000 to Rs 2 lakh. This includes editors, production staff and programme consultants. The channel has been administered by Prasar Bharati ever since the Vice President changed last year. ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-05-13
Asian Age reports that the latest development in the I and B Ministry's determination to tackle online offenders head on concerns dodgy content put out in the digital domain by film makers like Ram Gopal Varma and Ekta Kapoor. The intent, according to this 'source' based story, is to monitor such content..
Kabul attack suggests ISIS is now targeting journalists
IN Media Freedom | 2018-05-11
Foreign journalists have been abandoning countries that have become too dangerous, and local journalists who replace them are now in the line of fire.
Now you can see those wicked ads
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-05-11
Recode.net reports that the US Congress has just published all the political Facebook ads purchased by Russian groups accused of wanting to sow discord before and after the 2016 U.S. election.These are the ads that were purchased by the Internet Research Agency, a Kremlin-backed online troll farm, both before and after the..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-05-09
Does the media need to revive its interest in the Gorakhpur BRD medical College story so that more of the arrested doctors can get bail? Or does social media need to champion their cause too? While a media campaign for Dr Kafeel Khan resulted in bail for him on April 25, three..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-05-08
The Bennet Coleman and Co Ltd, which publishes the Times of India and other publications ,was defrauded of Rs 15 crore from 2013-17 and an FIR has been lodged in Mumbai's Azad Maidan police station. According to a news report, an editorial coordinator created fake bank accounts and vouchers in the..
J Dey murder case verdict: conspiracies that did Jigna Vora in
IN Media Practice | 2018-05-08
The feisty reporter lost seven years of her life to pain and humiliation on account of fellow journalists who bought the theories the police planted,
BusinessWorld teeters as wages go unpaid
IN Media Business | 2018-05-08
With a salary backlog of four months, the mood among BW journalists is grim, even as they hang on in hope of collecting past dues.
RSS workers arrested for attack on photojournalist
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-05-05
The Week reports that two RSS workers were arrested by Kerala police on Friday for attacking a photojournalist inside the Malappuram Press Club. The police had earlier registered a case against 10 RSS activists over the attack. Fouad, a photographer with the Malayalam daily Chandrika, was attacked when he took photographs of a few..
How North Korean media outlets covered the summit
IN Media Practice | 2018-05-05
Are North Korean media outlets signaling that the regime is getting serious about diplomacy? They showed the two leaders interacting on an equal footing,
Press Council sends notice on sedition case
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-05-04
The Press Council of India (PCI) has sought a report from the Chhattisgarh government on the filing of a sedition case against Kamal Shukla, the editor of 'Bhumkal Samachar' published from Kanker district. The case was filed against him for sharing on a social media site a cartoon that allegedly carried a..
Reporting the Jigna Vora arrest
IN Media Practice | 2018-05-03
From the Hoot archives: Incredibly, news reports quote crime branch police sources (unidentified, of course) who state that the case against Vora became stronger when the gangster himself called up several journalists and businessmen.
J Dey murder - Jigna Vora acquitted
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-05-02
A special MCOCA court in Mumbai sentenced gangster Chhota Rajan and eight others to life imprisonment for the murder of journalist J Dey in June 2011. The court acquitted journalist Jigna Vora, accused of providing information about Dey to the gangster and Paulson Joseph, who had been a SIM card provider.Vora was arrested in..
Sports broadcasters irked at latest ministry fiat
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-05-02
On April 25 the ministry of information and broadcasting made it mandatory for private sector sports channels to display a ticker during the live broadcast of “national interest” events that the game can also be viewed on Doordarshan. These broadcasters who are already made to share the feed of such events with..
Journalists remain in the cross hairs
IN Special Reports | 2018-05-02
Free Speech in 2018: Murder, violence, threats, gags, and policy clampdowns – that’s how the year started.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-04-30
Al Jazeera reports that at least nine journalists have been killed in twin suicide blasts in Kabul today which claimed 29 lives. Their reporter said the armed group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) claimed responsibility for the attack. The Afghan Journalists Safety Committee..
SAWM writes to Mamata Banerjee
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-04-29
As World Press Freedom day approaches 39 women journalists from across the country who are members of SAWM (South Asian Women in Media) have written to West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee drawing attention to the attacks on journalists in the state, including the attacks, threats and confinement that women journalists were..
Not news without a communal angle?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-04-28
Do journalists not jump on something unless they sniff a communal angle? Three doctors from the BRD Medical Hospital were made scapegoats and arrested in the Gorakhpur crisis where 30 children died. Dr Kafeel Khan, hailed by the media as the ``hero'' who had arranged oxygen cylinders, was charged with attempt to..
The Chinese model of news control spreads across Asia
IN Media Freedom | 2018-04-26
The RSF Index 2018 shows China-type media control seeping into Vietnam and Cambodia, as also Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore.
Twitter updates privacy policy
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-04-25
Amidst the global furore over the privacy policies of tech companies and the data they share with third-parties, Twitter has announced its updated privacy policy to comply with the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation, to come into effect on May 25, 2018.Users, Twitter says, will be better able to control..
IN Regional Media | 2018-04-25
Kerala youths were drawn into violent protests over the Kathua case by anonymous WhatsApp calls made by shadowy forces with ulterior motives
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-04-23
In the explosion of fake news, where one report is worse than the other, social media users were taken aback to see a post with the Republic TV logo quoting journalist Rana Ayyub to the effect that the government ordinance to hang rapists of minors was directed at Muslims! Ayyub..
How Facebook could reinvent itself - three ideas
IN Digital Media | 2018-04-21
It could take responsibility for the content it publishes and start competing to provide the most accurate news instead of the most click-worthy.
A genial giant of a journalist
IN Opinion | 2018-04-20
Nihal Singh did everything journalists dream of doing. It was a good life as reporter, editor, author, rubbing shoulders with the famous, and travelling the world.
Kathua case lawyer sends legal notice to Zee News
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-04-20
Even as Zee News has been running programmes questioning the chargesheet filed in the Kathua rape case, Deepika Singh, lawyer for the Kathua victim’s family, has sent a legal notice To Zee Hindi News for a programme run by Zee Hindi News on April 17 in which Sudhir Chaudhury had alleged that Deepika Singh..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-04-18
Lakshmi Subramanian of The Week who had to suffer the misogyny of a cheek-pat from the Tamil Nadu Governor Banwarilal Purohit dismissed the Governor's defence of his action saying that she was like his granddaughter. In an interview to Sam Daniel of NDTV she explained her views clearly : "The Governor is..
“Stop killing journalists in the Commonwealth”
IN Media Freedom | 2018-04-18
With 57 dead over five years, the heads of state arriving for CHOGM will be given a code of conduct to force them to pay attention
TN Governor: Patronising and insulting
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-04-18
Journalists are up in arms against Tamil Nadu Governor Banwarilal Purohit who, in a patronising gesture, patted the cheek of a senior woman correspondent instead of answering some tough questions. The incident occured at a press conference that the Governor called to answer allegations of his involvement in the Nirmala Devi sexual..
A gentleman editor, elegant writer, a liberal to the core
IN Opinion | 2018-04-18
He edited many newspapers in his career and was widely read as a foreign correspondent from many capitals.
Petrol bomb attack on editor's home
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-04-18
Masked men on a motorcycle threw a petrol bomb at Shillong Times editor Patricia Mukhim's home on Tuesday night at 8.35 pm. She escaped unhurt, but posted on her Facebook page," I am shocked. Those who did this ugly deed need to be arrested.. I heard the explosion and saw the..
Nihal Singh: a journalism stalwart passes on
IN Opinion | 2018-04-17
Reporter, foreign correspondent, editor--his writing was trenchant till the end. The media space is poorer today because a principled man of words is gone.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-04-17
Cartoonist Swathi Vadlamudi received deaths threats on Facebook after her cartoon, posted on her Facebook and Twitter accounts, depicting Ram and Sita in the wake of violence against women, went viral. A complaint by the Hindu Sanghatan, an ultra-Hindu right group, was lodged under Sec 295 of the Indian Penal Code in Saidabad police station in..
Reporting rape: Court notices for naming Kathua victim?
IN Media Practice | 2018-04-17
The Delhi High Court levies a Rs 10 lakh fine on media houses which named the victim, but the offenders were many more than those issued notices by the court. How the Indian media reports such cases merits constant scrutiny,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-04-16
The Print reports that I and B minister Smriti Irani used a new programme series on All India Radio to launch an attack on the Opposition for the washed out session of Parliament. With the 2019 polls in view, this programme called ‘Jan Seva Samvad’ which will be broadcast over the entire AIR network,..
IN Media Practice | 2018-04-14
TV9 Telugu does not need to be taught lessons on women’s rights, ethics or the right to privacy. We know what we are doing.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-04-13
The Supreme Court decided on April 12 to send the Wire's writ seeking quashing of the criminal defamation case initiated against it by Jay Shah, son of BJP president Amit Shah, to another bench of the Supreme Court, as the same judges were also involved in the ongoing Aadhaar matter...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-04-13
Actor Sri Reddy’s stripping protest on April 6 against the sexual exploitation of aspiring actresses in the Telugu film industry has led to the institution of a Committee Against Sexual Harassment (CASH) in the industry, announced on April 12. As also a sexual harassment redressal panel with participation from the..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-04-11
A Supreme Court ruling and the debut of a film on Netflix together signify a push back for censorship by society and the state. On April 10 the SC criticised the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee for imposing restrictions on the film "Nanak Shah Fakir" and cleared its release on April..
Is Facebook's business model going against human rights?
IN Digital Media | 2018-04-11
Social media was initially a boon for human rights, but human rights abuses might be embedded in the business model that has evolved for social media giants in their second decade.
Swarajya's slander in Nagaland
IN Media Practice | 2018-04-09
An amazing article accusing former CM T.R. Zeliang and the Baptist Church of Nagaland of funding terror drew a threat of legal action and a denial of Swarajya's claims from the Army.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-04-09
According to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) news channels are free of the 'menace of paid news' . In a reply to the Lok Sabha, junior minister of MIB Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore informed that no specific instance of paid news in electronic media (private satellite TV channels) has..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-04-07
A news event ends up becoming a news peg for all kinds of stories. So whereas at one end of the spectrum an Indian Express report looked at the status of the blackbuck after it was put on the endangered list on par with the tiger, TV channels went to town with..
Online regulation: another hasty move?
IN Law and Policy | 2018-04-06
PM Modi and Smriti Irani need to tread wisely if their legacy is not to be a hasty one which does more damage than good. The media policy legacy of an earlier BJP government was a positive one.
How Gandhi led Niranjan Takle to the Judge Loya story
IN Media Practice | 2018-04-06
At a commemorative meeting in Mumbai the journalist who did the story for Caravan talks about how Loya’s family decided that he should be the one to tell their story.
Now Goa journos protest guidelines
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-04-05
Its the season of curbs on accredited journalists! Scribes in Goa are battling other guidelines restricting their coverage of Assembly sessions. A statement from the Goa Union of Journalists says the new set of “Guidelines for accreditation of media organization and their representatives” will block access for a majority of..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-04-05
Urdumediamonitor.com points out that the only thing that is being reported by the media is the appeal to his followers by Maulana Imdadullah Rashidi of Noorani Masjid, Asansol to maintain peace and not to retaliate following the brutal killing of his son . But the media did not care to report the rest of his..
Character assasination by Telugu media and its fallout
IN Media Practice | 2018-04-03
In pursuit of scandal, a Telangana channel invades the privacy of upright police officers who are then removed from crucial cases. Did the channel also serve a political agenda in the process,
PMO orders withdrawal of fake news circular
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-04-03
What the I and B ministry proposes the PMO disposes. After the ministry decided in its wisdom to amend the guidelines for accreditation to penalise those journalists who peddle fake news, there was an uproar and press bodies got busy drafting statements. The PMO moved to quickly withdraw the circular and said that the..
Chandrasekhar quits Republic board
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-04-02
Rajeev Chandrasekhar has resigned as a Board of Director from ARG Outlier Asainet News Private Limited in-order to ensure the neutrality of Republic TV as an apolitical media entity. His resignation was effective from 31st March 2018 and the decision was taken after his recent alignment with BJP and being elected for Rajyasabha under..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-04-01
The Congress is delighted with this Facebook post by a journalist who is described as a ‘RSS sympathiser’. Shashi Tharoor tweeted it as a ‘fascinating take.’ It says that Rahul Gandhi met for 90 minutes with a group of ‘political enthusiasts/social media influencers’, was punctual, polite, listened to all present,..
DB Corp: Steaming ahead or floundering?
IN Media Business | 2018-04-01
DB Corp has had some misses but has been chugging along comfortably overall. However latest figures suggest improving profitability will get harder.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-03-30
Karnataka BJP MP Prahlad Joshi mis-translated BJP President Amit Shah's pre-election rally speech to say: 'Prime Minister Modi has done nothing for the poor and dalits, he will destroy the nation' when Shah actually said, in Hindi, that Cong Chief Minister Siddharamaiah had done nothing for Karnataka! Times Now has a clip on..
Postcard news founder arrested
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-03-29
Karnataka police arrested Mahesh Vikram Hegde, founder of the right-wing site Postcard News, often called out for carrying fake news, for its news report that a Jain muni was attacked by a Muslim youth. According to reports, the monk was knocked down by a car, but the fake news site manufactured..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-03-29
Neutrality should be a report's hallmark, but headlines often betray bias. As did this one on pg 1 of Mumbai Mirror. "MLA's red flag saves state blushes on Kashmir" it said. The text was on a BJP MLA's report to the Assembly that an "anti-national" talk on 'Military occupation of Kashmir: Sexual violence on..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-03-28
This is hilarious, even by Doordarshan's goofy standards. The Hindu reports that DD used the Australian government's MyGov website logo instead of the Indian one when it broadcast PM Modi's Mann ki Baat programme on Sunday. The paper quotes an official saying, “It was hardly there for 45 seconds, no..
Why everyone likes a dead journalist in Kashmir
IN Regional Media | 2018-03-27
Maqbool Sahil is dead. For 20 years, he struggled to make ends meet. No one bothered. At his death, everyone woke up.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-03-26
Cobrapost's Operation 136 has its reporter Pushp Sharma entrapping, as it were, a bunch of media houses with a paid news proposal from a fictitious Hindutva outfit. The list cover's Rajat Sharma's India TV, Amar Ujala, Univarta, Punjab Kesari, DNA, Dainik Jagran and several other including ScoopWhoop. The number 136 refers to India's place..
Journalists run down in 2 incidents
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-03-26
In two separate incidents in Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, over the last 24 hours, three journalists were run down by speeding vehicles. Police said that Sandeep Sharma, a television reporter who had done a sting operation on a sand mining mafia in Bhind, was mowed down by a truck on March..
Broadcasting self-regulation: An unattainable goal?
IN Law and Policy | 2018-03-25
When channels transgress and viewers complain, how are the complaints handled by the NBSA? It’s a mixed bag…
Reporting Communal Issues – Part II
IN Media Practice | 2018-03-25
Hadiya’s conversion and marriage suffered the biased, hate-filled, anti-Muslim treatment that is now routine for some TV channels.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-03-24
A Hindu report datelined Karimnagar in Andhra Pradesh says a case has been registered with Huzurabad police on March 17 against five persons for "manipulation, tampering, cheating, and breach of trust for forcing the television viewers to watch particular channel serials by bribing them in order to increase TRP ratings of particular..
IN Digital Media | 2018-03-22
The Cambridge Analytica controversy should make us all think more critically about Facebook and what it does
So Smriti Irani wants to regulate online news?
IN Law and Policy | 2018-03-22
First, though, she needs to curb trolling and the spread of poison on social media, including by BJP supporters.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-03-21
Of all the resignations announced on Twitter, this one was the most curious: Nitin Sethi, deputy editor of the website Scroll.in, announcing his resignation today, added a link to the last story he filed on the Adani Mundra port, setting off intense speculation in media circles that the Adanis were behind his exit...
How Zee and ABP News sowed communal poison
IN Media Practice | 2018-03-20
Their coverage of Ankit Saxena’s murder was a master class in hate-mongering. Reporting Communal Issues - Part I
Russian media’s united anti-Western front
IN Media Practice | 2018-03-19
The reaction to the Salisbury attack in the Russian government-controlled media has been full of mockery and contempt. Russians are starved of alternative viewpoints,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-03-19
Times Now's daily harangue against the Congress Party got fresh grist with Karnataka's Congress government declaring Lingayats as a separate religion. Anchor Rahul Shivshankar took personal credit for his channel not having been taken in by Rahul Gandhi's speech at the Congress plenary on Saturday claiming that the Congress would..
Regulating online news content
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-03-18
Online media has not been subjected to licensing and regulation so far but I & B minister Smriti Irani suggested at CNN News 18's Rising India Summit on March 16-17 that this may be changing. When it comes to content on TV, radio or newspapers there is a code of..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-03-18
Prior to Narendra Modi's address at CNN TV 18's Rising India summit on Friday, the Group's Editor-in-Chief Rahul Joshi made such a flattering introductory speech about the PM that even Mr Modi looked a trifle embarrassed. He narrated how much the PM had achieved while leading from the front, and said the..
Cocking a snook at the NBSA-self regulation is not working
IN Law and Policy | 2018-03-18
One month after Zee News was ordered to apologise on air, pay a fine and remove a programme, nothing has happened. Channels continue flout norms, violate ethics and give partisan or fake news,
Naga media, the elections and ‘solutions’
IN Regional Media | 2018-03-18
Naga newspapers’ unwillingness to engage with the real issues plaguing the state was on display in the recent elections.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-03-16
The hilarious 'ABVP, why so creepy' song, needs to be edited to include AIDMK, it appears. The party’s Health Minister C Vijayabaskar upped the creepy quotient when he persisted in responding to a woman journalist's questions about a late night meeting of party MLAs with compliments on her spectacles and..
Keeping politics and journalism apart
IN Opinion | 2018-03-16
Do nominations to the Rajya Sabha compromise journalism? If you are an editor yes, If you are a media owner perhaps, but not if you are a talking head on TV.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-03-15
Anyone who is 45 minutes late for a press conference should apologise. But BJP's man in Tripura Sunil Deodhar offered neither apology nor explanation when he turned up at 3.45 pm for a 3 pm meet at the Mumbai Press Club. Deodhar is from Mumbai, and should have known how..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-03-14
India Today channel was reporting and running a ticker saying : "media blocked from Gorakhpur counting centre".The reporter pointed out that at 11.45 am five rounds have been counted but only one round has been declared, while other centres like Phulpur were declaring five rounds. Then it became clear that the Samajwadi..
Role of advertising in the Nagaland polls
IN Special Reports | 2018-03-13
With party ads playing a big role, the issue for the media is how to ensure a level playing field so that money does not decide the election outcome. But civil society placed ads too.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-03-13
Guess which media group escaped being a victim of the Modi-Choksi fraud? The Bhaskar Group had a private treaty agreement with Gitanjali Gems which it ended in FY 2016-17. As of March 2015, DB Corp owned 60,54,960 shares of Gitanjali Gems valued at Rs 24.95 crore, with each share valued at..
When a 'non-story' becomes a story!
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-03-12
The online news site The Wire is having a good laugh at the work that the pro-BJP site OpIndia is doing for it. OpIndia wrote that The Wire was working on a story about the contract entered into by the law firm of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's daughter with Geetanjali Gems, aborted after media..
Trending on twitter but silence elsewhere
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-03-11
A farmers' long march with the #KisanLongMarch has been trending on top spot on Twitter all afternoon. Thousands of farmers have marched more than 200 KMs to Mumbai to demand loan waivers and the transfer of forest land to tillers. The Mumbai traffic police have had to issue a traffic advisory too...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-03-11
One more journalist gets nominated to the Rajya Sabha by a political party. Senior journalist Kumar Ketkar, ex-editor of Loksatta, and a storehouse of political and historical knowledge about not just Maharashtra but the entire country, just became the Congress's nominee from Maharashtra. The veteran has always held progressive views,..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-03-11
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..
China’s media serves up stereotypes of Africa
IN Media Practice | 2018-03-11
The skit might not have been ill-intentioned. But it was both culturally and racially insensitive.
Reporting on “History Battles”
IN Media Practice | 2018-03-10
A Reuter’s report reveals the bias, clichés, and laziness that crop up on the subject of Hindus and India’s ‘first inhabitants’.
Issues of transparency in the Advertising business
IN Media Business | 2018-03-10
The dishonesty starts with the pitch. Even if they don’t actually fudge the numbers, often an agency in a pitch does a great deal of window dressing to what it presents.
Waging identity wars in the Nagaland press
IN Media Practice | 2018-03-08
Naga citizens, pastors and reverends included, took to the op-ed pages to shape the election discourse in the newspapers.
Regional TV market bigger than Hindi
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-03-08
The regional TV market in India is now larger than the Hindi TV market with a higher viewership share and a growing advertiser base. The media industry gathering at FICCI Frames was told on March 7 that 270 out of 500 channels measured by BARC India are regional. Regional viewership is now at around..
Another media gag in the offing?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-03-07
Retired Odisha High Court judge I.M. Qudussi, currently in the dock for the medical college bribery scam, has sought a ban on media coverage of the CBI case, specifically targeting The Wire, TOIIndiaNews and ABP TV. The case will come up on Mar 11, says Wire editor Siddharth Varadarajan , cautioning that the judge is..
Prasar Bharati Chairman clarifies
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-03-06
Prasar Bharati Chairman A Surya Prakash has said that the Hoot's assertion that the Chairman of Prasar Bharati, a Part-time Member of the Prasar Bharati Board a was made a full-time Member by a notification of the Government without amending the Act as such, is "incorrect, misleading and malafide." The letter..
Prasar Bharati’s autonomy: Is it only about Smriti Irani?
IN Media Practice | 2018-03-05
Journalists chasing a story seldom step back to look at the bigger picture. What price administrative autonomy when there is no political autonomy?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-03-05
Why are the questions asked by journalists muted in telecasts of Amit Shah's press conferences? Don't viewers need to hear them? One such gem that could be heard at his press meet after the NE results, where the BJP party president was beaming all the way, was: ``Kya ab BJP..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-03-03
CNN New18 had a telling map of the political contours of the NE when Narendra Modi became PM (all states with the Cong except two) and what it looks like now, no states with Congress except one that it just might hang on to. But what was the Congress tweeting..
Lecture on the role of the CJI
IN Opportunities | 2018-03-03
On March 9 Justice A P Shah will give a lecture titled "Chief Justice: First Among Equals"
The Congress’ hits and misses on Twitter
IN Digital Media | 2018-03-01
Analysing the tweets for a month revealed what works and what doesn’t, and that Rahul Gandhi does better than his party.
Mahaa News hits back at critics
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-03-01
In a programe titled "Mahaa News responsible for true journalism" the channel criticised widely for its reporter-in-a-bathtub coverage has hit back at arrogant urban critics who do not understand the need to explain the use of a bath tub and how Sridevi may have lost her life, to millions of her rural fans. It..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-03-01
On Feb 28 night at prime time on TV 18 there was a discussion on the media's role in covering Sridevi's death. Vir Sanghvi and Dhanya Rajendran said TV channels had sunk to new lows, but Bhupendra Chaubey justified the coverage saying that news television's present revenue model was responsible..
IN Regional Media | 2018-03-01
With reporters lying in bath tubs to report on Sridevi, is news TV dead? If so, can someone order an ‘autospy’ please?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-02-27
Sridevi's death by drowning triggered TV hysteria that was both bizarre and tasteless. This Boomlive.in story shows the number of channels that did what it calls 'bathtub journalism', with anchors holding forth in a bathroom with speculative props such as a glass of wine (ABP News). Telugu channel Mahaa News took the..
Sexual harassment in newsrooms still a challenge
IN Law and Policy | 2018-02-27
It’s still there. And it’s still very difficult for women to get effective remedies. Stronger mechanisms are needed.
IN Media Practice | 2018-02-26
She’s a solid, old school, investigative reporter, the kind they don’t make any more. Sarin’s award is well-deserved
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-02-25
Hotstar has put out what it calls its India Watch Report for 2018 which says the country has seen a five times growth in video consumption over the last year, with 96 per cent of all usage being focused on long form video. Penetration of video consumption in smaller cities with less..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-02-24
The National Herald has announced that Neelabh Mishra, Editor-in-Chief of National Herald and Navjeevan, died on February 24 after a long illness, in Chennai. He was formerly editor of the Hindi Outlook until 2015, and became editor of NH in 2016. He began his career from the Navbharat Times in Patna, and launched Eenadu..
The right to privacy vs the right to know
IN Privacy | 2018-02-24
The Supreme Court’s new ruling that poll candidates and their relatives must reveal the source of their income, infringes their fundamental right to privacy
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-02-23
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..
Gag order against Caravan vacated
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-02-22
The Delhi High Court has vacated the injunction order against Caravan Magazine in the 50 Crore defamation case filed by IIPM founder Arindam Chaudhuri. Chaudhari had filed the case after the magazine published an article titled "Sweet smell of success – How Arindam Chaudhuri made a fortune out of the aspirations and insecurities of..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-02-22
The crackdown on media coverage of the hospitalisation of Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar has gone to ridiculous lengths. While journalist Harish Volvoikar, who runs GoaJunction.com, was barred from entering the Goa Assembly for alleged inaccurate reporting, Mumbai's Leelavati Hospital, where Parrikar was admitted, issued a press statement denying all media speculation. ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-02-21
The Hindu's news report on BJP President Amit Shah campaigning in coastal Karnataka has inadvertently has caused much merriment. It gives graphic details of Mr Shah's strict adherence to the dictim that a fever must be fed...and how! That's not all. The Hindu changed its headline (original : Fever did..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-02-21
When does Zee TV plan to telecast the apology directed by the NBSA on the complaint labelling scientist and poet Gauhar Raza an 'anti-national' in its episode titled 'Afzal Premi Gang ka Mushaira'? Zee was to telecast it at 9 pm on Feb 16 and deposit Rs one lakh within a week..
Judges push back against gag orders
IN Judgements | 2018-02-20
After a spate of court orders gagging the media, two judges buck the trend in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh and Pachauri cases
Murders in crime reporter's family
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-02-18
In a horrific incident, the mother and daughter of Ravikant Kamble, a crime reporter with a newsportal Nagpur Today, were abducted on Saturday, February 17. Kamble put the news out on Facebook, appealing for information, but their bodies were found the next day. Police Commissioner Dr. Venkatesan told the portal..
Scholars on India’s media economy
IN Books | 2018-02-17
A new collection of essays provide a magisterial overview of the empirical and critical scholarship on the subject.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-02-17
This Nirav Modi profile in The Hindu on the "silent" diamond trader "who now faces a bleak future" reads like a fluff piece on a man who is at the centre of a massive scam. Based on what the writer says could be the last interview he gave (in November 2017) to the Indian..
NIA's guidelines for reporting
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-02-16
The National Investigation Agency (NIA), set up to deal with combating and investigating terror-related crimes in India, has taken it upon itself to define the work of journalists. In its chargesheet against Kashmiri photo-journalist Kamran Yusuf, in jail since September 5, 2017, the NIA said videos accessed of his work..
Journalists get Rs 30 lakh settlement
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-02-16
A Mumbai Press Club release says a dispute between a security agency which inflicted injuries on journalists in late 2016 and the three journalists who brought charges against them has been settled with the company Tops Security agreeing to pay Rs 30 lakh towards a journalists welfare fund. The dispute..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-02-14
Gulf news had a report screaming Fake News! about a video clip aired by Times Now and Zee TV which showed a man in Arab dress saying Jai Siya Ram, and claimed that it was the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi. Apparently the man was a UAE-based columnist at a Morari..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-02-13
NDTV.com has put out a letter written by Prannoy Roy to PM Modi arguing that BJP MP Subramanian Swamy’s accusations of US corporations doing money laundering and indulging in "sham transactions" with NDTV, are damaging India's chances of getting FDI, because they have shocked industry leaders around the world. The letter says..
How YouTube shapes modern culture
IN Books | 2018-02-12
The platform created celebrities out of virtual nobodies, millionaires out of paupers, and showed that it could shape political propaganda and give rise to movements.
Indira Jaising excoriates the Express
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-02-12
Senior advocate Indira Jaising's strong tweets on the Indian Express's "atrocious reporting" on the Supreme Court's Feb 9 hearings in the petition on the death of Judge Loya, may have forced the newspaper to 'update' its report. It dropped the reporter's byline and corrected the mix up over which judge was transferred, and the wrongly..
Robots, kittens and Netflix: Turkish curbs on the media
IN Media Freedom | 2018-02-10
But continuous censorship and regulation is becoming a potential catalyst for creative dissidence,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-02-10
Was he playing Devil's Advocate or is he really contemptuous of coalitions? Rajdeep Sardesai, anchoring the inaugural "election boardroom'' as Feb 9's 9pm broadcast on India Today TV was grandly called, kept referring to the Opposition as a "gaggle of parties''. He then went on to ask whether Sonia Gandhi..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-02-10
The News Broadcasting Standards Authority has rejected the appeal by Zee News on its order of September 2017 to pay Rs one 1 lakh as a fine for its report ‘Afzal Premi Gang ka Mushaira’ broadcast on March 9, 2015, targeting poet and activist Gauhar Raza and to tender an..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-02-10
There's a sharp dip in the number of television channels violating the programme and advertising codes since 2014, informed Minister for Information and Broadcasting Smriti Irani in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha. From 17 private television channels that violated the code in 2014 and 2015 and 16..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-02-08
Last year ABC Four Corners, an Australian news team, was threatened by the Crime Branch of Gujarat Police in October while it was at Gujarat’s Mundra port to investigate the Adani group. It was forced to leave Gujarat and India. Now comes this post from an Indian origin Australian journalist working..
Pune girl livens up Republic Day
IN Media Practice | 2018-02-07
The girl got the Keystone Cops treatment, going from suicide bomber to aspiring pharmacist in 11 riveting days.
The right to privacy will impact journalism
IN Law and Policy | 2018-02-06
Can privacy rights be enforced against the media? Will the government now unleash a data protection authority on journalistic establishments?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-02-05
Even as the pay scales laid down by the Majithia Wage Board have affected the viability of several media outlets, leading to increased lay-offs and more contract employment, the National Alliance of Journalists and the Delhi Union of Journalists have demanded the constitution of another wage board in a statement..
Trial begins for defamatory tweet
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-02-04
Rising Kashmir reports that the trial has begun in the criminal defamation case filed by its Editor-in-chief against social activist Madhu Kishwar. She appeared via video conferencing in the Tis Hazari Courts in Delhi as permitted last year by the Supreme Court. The case is being tried in a local court in..
Press freedom in China: A decade of decline
IN Media Freedom | 2018-02-04
Detention and imprisonment is a means to silence those working in the unregulated media sector.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-02-03
The ever-smiling Shireen Bhan, Managing editor of CNBCTV18, was such a tireless presence at channel's own budget event, presented on the channel, that the sponsor announced awards during the show, and named Bhan Man of the Match. Man? ..
Media underplays the pruned outlays
IN Media Practice | 2018-02-03
It was left to the politicians, not journalists to look closer at the actual numbers. And even when they did the Modicare math, they did not play it up.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-02-01
NDTV lined up more guests for its night time discussion on the Budget than it could accommodate, so as others waited patiently you had the spectacle of Prannoy Roy and Vikram Chandra hustling West Bengal finance minister Amit Mitra to finish even as he was rolling out devastating statistics on..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-02-01
The much-touted part-presentation of the Budget this year in Hindi turned out to be a rather token component. Almost all of the substance of the the FM's Budget speech was in English. DD News chose not to have a Hindi translation, though ABP News, Zee News, Aaj Tak, News 24..
The Post reminds us what true news should look like
IN Media Practice | 2018-01-31
In a space of three years Hollywood has produced two masterpieces which bring home the indispensability of a free press.
Telangana govt in Rajasthan footsteps?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-01-30
After the Rajasthan government tried its infamous ordinance to restrain media coverage of cases of corruption of public officials, the Telangana government has gone a step further: it has decided that local police can file FIRs under Secs 506 and 507 of the Indian Penal Code (dealing with punishment for..
Social media raps media persons
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-01-30
A senior journalist, Abhisar Sharma took to Facebook live to call out Aaj Tak anchors, Sweta Singh and Rohit Sardana and slam them for distorting news and spreading lies on the Kasganj Republic Day celebrations clash that led to one death. Now, after social media criticism over the inflammatory tweet..
IN Media Business | 2018-01-28
In the past five years TV Today has seen a sharp acceleration in revenue growth and profit margins.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-01-26
How do you report the findings of a poll? With the PM's personal popularity holding, or with the fact that the ruling alliance NDA would not get a majority? Or that in vote share the UPA is just two percent points behind the NDA? Surely not getting a majority..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-01-26
After the Republic Day telecast Times Now was fulminating about the decision in J&K to withdraw cases against 9000 stone pelters. Rahul Shiv Shankar was thundering:"they will be back on the streets! These nasties will be back on the streets! The Mufti government is playing the worst kind of appeasement..
Timber mafia attack journalist
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-01-25
A freelance journalist Biplab Dey from Garo hills, was assaulted by timber smugglers at 10.30 pm on Jan 23 in Athiabari, West Khasi Hills District, Meghalaya, when he went to capture the evidence of illegal transportation of timbers from Garo hills to Assam. His camera and mobile phone were taken away to destroy..
Online journalists arrested in Kerala
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-01-25
Kerala police arrested two journalists - Abhilash Padachery and Ananthu Rajagopal-Asha on Sunday Jan 21, when they were shooting a Facebook live video of protests following the demolition of a 'caste' wall in Ernakulum district for newsport.in, an online news channel. The police claimed they were instigating the protestors and had..
Déjà vu: 'Mastermind' Tauqeer resurfaces
IN Media Practice | 2018-01-25
Over ten years three police agencies have contradicted each others’ claims about Tauqeer, but the press faithfully parrots whatever is put out.
Bombay HC sets aside media ban order
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-01-24
Justice Revati Mohite-Dere of the Bombay High Court set aside the special CBI court order banning the media from covering the Sohrabuddin encounter death trial, in two petitions, filed by nine court reporters and editors of news websites and the Brihanmumbai Union of Journalists. ..
IN Media Freedom | 2018-01-24
The cartoonist disappeared 8 years ago this day. His wife’s struggle to find him shines a light on Sri Lanka’s dismal record on enforced disappearances
The media betrayal over Aadhaar
IN Media Practice | 2018-01-22
Patchy, inconsistent, unfocused coverage is what we got. Consistent investigative reporting would have told us long ago what we know now
Mevani, Republic TV and the solidarity in Chennai
IN Media Practice | 2018-01-21
Both refusals: the journalists’ and Mevani’s, can be seen as justified. Who then was right?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-01-20
A video put out by the website jantakareporter shows an ANI journalist being asked by cops to remove his black jacket at the entrance to a rally in Varanasi which was to be addressed by the UP CM Yogi Adityanath and BJP President Amit Shah. Even as he refuses, pointing out there's..
The climate for free speech in India
IN Special Reports | 2018-01-20
The Hoot’s annual report attempts a state-wise overview of the climate for media freedom and free speech.
IN Opinion | 2018-01-18
Mevani’s rejection of Republic TV raises a question: if media houses operate as hate-mongers, are they entitled to professional access?
Freelancing: freedom or folly?
IN Media Practice | 2018-01-17
With more journalists becoming freelancers, it’s time to attend to the issues of pay, ID, and safety.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-01-16
The ongoing battle between Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mevani and Republic Television took a new turn when he was to address a press conference in Chennai today. Mevani at first objected to the Republic journalist being present but agreed to his being there if he didn't ask any questions. The journalists initially agreed..
Framing Kashmir as ‘us and them’
IN Media Practice | 2018-01-14
The man appointed by New Delhi to restore dialogue in Kashmir says he has to contend with the damage done by the mainstream news channels.
But the same judges silenced past critics with contempt!
IN Censorship | 2018-01-13
The Supreme Court’s promiscuous use of contempt laws towards criticism has led to the volcanic eruption of a press conference.
Hathaway switches off Times channels
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-01-13
Television Post reports that the MSO Hathaway has switched off the Times Network owned channels from its platform for non-payment of outstanding dues. Hathaway had apparently been running scrolls informing subscribers about the impending switch-off. Hathaway and Times had signed a one year fixed fee deal which Times Network wanted revisited, though the contract..
Why new research must be better reported
IN Media Practice | 2018-01-13
Research-led stories usually start with “researchers have found”, with little mention of their names, institution and who funded their work.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-01-13
On Jan 12, the day four judges of the Supreme Court called a press conference, lawyer Dushyant Dave published an op-ed in the Indian Express which was uncannily prescient in its timing. It was on the matter of allocation of cases to benches by the CJI which the four senior most judges spoke about..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-01-12
Times Now was indignant at the left-liberal conspiracy against the Modi government which is what the four judges' press conference on Jan 12 morning represented in their view. The channel kept showing Indira Jaisingh giving her views, and D Raja arriving at Justice Chelameswar's house, to prove its point. "Both..
Reporter attacked, advised not to complain
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-01-12
A Facebook post by Damayantee Dhar who reports for The Wire records an attack on herself and another reporter from the Ahmedabad Mirror on January 7 by a "mob of 15-20 dalit men". She says the two of them were heckled, manhandled and had their press cards and mobile phones snatched and..
IN Opinion | 2018-01-11
.....Kashmiri women reporting on issues unrelated to the conflict and a farmer’s daughter on local radio.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-01-10
Twitter was abuzz with reports that a few senior journalists who accompanied West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on a trip to London were caught on CCTV pilfering the cutlery from a posh hotel during a reception. One was even fined £50 by the hotel staff when he denied the charge,..
Booked for exposing data breach
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-01-07
When a journalist tries to do an investigative story by pretending to be a client for an advertised service, she risks being booked for impersonation, apparently. Indian Express reports that the UIDAI has filed an FIR against the paper and the reporter of The Tribune of Chandigarh for an article on how anonymous users accessed..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-01-06
Alt News reports that eight websites deleted their stories on Ambani junior, Anant Ambani's speech at Reliance Industries' 40th anniversary event. His speech apparently took social media by storm, with lots of memes surfacing on Twitter. Stories on that trend which appeared on sites like ScoopWhoop, Storypick and DailyO were soon taken..
Internet shutdowns become chronic
IN Digital Media | 2018-01-05
There was not a single month in 2017 when an internet shutdown was not in force in some part of the country.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-01-05
The Economic and Political Weekly has appointed political scientist Gopal Guru who currently teaches at JNU as editor, the Sameeksha Trust announced yesterday. The search for an editor was on after Paranjoy Guha Thakurta resigned in July 2017. The previous two editors have been journalists. ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-01-05
The Adani group has filed a Rs 100 crore civil defamation suit against The Wire for an analysis published on November 11, 2017 which asked if it made economic sense for the state-owned Indian Oil Corporation and Gail India to pick up stakes in the Adani group-promoted LNG terminals in Odisha and Gujarat...
Check duration of ads on TV, MIB told
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-01-04
Television Post reports that the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology (IT) has asked the I&B ministry to regulate the duration of ads aired by TV channels because consumers are subjected to unlimited advertising during programmes. TRAI had attempted to regulate the number of ads a few years ago and its recommendation..
Sound and fury, signifying nothing….
IN Media Practice | 2018-01-03
That’s a fair description of Times Now and Republic TV’s treatment of dalits commemorating the Bhima Koregaon battle.
A good year in the courts for free speech
IN Judgements | 2018-01-03
It’s been win some, lose some but some of the more significant rulings have been in favour of media freedom,
Journalists exploited, says MP
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-01-02
On January 2 Rajya Sabha MP Naresh Agarwal (Samajwadi, UP) raised the issue of media houses hiring journalists on contract, in the House. He said journalists were being exploited by owners of newspapers and TV channels even as lip service is paid to press freedom. He also spoke of media..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2018-01-02
Republic TV reporter Shravan Sen was covering a clash in Kurla Chembur junction when suddenly protesters snatched his camera and phone and insisted he shut his camera and stop videographing the violence immediately. The screen blacked out and only the audio could be heard. He was covering the violence that..
Rajinikanth steps into TN’s reel- to-real life politics
IN Opinion | 2018-01-02
The film star’s promise of a new ‘’spiritual politics’ may sit uneasily in a state where rationalism and atheism have held sway for 50 years.
Setting the agenda for the Telangana elections
IN Regional Media | 2018-01-02
The media’s coverage of a dalit protest reveals how it played into the BJP game, promoting its agenda by repeating its claims and slogans,
Why media players are chasing regional audiences
IN Regional Media | 2017-12-29
Everyone is offering news and services in regional languages because that is where the audiences are
IN Media Practice | 2017-12-29
On triple talaq, the channel imputed nefarious motives to an NGO for ‘contacting’ MPs and later took down the video to alter the look and feel of the debate. Why?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-12-28
Though freelance journalists without press cards are vulnerable everywhere in India, the experience of Bombay journo Priyanka Borpujari shows that being part of an urban network of other journalists who can mobilise social media instantly, helps. She was roughed up by the Mumbai police, had her phone snatched away and..
Censoring the arts in 2017: advent of the NOC!
IN Censorship | 2017-12-28
In a bad year for creative freedom an astonishing variety of reasons were cited for censorship, even as the courts upheld filmmakers’ rights in some cases.
Kashmir govt gags social media use
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-12-27
The J&K govt has barred govt servants from using their personal social media accounts for sharing or endorsing the “posts or tweets or blogs of any political figure". The gag order issued by the PDP-BJP govt also says that employees must not use their accounts in a manner that could reasonably be..
Anguish in Kashmir over mothers’ deaths
IN Media Practice | 2017-12-27
The death in firing of two mothers who leave behind babies has provoked another wave of outrage on social media.
Journalists challenge media ban
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-12-26
Nine journalists from Mumbai have filed a petition before the Bombay high court to challenge the ban on the media coverage of the Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter trial before the special CBI court. On Nov 29, CBI judge SJ Sharma passed an order on a plea by the defence counsel that..
Sun TV moves NCLT against Big TV
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-12-23
Sun TV Network has filed an insolvency petition against Anil Ambani’s Reliance Big TV in the National Company Law Tribunal Mumbai. Big TV’s DTH operation owes more than Rs 100 crore to leading broadcasters like Star India, ZEEL, Sony Pictures Networks India, TV18, Viacom18, Sun TV, and Discovery Communications India...
Campus censorship in TISS, Mumbai
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-12-22
TISS, Mumbai cancelled a scheduled programme on 'Contemporary politics of hatred: cow vigilantism, caste atrocities and Islamophobia', to be addressed by RPI leader Prakash Ambedkar and social activist and journalist Teesta Setalvad, on Friday, Dec 22, 2017. The authorities said the meeting couldn't be held because multiple programmes were fixed..
Press Club of India writes to Roy
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-12-21
Following reports of NDTV planning to lay off 25 per cent of its staff, the Press Club of India has written to Prannoy Roy to say that the move is disturbing and that the club would like to invite him to address a meet at their premises to explain to..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-12-21
HT Media has announced that Vinay Kamat who is editor of Khaleej Times, Dubai will be the new editor of Mint. It said that he brings with him 30 years of editorial experience across platforms. ..
Watch out--next time it could be you
IN Opinion | 2017-12-20
Journalists should condemn the Congress barring Times Now and Republic TV from its press briefings instead of colluding. It could be their turn next,
IN Regional Media | 2017-12-19
Danger, frustration, internet shutdowns, poor pay and unsupportive employers make journalism a labour of love, says an IFJ report
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-12-19
After this incident of a Pune police officer assaulting and threatening a Loksatta journalist the ACP in question, Nilesh More has apparently been transferred pending an enquiry. The police officer also tendered an apology, according to the Pune Union of Working Journalists which took up the matter with Pune Police Commissioner Rashmi Shukla...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-12-18
When you give yourself a range of upto 15 seats in an exit poll prediction, you can say later that you were bang on, whatever the outcome. The India Today-Axis exit poll gave the BJP 99-113 seats, and Congress 68-82 in Gujarat, so through the evening prime time the channel..
Why governments must not block social media criticism
IN Digital Media | 2017-12-17
This is the paradox of social media as a tool for political dissent: Exercising freedom of expression is easier than ever before, but so is censorship.
Stay order continues in Quint journalist case
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-12-15
The Bombay High Court has extended the stay order on investigation into the case against Quint journalist Poonam Agarwal on charges of OSA and abetment to suicide of jawan Roy Matthew following her sting exposing the exploitative sahayak system. A bench comprising Justices Naresh Patil and Nitin Sambre said the..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-12-15
News18 reports hat The JNU administration has asked student activist Shehla Rashid to appear for a proctoral inquiry over her claims on Twitter about "Internet censorship" on the campus. Rashid, a former JNU students' union vice president, had tweeted on November 11 that students were unable to access content from AIB, The..
Maoists disown pamphlet threatening journalists
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-12-15
Journalists in Bastar were abuzz with news of a pamphlet circulated purportedly by a Maoist group that they would face 'dire consequences' if they misreported encounters in Bijapur district. Last week however the Bijapur press club received a pamphlet from the South Bastar Divisional Committee of the Maoists which said the news..
Gujarat 2017: How did the media fare?
IN Media Practice | 2017-12-14
Though partisan channels batted for the incumbent, there was enough clear-eyed reporting on offer to unsettle the ruling party.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-12-13
Bhupender Chaubey had Yogendra Yadav on a poll eve panel on CNN News 18, and flashed the unflattering predictions Yadav had made about how the BJP would fare in the Gujarat elections. Thereafter he kept rubbing it in every now and then during the show that Yadav was no longer..
HT appoints EE, but Mint still headless
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-12-12
HT has made Kunal Pradhan, its Delhi editor for the past few months, Executive Editor of the paper. But it has still not named an editor for Mint, after its editor Sukumar Ranganathan moved to HT as Editor-in-chief. ..
Excited reporter, invisible crowd
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-12-12
The seaplane episode in Gujarat had the Republic TV reporter so excited that she kept repeating herself. “The seaplane coming to Gujarat for the first time is development…the PM is trying to promote tourism... All of these people ready to see the seaplane.. trying to get a glimpse of it…Just ..
Ravi Belagere and the Kannada tabloid genre
IN Regional Media | 2017-12-11
TV channels are holding debates and discourses on Ravi the editor and chronicling his almost rags to riches story including the murky underworld and its relation to crime.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-12-09
Journalists following up on a story on a secret diary that indicated the bribing and corruption of members of the Tamil Nadu cabinet by industrialist and mining baron Sekhar Reddy found that another diary was quickly doing the rounds, this time with the names of journalists and alleged payouts to them in..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-12-08
Ravi Belagere, editor of Kannada tabloid Hi Bangalore, was arrested on Dec 8 on allegations of hiring a contract killer to murder a fellow journalist, his former employee Sunil Heggaravanahalli. Police found guns and ammunition in his home. In June this year he was one of two editors to attract..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-12-08
At the bottom of page 4 in the Delhi edition of the TOI (Dec 8) there is a nice little puff job on the university this group has opened in Noida in UP-- Bennett University has Ivy League ties. The item is not pegged to any particular news development but tells you..
Life after 100 pellets pierce you
IN Regional Media | 2017-12-08
Journalist Javed Mir’s struggle to recover from 100 pellets in his body, with no help, mirrors the experience of hundreds of other victims in Kashmir
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-12-07
Journalists who reported the demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992 talk about their experience in this video on The Wire. Watch Mark Tully, Ruchira Gupta, Seema Chishti, Vrinda Gopinath and others describe what it was like on that fateful day in Ayodhya. ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-12-06
On Dec 6 Zee News’ edition of “Game of Gujarat” held in Sabarkantha was quite incredible. For starters the anchor thrust his mike at one person after another in audience asking, when you see Bhagwan Ram in that state in Ayodhya, does it make you sad? Dukh hota hai? Then..
Loksatta exposes land grab by babus and judges
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-12-06
Loksatta, the Marathi daily of the Express Group, used RTI to publish a major investigation on Dec 3 titled ‘ Civil Servants Aawas Yojana’, on land grab in prime locations in Mumbai by bureaucrats and judges. It named them and carried pictures of the housing colonies concerned, in Churchgate, Andheri,..
Covering NCRB data: how newspapers fared
IN Media Monitoring | 2017-12-06
As statistics grow more important in public debates, here is an analysis of how the media covered – or muddled - the latest crime figures
Sedition charges against 111 in UP
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-12-05
Sedition charges have been slapped against 111 people for allegedly raising anti-national slogans during the victory march of a Congress candidate in Lakhimpur Kheri who had defeated her BJP rival at the recently concluded civic bodies poll in UP, reports TOI. The candidate denied that the slogans were raised by her followers. ..
Rebutting an under-informed critic
IN Media Practice | 2017-12-05
I have severe objections to writers like Sabith use a broad-brush technique to see the 'Myanmar authorities' as one single monolith.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-12-04
Young inheritors are running empires in several Indian media groups, but contributing to the journalistic side is less common. Times of India proprietor Samir Jain's daughter Trishla Jain does write a regular lifestyle blog for the paper called 'Begin Within'. But a four-column piece published on Dec 3 in the..
Is the Western media really biased on Rohingyas?
IN Media Practice | 2017-12-03
There are instances in Bhaumik’s article which make one wonder whether it was written to defend and justify actions of the Myanmar authorities.
Is Srikrishna privileging privacy over free speech?
IN Law and Policy | 2017-12-02
Will journalism of the kind that published the Radia tapes, involving private conversations between private individuals, be precluded by a possible data protection law?
NCRB data on attacks on journalists
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-12-01
How many templates does the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) need to get right its data collection on attacks on journalists? Data on attacks on journalists is missing from the latest NCRB report released with much fanfare by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh yesterday and the report says a new..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-12-01
Naveen Gupta, a contributor with Hindi daily Hindustan, was shot dead by unidentified persons near the Nagar Palika market in Billhaur, about 60 km from Kanpur, on Nov 30, 2017. While it is as yet unclear whether this is related to his journalism, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has ordered..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-12-01
PM Modi told the Hindustan Times Summit on Nov 30 about the many changes his govt had brought in the lives of ordinary people and quoted former president APJ Abdul Kalam to ask why the media here was so negative. “Why is it that we don’t acknowledge our capacities and..
Gavai meets press over Loya controversy
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-11-28
In a move that has raised eyebrows, Justice Bhushan Gavai of the Bombay High Court called a press meet in his chambers yesterday to tell court reporters there was 'nothing suspicious' about the death of Justice Loya in Dec 2014. Justice Gavai was quoted in the Indian Express report, following up on..
Sun TV: In search of the next big idea?
IN Media Business | 2017-11-28
Profitability has never been an issue for this Southern giant, but the growth rate of net profits has been coming down.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-11-27
Media investigations in the Loya story get curiouser and curiouser. Caravan's initial story raised dire suspicions about the judge's death but with each subsequent follow-up the facts are becoming transformed. The auto rickshaw in which the judge was taken to hospital remained an auto rickshaw in the NDTV follow up, with its use being..
Justice Loya-another narrative
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-11-26
The Caravan story which raised questions about the manner in which Justice BH Loya (who was hearing the Sohrabuddin case) died was met by silence in most of the print media. But now NDTV.com has produced a follow up story which revisits the individuals and institutions mentioned in the original story to..
Allahabad HC gag order in Adityanath case worrying
IN Censorship | 2017-11-26
Since the proceedings involve the CM and serious criminal allegations against him, public interest surely outweighs concerns about inaccurate reporting?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-11-25
Caravan breaks a story on the death of the CBI Judge hearing the Amit Shah case, the link is widely shared. But the media silence in the aftermath has been deafening. Speaking at a book launch on Nov 24 Arun Shourie called it a criminal silence and said that mainstream media had..
Western double standards in Myanmar reporting
IN Media Practice | 2017-11-25
The western media has taken a line on the Rohingya crisis and anything that contradicts that line, such as jihadi barbarism, is ignored
The sinning health minister of Assam
IN Media Practice | 2017-11-24
Himanta Biswa Sarma sinned against reason and compassion when he said cancer was divinely ordained. He won his 15 minutes of notoriety
TRS commandant held for murder of reporter in Tripura
IN Media Freedom | 2017-11-22
Bhowmik’s body was brought by four TSR personnel to the Agartala Government Hospital at 2.15pm, two hours 15 minutes after he was shot dead.
Another journalist killed in Tripura
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-11-21
Two months after a journalist was killed in Tripura by mob violence, another scribe was shot dead today by the personal security officer of a commandant of the Tripura State Rifles. Shantanu Bhaumik's murder in September this year was followed by the murder on Nov 21 of Sudip Datta Bhaumik who was..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-11-21
Thenortheasttoday.com reports that Imphal-based newspapers left their editorial columns blank to protest the burning down of a daily on Nov. 18, allegedly by members of the BJP’s youth wing. "Copies of the vernacular newspaper Poknapham were set on fire by unidentified miscreants in front of BJP’s party office at Nityapat Chuthek on..
Facebook’s community censors curb free speech
IN Censorship | 2017-11-21
Accounts that are satirical, expose hate speech, or are totally harmless are being blocked for ‘violating’ Facebook guidelines.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-11-21
All India Radio, unsurprisingly, is a tireless promoter of the PM's Mann ki Baat. At this year's India International Trade Fair AIR has a stall on the theme of MKB, which is a big tourist draw, we are told by DD News. People are queuing up at the stall to drop their..
Scaremongering over HIV and Aadhaar
IN Media Practice | 2017-11-19
A Scroll report that patients will stop treatment revealed a lack of understanding and objectivity, adding to the misinformation.
How the Pew report on Modi was covered
IN Media Monitoring | 2017-11-19
Holes, slanted and selective fact-picking, and weak analysis contributed to projecting an overly positive image for the PM and BJP
IFFI begins, minus Nude and S Durga
IN Censorship | 2017-11-19
The directors are indignant at their films being dropped but the reasons are somewhat more complicated than simple ‘censorship’.
Pollution: Forget politics, focus on smog science
IN Media Practice | 2017-11-17
It’s not the crop burning, stupid. It’s vehicles that create smog and the media should educate the public.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-11-16
In observance of National Press Day today Rajasthan Patrika carried a blank editorial saying that it was a day meant to celebrate independent and responsible journalism. But in Rajasthan this was endangered by the black law the state government was seeking to introduce. It said it opposed a law which amounted to..
Film tribunal’s rulings: good, bad and arbitrary
IN Censorship | 2017-11-16
The FCAT is doing a good job of overruling the CBFC’s bizarre diktats but it could be less arbitrary about its own orders
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-11-15
Zee News has rolled up its sleeves to do battle on behalf of the BJP as the Gujarat elections approach. On Nov 14 they played the Hardik Patel CD at prime time, and when it showed precious little that was incriminating the voice over said the channel was not playing..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-11-14
On Tuesday night (Nov 14) ABP News went from communal sensation-mongering to rendering its own expose a damp squib in the space of a single news story at prime time. Its reporter set out to find out why some homes in Ahmedabad's housing societies woke up in the morning to..
MIB drops films, jury head resigns
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-11-14
NDTV reports that Director Sujoy Ghosh, head of the jury for the Indian Panorama section at the 48th International Film Festival of India, has resigned. Last week the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting reportedly removed two films from a list picked by the jury to be screened at the festival. Missing from the..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-11-14
Journalist Vinod Verma's judicial remand has been extended till November 27. The journalist whose arrest in Ghaziabad on Oct 27 created a stir, was subsequently taken to Raipur in connection with a sleaze CD case involving a Chhattisgarh minister. His bail plea has been rejected. ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-11-12
This HT story says that "a section of JNU students" allege "that they cannot access any videos relating to JNU student leaders Kanhaiya Kumar, Shehla Rashid and politicians Rahul Gandhi, Arvind Kejriwal, Mamta Bannerjee. Other members of opposition parties are showing no results”. Apparently access to news sites of NDTV, The..
Demonetisation in numbers—how statistics were used
IN Media Monitoring | 2017-11-12
Two aspects of partisan commentary stood out: adjectives coupled with decontextualised statistics create an illusion of success, and favourable “facts” are mentioned in numbers, whereas inconvenient ones are stated in words.
Four things the Paradise Papers tell us
IN Opinion | 2017-11-10
They tell us that tax avoidance is a booming industry, that secrecy prevails through trusts, and highly complex tools are used.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-11-09
After The Hoot wrote this brief on how the Indigo fracas was covered it seems we goofed in praising TOI, which in turn had goofed in labelling the employee who shot the video as a whistleblower who was sacked. The airline says that far from being a whistleblower the man was the real culprit..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-11-09
Television Post reports that NDTV’s standalone net loss has jumped 35% to Rs 17.92 crore for the 2nd quarter of FY ‘18 as against Rs 13.29 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal. It adds that revenue from operations has fallen 22.18%. The standalone result is of financials for the TV news..
Paying for the Panchkula damage
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-11-09
The Chandigarh Press Club had moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court to be clubbed with others who had sought compensation from the Haryana Government for damage to property during the 25th August violence in Panchkula. Media persons and organisations suffered damage to vehicles, OB vans and other equipment. The..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-11-08
While the Hindu, Express, New Indian Express and Hindustan Times had reports on the incident of a scuffle between an Indigo airlines passenger and its staffers, with the latter allegedly thrashing the passenger (the video shows manhandling and dragging rather than thrashing) only the Times of India reported additionally that the airline sacked the whistleblower--the employee who shot the..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-11-08
In a heartening development the Tribune Trust which governs the Chandigarh Tribune, is reported to have removed the Trust President Justice SS Sodhi and replaced him with J&K governor NN Vohra. What triggered this is the belief that the paper published an abject front page apology to a controversial politician because of..
Zee, HT, Sun, Network 18 linked to offshore havens
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-11-07
The second day's Paradise Papers revelations in the Indian Express link four major media companies with offshore havens. Transactions made by the Zee Group Hindustan Times Group the Sun Group, and Network 18 have been detailed, and a radio company owned for a short period by NDTV news, has been linked with Astro, the Malaysian company whose..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-11-07
Kalli Purie, Vice Chairperson of the India Today Group had reason to be exhilarated at the number of awards her channel TV Today bagged at the Indian Television Academy awards ceremony on Sunday night. But her reference to their news room as a war zone and her editorial honchos as..
IN Research Studies | 2017-11-07
People across countries say they avoid news because it depresses them, and they cannot rely upon it to be true.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-11-06
Julian Assange tweeted about the Paradise Papers revelations: “Great sourcing! But ICIJ is still based in DC, is Ford, Soros, Omidyar funded and still "sits on" nearly everything.” The last is a reference to this tweet by Bastian Obermayer of the Süddeutsche Zeitung which obtained the documents: “PARADISE PAPERS is..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-11-05
Kerala's state-owned Centre for Development of Imaging Technology (C-DIT)has a new role. It is producing a half hour weekly TV series featuring CM Pinarayi Vijayan answering questions on his government's performance. The half-hour show, “We, Forward” will be anchored by journalist-turned-legislator Veena George, and will be shown on various channels..
Ravish Kumar’s magnificent obsession
IN Opinion | 2017-11-05
The NDTV India anchor has been exposing in relentless and riveting detail the shameful state of India’s universities
Impunity prevails, but what is the solution?
IN Media Freedom | 2017-11-04
In 50 percent of the killings of Indian journalists since 2010 there have been no arrests so far. We need to come together to protect our tribe,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-11-02
The Rajasthan Patrika announced in a front page editorial on Nov 2 that it had decided to boycott all news related to the chief minister Vasundhara Raje until she revoked the gag ordinance which protects public servants from having charges against them reported without permission from the government. (The Hindu)..
GM food issue: PCI orders retraction
IN Media Practice | 2017-11-01
The Financial Express is forced to apologise for ad hominem insinuations about activist Kavita Kuruganti
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-10-31
Radio Mirchi has been sent a show cause notice by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to explain why it should not be penalised for a jingle which discourages foreign tourists from coming to India, and thereby violates the AIR Code. It aired a campaign #MatAaoIndia after yet another attack..
Tribune apologises to controversial leader
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-10-31
The fact that the Chandigarh Tribune has carried what is being described as an abject apology to controversial senior Akali leader Bikram Singh Majithia in its Oct 29 Sunday edition, has lead to disquiet in the paper, including employee union protests. The apology has apparently been forced upon the paper's editor by the Trust which..
Arrested journalist has Cong affiliation
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-10-30
Perhaps because of the accusations against him of collusion with the Congress in framing a BJP minister with a sex CD, the cries of indignation in Delhi at least over the arrest of a journalist have become rather muted. Vinod Verma who was arrested a couple of days ago in..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-10-30
If the comments on this TOI story concerning I and B minister Smriti Irani are any guide, trolls on the other side are just as vicious. The Times Group which is unlikely to want to showcase anything overtly offensive to the powers that be, should take a look at the highlighted top..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-10-28
The fake video factory targeting Rahul Gandhi is getting creative. Boomlive did a fact check on a video, ostensibly of Rahul Gandhi speaking at a rally in Gandhinagar in Gujarat in October where money was being distributed to those present. The original video was uploaded in March this year, and is supposed..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-10-28
The public broadcaster has been guilty of recording and telecasting a live concert of Shubha Mudgal without permission and the furious singer has written to DD, copy to I and B Minister Smriti Irani. This was four days ago, no news yet as to what the minister had to say. She was..
Decoding the dynamics between Adivasis and Maoists
IN Books | 2017-10-28
“I have spent most of my working life so far studying the lives of people in what we casually refer to as ‘conflict zones’… as a journalist and chronicler, I approached them through a completely different route,”
IN Media Practice | 2017-10-28
The life of Hadiya – confined for converting to Islam and marrying a Muslim - has become the property of her father, the media, and the courts
Polarisation in the news media
IN Research Studies | 2017-10-27
There is large variation across nations in the degree to which the audiences for the most popular news brands are polarised along the left–right spectrum,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-10-27
Journalist Vinod Verma, formerly with the BBC and with Amar Ujala, was picked up from his home in the early hours of 27th October by the Chhattisgarh police (in plain clothes) and UP police and taken to the Indirapuram police station in Ghaziabad. The have seized his laptop on suspicion..
NDTV promoter shareholding attached
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-10-27
NDTV has written to the stock exchanges on October 26 that it has received a notice from the Income Tax department provisionally attaching the entire 29.2 per cent shareholding of RRPR Holding Private Limited, one of its promoters. RRPR is in the process of seeking legal advice the letter said...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-10-27
The Wire reports that comedian Rangeela who recorded a mimicking of PM Modi for Star Plus's reality show ‘The Great Indian Laughter Challenge’ has alleged that the channel refused to air his act. He said that he got a phone call from the production team almost a month after the episode was originally recorded..
Russian meddling and American desperation
IN Digital Media | 2017-10-25
Last week, three senators introduced “The Honest Ads Act” to regulate political advertising on the Internet and plug the gap in existing laws.
Hollywood needs more women movie executives
IN Media Business | 2017-10-23
More women are graduating from the world’s top film and television schools and often outperforming their male counterparts, so why are they not in positions of power equal to men,
Rajasthan's new ordinance may survive legal challenge
IN Media Freedom | 2017-10-23
The Supreme Court’s shaky jurisprudence on Article 19 (1)(a) has provided a foundation for the legislature to push for more restrictions on free speech.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-10-23
In the controversy over the ANI story on accounts from Russia, Kazakhstan and Indonesia retweeting Rahul Gandhi's tweets, Altnews.in has found that the BJP's IT cell head Amit Malviya tweeted a screenshot of one of the Twitter accounts taken two hours before ANI's story was published at 1.05 pm. The screenshot..
Jagran stringer who was RSS functionary killed
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-10-21
The Hindu reports that a journalist with the Hindi daily Dainik Jagran and a member of the RSS, Rajesh Mishra, was shot dead in Ghazipur district of Uttar Pradesh on Saturday. His brother was also shot at and critically injured. Several rounds were filed at him by unidentified motorbike-borne assailants. Police said suspected enmity..
A brief recent history of media self-censorship
IN Censorship | 2017-10-20
Are media establishments self-censoring more since this government came to power? Or were some equally mindful of the UPA’s sensitivities too?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-10-19
Self censorship at NDTV is a can of worms whose lid is prised open occasionally only to be tamped down again. But the most recent disclosure by Sreenivasan Jain a couple of days ago has led to a long outpouring by Barkha Dutt on her Facebook page about the selective censorship at that channel...
A status quoist, not transformative right
IN Books | 2017-10-18
The enactment of Article 19 of the Constitution made merely a rhetorical change, not a substantive one, to the right to free speech in India,
NDTV gets cold feet on Jay Shah
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-10-18
Srinivasan Jain of NDTV posted on his Facebook page that a report by him and a colleague on loans given to Jay Shah's companies was taken down from NDTV's website because the channel's lawyer said it needed to be removed for 'legal vetting'. He adds that it has still not been..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-10-17
Aroon Purie, chairman of the India Today Group, announced today that he was handing over charge to his daughter Kalli Purie, who will now become Vice Chairman. All those who report to him will now report to her his letter said, but the Group Editorial Director, publishing, and the CFO..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-10-16
The Press Club in Mansa district of Punjab has filed a complaint with the CM Capt Amarinder Singh on the intimidation of HT journalist Mohammad Ghazali by the local district administration. It says, the DC Dharam Pal Gupta alleged that Ghazali's story of farmers being denied entry into local grain..
This does not look like 66A through the back door
IN Law and Policy | 2017-10-15
The new hate speech provisions will apply only when likely to incite an offence or threaten public order. But making them cognizable is a cause for worry,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-10-14
Outlook carried this story on the journalist Shweta Kothari who resigned from Republic TV, based on a statement she had put out on Twitter. She said she had been accused of being a mole for Shashi Tharoor and talked about the "constant humiliation" meted out to her while working at the channel...
How the Pakistan media fed Qandeel to the jackals
IN Opinion | 2017-10-14
A documentary incriminates the media in the events leading up to the murder of Qandeel Baloch, a young woman with big dreams.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-10-14
Looks like the TOI is not so out of line after all in the social media guidelines it set for its media employees. The NYT has now come up with this: “In social media posts, our journalists must not express partisan opinions, promote political views, endorse candidates, make offensive comments or do..
IN Media Practice | 2017-10-13
In the Aarushi Talwar murder case, the media had scaled new heights of irresponsibility by spreading canards and defamatory stories. The Talwars have now been acquitted by the Allahabad High Court.
IN Media Business | 2017-10-12
Helped by their role in muddying in the US election, Rupert Murdoch’s campaign to whittle away Google and Facebook’s supremacy is showing results.
Covering the North East cauldron
IN Books | 2017-10-11
What are the constraints and dilemmas of newspapers in the North East as they seek to cover current and ancient conflicts? A new book has insights.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-10-10
On Saturday, TOI the Indian Express and The Hindu wrote stories quoting at length from BJP president Amit Shah's blog on his September visit to Jharkhand. The blog spoke about how apart from the Vajpayee government and now Narendra Modi's government, all other governments had exploited the mineral resurces of tribal land, without giving the..
Jay Shah: highly selective coverage
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-10-10
Coverage of the Jay Amit Shah story on The Wire by other media is becoming quite hilarious. Two days after it broke you will find no shows on it on Republic TV, Times Now, Doordarshan, and CNN News 18. Mirror Now had a story which detailed the Congress allegations. ABP..
The latest trends in digital publishing
IN Media Business | 2017-10-09
Publishers are losing direct traffic, regional language sites see an uptick, WhatsApp is India’s largest media consumption platform, and start-ups find that millennials are willing to pay for news.
Journalism without self censorship?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-10-08
When The Wire published this story on the "Golden touch of Jay Amit Shah" on Sunday its website crashed at the surge of traffic and then came back up. The story has been reported by former ET journalist Rohini Singh who, Wire founding editor M K Venu says, has joined them..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-10-07
The Wire reports that the Essel Group has withdrawn a defamation case against it for a story published in June this year based on a CAG report, about lottery irregularities in Mizoram. The Gauhati High Court's Aizawl bench stayed the defamation proceedings in the case. The interesting part is that the case..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-10-07
The Hindu chose to use pictures tweeted by @PMOIndia to illustrate a story on the PM's Gujarat visit. As a result the captions did not even identify the others in the pictures, which included the chief minister. ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-10-05
If you watch Times Now you encounter Navika Kumar aggressively asserting that Modi baiters should apologise to the PM because the Gujarat High Court has said Modi had no role in the larger conspiracy of the Gujarat riots. She does not mention (until a panelist brought it up) that the..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-10-05
The Hindu has apologised for an incredible story it published in its Mumbai edition on October 1, saying that a video had recorded a woman dying in the stampede at Elphinstone station being molested by a bystander. The apology said "A perusal of the clip does not warrant such a conclusion." It admitted..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-10-04
The India Today Group is on the Swachh Bharat bandwagon. Its editorial director Kalli Purie told the audience at the Group's Safaigiri Singathon that three years ago PM Modi had nominated India Today editor-in-chief Aroon Purie a brand ambassador of the Swachh Bharat Mission and ever since the group has been gving annual Safaigiri..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-10-04
Under its new head the CBFC has been handing out U/A certificates to films which you would expect to be certified 'U'. Newton, which is about a polling officer's efforts to conduct elections in a Chhattisgarh village, has got U/A certification. So has Chef, starring Saif Ali Khan, because the..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-10-03
The J&K Tourism Department has decided that an ad agency it uses will produce positive programmes on Kashmir. This is an effort to counter the harm that the state government thinks is done by "hyper nationalistic media in India (which) ran shows on prime time selling lies about Kashmir..
Deaths and attacks mount, protests also mount
IN Media Freedom | 2017-10-02
October 2 will see protests across the country as journalists gather to protest killings. But to assess the vulnerability of journalists look at the attacks as well.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-10-02
How should the gruesome aftermath of a stampede be covered? TV cameras at Elphinstone Road zoomed in on dead bodies, one capturing a shot of someone placing in finger below the body's nose to check if he was breathing. Red arrows pinpointed which among the tangle of bodies crammed between..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-10-02
From the Sunday Pioneer: "Chief Minister Sabarnanda Sonowal condemned the demise describing Radhika Mohan Bhagawati as 'a glaring example of journalistic excellence who immensely enriched the field of journalism in the state'." ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-09-30
In a long, convoluted open letter to the PM published by The Wire, NDTV India anchor Ravish Kumar wants to know from Narendra Modi if his life and job are in danger. He says he believes he could be fired from his job just as Bobby Ghosh, editor of the..
The glacial pace of delivering defamation rulings
IN Judgements | 2017-09-30
In two cases involving CNN IBN-Cobrapost and the ToI, the judiciary took 10 and 20 years respectively to decide cases of civil and criminal defamation.
AIR committee meets after 34 years
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-09-28
An advisory committee of All India Radio met after nearly 34 years earlier this week to discuss the revival plans of its external broadcast division, PTI reports. The last meeting of the 'Standing Advisory Committee on External Broadcast' was apparently held in 1983, and the committee has been "revived and..
Threats to data privacy from non state actors
IN Privacy | 2017-09-28
The absence of a legal framework compelling maximum disclosure by corporations on their use of customer data, is dangerous.
Firspost chief reporter threatened
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-09-27
Huffpost India reports that the chief reporter of Firstpost in Delhi, Debobrat Ghose, has filed a complaint with the Delhi Police about threats received by him, through phone calls as well as messages on WhatsApp. One f the calls told him that he would face the same fate as Gauri Lankesh if he..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-09-26
Nothing new about a Hindi film being accused of plagiarism. But sometimes directors are unwilling to let such charges pass. With 'Newton' being accused of being a rip-off of the Iranian film 'Secret Ballot' Anurag Kashyap sent the link of his film to the director of the latter, Marco Muller,..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-09-25
The New Indian Express reports that the Puducherry government was holding talks with law experts to file a defamation case against Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi, according to the chief minister V Narayanasamy. He told reporters that she was making baseless allegations against the government, and indirectly interfering with the ongoing..
The Privileges Committee is suddenly hyperactive
IN Law and Policy | 2017-09-25
Increasingly, MPs are summoning journalists to defend stories they consider false or defamatory. The list is getting quite long.
Newton and Maoism: mass media finally gets it right
IN Media Practice | 2017-09-24
Newton is a quiet film which delivers a ringing satire on the nature of state intervention in Naxal areas and the sham elections that are held there.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-09-23
The third murder of a journalist in the month of September took place in Mohali in Punjab. Journalist KJ Singh and his mother were found murdered at their house in Mohali on September 23. HT and Scroll report that he was found with his throat slit and his mother appeared..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-09-23
The Hindustan Times has announced that the editor of Mint, Sukumar Ranganathan will become the editor-in-chief of the paper. The internal mail to staff said that the appointment of an editor for Mint would be announced shortly. The current editor Bobby Ghosh will remain with the company till October 31, the announcement said. ..
‘Why did the police not stop the mob?’
IN Media Freedom | 2017-09-22
Shantanu Bhowmick was clearly marked out since he worked for DinRaat channel which was perceived as being pro-CPM,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-09-21
The Delhi High Court is inviting suggestions via a Google form regarding how ongoing court proceedings should be reported. It says, " As per the deliberations of the Committee in its meeting held on 31.08.2017, questionnaires are hereby circulated to the members of the general public to give their suggestions on the..
ICE has melted: IPL rights and the media economy
IN Media Business | 2017-09-21
The expanded profile of bidders this year suggests that IPL rights now attract players from various segments of the ICE business.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-09-21
Santanu Bhowmick, a journalist from DinRaat news channel, was killed on Wednesday and several people were wounded in ongoing clashes between supporters of two rival tribal associations in Mandwai, about 28km from the Tripura capital of Agartala, HT reports. He was covering an agitation and road blockade by the Indigenous People’s Front..
The Right is nasty but liberals are just as bad
IN Opinion | 2017-09-20
In today’s polarized atmosphere, liberals opt for shrill rants, cloaked in moral superiority, while caring little for facts, logic or arguments
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-09-20
The back story of the huge apology notice published by the Hindustan Times on September 18 (see this Hoot brief) is to be found in the record of sittings of the Privileges Committee of the Lok Sabha. The apology was published three days after the last sitting to which the editor of HT was summoned. The..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-09-19
Did it really take the Hindustan Times almost six months to figure out that it had got the figures on the attendance in Parliament of certain MPs, wrong? Or is there more to why it carried a front page apology covering half the page on September 18? It said, "In the edition..
The rise and rise of Jagran Prakashan
IN Media Business | 2017-09-16
The company that publishes Dainik Jagran goes from strength to strength ten years after its 2006 IPO.
Andhra Pradesh: no space left for independent media?
IN Regional Media | 2017-09-16
With large swathes of the Andhra Pradesh media either owned by political parties or lined up behind them, unbiased news is a rarity.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-09-15
DAVP which releases govt ads to newspapers has suspended publications censored by the Press Council of India from its panel for two months. The list of empanelled newspapers who have been thus punished include Dainik Jagran, The Times of India Bhubaneshwar, and Maharashtra Times, Pune.The PCI censure is for a range of reasons and covers..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-09-15
Mint reports that the National Stock Exchange of India Ltd has withdrawn on September 12 a Rs 100-crore defamation case against Moneylife magazine and its founders Debashis Basu and Sucheta Dalal. The case was filed in July 2015 after Moneylife published a whistleblower's letter which alleged that NSE had given preferential access to..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-09-15
With eight internet bans mposed in the first two weeks of September India seems set to retain its dubious 2016 record of having imposed the highest number of internet bans in the world, reports Newsclick.in. A total of 55 instances of Internet being banned in different parts in India have been reported this year...
NIA picks up young Kashmiri photo journalist
IN Regional Media | 2017-09-14
Kamran Yousuf has been in the National Investigation Agency’s custody for a week without any charges being brought against him.
Delhi HC denies protection to Madhu Kishwar
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-09-12
The Delhi High Court has refused to grant protection from arrest to activist Madhu Kishwar in a criminal defamation case brought by Rising Kashmir editor-in-chief Shujaat Bukhari. Kishwar wanted interim protection because a non bailable warrant was issued against her by a Srinagar Court. In July she got a Supreme Court order..
Like most journalists, her only bias was truth and non-violence
IN Media Freedom | 2017-09-09
When the news of her murder came through my news feed, I wondered, will assassination of Gauri Lankesh be different? Will the killers be caught and punished this time?
Good sense returns to the CBFC
IN Censorship | 2017-09-09
Under Prasoon Joshi, the CBFC is trying to handle film certification without cuts and make life easier for filmmakers
Demonetization version 2.0: the frozen accounts fiction
IN Media Practice | 2017-09-09
While the wire reports claimed that the government has “frozen” the bank accounts of all the 2.09 lakh companies, the PIB press release did not use the word “frozen” even once.
Congress theory on Lankesh murder
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-09-08
The Congress publication National Herald has come up with its own angle on the Gauri Lankesh murder, spinning the theory that "since the saffron forces do not have recourse to the administrative and police machinery in states not ruled by the BJP, they have to kill to silence opposing voices". Its says that..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-09-07
Journalist Darryl D'Monte offers this ominous footnote to the last two days: “I was editing the Sunday magazine of the ToI in the ‘seventies and we were running a series titled “Dying as a Writer” – as opposed to Living as one. We got an angry response to our request..
Software for new commenting system
IN Media Tech Briefs | 2017-09-07
The Washington Post is rolling out Talk a new commenting system that will allow the paper to better engage with readers who comment on its stories and help promote civil conversations. The software was developed by the Coral Project, a collaboration between The Post, the NYT and Mozilla, funded by a..
“Hindu terror units killed Gauri Lankesh”
IN Media Freedom | 2017-09-06
Her lawyer B T Venkatesh is clear that the killing was a sinister and pre-planned act by ‘Hindu terror units’, and not linked to the defamation cases against her.
Protest meetings around the country
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-09-06
Protests against Gauri Lankesh's murder are happening in several cities. Bangalore and Mangalore have meetings at more than one venue, and there is a rally as well in Mangalore. Gulbarga has a protest starting this morning at Dr Kalburgi's house and there are other meetings at Hubbali, in Gadag and..
IN Opinion | 2017-09-06
Gauri Lankesh will be remembered as an intellectual who like her father integrated journalism as a practice to uphold basic values.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-09-05
The journalist who was shot dead at her home the same night had tweeted in the early hours of September 5, "Why do i feel that some of `us' are fighting between ourselves? we all know our ``biggest enemy''. can we all please concentrate on that?" And a few minutes..
Kashmir journos on Twitter’s block list
IN Digital Media | 2017-09-05
The two “objectionable” tweets included a photograph in which security forces have made a youth a human shield to prevent protests.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-09-05
Now that Star has won the global television and digital rights for the Indian Premier League for the period 2018 to 2022, for a humongous Rs 16,347.5 crore, what happens to Dish TV's complaint to the Competition Commission of India? The DTH broadcaster had objected to Star participating in a bid for..
Algorithms and human journalists need to work together
IN Digital Media | 2017-09-04
As a researcher and creator of automated journalism, I’ve found that computerized news reporting can offer key strengths. I’ve also identified important weaknesses,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-09-04
What exactly is the difference between a politician who appears on a news show as a spokesperson, and one whom a TV channel retains as a resident commentator? During the live coverage of the cabinet reshuffle on Sunday, CNN News 18 brought on Swapan Dasgupta, who is a BJP Rajya Sabha..
The Doklam standoff seen through cartoons
IN Media Monitoring | 2017-09-03
Indian cartoons poked as much fun at us as at China and questioned our foreign policy. But China’s cartoons were consistently sneering of India and loyal to the state
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-09-03
What is media speculation worth in a situation where two individuals hold the cards close to their chests? Pretty little, it turns out. Media patter turned creative in the long period that no hard news on portfolios was forthcoming. First the commentators in NDTV's studio (as in a couple of..
NBSA orders Zee News to apologise
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-09-02
The News Broadcasting Standards Authority has fined Zee News Rs 1 lakh and ordered it to publish an apology on the channel at 9 pm on September 8 in large font across the full screen for defaming the scientist and poet Gauhar Raza by calling him a member of the..
Facebook bot that engages with users
IN Media Tech Briefs | 2017-09-01
Propublica has built a Facebook bot which is a tiny computer program that automatically converses with you over Facebook Messenger to determine you experiences with reporting hate speech on Facebook. Its says its objective is to learn more about Facebook’s secret censorship rules and what the social media determines is hate speech. (Nieman..
New layout increases engagement
IN Media Tech Briefs | 2017-09-01
USA Today has been testing a personalized design on its mobile website that serves users different content depending on how often they visit the site, how they landed on an article, as well as their location and their viewing habits. Last week it sent mobile users the new layout and reported that..
A hero’s welcome for Lt Col Purohit
IN Media Practice | 2017-09-01
Never has a terror accused released on bail received the kind of welcome Times Now and Republic TV accorded to Malegaon blast accused Lt Col Purohit.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-08-29
Justice VB Bhakhru of the Delhi High Court has granted filmmaker Jharna Jhaveri's plea to screen her documentary 'Charlie and the Coca Cola company before the court on Oct 28, 2017, said Senior Supreme Court advocate KTS Tulsi, who appeared on her behalf. The film maker was challenging the CBFC's denial of..
IN Media Freedom | 2017-08-29
Amoral politics makes journalists more vulnerable. That’s the short lesson to be learned from recent attacks on journalists, fatal or otherwise.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-08-28
BJP leader Vishwajit Rane, who won the Valpoi Assembly bypoll today, told IANS that his election was opposed by a leading cable channel in the state, Prudent TV. It is owned by a mining company. After his victory Rane made allegations about the editor-in-chief of this channel which the latter has denied...
Justice delayed, but not denied
IN Media Business | 2017-08-28
Last week the Supreme Court upheld a Delhi High Court verdict barring Doordarshan from sharing with cable operators the live feed of cricket matches for which private broadcasters had the exclusive rights.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-08-27
Counting the number of 'I's, 'Me's and 'My's in Tavleen Singh's column in The Sunday Express. On August 27 a wag counted 38 'I's, 4 'me's, 4 'my's and one 'myself'. It was titled "Waking the Deaf", but could as well have been titled, Tavleen Singh goes to JNU (And what happened thereafter). ..
Great Supreme Court privacy ruling but…
IN Judgements | 2017-08-26
…the problem for journalists is that it can be used against them when public figures and celebrities want to stop media scrutiny
Muslim countries’ verdict on triple talaq ruling
IN Regional Media | 2017-08-26
The media in Pakistan and West Asia gave wide coverage to the landmark ruling but recognition was tempered by suspicion of the BJP's intentions.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-08-26
It is mystifying why in six columns of coverage on an inside page of a murder at St Stephens hospital the Delhi edition of the Indian Express does not mention the name of the accused. It is conspicuously missing. Other papers have it. ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-08-25
Even as television channels bore the brunt of the violence that broke out in Haryana and parts of Delhi after Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Singh was convicted of rape, I & B minister Smriti Irani tweeted a veiled warning to television channels drawing attention to Clause B of the..
IN Media Practice | 2017-08-25
Politicians who lie, spin or make tall claims are being mercilessly exposed by new fact-checkers – private citizens or websites – fighting against fake news
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-08-23
An impressive battery of lawyers lined up by Rupert Murdoch’s Star India have succeeded in securing for the broadcaster an SC ruling which ensures that Prasar Bharati will no longer be able to air the mandatory sharing of sports feed on cable TV networks and pay DTH platforms. Star India..
Journo complaint baseless, say cops
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-08-22
Sometimes the police balk at registering a case against a politician. Sometimes they register it and tell journalists at the same time that the allegations are baseless. Which makes you wonder with how much conviction the case will be investigated. HT reports that the Karnal police booked BJP MLA Bakshish Singh Virk..
IN Media Freedom | 2017-08-22
Film maker seeks an early verdict on documentary showing the impact on farmers and water supplies of Coca Cola bottling plants.
The BCCL empire—towering over the competition
IN Media Business | 2017-08-21
BCCL has achieved this scale mainly through diversification into a variety of non-print media and ploughing its surplus cash into many venture-fund like investment bets.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-08-21
The pix referred to in the brief below has been taken down. Ellen Barry of NYT filed this stunning story-- How to Get Away With Murder in Small-Town India--after her posting in India ended. Published on Sunday (Aug 20) it is a multi-faceted investigation which has received a huge response. However she identifies the..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-08-19
The Times Group is persisting in its efforts to leverage the social media behaviour of its employees for the company's benefit. Newslaundry reports that the Group which began dictating terms to staff who were on Twitter and Facebook from 2014, has just given them guidelines which amount to saying journalists can’t..
Journalism of outrage in Gorakhpur, minus empathy
IN Media Practice | 2017-08-18
The coverage of a tragedy produced by professional journalists affects how a community and a nation responds to the underlying causes,
Fox News pays out $50 million in harassment costs
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-08-17
Slate reports that according to regulatory paperwork filed on August 14, 21st Century Fox paid out about $50 million in the fiscal year that ended on June 30 to cover costs related to a slew of sexual-harassment and discrimination settlements at Fox News. The New York Times reports that $50 million is $5 million more than..
A short, anecdotal history of DD-AIR censorship
IN Media Practice | 2017-08-17
Sometimes brave, usually timid, the nervous broadcaster’s saga of what to carry or not carry, spans decades and several governments.
How India became Facebook’s biggest market
IN Digital Media | 2017-08-16
Facebook now has more active users in India than in the US, more than sixty per cent of them young males. But the numbers are yet to translate into revenue.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-08-16
Thanks to the Hindu and TOI one knows what it was that the Tripura CM said that DD found unpalatable. Indian Express's long story taken from PTI does not give details, nor does the CM's speech figure in IE's inside page round up of CM's speeches. PTI is known for self censoring stories related to media...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-08-16
Scroll.in has run two stories which tell you whether the claims of the Prime Minister from the ramparts of the Red Fort are true, partially true or false. This one checks out his claims on whether his claims on GST, road building, rail track laying, electricity provision, etc. And this one looks at claims..
Police name journo as suspect in Bastar
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-08-15
The Hindu reports that the Bastar police have named Devsharan Tiwari, a senior journalist with local Hindi newspaper Deshbandhu in the Maoist insurgency-hit region of Chhattisgarh, as a suspect in a criminal case. The case involves a clash between two groups of the Bastar Transport Union. Tiwari is the fifth journalist from Bastar to..
Tragedy and denial in Gorakhpur
IN Media Practice | 2017-08-14
As the chief minister decried the TV coverage as fake news, the theatre of denial on the airwaves touched a new low in Indian politics.
Free speech in the courts, down the years
IN Law and Policy | 2017-08-14
Its been a colourful history over seven decades of free speech rights being upheld and diluted in turn, as courts struggled with challenges.
Expose gangster-politicians at your peril
IN Regional Media | 2017-08-13
Three violent assaults in Andhra Pradesh show the vulnerability of reporters who cover illegal sand mining by criminal politicians.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-08-13
The Hoot has received a complaint about a press conference at Haryana Bhavan on July 20 where a seasoned news agency journalist launched into an outburst against the CMD of ONGC for an exclusive interview he had recently given to a CNBC anchor. The reporter's tirade was allegedly peppered with..
Prasar Bharati CEO given charge of RSTV
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-08-12
The CEO of Rajya Sabha TV has resigned and has been asked to hand over charge of RSTV to the CEO of Prasar Bharati. This is unprecedented. A channel functioning from the house of elders in parliament will now be administered by a body which while being autonomous in theory..
Will Nihalani exit spell reprieve for docu film makers?
IN Media Freedom | 2017-08-12
Nihalani leaves behind a harsh legacy of unresolved court cases filed by documentary film-makers who made politically dissenting films.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-08-12
Journalists are having fun digging out Niti Ayog vice chairman appointee Rajiv Kumar's past utterances which contradict each other. This story has examples including one on his views on privatisation of basic services which seem to have changed completely in a week's time. ..
New CBFC chief needs to know what his job is
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-08-11
Pahlaj Nilahani to adman and lyricist Prasoon Joshi is quite a change. But before he gets going in his new job as CBFC chief will the government take a final view on what the CBFC's role should be--certification or censorship? ..
The Challenge of Editing the EPW-II
IN Opinion | 2017-08-10
How did it maintain a fine balance between political commentary and academic research? How did it cope with trends in academia?
The Challenge of Editing the EPW-I
IN Opinion | 2017-08-10
In 68 years, the Economic and Political Weekly has gone through significant changes, mirroring the changes in India. Its uniqueness cannot be over-stated,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-08-09
When the politician who was I and B minister till the other day becomes Vice President and the presiding officer in the Rajya Sabha, RSTV's performance will be scrutinised closely. After Tuesday's drama over the Rajya Sabha elections in Gujarat, a Wednesday eve discussion on the channel between anchor Kavindra..
Can transgender TV characters shape viewer attitude?
IN Media Practice | 2017-08-09
Does the visibility provided by transgender characters on entertainment television lead to greater acceptance of trans people?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-08-06
An additional district judge in Delhi ruled last week that the press does not have any exclusive right or special privilege to comment, "criticise or make imputations or allegations which are sufficient to ruin a citizen’s reputation". PTI reports that the court’s order came as it restrained the managing..
Failing to do justice to the complexity of rape
IN Media Monitoring | 2017-08-06
Part II--By giving rape routine treatment, newspapers hinder a wider debate on prevention and hold back on the understanding of how popular culture and power structures contribute.
Times of India in Kerala demonises Shias
IN Media Practice | 2017-08-05
A one-sided story painting a picture of Shias plotting to take over is a classic example of rumour and conjecture replacing facts.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-08-02
NDTV announced on its website that its digital revenues for quarter one were up 65 percent. It did not mention the company's consolidated after tax loss of Rs 22.01 crore in the same quarter. Nor the company's consolidated after tax loss of Rs 86.16 crore in FY 2016-17. ..
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IN Media Practice | 2017-08-01
In the guise of debate, Kashmiris are being subjected to vilification, venom, and finger-wagging by jingoistic anchors. Some are saying ‘no thank you’.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-07-31
TOI had a prominent story on page 8 in its Delhi edition (july 31) saying the NIA has "unearthed" the Hurriyat's protest calendar. Kashmir journos are amused. They say the agency could have just read local newspapers instead last year:Resistance issues new protest calendar; calls for Eidgah march on Friday, published on..
NDTV: A legal mountain to climb
IN Media Business | 2017-07-31
The strenuous legal defence mounted by NDTV against the IT Department’s claims of irregularities, could be prolonged.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-07-30
The media drama that broke in July regarding a legal notice from Adani Power to the Economic and Political Weekly over an article published by them, with the trustees of the journal asking for two articles to be taken down and the editor's subsequent resignation, is a three-cornered one. It has received..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-07-30
Mr Amit Shah's influence over the Times Group, displayed earlier this year, was again in evidence last week after the BJP president filed his papers for the Rajya Sabha nomination. Stories in the Ahmedabad edition of TOI on his assets, as well as on Smriti Irani were taken down. DNA also took..
Lipstick… Should it have made it to the screens at all?
IN Opinion | 2017-07-29
Do filmmakers like Alankrita Shrivastava have the maturity to decide what their audiences will watch as Shabana Azmi contends,
When the judiciary protected its own right to privacy
IN Privacy | 2017-07-28
On at least three occasions, the Constitutional Courts protected the right to privacy of judges and the judiciary.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-07-28
Minister Smriti Irani tweeted today that the strikingly captioned front page photo in the Indian Express, credited to PTI, was of Chennai in 2015, not of Ahmedabad airport in flooded Gujarat. PTI and Express used Twitter to apologise, and the former said it had sacked the photographer. ..
Three-pronged attack says NDTV
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-07-27
An NDTV statement on its website today says that the last 24 hours have seen new attacks on the company from the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate. These follow a demand from the IT department to pay Rs 429 crore in tax immediately. It claims that the CBI has sent..
Why short films have begun to make it big
IN Special Reports | 2017-07-27
Short films have taken time to get to centrestage in India but looks like they are here to stay,
President Kovind's Twitter debut
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-07-27
Did President Ram Nath Kovind suddenly acquire 3 million followers the day he took charge as head of state? Republic TV's story claimed he acquired that many in one hour, Zee News said he "earned" 3.25 million followers in minutes, TOI and others said something similar. All that happened apparently..
WB Govt censors Nepali language channel
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-07-26
HT reports that The West Bengal government sealed the Siliguri-based office of a Nepali language satellite ABN News Network television channel on July 22, and said it was "a move seen as a crackdown on establishments allegedly promoting the public unrest for a separate Gorkhaland state. Police alleged that the channel had..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-07-26
NDTV put out a statement on July 24 asserting that it was reorganising its newsroom and resources to focus on mobile journalism. It said, "we are the first major network in India whose reporters are all trained in using mobile phones to shoot stories", and added that this was not just about..
IN Regional Media | 2017-07-24
Media kits at Nitin Gadkari function had Rs 500 tucked inside.
NDTV alleges misleading press release
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-07-24
Was the media complicit in broadcasting misinformation about NDTV? The channel thinks so. It said in a statement that the press had gone by a misleading press release of the income tax department regarding the ruling of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal suggesting that ITAT had accepted claims of money laundering...
Romila Thapar and others: averse to public debate?
IN Opinion | 2017-07-23
The EPW controversy shows that India’s public intellectuals wish to pay a minimal price for speaking out.
EPW Chaos: Why shoot the messenger?
IN Opinion | 2017-07-22
If the members of the board were concerned about protecting the academic research character of the journal they chose the wrong person to serve as the editor.
Trolling ourselves to death in the age of Trump
IN Digital Media | 2017-07-22
Our dominant media shape not just content, but the entire affective structure of public discourse,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-07-21
The Washingtonian.com reports that the Washington Post has a new social media policy which says staffers can be fired if their social-media activity "adversely affects The Post's customers advertisers, subscribers, vendors, suppliers or partners." The paper's guild is opposing the policy. ..
Lazy bums, happy to copy off Facebook walls
IN Community Media | 2017-07-20
A Facebook post by a Delhi writer is stolen by a plagiarist and then published by journalists too lazy to check or to find their own stories
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-07-20
The Hindustan Times published this story titled "Hollow power: India is on a path to decline and that is why China is challenging it" and then took it down, as the link shows. Did it get a rap on the knuckles from the government? The story was unflattering in what it said about the..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-07-19
The facts emerging about the departure of the EPW editor suggest that eminent academics don't believe in giving an editor full functioning freedom. Former DU Vice Chancellor Deepak Nayyar, historian Romila Thapar, sociologist Dipankar Gupta and Ambedkar University Vice-Chancellor Shyam Menon were among those board members of the Sameeksha Trust who told editor..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-07-19
The defamation notice sent by the Adani Group to the Economic and Political Weekly is still a notice, not a case filed against the publication. The take-down of the two articles ordered by the EPW board may have been done to pre-empt a full blown legal suit. The notice is also against..
Using social media to whitewash sexual assault
IN Digital Media | 2017-07-19
A social media campaign backing Kerala actor Dileep shows how public opinion can be turned in favour of someone accused in a sexual assault case
HT Media shows profits from cost cutting
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-07-18
The first quarter results for HT Media Ltd in FY 18 show an 85.4% year-on-year increase in net profit to Rs 41.55 crore, on the back of lower costs. It shuttered seven editions earlier this year, did some retrenchment at Mint and HT, and engaged in a complex carve-out of its content business..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-07-18
With Smriti Irani getting additional charge of Information and Broadcasting after the resignation of Venkaiah Naidu, the ministry gets its fourth I and B minister in three years, two of them holding the portfolio as an additional charge. ..
Yogi’s first 100 days: poor, average or good?
IN Media Practice | 2017-07-17
According to four papers, it was 'pretty good’. Amar Ujala and Dainik Jagran’s coverage was positive while Express and ET were less so - but only slightly.
Mumbai police book AIB, yet again!
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-07-17
The alacrity with which Mumbai police lodged an FIR against comedy group All India Bakchod (AIB) co-founder Tanmay Bhat for its meme of a Snapchat dog filter used with a picture of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has raised eyebrows. Mumbai Mirror reports that several serious cases are still languishing for want of..
Sedition case against Amnesty fizzles out
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-07-16
Eleven months after booking Amnesty International, India representatives for sedition following an event in the city, the Bengaluru City Police have filed a B report in the case for want of evidence to make the charge, reports the Hindu. The case had been booked following an event in the city in August last..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-07-15
Loud remonstrations expose regressive policies but occasionally veiled protests drive home the point rather succinctly. News anchor Pratima Dutta of STV, Haryana News wore a veil during her news bulletin as a protest against the BJP government’s ad in an official journal, asking women to take refuge behind a ghoonghat/veil citing it..
Internet shutdowns have become chronic now
IN Media Freedom | 2017-07-15
Internet shutdowns have risen from eight in Jan-July 2016 to 23 in 2017, with the string of shutdowns almost unbroken since April,
Religion of humanity rises above politics of religion
IN Opinion | 2017-07-14
Highlighting the religion of the driver who saved the Amaranth pilgrims, is doing a disservice to him as well as secularism
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-07-12
A politician can do wonders for his image with a single tweet. Home Minister Rajnath Singh’s tweet on July 11: “The people of Kashmir have strongly condemned the terror attack on Amarnath yatris. It shows the spirit of Kashmiriyat is very much alive” instantly won him the approval of the..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-07-12
PTI reports that the CBFC has asked Suman Ghosh, director of a documentary on Amartya Sen “The Argumentative Indian”, to mute four words in the film. The four words CBFC's regional office in Kolkata wanted muted are 'Gujarat', 'Cow', 'Hindutva view of India' and 'Hindu India'. The film is structured..
Karnataka media needs lessons in sensitization
IN Regional Media | 2017-07-11
From fallacious reporting to threats, some sections of Karnataka media have made lives of two young women miserable
After 1,379 Days, NYT corrects bogus claim Iran ‘sponsored’ 9/11
IN Media Practice | 2017-07-11
With an Official Enemy, no amount of libel—no matter how egregious—merits a meaningful response from the paper of record.
A tale of two Kerala women and the media
IN Media Practice | 2017-07-11
The Kerala media lavished attention on the sexual attack on the film star while ignoring the doctor whose fundamental rights were being violated.
Docu on women reporting conflict wins award
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-07-11
Velvet Revolution, a documentary about the challenges that women journalists the world over face in covering conflict regions, has won the Best Film Award in the Feature Length Documentary section at Kashmir World Film Festival held earlier this month. The film is about journalists combating state and non state actors who try..
Police watched, did nothing, during Chirala assault
IN Media Freedom | 2017-07-10
A fact-finding committee report on the February attack on a journalist in Chirala town confirms that the police acted against him, not his attackers.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-07-10
Greater Kashmir says that Facebook has blocked the official facebook page of the Greater Kashmir weekly Kashmir Ink on Saturday. The message from Facebook said it was blocked for 24 hours. The social networking site has also removed the cover page of the latest issue of Kashmir Ink which was shared on its official Facebook page on..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-07-10
The Orissa High Court has taken 22 years to quash a defamation case against BJP MP Tathagata Satpathy and others. It was quashed last month. Earlier this year Satpathy introduced a bill seeking to decriminalise defamation in the Lok Sabha which if passed would remove the threat of imprisonment for defamatory speech. He..
Inciting a communal free for all
IN Media Practice | 2017-07-09
Television shows on West Bengal’s communal situation did their best to pit Hindus against Muslims,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-07-07
Contrary to the stand taken by cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Sidhu, who is now a minister in Capt Amarinder Singh's government, the CM has said he would not like to go on a "witch hunt" against Fastway cable company which had been monopolising the cable TV network in the state with the blessings of..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-07-06
NDTV and its promoter company have filed a Writ in the Delhi High Court on July 6 challenging the CBI raids on the promoters' home and office premises in the first week of June, as well as the FIR issued by CBI. The High Court has directed the CBI to submit a Status Report..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-07-06
If you don't get the answer you are looking for, tweak the answer to suit your purpose.Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu gave an exclusive interview to Republic TV and the first questions were predictably on terrorism and Pakistan. What would he say to Pakistan which is harbouring Syed Salahuddin, followed by..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-07-06
Arnab Goswami has discovered Muslim appeasement in Basirhaat in Mamata Banerjee's state and hollered away about it for two nights in a row on Republic TV. On July 4 he thundered that the CM was turning West Bengal into fatwastan and asked repeatedly, "Is there Muslim appeasement in West Bengal?"..
Using RTI in journalism: a lesson in tenacity
IN Books | 2017-07-05
Despite the RTI Act, for the government anti-transparency is a statement of belief and hiding information and passing the buck a favorite diversionary activity,
The media dangerously misuses the word ‘trolling’
IN Digital Media | 2017-07-05
“Trolling” is different from flaming or doxing, as it is from cyberstalking, cyberviolence and cyberhate,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-07-04
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;..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-07-03
News websites routinely carry articles by outside contributors. Why then did thenewsminute.com disown a long, reasoned piece that it carried on why the anti-lynching protests did not draw popular and media outrage? The writer compared the public response to the Nirbhaya episode and Anna Hazare's anti-corruption movement to the Not in my..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-07-01
The Centre has appointed a new secretary of the ministry of information and broadcasting, NK Sinha who was until now the culture secretary. He replaces Ajay Mittal who had a two year stint and has now been moved to Dept of Personnel and Training. (Television Post ) ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-07-01
On television's big night Republic TV's technology failed repeatedly ensuring that reporter after reporter that Arnab Goswami cut to after the GST session of Parliament could not be heard. Or was it a fortuitous lapse because it gave him more time to pile on praise for the PM and heap..
Taking quality cinema to smaller cities
IN Regional Media | 2017-06-30
There has always been a disconnect between good cinema and B towns. The Jagran Film Festival which begins in Delhi on July 1 aims to end that
Congress’s Sidhu moves against Punjab’s Fastway Cable
IN Regional Media | 2017-06-29
The powerful cable TV empire that Sukhbir Badal was thought to have influence over, is now under attack from Congress and AAP MLAs.
Re-examining the Mandsaur agitation
IN Media Monitoring | 2017-06-28
A farmers’ agitation that turned violent resulting in six deaths in Mandsaur, MP, prompted a detailed analysis in both the Nai Dunia and the Indian Express
FCAT as arbitrary as CBFC when it comes to certification
IN Censorship | 2017-06-27
The Film Certification Appellate Tribunal’s decisions to overrule or concur with CBFC’s rulings to deny /grant certification are equally questionable
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-06-25
Some journalists in the US received this mail in the run up to the PM's visit to the US: "Dear ---ji, ...During my visit I would be holding talks with President Trump on ways to boost India-USA ties. On 25th I would be addressing a community programme in Washington DC, where..
Buzzfeed and the 2017 UK election
IN Digital Media | 2017-06-24
Although Buzzfeed has retained its original quirkiness, its increasingly serious news agenda serves audiences often not regularly exposed to political information.
Now SC says Wage Board pay for contract employees too!
IN Judgements | 2017-06-23
Although the judgment has declined to find newspaper managements guilty of contempt, it has settled 4 questions of law which will have far reaching implications for journalists and newspapers in India.
Jail for Karnataka tabloid reporters
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-06-23
NDTV reports that two journalists will be sent to jail after Karnataka's lawmakers decided they should be punished for two-year-old articles in tabloids that were allegedly defamatory about some of them including Speaker KB Koliwad who is from the Congress. It was an unanimous resolution and a first in the state's history. NDTV..
Unravelling the tax travails of NDTV
IN Media Business | 2017-06-22
Does income in the books of a subsidiary count as profit accruing to the main company?
Qatar's crisis is about freedom of expression
IN Media Freedom | 2017-06-21
It is not only a diplomatic crisis, but a crisis for free expression in an already restrictive region.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-06-20
Employees of the Hindustan Times were told on June 20 that because of the difficult period the company went through last year, and the continuing "challenge on revenues" there will be no salary increase this year. A Variable Performance Bonus has been paid to "all eligible people," and a special fixed monthly payment was..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-06-20
This account in Caravan published on June 19 describes how a reporter in Delhi was attacked by people he was interviewing for a story on the demolition of a makeshift mosque in Sonia Vihar. They attacked him when they discovered he was a Muslim, snatched his phone and demanded that he..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-06-20
Television Post reports that The ICC Champions Trophy 2017 final between India vs Pakistan has become the most-tweeted ODI ever. The official hashtag #INDvPAK in #CT17 generated a record-breaking 1.8 million tweets. This was partly because for #CT17 Twitter tied up with Nissan for a deal which gave users access to match..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-06-19
The following categories of media activity are exempt from the Goods and Services Tax: "Services by way of collecting or providing news by an independent journalist, Press Trust of India or United News of India." Media produced by tax-exempt not-for-profits are also exempt. (http://gstindiaupdates.com ) ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-06-18
How much money is the Centre proposing to give UP to improve its road network? It depends which newspaper you read. Last week on the day this was announced Hindustan said Rs 50,000 crore, Dainik Jagran reported it as Rs 10,000 crore, and Amar Ujala said Rs 1 lakh crore. ..
Visual tales born out of conflict
IN Media Freedom | 2017-06-18
All three films not permitted to be shown at the short film festival in Kerala which is currently under way, are now on YouTube. Did the GOI really feel threatened by these?
IN Media Freedom | 2017-06-17
The question is being asked amidst an overarching defense by the establishment: has any media person been arrested or hounded?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-06-15
Republic TV on Thursday claimed it had 60 per cent viewership in 'super prime time''! "Record break run continues- decimates Times Now - 315 per cent greater than Times Now!" screamed the super on the channel. It put Times Now viewership at 18 per cent and NDTV at 6.5 per cent. Meanwhile Times Now claimed their channel was..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-06-15
The take you got on how Vijay Mallya's extradition hearing went on June 13 depended on whether you watched TV or read newspapers. TOI told you that the court hearing on his extradition has been pushed to December — and might not happen till next year. It quoted the judge saying: "Are Indians..
Naga papers: lots of comment, little reporting
IN Media Monitoring | 2017-06-14
Covering Nagaland’s anti-women’s reservation agitation - Part II. Local coverage lacked in investigation and ground interviews.
Coverage of Naga women’s reservation agitation-Part I
IN Media Monitoring | 2017-06-14
How the “national” media covered it. Both Hindu and ToI chose to give more space to violence, disruption, and political intrigue in their limited coverage.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-06-14
More on the CBI action in the NDTV case. This article in Business Line argues that the SC ruling in the Ramesh Gelli case which the CBI cited to justify treating private bank officials as public servants, does not necessarily hold good for the NDTV-ICICI Bank case. A nuanced reading of the..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-06-13
On June 13 NDTV has posted its six-point response to the oft-repeated allegations against it by government agencies, relating to undisclosed income, money laundering, shell companies, the penalty imposed on it of Rs 2030 crore, and so on. The answers too are familiar by now, the investment by GE and..
Media bias in the British elections
IN Media Practice | 2017-06-12
Owen Jones of the Guardian lambasted the “Tory press” in UK and said they had literally been baying for Corbyn’s blood.
Why was it only all about NDTV and the Roys?
IN Opinion | 2017-06-12
Should it not have moved beyond that? To other attacks on the freedom of the press in the states, even those ruled by non-BJP governments?
Now, bans at Kerala’s Short Film Festival
IN Media Freedom | 2017-06-12
The I&B Ministry stops three movies tackling JNU, Rohith Vemula and Kashmir from being screened.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-06-10
Even as a section of the Delhi media turned out in strength at the Press Club of India on June 9 to hear rousing speeches on protecting press freedom, Twitter has been reflecting less supportive takes on the NDTV raids. On June 6 Malini Parthasarathy of the Hindu group had..
TwoCircles.net and Radiance Weekly debate triple talaq
IN Media Monitoring | 2017-06-10
Coverage of the issue in two publications which focus on Indian Muslims suffered from omissions and contradictions.
IN Opinion | 2017-06-09
The raid on NDTV’s Roys has drawn only selective indignation from across the media spectrum. Can a divided media stand up to this government?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-06-08
On Tuesday at 8 pm ABP News did the Roy story. They provided both sides of the story, extensively quoting from CBI and NDTV press releases. Madhu Kishwar, Rajdeep Sardesai, Kumar Ketkar, Om Thanvi, Sharad Yadav were interviewed, and the government and Congress point of view also presented along with..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-06-08
Media houses for some reason like to give awards. But with so many people carving up that territory there aren't that many categories left unrecognised. So India News, sister channel of NewsX, is handing out IVF and Gynaecology awards this evening in collaboration with a fertility clinic. ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-06-07
The Indian Express says the complaint on the basis of which CBI has been investigating NDTV's Roys and which led to the raid on their premises on July 5 was filed by a former employee Sanjay Dutt who has also been filing complaints with other agencies against the Roys. The CBI clarification..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-06-07
On Tuesday evening Rajyavardhan Rathore minister of state for I & B met film producers from states across the country to discuss censorship amendments suggested by the Shyam Benegal Committee. How much censorship rules will eventually change as a result, remains to be seen...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-06-07
DNA reports that Zee Media has filed a criminal defamation case against the Indian Express, columnist Coomi Kapoor (author of the defamatory article), managing editor Viveck Goenka, whole-time directors Vaidehi Chintaman Thakar and Anant Viveck Goenka and Shibhana Subramanian. Though the item which gave offence is not specified, the case probably relates to this item concerning..
Is the ISBN system being misused?
IN Books | 2017-06-06
The time and red tape involved in a publisher getting ISBNs raises fears that they are being rationed to restrict freedom of expression.
Libel: is saying sorry better than coughing up?
IN Judgements | 2017-06-06
A High Court judge says an apology for defamation is often better than damages. The argument is intriguing, but flawed.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-06-05
The CBI becomes the third government agency to go after the owners of NDTV and its holding company, RRPR Holding Pvt Ltd. They are already being investigated by the Enforcement Directorate and the Income Tax Department. This case dates back to 2009, the CBI says it is investigating fraud involving..
Republic stings saffron brigade
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-06-05
Lest you say Republic TV never investigates constituents of the Sangh Parivar they decided to sting the Shriram Sene in Karnataka, hounding young Hindu-Muslim couples. "Republic stings Bajrang Dal", said the headlines on the channel on June 5. Its Karnataka correspondent unspooled different stings done recently to show the savage attacks on..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-06-05
An article published on The Wire on June 2 suddenly becomes a news item for Times Now on the afternoon of June 5. In it Partha Chatterjee, described as a social scientist and historian, compared the justification advanced for action by Major Gogoi in the human shield incident in Kashmir with the..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-06-05
NDTV's statement following the CBI raids this morning on the residence of Prannoy and Radhika Roy and two other locations, termed it a witch hunt by multiple agencies. It also equated the action with" trying to destroy the institutions of India and everything it stands for" and said "we will fight for our country..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-06-04
The first 3 weeks of data for English news TV viewing (post-Republic) establish the following: In absolute numbers Republic TV's viewership dropped from 2117 in Week 19 to 1703 in Week 20 (20% drop) and then to 1014 in Week 21 (40% drop). Comparative data for other English news channels is only..
Myriad glimpses of a conflicted society
IN Books | 2017-06-04
During a short tenure which ended in her expulsion, the Hindu’s correspondent covered swathes of life in Islamabad.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-06-03
ZEE TV has decided to discontinue Zindagi, its Hindi general entertainment channel, on June 30and shift its content to its video-on-demand platform OZEE from July 1. Last year it had dropped the immensely popular Pakistani serials from this channel in the wake of the Uri attack, and the resulting outcry against Pakistan. (Television Post)..
Patra was way out of line but does Razdan own the show?
IN Media Practice | 2017-06-03
A professional journalist does not own air time. She has borrowed the time from the public as a trustee of public interest,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-06-02
Industry publications are seeing NDTV's closure of NDTV Profit as a bid to exit before Raghav Bahl's Bloomberg Quint launches in a few months, to be the third player in the business news television space after CNBC-TV18 and ET Now. Instead Profit will become NDTV 24X7 Prime, offering technology, infotainment and entertainment. NDTV's..
IN Media Business | 2017-06-02
Modest growth, stagnant core business profitability, and poor shareholder returns combined could be the reasons for cost-cutting and streamlining its workforce.
Reporting on FIRs is immune to defamatory lawsuits
IN Judgements | 2017-05-31
Justice Endlaw fell back on a far-reaching principle rather than jurisdiction to dismiss the case before him,
Can't call him names, says judge
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-05-30
MP Shashi Tharoor's civil defamation case against Arnab Goswami and Republic TV came up in the Delhi High Court on May 29 and the court has issued notice to the former editor-in-chief of Times Now and his newly-launched channel to respond to Tharoor's defamation plea, says PTI. The judge hearing..
The crisis in social media: where are we headed?
IN Digital Media | 2017-05-29
Should what is not accepted on the streets be accepted online, ask the Germans as they prepare to pass a new law. Facebook’s inconsistent guidelines are damning,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-05-28
The BJP's celebration of three years of rule has meant multiple bashes for journalists of different kinds. The TV crowd was feted separately from print and digital journalists, one for each category, combined with other segments such as financial institution professionals. The Amit Shah part of the picture was a..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-05-28
Union minister for Women and Child Development Maneka Gandhi has been blitzing her way through the online petition site change.org to solicit support for her draft national policy for women. After a personalised letter to all those on the site's email list, she sent out another personalised letter today to thank signatories..
Is the media failing ordinary citizens?
IN Media Practice | 2017-05-27
In its search for saleable ‘exclusive’ news, it neglects stories that concern common people.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-05-27
The protest against TV measurement agency BARC by NBA-affiliated English news channels has proved to be short-lived. A week after pulling out of BARC and removing watermarking from their feeds they have quickly returned the fold and reinserted the watermarking. That means the agency will now continue to capture ratings..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-05-26
The Quint reports that Shashi Tharoor, Congress MP from Thiruvananthapuram, has filed a civl defamation case against Arnab Goswami of Republic TV for the story recently broadcast by the channel saying that Tharoor's wife Sunanda Pushkar had been murdered. He is seeking damages of Rs 2 crore from Goswami. At..
Modi Sarkar and the public broadcaster
IN Media Practice | 2017-05-26
How this government jettisoned fanciful notions of autonomy, and converted a failed broadcaster into a winning platform.
Baahubali critics, get a grip, please
IN Opinion | 2017-05-25
Critics who have got their knickers in a twist over the film betray their ignorance and expose the poverty of cinema commentary,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-05-25
While many Delhi broadsheets had full page ads by the Kerala Government completing one year in office, Economic Times went one better and tied up with the state government for another page at the back of the ad which it called a 'consumer connect initiative'. The interview carried there with..
Bhim Army, Bhim app, what's the diff?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-05-24
This was ET's blooper for the day. It tweeted its May 24 story on how the Bhim Army uses social media to recruit soldiers, but confused the Bhim Army with the Bhim payment app! So the tweet said, "How @NCPI_BHIM uses social media to recruit its soldiers..." Someone from the Bhim Army..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-05-24
The stand-off between the broadcasters of English news channels who are members of NBA and the audience measurement agency BARC threatens to become serious. If news channels protesting Republic's multiple LCN strategy turn off watermarking BARC can apparently deactivate their login for a long period and is threatening to do so...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-05-23
After the army commended the major who used a human shield in Budgam to get his men out, the Times of India sub-editor thought it was okay to pun in the photo caption accompanying the story on May 23. It read, 'No Leetul feat?' The Major's name is Leetul. Thats almost as..
Roger Ailes and the Fox News disclosure
IN Media Business | 2017-05-23
If Fox chose to disclose that it paid $45 million over nine months to settle sexual harassment claims, including those against Ailes, it had good business reasons for doing so.
IN Opinion | 2017-05-22
PIO to four prime ministers whom he was powerful enough to influence, he was also always available to the juniormost reporters.
NBA vs Republic TV —Pot calling the kettle…?
IN Media Business | 2017-05-22
Republic TV’s entry, its over-the-top first week ratings, and its alleged manipulation of distribution expose the weaknesses of a system where the ratings agency is broadcaster-owned.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-05-22
Now the Zee Group has launched a 'nationalist' news channel! In the morning there will be one hour of news content which "will spread hope, positivity and cast a ray of the new dawn." At night at 11pm there will be a 'CM's Corner’ which will air stories of States Chief Ministers and..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-05-21
This article in Business Insider is about a study conducted on 40 journalists in association with the London Press Club. The results showed that journalists' brains were operating at a lower level than the average population because of drinking too much, dehydration and too much caffeine, and high-sugar foods. It..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-05-20
Here is a delicious little piece of investigation by the Hindustan Times. When other newspapers reporter that the octogenarian former Haryana CM Om Prakash Chautala, convicted in a teacher recruitment scam, had passed the class 12 board exam while lodged in Tihar Jail, HT did a fact check. The story originated from Chautala's son..
High Court notice to Republic TV
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-05-20
The Delhi High Court has issued notice to Republic TV on the Times Group’s petition alleging copyright violation. BCCL has filed a petition in Delhi High Court against Arnab Goswami’s ARG Outlier Media and Asianet News saying that said that the audio clips which Republic TV had used in its..
Maharashtra’s new law: high only on political symbolism
IN Law and Policy | 2017-05-19
While the press protection law signals to police and prosecutors that protecting journalists is high on the political agenda, it dilutes protections they already have as citizens,
Ganging up against Republic TV
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-05-19
Republic TV does not stop making news. Now other English news channels have walked out of subscribing to the ratings agency BARC in protest after it announced the ratings of the first week of the new channel. They had earlier urged BARC to not release ratings of Republic TV after..
Stunning debut or a manipulated one?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-05-18
If the Times Group has accused Republic TV and its founder of theft, Arnab Goswami has got his revenge by way of what the BARC ratings show for Republic's first week. In a target group of males aged 22+ it has double the viewership of Times Now (51.9 per cent..
Paying publishers to use Facebook Live
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-05-18
The Columbia Journalism Review reports that over the last 12 months Facebook has been paying select media partners to use Facebook Live, in an effort to promote this live streaming platform. It says the New York Times is among 140 media companies and celebrities whom the social media giant enticed to..
BCCL vs Arnab:Neither looks good
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-05-17
Times Now has registered a case of theft against Republic TV . The charges are about tapes played for Republic's scoop no.1 and scoop no. 2 after the channel's launch. A segment of the taped conversation between Mohammad Shahabuddin and Lalu Prasad Yadav, and then the tapes played of the reporter Padma..
Purifying journalism education
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-05-16
The Indian Institute of Mass Communication organised a yagna on the campus as part of its seminar on National Journalism in the Current Context. Surely that has to be a first in a government educational institution? ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-05-16
Amit Shah is smart. If as reported he was the brain behind the government's decision to pull out of the ET Global Business Summit at the last minute thereby sending the Times Group a message, it has worked wonders. First the paper said flattering things about the Yogi Adityanath government's..
PDP govt circumvents its own social media ban
IN Digital Media | 2017-05-16
Two weeks into the ban, the question to ask is whether the situation has improved and whether protests in Kashmir have abated.
More patriotism than professionalism
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-05-15
Amazing how difficult it is for our TV channels to do straight professional reporting on an issue involving Pakistan. Wion: 'Pak's claims /India's facts'. 'Pak's cover up at ICJ.' Republic TV: #FightforKulbhushan. 'Pak's old whine in a new bottle.' NewsX: 'Pak's sham defence.' 'Pak yelps lies and lies.' Times Now:..
Network 18 Part III---Going under
IN Media Business | 2017-05-13
No amount of ‘restructuring’ could turn operations around. Soon a change in management and ownership control became the only feasible course of action.
Network 18 Part IV--- New owner, new broom
IN Media Business | 2017-05-13
The new owner has deep pockets, sees synergy with his mobile empire, and begins the salvage with a Rs 1000 crore write-off.
Network 18 Part II---The restructuring game
IN Media Business | 2017-05-13
Why the promoters acquired control over an obscure non-banking company, pumped cash into it and set it up as the parent company holding investments in the media operations of the Group.
Network 18 Part 1--Beginning with a bang...
IN Media Business | 2017-05-13
The saga of a media group that has had, in the last decade and a half, more ups and downs than a roller coaster in an amusement park.
Goswami and Tharoor: Is defamation now toothless?
IN Media Practice | 2017-05-12
Arnab Goswami’s wild accusations against Shashi Tharoor show that increasingly the fear of being charged with defamation fails to stop scurrilous attacks.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-05-11
Journalists are becoming notorious for not paying up dues at the clubs they patronise. On Wednesday the Press Club of India expelled 227 defaulters for non-payment of dues beyond the permissible period. And the Foreign Correspondents Club in Delhi also has a very large outstanding of unpaid dues. ..
Republic TV—out to decimate the opposition?
IN Media Practice | 2017-05-10
When the adversarial function of the media is focused on the oppostion, the firepower is grossly disproportionate to their current spheres of influence.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-05-10
Cable operators in Kashmir are hesitating to comply with the ban on transmitting 34 TV channels from Muslim countries, reports Kashmir Observer. The president of the Kashmir Cable Operators Association said that they have told the Deputy Commissioner, Srinagar as much because their business depends on these channels. The latter has however told..
Growth trends in the Indian print media
IN Media Business | 2017-05-10
Latest data released by ABC on May 8, 2017 highlighted continuing growth of print media, but other data suggests that future growth of print will be slower than other media.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-05-08
Republic TV is certainly breaking new ground. One April 8 it conducted a murder investigation in a TV studio, and kept calling the death of Sunanda Pushkar a murder before anything had been conclusively proven. At one point Arnab Goswami also described Shashi Tharoor as a cold-blooded murderer. Defamation is..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-05-08
Is this incident of a Chhattisgarh jail officer using Facebook for whistleblowing the first of its kind? This Hindu report says that a deputy jailer, posted at the central jail in Chhattisgarh's capital city of Raipur, was suspended on Saturday for a Facebook post alleging torture of young tribal girls while in police custody. She describes..
The India Freedom Report, January 2016-April 2017
IN Media Freedom | 2017-05-07
The Hoot’s comprehensive report on free speech issues in India, released on the occasion of World Press Freedom Day.
IN Media Practice | 2017-05-06
So I got working on getting back to where you can hear me and see me. The universe conspired to make this happen.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-05-06
Republic TV launched on May 6 in a burst of flag waving, literal and figurative, promising to "give it back to the anti-nationals". It will take on one powerful person a day the channel promises, and began with Mohammad Shahabuddin in Siwan in Bihar, playing a tape of him hectoring..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-05-05
The Aaj Tak exclusive, the first TV interview with Yogi Adityanath on May 5 achieved the near impossible. At the end of over an hour it would have left journalists trying to write a story scratching their heads for a lead. That's how bland and constructive it was. The best..
There is another side to the Sukma killings
IN Media Practice | 2017-05-05
Without explaining the context, reports on the killing of CRPF jawans in Bastar make little sense except as easy hate-mongering.
Even the torchbearers of press freedom lose their way
IN Media Freedom | 2017-05-03
The World Press Freedom Index shows several European countries – model democracies - sliding in the rankings
The Indian and Pakistan media on the Jadhav ‘’spy’’ case
IN Media Monitoring | 2017-05-03
The media stood by the ‘’national interest” of their respective countries instead of critically examining the case
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-05-01
While Delhiites are consumed by hoardings of Arnab Goswami's Republic TV and India Today's Anjana Om Kashyap competing side by side on a city bridge, news consumers are in for a tantalising wait. What is one to make of the Halla Bol anchor of Aaj Tak, anchoring the same show..
The stories that triggered the violence
IN Media Freedom | 2017-04-30
We analyse the reasons for attacks on journalists and who the perpetrators were for the period January 2016 to April 2017.
India 2016-17: The silencing of journalists
IN Media Freedom | 2017-04-30
As attacks on journalists rise, so does impunity owing to the politician-police nexus letting the culprits off. Exposing wrongdoing is now very risky.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-04-30
The Bombay High Court granted anticipatory bail to journalist Poonam Agarwal and triple amputee war veteran Deepchand on 26 April in the Quint sting operation case. They were both charged under Section 3 and 7 of the Official Secrets Act and under the IPC for abetting suicide by police in Nashik Maharashtra. The..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-04-28
The story on India having slipped three places in the international press freedom rankings is one several newspapers have carried. It is based on an index of press freedom report by the global media watchdog Reporters Without Borders which says that journalists are less free under the Modi government due to..
The media wants to mainstream Kejriwal
IN Opinion | 2017-04-28
But why? If Kejriwal is reformed he won’t win power on his own terms and seek to reform it – which, as we all know, was why AAP was born.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-04-28
The closer Arnab Goswami gets to his channel's launch the longer his interviews get. This one tells you that Republic could be less than two weeks away from launch, that it will be a free-to-air channel, and that the Times Group and The Wire still bug him a lot for all the..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-04-26
In the wake of viral videos capturing the violence in Kashmir the government today announced a ban on mobile internet and social media sites and apps like Facebook , Twitter, Wechat; QQ; Qzone; Google Plus; Skype; Line; Pinterest; Snapchat; Youtube; Vine and Flickr. (Al Jazeera) ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-04-26
Arnab Goswami's Newshour episodes of last summer have come under the scrutiny of of the UK broadcast regulator, Ofcom. Times Global is a licensee in the UK because its channel is shown there. This long, civil post mortem of 19 episodes in August and September of Newshour viewed by the regulator holds..
The Supreme Court petition on the Quint sting
IN Law and Policy | 2017-04-26
The Quint’s Poonam Agarwal petitions the apex court on the OSA charge, defends her sting on the army’s sahayak system, and demands a court inquiry into a soldier’s death.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-04-25
A CRPF jawan is seen in this Times Now story on the Sukma attack giving a soundbite to ANI and another TV mic even as he is laid up in a hospital bed with a breathing tube attached. A tweet about this by @mediacrooks had some Twitterati fulminating about 'disgusting presstitutes' and..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-04-25
ET Now is reported to have started a process of laying off employees, and plans to replace them with free lancers. Eight people in the Delhi bureau were given pink slips last week and some in smaller bureaus. These are at the desk, and also include cameramen and OB van..
Open your eyes, ears and minds on Kashmir
IN Opinion | 2017-04-24
Otherwise the media can never portray the reality of Kashmir in a way that will help Indians understand Kashmiri aspirations.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-04-24
The Supreme Court today admitted a writ petition filed by Quint reporter Poonam Agarwal for a court-monitored investigation into the death of gunner Roy Mathew, to seek guidelines on the application of the Official Secrets Act (OSA) to bring it in line with the Constitution and prevent its misuse, and..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-04-22
Twitter-happy journalists of the Times Group have been served a dampener by the organisation's HR head. A circular says they may not use their personal social media handles to comment on news, politics, civic issues or crime unless reported by the Group's official social media handles. Nor can they retweet..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-04-21
A foreign correspondent (Stanley Pignal of the Economist) thinks it's odd that if you get an interview with Ratan Tata you would not ask a single question about the Tata debacle. But the interview is a muted two-column affair on page 1 of ET Panache (April 20) and Indian journalists are..
Will she? Won’t she? And why won’t she?
IN Media Practice | 2017-04-20
Why Theresa May will not agree to take part in a TV debate in the forthcoming elections, is hogging the limelight
Facebook Live adds fuel to fire in Kashmir
IN Digital Media | 2017-04-19
When Mark Zuckerberg said “Live is like having a TV camera in your pocket” he did not anticipate what Facebook’s new feature might trigger in a conflict situation,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-04-19
How a does a journalist on Twitter deal with a subject like Mallya's arrest and release on bail, and the start of extradition proceedings? Without niceties. The Indian ones are rude, the foreign ones chummy. "Sorry Mr Mallya please don't bluff..." says Bhupendra Chaubey of CNNNews18. The business reporter of..
The competing narratives on Kashmir
IN Digital Media | 2017-04-18
The media are doing a grave disservice to the realities of Kashmir in the way they brazenly distort and misinform. It angers Kashmiris,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-04-18
After the PM, his ministers and officials all pulled out from the ET Global Summit recently, (ostensibly because of the paper's fulsome coverage of the Samajwadi Party) the paper seems to be trying hard to make up. ET on April 17 carried a full page splash of its 4th Annual..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-04-18
As part of the dramatic build up to his channel's launch Arnab Goswami put out another video yesterday claiming that "a media group" had sent him a six-page letter threatening him with imprisonment if he ever used the phrase "The Nation Wants to Know." No prizes for guessing which media..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-04-17
Four journalists have been murdered in Mexico since March 3, according to the news website Colectivo Pericu. The most recent killing was on Friday last week, of a 71-year-old journalist who was shot dead outside a store in Mexico City. He had a reputation for making strong and critical statements during his..
Do farmers disturb credit culture more than industry?
IN Regional Media | 2017-04-17
Maharashtra’s farm daily Agrowon offered a counter to the SBI chief, the RBI governor, and English newspapers critical of the UP farm loan waiver.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-04-16
The Hindustan Times reports that a journalist working with a regional newspaper, Shivraj Singh Raju, was attacked by the Gidderbaha truck union president Charanjit Singh Dhillon and some others at Gidderbaha in Muktsar district on April 15 afternoon. They entered his office and attached him for a report he wrote...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-04-13
Suresh Chavhanke, the editor in chief of Sudarshan News, who was booked for making communally sensitive remarks through his channel and website, has taken to Twitter to whip up support for himself. His followers have come up with this hashtag: #chavhanke4hindu. And his own tweets are repeatedly about those who consider Afzal their..
Who wants to own Telugu news channels?
IN Media Business | 2017-04-13
Business houses, politicians, parties and individuals – to protect their economic interests, exert political influence, or just do journalism.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-04-12
Ramesh Agarwal,the founder of the Bhaskar Group, passed away today, following a cardiac arrest. A far-seeing expansionist, he took a Hindi newspaper founded by his father in 1958 from Bhopal and Ujjain to the rest of MP, and then to Rajasthan in the mid-1990s to take on the Rajasthan Patrika...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-04-12
Arnab Goswami's interview and photo shoot with Man's World is notable for 3 reasons. For the fact that the questions were vetted by the anchor's PR team and two were disallowed, for his claim that his is the first journalist-owned, journalist-run, journalist-managed news organisation (where does BJP MP Rajeev Chandrasekhar fit in then?)..
In Kashmir Internet ban frustrates media
IN Media Freedom | 2017-04-12
Journalists are forced to dictate or fax copy. Or beg, borrow and steal to get a connection.
Maharashtra’s new law has significant omissions
IN Law and Policy | 2017-04-11
Does the new law water down what the IPC provides in terms of adequate punishment for grievious assault? Also, freelancers and stringers are not covered,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-04-11
That many publications of varying periodicity exist largely to skim off advertising from DAVP is well known. What was not known was just how many such enterprising publishers there are all over the country. Now DAVP has published a list of 804 publications which are being suspended for not submitting..
Murder of RTI activist not news
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-04-11
The killing of an RTI activist in Pune late on Sunday night by hitting him with concrete blocks was not news on Tuesday in any paper except the Indian Express. And the Express too did not think it was front page news. The paper had prominent coverage of the story only on page..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-04-10
Gulf News reports on April 10 that the Indian employee of an UAE based company has been sacked by his employer for sending an abusive message with sexual overtones to journalist Rana Ayub on social media as well as posting offensive posts against Islam on Facebook. He is from Kerala..
ABP Group: a tale of contrasts
IN Media Business | 2017-04-10
Print is profitable despite narrower margins than TV, the television business has a stockpile of past losses to wipe out.
Streaming videos inflame passions in Kashmir
IN Digital Media | 2017-04-09
Youths posting videos of clashes and urging people to help militants escape presents a new problem for the security forces
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-04-08
The Ministry of Ayush has written a sharp letter to TOI editor Jaideep Bose to "express displeasure of the Ministry" at this story titled "Poison in Ayurvedic Drugs". (TOI, Ahmedabad edition, March 31, 2017). The story is about a retired govt official suffering from lead poisoning, allegedly on account of an..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-04-08
Nistula Hebbar of The Hindu has tweeted the following: "To all the PR/media handling guys sending stupid good morning messages on WhatsApp, I ain't speaking to ur client if this continues.Regards." She adds in reply to a comment,"not one but three sunrise pictures EVERY DAY." So watch it, all you sunrise..
Kashmir: the by-elections you haven’t heard about
IN Regional Media | 2017-04-07
Given the rancorous mood in the Valley, the Srinagar and Anantnag by-elections have barely made news.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-04-05
Circular at Zee:"It has been observed that the employees have started using their mobile phones openly in the office and have forgotten about the intend of launching EKBHAS. Therefore we are reiterating that no one in the organization is allowed to carry their mobile phones at work and you are required..
UP mein Yogi Raj-- the advent of Adityanath
IN Regional Media | 2017-04-05
While the English press focused on abattoirs and anti-Romeo squads, reporting in the Hindi press ranged across a wide canvas of pressing issues.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-04-05
The fallout from the entrapment sting that the new Malayalam channel called Mangalam TV did continues. NDTVreports that "eight journalists in Kerala, all working with the same news channel, have surrendered to the police in connection with "honey-trapping" a minister who resigned last week over an obscene phone call." The channel misrepresented..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-04-04
Minister Piyush Goyal is getting bored with meeting journalists in his office. The additional director general of the Press Information Bureau sent around an invite last week for "an informal meeting" on April 3 to journalists covering his ministry at the Cafe Coffee Day on Janpath. For editors there is..
Confused by data visualiza-tion? Here’s how to cope
IN Media Practice | 2017-04-03
We often overlook the importance of knowing how to communicate data to peers and to the public in an effective, meaningful way.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-04-03
Notice sent out by the Chandigarh Press Club: As per the decision of Supreme Court and further directive of UT excise department, no liquor will be served in the Chandigarh Press Club till further orders. The Chandigarh Press Club falls within 500 meters of Madhya Marg , which is a..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-04-02
April 1 was the switch off date for the last phase of digitisation, of the rural areas. The I and B ministry had instructed all multi-system operators (MSOs), local cable operators (LCOs) and broadcasters to ensure that analog signals are not transmitted after the deadline ends. Tamilnadu has resisted the..
FIRs against journos in Chattisgarh
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-03-31
Scroll.in reports that a First Information Report was filed against two journalists in Bastar on March 31 for posting and sharing a message on social media and through WhatsApp about former Inspector General SRP Kalluri meeting Maoist fighters in Jagdalpur. Kamal Shukla and Prabhat Singh have been charged .with defamation, insult to..
IN Media Practice | 2017-03-31
Why have the media bought the view that EVMs are infallible when some experts – and the Supreme Court – disagree?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-03-30
Ethical violations by the media are really piling up. This story published on the Hoot earlier this week turns out to be even more unethical than media professionals in Kerala criticised it for being. A new channel, Mangalam TV, launched with a lewd phone call featuring the state transport minister, who promptly..
Quiet, but strong flows Big Ganga
IN Regional Media | 2017-03-30
A non-fiction channel catering to Bihar, Jharkhand and East UP taps into devotional content and Buddhism to command 58 per cent of the viewership.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-03-29
Even as the OSA charge on a Quint reporter has journalists protesting, ethical issues of media practice are ignored. Should the source's identity be revealed after a sting? The raw footage was handed over. And should only a journalist be charged and not the founders of the website which carried..
Can the army get away with OSA against journo?
IN Media Freedom | 2017-03-29
The charges against Quint’s Poonam Agarwal are a heavy handed response to an exposé of the army's own feudal practices.
Mangalam TV, the Minister, and media ethics
IN Regional Media | 2017-03-28
The debate was initiated by the media itself as many leading media professionals came out publicly to say that this broadcast by Mangalam TV was a criminal act.
How to identify media propaganda
IN Media Practice | 2017-03-28
Any news that does not contain facts and shades of opinion that allow readers to draw their own meaning is inadvertent propaganda.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-03-27
Why did the PM and his ministers and bureaucrats, and Chandrababu Naidu (whose state is an official partner of the summit) all pull out of the ET global summit at the last minute? It started on March 27. The reason offered by a gossip portal, that the PM and his..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-03-27
Read this article on altnews.in to see how the Financial Express published an amazing attack on Kamal Haasan by its reporter who assumed he was a Muslim. The paper then changed portions of the original article to drop gems such as "As he lives in a Hindu-majority country he has no business to comment..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-03-27
For a newspaper to make its own awards function the first lead two days in a row is more than a bit rich. What was Business Standard thinking? After the big splash on Sunday about its Saturday function featuring the Finance Minister, came a Monday morning newspaper which had no..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-03-26
@gauravcsawant is at the Gorakhpur mandir gaushala at 3am tweeting away. "Cow protection is integral to our life. It is very important for us both in the state & the centre," @CMOfficeUP tells @IndiaToday @AajTak. And Sawant then goes on to how there are more than 350 cows at the..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-03-26
The Mumbai Press club is known for organising innovative junkets for its members. Next month it will teach members "safe and responsible driving" in collaboration with Skoda India, something it did last year also. Skoda will of course provide Skoda cars for the drive from Mumbai to Nashik, and all the hospitality..
Who will protect the citizenry from the press?
IN Opinion | 2017-03-25
When ordinary citizens are defamed by two of the country’s biggest English newspapers, what recourse do they have?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-03-25
On March 23 NDTV put out a statement on the income tax case against the company, describing it s a blatantly false case. Its said that by describing an USD 150 million investment by GE in the US through NBC in NDTV as a "sham transaction" the IT department was accusing the..
Orissa High Court muzzles the media
IN Judgements | 2017-03-23
It falls for the specious arguments put forward for a media gag by three lawyers accused of sexual harassment.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-03-22
Do web teams of newspapers normally quote other newspapers? The DNA Web Team and FE (Financial Express) Online this week quoted articles from TOI, Indian Express and HT in which Muslims working for Yogi Adityanath had been interviewed. DNA did this on two consecutive days, March 20 and 21. While only the March 20 report had a line in..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-03-22
Last week there was an interesting fracas between a powerful lobby, the Indian Sugar Mill Association (ISMA), and journalists covering the commodity beat. ISMA apparently withdrew an invitation to a journalist of the Financial Chronicle to a dinner party it was holding because it did not like a story he..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-03-22
Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh has appointed his old band of loyalists as advisors. Among them is senior journalist Raveen Thukral, who has remained closely associated with him and had been advising him on media during the run up to the elections. He becomes media advisor to the chief minister..
Falsely implicated by a newspaper
IN Media Practice | 2017-03-20
After 11 years in jail, Rafiq Shah asks the Hindustan Times why it swallowed the police version in the 2005 Delhi bombing.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-03-20
Is UP's new cabinet an all-caste rainbow or one dominated by ``high'' castes? Depends on whether you read TOI or Indian Express. TOI's headline says: `Team Yogi Mirrors Shah's Social Engineering'. Subhead: UP cabinet a balancing act of castes & allies.' But the IE's Shyamlal Yadav in his analysis:..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-03-20
Goa's AICC Secretary Girish Chodankar alleged that Rs 1000 crore changing hands to enable the formation of the BJP government in Goa. BJP President Vinay Tendulkar retaliated by sending him a defamation notice and the police filed an FIR against him. What's interesting is that Tendulkar has also made all..
IN Media Practice | 2017-03-20
Of course it’s tiny and less important than UP but the national media’s coverage of Manipur’s election was a masterpiece of neglect
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-03-18
On Saturday night the BJP reps in the Times Now studio did not need to mount an aggressive defence of the govt's choice of Yogi Adityanath as UP CM. Navika Kumar, the channel's political editor, did it for them, pouncing on other panelists. "What has been at stake apart from..
Is BJP govt decision to start its own TV channels illegal?
IN Law and Policy | 2017-03-18
The law ministry’s proposed initiative is totally at odds with the recommendations of TRAI and SC observations on broadcast ownership,
Censoring the arts—humouring offended mobs
IN Special Reports | 2017-03-18
INDIA’S FREE SPEECH CHALLENGES—Part I. Films, television and public events ran into deletions and protests from a whole range of perpetrators in the last 15 months.
Threats from sand mining mafia
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-03-18
Huffpost has reported on this case of an independent journalist under attack for exposing illegal sand mining in Tamilnadu. The state has provided her police security after she received threats for this four part series in The Wire. ..
Photo journalists in Kashmir roughed up
IN Media Freedom | 2017-03-16
Several photojournalists were beaten and threatened by uniformed men on Thursday afternoon.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-03-16
A host of media owners and editors watched Capt. Amarinder Singh take oath today as the next chief minister of Punjab. Among them were Zee Group chairman Subhash Chandra, the owner of NewsX and other channels Venod Sharma, Vir Sanghvi, and the resident editors of HT, TOI and Indian Express...
Baseless gaffe, NDTV India apologies
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-03-16
Three NDTV India editors offered a prime time apology on air on March 15 for running a story on a 16 year old Assamese singer being issued a fatwa. Said anchor Ravish Kumar with an embarrassed smile, "the Assamese CM had even assured protection to the girl on our channel",..
Our experiments taught us why people troll
IN Digital Media | 2017-03-16
By analyzing 16 million comments made on CNN.com and conducting an online controlled experiment, we identified two key factors that can lead ordinary people to troll.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-03-15
Pallava Bagla had a good story on NDTV India on March 15 on low-cost life-saving technology. It featured a do-it-yourself ECG machine, with Bagla doing a demonstration sitting on a bed all strapped up. Quipped a wag, this must be the first case of topless journalism. ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-03-15
Here is an amazing story from the Manipur election. The editors of 8 newspapers have had FIRs filed against them because the local BJP was devious. Ads for polling day and the day before, were only to be released after vetting by the Election Office’s Media Certification and Monitoring Committee (MCMC). The party..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-03-14
On March 13 Navbharat Times had a page one pix of Narendra Modi and Amit Shah playing Holi with Donald Trump. It said the US President landed in Delhi on Sunday to congratulate Modi on his "zordar jeet"(big victory). Nice picture of all three and another unnamed person, all splashed in pink gulal. And the last line, said, "Bura..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-03-13
A hoarding has sprung up at the entrance to Delhi's Khan Market featuring a large picture of Zee's Sudhir Chaudhary, the indefatigable Modi cheerleader. While Chaudhary dominates, two lesser known faces are at the bottom of the hoarding which reads, "Poora desh aapke saath hai." (The nation is with you.) No..
Good strike rate for AAP’s journalists in Punjab
IN Regional Media | 2017-03-13
With three journalists in the opposition AAP legislature party, those on duty from their former profession hopefully will not run short of copy.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-03-11
Its nice to be Rajat Sharma. You own the channel, and you can do pretty much what you want with your show. On March 11 night his studio turned into a cosy place with HRD Minister Smriti Irani and Sharma having an unhurried, happy chat about what made the BJP..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-03-11
"UP has risen above caste and creed..." said Kiran Bedi as channel News 9 carried quotes from politicians and others on the scale of the BJP's victory in Uttar Pradesh. Should governors be given statements to TV welcoming political victories? ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-03-11
The received wisdom after the Bihar poll results has been that CNN News18 is the channel to watch for early results given their network of ETV reporters at counting centres. Bhupendra Chaubey this morning was underscoring that every chance he got. But actually Times Now was as fast and faster..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-03-11
Congress compliment for Modi: Abhishekh Manu Singhvi, Congress spokesperson to Rajdeep Sardesai on India Today at 9.35 am :"Just wait till 11 am before calling the results Rajdeep..you know in the past it has been reversed...but yes if the present trends continue it is not only a victory for Mr Modi but a remarkable victory". ..
Truth telling from the frontlines
IN Media Freedom | 2017-03-11
“Velvet Revolution” is a 57-minute international documentary which profiles women journalists who have paid a high price for speaking truth to power.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-03-11
The morning hours on TV before the results today was marked by some caution - are the exit polls right or wrong? Even Times Now was suddenly cautioning jumping the gun..It was also time for graphic gizmos- India Today had a red colour gaddi with the incumbents trotting up one..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-03-11
Go News, a mobile-only news channel debuts today, March 11, with the election results coming in. It is being launched by Pankaj Pachauri, the former BBC and India Today journalist who did a stint in the Manmohan Singh PMO. It is meant for android and iOS phones. ..
Selective coverage of atrocities
IN Media Monitoring | 2017-03-09
Why do some anti-dalit and anti-minority atrocities dominate the news while others are ignored?
Today's Chanakya: right this time?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-03-09
Of all the exit polls, Today's Chanakya is really sticking its neck out with its predictions for this round of state elections, giving the BJP 285 plus-minus 18 seats in UP. This is the pollster who got the Bihar polls seriously wrong, predicting 150 plus sets for the BJP in..
Santosh Yadav: free again, and undeterred
IN Media Freedom | 2017-03-09
Released on bail after one and half years in jail, he is full of plans to keep up with his ‘patrakarita’ and ‘samaj seva’ and tell the world about the plight of the adivasis in this strife-torn area.
A former journalist is convicted by a lower court
IN Archive | 2017-03-09
As Prashant Rahi is sentenced for life along with Prof. Saibaba, the Hoot reprints an article on him from its archives.
Rajeev Chandrasekhar censors The Wire. But why?
IN Media Freedom | 2017-03-09
Newslaundry asked the same questions some months ago. So why is Mr Chandrasekhar taking umbrage now,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-03-07
The National Highway Authority of India took a media team from Delhi to Bharuch where Prime Minister Modi was inaugurating a 1.4 km cable bridge. At the function the media kit distributed contained a white envelope with Reliance retail gift cards. Wouldn't Mr Modi frown upon that? ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-03-07
Mint has seen a bunch of resignations and layoffs in recent weeks. Its weekend publication Mint Lounge had around a dozen reporters but is down to a third of its reporting strength after resignations followed the appointment of a new Lounge editor. The travel budget for reporters has apparently also..
Revisiting the mothers who protested AFSPA
IN Books | 2017-03-05
A new book tracks down the women who stripped naked 12 years ago to protest against rape and rights abuses under AFSPA.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-03-04
Quint has been named in this story which the Indian Express carried on March 4, on an army jawan committing suicide. But the video which is still available here does not name the jawan being talked to, or show his face. It does however name the army cantonment where he was located. The text of the..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-03-03
Dissemination of the details of the Kerala Budget via social media caused grief to the finance minister Thomas Isaac today. The Indian Express reports that the opposition began to create a ruckus in the Kerala legislative assembly alleging that the Budget being presented was already available on social media. The..
“Abused for my journalism” - a chronicle of online hate
IN Opinion | 2017-03-02
Neha Dixit received the Chameli Devi Jain Award for “Operation Babylift” and other stories. We reprint her acceptance speech.
Net neutrality acquires a powerful new foe
IN Digital Media | 2017-03-02
Trump’s FCC chair Ajit Pai proves his critics right by backing corporate interests and opposing net neutrality
Can journalism withstand Trump?
IN Media Practice | 2017-03-01
Trump & Co. are using the fault lines in journalism to question journalism’s legitimacy as a ‘watch dog’,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-02-27
The Vijay Rupani government in Gujarat has increased accidental death cover for accredited journalists from Rs 50,000 to 5 lakh. Also families of accredited journalists will now get Mata Amrutm (MA) card for cashless treatment upto Rs 2 lakh in govt or designated pvt hospitals in the state. The MA..
IN Law and Policy | 2017-02-27
The distinction between self-imposed ethics and legal remedies is being blurred by an activist judiciary which has begun to issue writs to private organizations.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-02-27
A year and six months after he was jailed in September 2015 Bastar journalist Santosh Yadav was granted bail by a division bench of the Supreme Court, comprising Justices AK Sikri and Ashok Bhushan today. Yadav was arrested in September 2015 on charges of aiding Maoists. ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-02-26
On Monday Feb 27 the TOI building caught fire again, and staff now have to work from home and the press club. On Sunday there was a fire which according to other newspapers took 25 fire tenders to douse. Sunday's fire occurred less than a year after a fire in..
How Jagran and Ujala covered UP: Part II
IN Media Monitoring | 2017-02-25
Dainik Jagran and Amar Ujala were pretty balanced but one striking failure was putting tough questions to politicians on behalf of their readers
How Jagran and Ujala covered UP: Part I
IN Media Monitoring | 2017-02-25
Of all the parties in the UP election, the BJP received more coverage in Amar Ujala and Dainik Jagran, mainly because it had more star campaigners.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-02-25
The Jagran Group is going in for an IPO in early March to raise Rs 400 crore for its radio property Radio City. Music Broadcast Ltd, the Jagran subsidiary which runs its radio business, now has 39 radio stations. This will be the first Media IPO of 2017, reports Daily..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-02-24
In all the swirling coverage over the attacks on students and journalists at Ramjas college, those speaking in defence of the Sangh Parivar found an island of calm opportunity on Doordarshan News. On Feb 23 night its Aamne Samne programme was devoted to Professor Rakesh Sinha denouncing the kind of student politics..
Express Group: on solid turf after a turnaround
IN Media Business | 2017-02-23
After a bumpy four years, the group’s finances have hit a smooth stretch since 2015. Profits expand without help from one-offs.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-02-23
When does a party qualify to get a separate mention on the list displayed by TV channels when counting of votes is on? For more than half the day while showing the results of the elections to the country's richest corporation, all news channels showed the main five parties: BJP,..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-02-23
What to make of a gossipy site which runs items which make the ruling party bosses and the PM look good? And then then has Bollywood gossip as well? The 'about us' has no names at all. The gossip targets the Gandhis and Naveen Patnaik. The lead story on the CBI chief..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-02-20
Reporter Akhilesh (@Akhilesh_ET) is a parody Twitter handle that has been trolling three ET journos for their friendly coverage of Akhilesh Yadav and the Samajwadi Party in UP. Two of them have blocked it. Akhilesh (with the CM's photo) turned an ET reporter tweets:"Actually I'm finding journalism better & safer...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-02-18
Former journalist and human rights activist Teesta Setalvad who is a constant bugbear for the present government, and frequently the target of investigations, is launching her memoir on Feb 24 at the Literature Live! event hosted and curated by Anil Dharkar in Mumbai. Titled Foot Soldier Of The Constitution, it traces her experiences during the Mumbai..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-02-18
While the relaunched Hindu does not look strikingly different its Delhi edition is now probably the most expensive daily in the country at Rs 10 a copy. Other editions of The Hindu do not cost that much. If the paper can pull off the hike without losing circulation it will have shown the..
Why Mayawati matters more than the reporting suggests
IN Opinion | 2017-02-17
Largely ignored by the media, TV and print, until quite recently, Mayawati’s voters are speaking up at last. The BSP is in the fight in the rural seats in varying degrees,
Reporting demonetization: a job well done
IN Media Practice | 2017-02-16
The coverage by the Express, Hindu, and HT was balanced, fair, in-depth, wide-ranging, rigorous, and, for once, told us what the poor thought.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-02-15
The bail application of Santosh Yadav, the journalist who has been languishing in jail in Bastar since September 2015, is scheduled to come up before the Supreme Court on February 27 for a final hearing. ..
Dissecting Donald Trump’s language on Twitter
IN Digital Media | 2017-02-14
These tweets are not indiscriminate and ill thought-out after all. The limit of 140 characters is perfect for communicating emotion rather than nuance.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-02-14
Dainik Jagran is a media group with a history of political alignments with different parties in Uttar Pradesh, members of the proprietor family have been elected to the Rajya Sabha from both the BJP and the Samajwadi Party. DJ chose to publish an exit poll favouring the BJP knowing that..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-02-13
The Tamil news channel Puthiathalaimurai deployed a drone to take pictures of the holiday resort where AIADMK chief Sasikala has housed MLAs reports HT. The mission was successful. Less enterprising reporters who tried land and sea routes to gain access were attacked by private guards at the resort, reports the..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-02-12
JAYA TV is now Chinnamma TV. Any time you tune it to its live online broadcast you get a soundtrack of cheering supporters, a split screen with a convoy on the move, and Sasikala alternating with other supporters in speaking into Jaya TV's mikes. Whoever might be speaking ever..
Demonetisation saved Goa from paid news
IN Digital Media | 2017-02-12
If paid news powered the 2012 elections, this time parties and candidates turned to social media. With cash in short supply campaigning went online,
Reporting of mass graves in J&K in the Indian press
IN Research Studies | 2017-02-11
Research abstracts on the Hoot: A section of the media has consistently glossed over the fact of mass graves out of bias or a desire to protect the armed forces,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-02-10
There are news cameras all along the coastal road along the famous temple beach town of Mahabalipuram in the outskirts of Chennai. Scores of print and TV and digital journalists are trying their best to breach the resort where 130 AIADMK legislators are said to have been herded and kept..
Twitter’s latest crackdown on abuse is a damp squib
IN Digital Media | 2017-02-10
There is something fundamentally flawed in Twitter’s approach to the whole issue of Trolls and online abuse.
Star India reports ad revenue decline
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-02-08
Star India is a reporting a $30 million decline in ad revenue during the quarter ending December 31, 2016 compared to the same period in the previous year, reports Television Post. The drop is being attributed to the effects of demonetisation. Earlier ZEEL also reported a fall in ad revenue growth..
New policy dismays Community Radio activists
IN Community Media | 2017-02-07
While stonewalling their demand to broadcast news, the I&B Ministry has said CR stations can air AIR bulletins instead.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-02-07
It is not clear which kind of journalists the PMO's weekly mailer for journalists--which began to be sent out shortly after Republic Day-- is meant for. The latest one arriving on the 6th brings top takeaways of the budget, the PM's comments after the FM's speech, the president lauding the..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-02-05
A relaunch of The Hindu in a new design has been in the works for some time and is now scheduled for February 17, with the Sunday Hindu being launched with its new design on Feb 19th. An internal mail from the editor spells out what staffers at major centres..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-02-04
While this week’s sackings in this Group are making news ABP has been extremely generous in its severance package to journalists. While younger staff are being given a few months’ basic as compensation, those who have put in several years of service with the company are getting anything between 75..
Hindi news channel for Rajasthan
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-02-04
The Patrika Group which publishes the Rajasthan Patrika and Catch News has launched a free to air Hindi news channel, Patrika TV, reports Television Post. They have experimented with cable news in the past. It is promising "neutral and non-superficial" Hindi language content, including hyper local coverage for the seven crore people..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-02-04
The London High Court found the Pakistani ARY channels guilty of defamation for maligning the owner of Geo TV and the Jang Group, Mir Shakil ur Rahman. The court ordered ARY to pay £3 million in damages and costs. ARY failed to comply with the court's orders after which British media regulator..
Bloodbath at the The Telegraph
IN Media Business | 2017-02-03
Journalists shudder as one more newspaper group sacks employees across two newspapers, axing an estimated 120 plus jobs in a day.
Journalists cross ‘enemy’ lines in Punjab
IN Regional Media | 2017-02-03
The AAP’s love-hate relationship with journalists swings to love with several senior journalists getting a ticket
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-02-03
On Thursday a large number of journalists at The Telegraph were reportedly asked to resign, including those in the Features Bureau and the Political Bureau. They have apparently been given six months basic pay. Earlier in December there had been reports of job cuts being imminent at the ABP group...
Sudhir Chaudhary's expanding control
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-02-03
Sudhir Chaudhary was holding forth last night on his show on Zee News on the state of the US Press, then on the state of the Indian media, and then, of all things, on unsafe passwords on the Internet. Now comes the news that he is set to take charge..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-02-01
The budget reactions which start coming into a journalist’s mailbox as soon as the FM has finished speaking are a cheerful mix of self promotion and flattery, hoping someone in government will notice their praise. The MD of a home appliance company thoughtfully appends his career profile to his hailing..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-02-01
After the FM said in his Budget speech that 10 lakh farm ponds would be completed across the country under the MGNREGA scheme by March this year, Ravish Kumar on NDTV India took off on this in his budget analysis programme, for a good ten minutes or more. That is..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-01-30
Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal and deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal have been served notices over the issue of paid news on PTC news channel by the returning officers (ROs) of Lambi and Jalalabad Assembly constituencies, the Indian Express has reported. The reason behind the notices is the..
Zee Group: thriving despite print media losses
IN Media Business | 2017-01-29
General entertainment brings in the profits, News TV and distribution remain viable, DNA shows a modest cut in losses.
How TOI and Jagran differed in their currency ban coverage
IN Media Monitoring | 2017-01-28
Analysis shows that Dainik Jagran’s front pages and editorial stance backed demonetization while TOI was more nuanced and critical
IN Media Practice | 2017-01-27
After debate and discussion, we have decided that it is smarter to offer less volume and more depth.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-01-26
Shabbir Ahmed, a TV correspondent with Times Now, was acquitted earlier this week in a criminal defamation case brought by the Joint Editor of Nakkeeran magazine in 2010, for reporting CBI raids at the latter's house in connection with the 2G scam. Ahmed who was then with the NDTV-Hindu channel has..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-01-26
A desk report in Dawn sounds seriously miffed that critics in mainstream Indian publications have panned Pakistani actress Mahira Khan's performance in Raees. It quotes from review across a number of publications and then asks, "Given that the criticism is at times malacious, instead of constructive, one has to wonder..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-01-25
Today Subramanian Swamy tweeted a letter he has written to the minister of information and broadcasting bringing to his attention the fact that the name of Arnab Goswami's new channel, Republic, violates the Emblems and Names (Prevention of Improper Use) Act. Under the schedule accompanying the Act this word cannot..
India Today’s ‘sting’ and the UP assembly enquiry
IN Special Reports | 2017-01-25
Will the breach of privilege case and the challenge before the Supreme Court outlive dissolution of the UP Assembly?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-01-24
The National Media Council of UAE invited the Doordarshan correspondent posted in Dubai to accompany the delegation of the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi to India. He is here to be the chief guest at the Republic Day parade. It also invited the correspondents of Malayalam Manorama and Mathrubhoomi. The journalist..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-01-24
Arnab Goswami's successor at Times Now, Rahul Shivshankar, launched his own signature show last night (January 23) with much fanfare. India Upfront succeeds Goswami's Newshour and guess what, does much the same thing. Hollers away about the misdeeds of this government's critics. The story on Teesta Setalvad by the anchor's own admission..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-01-23
The Zee Group being a lead sponsor of the Jaipur Lit-fest means that you get a dose of Zee News' Sudhir Chaudhary there every year, sometimes plugging one of the group's channels. This year someone from the audience asked him a direct question about fake videos to which he replied..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-01-23
One hundred and thirty four members of the Indian Womens Press Corps, housed in a government bungalow in Delhi, have written to its management committee recording their "strong objection" to a clause which was recently added to the IWPC form for booking space for meetings/conferences, and demanding its removal. The clause..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-01-23
Catch News has just done a round of staff relocation between its Delhi, Noida and Jaipur offices. Whether you describe it as cost cutting or rationalisation depends on what you choose to believe. The moves are apparently aimed at facilitating the Rajasthan Patrika Group's plan to bring out an English..
Trump’s inauguration and the legitimacy fetish
IN Opinion | 2017-01-21
Apprehensive as they are about what a Trump presidency might bring, mainstream media pundits stoutly defend the legitimacy of his election.
Enabling a climate for Hindi science journalism
IN Regional Media | 2017-01-21
For 25 years, Srote Feature Service and Journal has tried to enhance scientific temper in society by generating articles for readers of Hindi publications.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-01-21
As Donald Trump wound up his inaugural speech Indian news channels were all a-twitter at his protectionism pitch. But what did RT, the Russian channel serve up for Trump's inauguration? An all American panel with an ageing Larry King, discussing the outgoing and incoming presidents from an US rather than..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-01-20
The Times of India on January 19 used its edit page to argue across four columns that "there is blood on the floor of one of the last bastions of print media in the world." It referred to the Hindustan Times closing seven editions without naming the paper, to suggest that the print industry..
Sukhbir Badal’s media card in Punjab
IN Regional Media | 2017-01-18
What could be a crucial asset in the polls is the control over cable networks in the state which SAD is believed to have,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-01-18
The Indian Womens Press Corp in Delhi, housed for many years in a government bungalow, is a favourite low-cost location for holding press conferences and such like. But it is suddenly drawing attention for a condition it seems to have imposed on those renting space in its premises. Telegraph reports..
Molestation in Bangalore--how many is 'mass' ?
IN Media Practice | 2017-01-18
One paper coined the term and others picked up from there. A fortnight later a counter narrative was being energetically pushed out.
Mid-Day vindicated by Supreme Court ruling
IN Judgements | 2017-01-16
But the case shows how contempt is misused by the courts to crush critical reports quickly while the final ruling takes years to come.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-01-15
Both Barkha Dutt and NDTV announced on Sunday that she will moving on from the channel to do her own thing. While she said,"It's been a super ride at NDTV but new beginning in 2017. I shall be moving on from NDTV to explore new opportunities and my own ventures,"..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-01-14
Is getting political gossip paramount for political reporters? It seems to override all other considerations, going by an item in Jan 13's Indian Express column `Delhi Confidential'. Journalists, including seniors, apparently throng Congress leader Sajjan Kumar's annual lunch for his insights into Haryana, UP and Delhi politics. Any journalist worth her salt..
A requiem for the Hindustan Times, Bhopal
IN Media Business | 2017-01-13
The story of the Bhopal edition, and how it was slowly stifled before it was shut down earlier this week.
Hashtag Modi and demonetisation
IN Digital Media | 2017-01-12
The PM’s Twitter strategy both for the currency ban and his other schemes has been artfully crafted to create a positive aura around him,
Encountering sexism and casteism at work
IN Regional Media | 2017-01-12
The regional media allow discrimination against women and dalits to flourish, a Network of Women in Media conference was told recently.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-01-11
The Ministry of Finance is crowd sourcing budget inputs on Twitter. It asks, which scheme needs more focus in the coming budget: Housing for all scheme, Mudra Yojana, Stand up India, or Start Up India? Three days left for you to vote! In Digital India the Twitterati gets to decide..
The ethics of reporting hate speech
IN Media Practice | 2017-01-11
As elections get under way, the prospect of political hate speech looms large. A five-point test for journalists on how to minimize damage when they report.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-01-09
Malini Parthasarathy, former editor of The Hindu, took a dig at India Today inviting Sasikala to inaugurate its South Conclave 17, tweeting “Sasikala's entry legitimised by India Today which invites her to inaugurate its #SouthConclave17!” Rahul Kanwal of IT: ”@MaliniP do you seriously believe that Sasikala ascension dependent on our..
Does nonpartisan journalism have a future?
IN Opinion | 2017-01-09
The Trump presidency will challenge the press and make nonpartisan journalistic norms difficult to follow,
Sacrificed for a digital future
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-01-08
Employees at the Hindustan Times have now received an email from the Executive Director - Operations & HR which describes the 'shelving' of operations in seven cities as being necessitated by the "move towards an accelerated digital strategy". He also says that the pruning is being done to strengthen 'prime HT editions' at..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-01-08
TheWire.in is planning to launch a Hindi edition in February and has been hiring journalists for it. A spot of good news at a time when the industry is seeing a downturn with retrenchments at the ABP group and in HT Media. ..
The Sahara-Birla papers: such reluctant coverage!
IN Media Practice | 2017-01-07
Now that the Express has turned up some hard evidence, will Google searches on this story continue to yield spectacularly sparse results,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-01-06
Restructuring at HT Media and the ABP group is resulting in a substantial loss of media jobs. While the Hindustan Times is pruning editions and is reported to have closed six on Thursday, ABP is going to cut jobs across group publications and TV channels as it reduces pullouts and..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-01-06
Times Now continues as the No 1 news channel in the English news channel space five weeks after Arnab Goswami quit, reports Television Post. While viewership has fluctuated over that period the channel has not lost its leadership, and NDTV 24x7 is at number 2 with less than half its viewership, according..
Why NDTV ban and Zee FIR are not comparable
IN Media Practice | 2017-01-05
The first was an attack on free speech. The Mamata govt FIR aims to stop Zee from inciting Hindu-Muslim enmity with its coverage of the Dhulagarh riots.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-01-05
Investigations have confirmed that the death of the journalist who was murdered in Samastipur had nothing to do with his journalism. Brij Kishore Kumar was apparently murdered on account of a personal rivalry with his cousins, according to a local journalist. ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-01-05
This Frontline story just published, on the PMO’s monitoring of the turf battles between former Delhi LG Najeeb Jung and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, is based on multiple RTI applications. It documents the pro-active role of Hindustan Times executive editor Shishir Gupta in drawing attention of the PMO to Kejriwal’s violations, via an email whose..
Cable wires go underground in Kolkata
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-01-05
The West Bengal government will lay an underground cable TV network in Kolkata to decongest the city of overhead cable wires, reports Television Post. This was announced by the West Bengal urban development minister Firhad Hakim who said that the move is part of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s beautification plan..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-01-04
Three people were shifted out of the Hindustan Times business bureau today and four lost their jobs. Unconfirmed reports say more pink slips have been handed out in the Mumbai office. As part of the effort to integrate newsrooms in the organisation which publishes three dailies, Mint will be providing..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2017-01-03
The new year begins with the murder of a journalist. The Indian Express reports that unidentified men shot dead a journalist called Brij Kishor working for a daily in Samastipur. Another report says seven bullets were pumped into him. This is the third killing of a scribe in Bihar over an eight-month..
Community Radio: give it back to the community--III
IN Community Media | 2017-01-03
A decade since the last guidelines were issued, it is time to take stock of the situation and change the guidelines to make the processes more transparent
IN Books | 2017-01-02
The author interviewed several of those who troll. They belong to the lower sub-stratum of the BJP, which has a pretty sophisticated upper stratum as well.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-12-31
Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav is fairly active on Twitter. But his more than 2 million followers on the social networking site haven't had a word from him after his father and Samajwadi Party supremo expelled him from the party on Friday. His last tweet was dated December 29..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-12-31
Ravish Kumar, NDTV India’s Senior Executive Editor, is not known to be a great fan of the Modi government. Yet he seems to have taken strong exception to the cry going around social media that now that the promised 50 days of the currency ban are up, and things are..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-12-30
NDTV has announced cost cutting measures which include shutting down bureau offices in five cities with reporters and cameramen being asked to move equipment to their homes. Other measures announced:no international travel, library to be shut down, minimal overnight stay, evening snacks to be stopped. The channel blames the "bad..
Free speech in the courts: legal outcomes in 2016
IN Media Freedom | 2016-12-30
Sedition, defamation, censorship, internet shutdowns—the year saw the courts being tested on a range of freedom of expression issues.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-12-30
It is interesting to see who have been reporting the story on Mamata Banerjee's government filing an FIR against Sudhir Chaudhary of Zee News for his reporting of the Dhulagarh riots. And who have not. Chaudhary says the media is blacking this out. Reporting over the last two days has..
Media winners and losers in 2016
IN Opinion | 2016-12-28
TV anchors with diametrically opposite convictions rode high, and Sushma Swaraj’s Twitter activism went global. But regional media barons ran afoul of parties in power, and a jailed reporter spent yet another year deprived of freedom.
Kashmir Reader to hit the stands tomorrow
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-12-27
The Kashmir daily which was served a ban order on October 2 this year by invoking section 144 CrPC, Section 3 of the Incitement of Offences Act and Section 10 of the Press and Publication Act, will finally resume publication tomorrow. The newspaper's ban over close to three months evoked little..
IN Opinion | 2016-12-27
Congress’ Rahul Gandhi focuses attack on PM’s corruption and #demonetization, but is the rest of the Opposition buying?
AIR News: Tra la la…tra la la…
IN Media Practice | 2016-12-26
Its early morning news bulletins are one long riff on the government’s wondrous work. Hard news? No thank you.
Fake, and increasingly dangerous
IN Media Practice | 2016-12-26
An alarming proliferation of fake news that managed to outstrip fact-based news, threatens to topple the credibility of the media
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-12-26
One knows that Zee Media, which is owned by media baron and BJP Rajya Sabha MP Subhash Chandra, is fond of batting for the ruling party. But what do you say when one of the ads for its global news channel WION turns out to be an over-the-top paean to..
Anupam Mishra: the gentle but staunch Gandhian
IN Opinion | 2016-12-24
Anupam Mishra was a greatly respected journalist who stayed away from the limelight but wrote with insight on water and the environment.
Kashmir: unrest gives push to digitisation
IN Digital Media | 2016-12-22
Faced with shrinking revenues, newspapers are going digital and journalists are striking out on their own with digital media start ups
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-12-21
"India Today impact: RBI does a U-turn, changes Rs 5000 deposit rule!" Times Now was making similar claims too after the RBI backtracked on Tuesday morning. You'd think the newspapers don't exist--that a strong edit in the Hindu, similar edits in the Economic Times and Business Standard and a first lead in the Times of..
Mapping tribal language newspapers
IN Special Reports | 2016-12-20
What are the factors that decide whether and where tribal language publications flourish? Some of the answers are surprising.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-12-20
BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra and NDTV anchor Nidhi Razdan sparred on the Left, Right and Centre programme on Dec 19 evening. Every time she asked Patra a tough question about why the government is constantly changing the rules regarding demonetisation, the BJP spokesperson would patronisingly say 'don't be agitated Nidhi'...
Protect your privacy during turbulent times
IN Privacy | 2016-12-19
As an ethical hacker, my job is to help protect those who are unable, or lack the knowledge, to help themselves.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-12-19
Malayalam writer and theatre activist Kamal C. Chavara, alias Kamalsy Prana, was arrested in Kozhikode on Sunday for a Facebook post where he allegedly slighted the national anthem, reports The Indian Express. Chavara was charged with sedition under Section 124 (A) of the Indian Penal Code after members of the..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-12-17
Mir Shakil ur Rahman, the Dubai based owner of Pakistan’s Jang newspaper and Geo television, won a major libel victory against Pak television channel ARY News in the UK earlier this month, reports The Guardian. ARY, like most other Pakistani TV channels, is answerable to British courts because it rebroadcasts in the UK. ARY had..
IN Media Practice | 2016-12-17
When a scholar’s lifelong study of ancient knowledge systems is reduced to slogans, it means the media is imposing its own preconceptions on his work.
Journalism to Corp Comm: making the switch
IN Media Business | 2016-12-17
Business journalists, including those at the top of their profession, are increasingly making the shift from media to corporates.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-12-16
Arnab Goswami, former editor-in-chief of Times Now, has announced that his new venture will be called Republic. The Indian Express reports that it is likely to be up and running before the assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh in 2017. However, Goswami, who made jingoistic, high-decibel journalism a whole new paradigm in Indian news..
Telugu 360 sting exposes TV ratings manipulation
IN Media Business | 2016-12-15
BARC India’s new ratings system proves to be vulnerable to tampering by TV channels just as the earlier TAM was.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-12-15
Senior journalist Josy Joseph has been slapped with a civil defamation suit by Jet Airways and its chairman Naresh Goyal, reports Scroll.in. The Rs 1000 crore suit comes after Joseph alleged in his book A Feast of Vultures that the airline company had links with underworld don Dawood Ibrahim. Publisher Harper Collins and Outlook magazine, which..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-12-14
Foreign Policy magazine has named India’s external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj one of the 15 top Global Thinkers of the year for her “novel brand of Twitter diplomacy”, reports Deccan Chronicle. The list includes others like Hillary Clinton, Angela Merkel and UN secretary general Ban-ki-Moon. Swaraj’s diplomatic initiatives on social media are..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-12-14
“Final message - people are dying since last night. I am very surprised I am tweeting right now & still alive.” That is a tweet from seven-year-old Bana Alabed who, along with her mother Fatemah, have been live-tweeting the horror of being trapped in eastern Aleppo as Syria’s pro-government forces close in..
BSP picks #demonetisation as poll plank for UP
IN Digital Media | 2016-12-13
Twitter is abuzz with tweets of Mayawati and her followers seeking to captialize on notebandi even as @yadavakhilesh ducks the issue.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-12-13
Mathrubhumi English reports that 7 persons were arrested by Kerala police today for not standing up during the national anthem at the International Film Festival at Kerala on December 11. The incident occurred at the six pm screening of the Egyptian film "Clash." ..
IN Media Practice | 2016-12-12
The government of Andhra Pradesh is set to outsource its PR work to journalists for upto Rs 51,000 a month.
‘Your profession makes you vulnerable’
IN Media Practice | 2016-12-11
Press Council Chairman Justice Prasad recently expressed his views on press freedom, journalists’ security, paid news, and trolling
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-12-10
A Factor Daily report claims that several social media influencers have been paid to make #IndiaDefeatsBlackMoney trend on Twitter. Their brief: to share the positive effects of demonetisation. Quoting a source with 30,000 followers on Twitter, the website says that the brief comes with detailed instructions about the timeline of the tweets..
Chargsheet against Marans filed
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-12-10
CBI has finally filed a charge sheet against former Telecom Minister Dayanidhi Maran and his brother Kalanithi who owns Sun TV, and others, for allegedly using 764 high-speed data lines at his residence for the benefit of Sun TV when he was a minister. The charge sheet says that altogether 764..
IN Regional Media | 2016-12-09
An Adivasi woman and a former Naxalite speak about their expectations of mainstream media. But can it accommodate them,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-12-09
On Dec 8 night on Times Now during a slanging match on demonetisation a young woman anchor imperiously told a panelist who was critical of the note ban- " If you are not going to listen to my question..I don't think you have a right to expect the government to..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-12-08
Mann Ki Baat, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's monthly address to the nation on All India Radio, brought the public broadcaster gross revenue to the tune of Rs 4.78 crore from advertisements during 2015-16. Quoting the minister for information and broadcasting Rajyavardhan Rathore, a Hindustan Times report said that only the broadcast on All..
Demonetisation doubles TV news audience
IN Media Business | 2016-12-08
The viewership of Hindi TV channels has shot up dramatically as nervous people remain glued to their TVs for the latest on demonetisation
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-12-07
Stanley Pignal of The Economist, was denied entry at the the RBI’s press conference on Monetary Policy Review today. Pignal tweeted: “@theeconomist is no longer invited to RBI policy meeting press conferences. Won't let me in. Sad day for transparency.” This is a surprising decision, given that Pignal was granted an..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-12-07
Advertising and marketing sites are doing their bit to put out stories pegged to J Jayalalitha's demise. This one features the 14 different Amul ads on the formidable Amma over the years, from Chennai Super Queen to Jail-alalitha! to Shanka about Lanka, and Court-ing trouble. ..
A death that could not be reported
IN Media Practice | 2016-12-07
Archival nostalgia became the highlights that gave viewers a rare insight into the otherwise aloof Amma.
Press freedoms shrink globally
IN Media Freedom | 2016-12-06
A new report says that press freedom has declined to its lowest point in 12 years and, this time, some European countries are in the dock.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-12-05
Job cuts are looming large at The Telegraph, the Kolkata-based English language daily of the Ananda Bazar Patrika Group. Employees came to know last week that a substantial percentage of jobs across editorial and marketing may be on the chopping block. Several regular pages are being scrapped as is The Telegraph's popular..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-12-05
This analysis of Narendra Modi's six speeches on demonetisation between November 8 and November 27 on Indiaspend shows how the black money narrative receded and the one on creating a cashless/digital society gained ascendance. The third narrative on fake currency plateaued. But why did the PM go from thundering about black..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-12-05
The Indian Express reports that the Amicus Curate to the HC submitted before the Punjab and Haryana High Court on Saturday that the Delhi-based journalist Tariq Anwar who filed a report for Firstpost on the alleged cases of gangrape in Murthal, Haryana, had produced false and fabricated evidence, and should be prosecuted..
Pollution coverage: good but sporadic
IN Media Practice | 2016-12-03
The Hindi press’ writing on pollution has been good but if it were more sustained and went deeper into the causes, the result would be terrific.
IN Opinion | 2016-12-02
The Finance Minister goes overboard in describing the media as a force incapable of looking beyond suffering to recognize a momentous transition.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-12-02
The BJP is transparent about its media dislikes. In a programme "Ground Zero- Cash crunch" that Rajdeep Sardesai was doing on India Today on December 1, pay day, he asked Smriti Irani on the steps of Parliament for her reaction. Her reply was "Rajdeep the whole world knows that I..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-12-01
The interview done by Bhupendra Chaubey with Niti Ayog's Amitabh Kant on CNN-News 18 on Wednesday night sounded like a promo by the government for the digital revoution it is ushering in. Kant literally conducted a Master Class on the programme on digital transactions. Jabbing his cell phone in the air he..
Mann Ki Baat: Modi’s pet platform
IN Media Practice | 2016-12-01
An ingenious and influential communication tool, Mann Ki Baat continues to be a great favourite of Narendra Modi’s. In two years, 446 million Indians have heard him chat to them.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-12-01
A reader points out that an incident of murder in Delhi was reported both by the Times of India and the Hindi paper Hindustan but the versions were very different. TOI said the young man killed his elder brother because of being asked to leave his home late at night to allow his brother and..
Community Radio: here is the community!
IN Community Media | 2016-11-30
The authors of the CR study have used purposive, not random sampling, with the sole intention of bringing negativity to the CR movement in the country.
Demonetisation critic arrested
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-11-29
The cyber cell of the MP police arrested Abhishek Mishra, a 19-year-old engineering student, for his tweets criticising demonetisation and allegedly because he had made “offensive” posts against chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan. Hindustan Times reports that he was arrested on November 12 (the police managed to keep the news a secret..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-11-29
Doordarshan journalist Satyendra Murli says he has been facing death threats ever since he claimed that the Prime Minister’s Nov 8 demonetisation speech was pre-recorded and not telecast live, reports Catch News. Murli said at a press conference on Nov 24 that he had audio and video evidence to support his allegation...
Community Radio – where is the community? Part II
IN Community Media | 2016-11-27
How state governments, politicians, and indirect corporate interests have wormed their way into community radio stations, violating the spirit of the original intention.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-11-26
This week CNN News18 has been doing a series on the impact of demonetization. While listing the pros and cons of the move one of the points read : "The common man in India has learnt to live on Rs 24,000 per week." Really? Are they so out of touch..
IN Opinion | 2016-11-26
His journalism apart, he was a connoisseur of the arts a bon vivant, who enjoyed the good things of life, and a fun loving soul who was a good mimic.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-11-25
Is India Today TV now the No 1 English news channel in terms of television rating points (TRPs)? That’s what Rajdeep Sardesai, Consulting editor with the channel, claimed on Friday, tweeting a graph which showed India Today TV well ahead of Time Now, which has hitherto been the king of English..
The NM App: A story for some, a non-story for others
IN Digital Media | 2016-11-25
The mismatch between AIR and DD making the poll survey their top story and the print media’s muted response, points to a credibility problem.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-11-25
Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on a programme on NDTV launched into a ridiculing of the media, particularly TV, describing how they went from queue to queue in the country to ask people about the inconvenience standing in long lines to claim their own money. Twisting her face and imitating media..
IN Digital Media | 2016-11-24
Instead of seeking to elicit real opinions on the currency crisis, the questions in the PM’s poll were designed to trigger just one answer: Great job!
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-11-23
Kochipost.com reports that though there is a strong fake currency flow in Kerala which the NIA has linked to Dawood Ibrahim's syndicate, this angle is not being picked up by the local media in their demonetisation coverage. The Times of India, New Indian Express, Firstpost and others have been mentioning the..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-11-23
Arvind Gupta, National Head, Information and Technology of the BJP, speaking on November 22 at a panel discussion on online harassment, described Arvind Kejriwal, Chief minister of Delhi as the "biggest troll out there just now." And added that he was on record with that statement...
IN Digital Media | 2016-11-22
Twitter’s track record in cracking down on abuse, trolls, and fake accounts is the result of its indifference, its policies, and ineffective handling.
AIR: The Master’s Voice during the cash crisis
IN Media Practice | 2016-11-21
In its coverage of the currency crisis, All India Radio lavished praise on the government, ignoring opposing views and minimizing the hardships of ordinary people.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-11-21
Bangladesh's popular daily, The Daily Star runs an item called Top Quote on its front page . On Sunday (Nov 20) its top quote was the Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj's tweet after a Muslim man offered to donate his kidney for her. Swaraj's tweet said "Thank you very much brothers. I am sure, kidney has..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-11-21
Last week Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal got into a royal fight on camera with two BBC Hindi journalists who continued to argue back even as he lost his cool with them and began to speak directly to the camera, wagging his finger at it. The fight was over Kejriwal’s assertion that 55 people..
Currency crunch, chaos, and fake news
IN Media Practice | 2016-11-21
The brazen way in which mainstream media has propagated fake stories around demonetization would shame even fringe online portals.
IN Opinion | 2016-11-20
Arnab may have exited the small screen but journalism in India is yet to throw up the mythical Batman that he is said to have destroyed.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-11-19
Why do some TV anchors think that viewers want their life stories instead of just providing them news that they are paid to give ? On India Today channel Rahul Kanwal is a frequent offender. On Saturday while doing a show on demonetization he told the audience and panelists to clap loudly..
Facts in the new ‘post-truth’ world
IN Media Practice | 2016-11-19
With people preferring lies to facts and social media to the mainstream media, the role of the latter in exposing falsehoods has become more important than ever.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-11-19
Bhutan is facing its first free speech test after its transition to democracy, reports the Guardian. Independent journalist Namgay Zam, earlier a presenter on the state-run broadcaster Bhutan Broadcasting Service, is facing imprisonment or a massive fine if found guilty of defaming a prominent businessman. She shared a Facebook post by a woman about a property..
IN Archive | 2016-11-18
On November 18, 2010 the Radia tapes emerged. On the sixth anniversary of the scandal we republish a memorable series on PR from The Hoot.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-11-18
On CNN News18's special broadcast on prime time on Thursday BJP spokesperson Narasimha Rao complained that the channel was only showing negative aspects of demonetisation. Anchor Shireen Bhan put him in his place saying she would not accept such unfair attacks on her channel and the media at large for..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-11-17
BBC World Service is targeting India as part of a big global expansion--it has announced new radio, TV and digital services in Gujarati, Telugu, Marathi and Punjabi. The 7 other new language services announced are Igbo, Pidgin, and Yoruba in Nigeria; Amharic, Oromo, and Tigrinya in Ethiopia and Eritrea, and..
Kashmir and India: parallel universes
IN Media Freedom | 2016-11-17
Rescind the NDTV ban but continue the six-week ban on Kashmir Reader. This discrepancy is just a small part of the differential treatment Kashmir journalists face.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-11-16
On Nov 16 the apex court came down hard on online advertisements for pre-natal sex determination kits and directed the Centre to set up a nodal agency to address the problem. If there were any complaints in this regard, intermediaries such as a Google or a Yahoo would have to..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-11-16
On Press Day today PM Modi conceded in his speech that physical attacks on the press were deplorable and should not take place. He also talked about the positive developmental role that the media has been playing. His minister for information and broadcasting, Venkiah Naidu, meanwhile tweeted that if the..
Black money sparring spills over onto Twitter
IN Opinion | 2016-11-16
From Amit Shah to the BJP’s political opposition across the spectrum, all strove to make political capital out of PM Modi’s controversial initiative.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-11-14
Jawaharlal Nehru's birthday was marked by the launch of the beta version of National Herald online, a clean and quiet look with Nehru's quotation below the masthead, "Freedom is in peril, defend it with all your might." Sudheendra Kulkarni's piece revisiting what BJP leaders of an earlier era thought of Jawaharlal is..
Chronicle of a death not foretold
IN Media Freedom | 2016-11-14
The editor’s farewell piece from ‘Fact and Fiction’ the last issue of Himal in its current incarnation.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-11-14
Five years after it was launched in December 2011, the Decan Herald is shutting down its Delhi edition on December 10. Its small team has been given the option of relocating to Bengaluru. Financial unviability is the probable reason...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-11-14
India Today channel showed Aishwarya Rai on Monday, praising PM Modi's demonetisation scheme to eradicate black money. She was giving a stand-up bite to a reporter who forgot to ask a counter question about her name being up there with that of Amitabh Bachchan in the Panama Papers as revealed..
TV bans: Don’t let the issue die down
IN Law and Policy | 2016-11-14
Government bans on TV won’t go away. They have been around for 12 years, and a sustained campaign against bans as a method of regulation is the only solution.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-11-13
On Nov.13 a city page of TOI’s Delhi edition has a half page plug for something called Functional Manual Therapy, which is promoted by Vardan, described as a Times of India initiative. Is this a commercial venture? Not clear. An internet search says that it is a “welfare initiative” from..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-11-12
The press conference by finance minister Arun Jaitley on Saturday afternoon elicited more statements than answers from him. While most questions asked were cautious, it took a woman journo to ask a bold one. Moushumi from Aaj Tak asked whether Mr Modi had concrete evidence that terror was being funded..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-11-12
Dharmendra Singh, a reporter with DainikBhaskar in Sasaram, Bihar, was shot on Saturday morning, reports the Hindustan Times. He was at a tea stall near his house early in the morning when three bike-borne assailants opened fire, shooting him in the chest. He died as he was being taken to Varanasi. While investigations are on, no..
Deaf electorate or media in a bubble?
IN Opinion | 2016-11-12
The demolition of Trump – an honorable enterprise for editorial writers -- occupied the media more than investigative reporting on the people.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-11-11
Catch News reports that PM Modi's Twitter account lost 3 lakh followers on November 9 following demonetisation. However a Twitter spokesperson responded to Catch's story and said that the reduction of followers was due to spam accounts being deleted. ..
Reports of the death of polling greatly exaggerated
IN Media Practice | 2016-11-11
The polls worked like they were supposed to work. But we all forgot they deal in probabilities and not certainties.
Public interest ads need a facelift
IN Media Business | 2016-11-10
Important as they are, public interest ads in print and on radio could do with pruning and fine-tuning to be more effective.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-11-10
First Arnab Goswami hammered away at the Congress and other critics for two days in a row on Times Now's Newshour for not hailing the demonetisation move. Now Zee has decided to lend its shoulder to ensuring the success of the prime minister's "path breaking" initiative. That adjective is from..
IN Opinion | 2016-11-09
Why does the media, for functions, awards or summits, always invite politicians as chief guests, even when they have violated many freedoms?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-11-09
If the US media has been shown up as being out of touch with the American voter, some elements of it are not mincing words about the election outcome either. From a New Yorker comment titled 'An American Tragedy': "The election of Donald Trump to the Presidency is nothing less than a tragedy..
IN Opinion | 2016-11-09
Even if geo-political liberal scholars want to make an effort is there sufficient tolerance amongst the state institutions to hear their voice?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-11-09
Hillary Clinton has to apologise to Indian Express columnist economist Surjit Bhalla for betraying his staunch faith in her winnability. (His column is titled, ‘No proof required’). He has written 4 columns since August predicting first a landslide, then a double digit win, and then an easy win and finally,..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-11-09
The late Rajya Sabha TV anchor Girish Nikam’s last show was on the NDTV ban. It drew forth these viewpoints: Indira Jaisingh said Article 19 lays down that free speech can only be stopped by the authority of law, not a govt panel. Former RAW official Jayadev Ranade said sanitizing..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-11-08
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. ..
How we arrived at arbitrary TV bans
IN Law and Policy | 2016-11-08
How did our durable democracy, with much more media on offer than several older democracies, get to this stage?
IN Media Freedom | 2016-11-07
The news media are a vital line of defence with regard to the invaluable right to expression, speech, information and dissent.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-11-07
NDTV has informed the stock exchanges that NDTV Ltd. and others have filed a writ petition before the Supreme Court challenging the order of the ministry of information and broadcasting imposing a 24-hour ban on its telecast on November 9. Its petition has challenged the constitutional validity of the order and..
IN Opinion | 2016-11-06
It enabled Trump’s emergence via false equivalence, softness on corruption, and by creating celebrity-politicians.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-11-06
The New York Times has announced free access for all on its digital platforms on November 7,8, and 9. "We believe that everyone, without exception, deserves a deeper understanding of the candidates, the issues and the results of this unprecedented election," say its executive editor and editorial page editor in..
National interest trumps media freedom
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-11-06
Information and Broadcasting minister Venkiah Naidu reiterated on Sunday that nations have boundaries, and said the concept of freedom is not above the nation's interest and views cannot be promoted as news. The Hindu reports that he added, in an indirect reference to the controversy over restrictions on NDTV, that..
NDTV ban: both selective and illegal
IN Media Freedom | 2016-11-05
The channel stands accused of revealing “sensitive strategic information” when an operation was in progress. But does the charge stick and if so does it apply only to NDTV?
IN Archive | 2016-11-05
All the hapless viewer knows as she glides from gadget PR to corporate golf PR to tell-me-your-company’s- success-story PR…is that when TV doesn’t roar, it purrs.
Hacks and Flacks: ‘Lunching, dining and pitching’
IN Archive | 2016-11-05
Well-spoken executives offering well-packaged stories also came in to pitch for new players who needed to build profiles, influence policy and defuse criticism.
No govt ads for 'extremist' Kerala paper
IN Regional Media | 2016-11-05
Seven years ago, Kerala stopped giving government ads to Thejas on the grounds that the newspaper promoted religious hatred. The policy continues.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-11-05
The I and B Ministry's 24 hour ban on NDTV India gave anchor Ravish Kumar the trigger for a long satirical take-off on Friday night on a voiceless democracy, his most free-wheeling, self-indulgent and extended special show yet, featuring two mime artists. It was titled "if we can't ask questions what can..
The right person to give journalism awards?
IN Media Freedom | 2016-11-05
This crackdown on NDTV is a continuation of the media gagging prevalent in the Kashmir valley. But the issue gains more credence when it happens in Lutyens Delhi.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-11-04
NDTV India says it has no record of the offending Pathankot coverage because it was live and no record of coverage remains online after 3 months of telecast. The govt has the footage since it was captured by its TV monitoring cell in Delhi. The 24 hour blackout ordered is..
The Newshour will end--mercifully
IN Media Practice | 2016-11-03
He’s going but the Newshour could not have gone on for much longer. After all, how low, how noisy, how crude, how abusive can you go?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-11-03
News18.com reports that an Inter-ministerial committee set up by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry has recommended that NDTV India be taken off air for a day for having revealed "strategically-sensitive" details while covering the Pathankot terrorist attack. The date set for this penalty is November 9. This is likely to be..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-11-03
Kochi High Court’s diamond jubilee celebrations, inaugurated by CJI T.S. Thakur on Nov. 1, were boycotted by the state’s media, reports KochiPost. This is the latest in the ongoing conflict between the media and lawyers which began in July this year when lawyers beat up media persons on the court premises. In..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-11-02
Akshaya Mukul, a senior journalist at The Times of India, and one of the recipients of this year's Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Awards, has boycotted the awards ceremony. The awards were presented by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 2. The Caravan reports that Mukul boycotted the occasion, saying, "I cannot live with..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-11-02
Pankaj Pachauri, formerly in the Manmohan Singh PMO, said in a tweet that Times Now had to change its editor-in-chief because the numbers were dismal. While being part of the most profitable non listed media company BCCL, Times Now still incurred a cumulative loss of Rs 553 crore in the last 11 years...
Stories from the fastnesses of Odisha
IN Regional Media | 2016-11-01
Through her series for Kalinga TV, Sarada Lahangir has laid bare the sufferings of the poorest families - and won the Ramnath Goenka award.
IN Opinion | 2016-11-01
The Noise is about to subside. Temporarily, we are told. The competition cannot believe its ears.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-11-01
Journalists have been raising doubts about the MP police encounter with 8 SIMI activists who escaped from Bhopal Central jail. But Dainik Bhaskar journalist Pravin Dubey reached the spot of the alleged police encounter with the 8 Simi men after a 5 km trek and looked at the bodies lying there. His account on..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-11-01
Should journalists be held responsible for what they say on their personal social media platforms? Jagrati Shukla, an assistant producer at Zee News, has been spewing venom against Dalits, Sikhs, Muslims, Mayawati et al in her tweets. Predictably, right-wing, casteist trolls on Twitter are lapping it up. But many are..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-10-31
The Hindu announced in Mumbai that there would be no paper on November 1, on account of Bhau Beej. Other papers cited Diwali. But Bhau Beej is on Nov 1. A paper reporting on a region and publishing there should know the culture and traditions, including the almanac, should it not? ..
Rising to the pollution challenge
IN Media Practice | 2016-10-31
If Indian cities have a massive pollution problem staring them in the face how much more should newsrooms be doing,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-10-31
A Conservative MP cantankerously raised a subscription issue in the British Parliament on Monday. He alleged that the BBC was single-handedly keeping The Guardian afloat as the broadcaster subscribed to over 70,000 copies of the paper. According to the MP, the BBC, despite being a public broadcaster was completely out of touch with..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-10-30
Pakistan has sacked its information minister Pervaiz Rashid. A government enquiry into the Dawn report by Cyril Almeida on a rift between the civil and military leadership over security policies and tackling banned terrorist groups, found Rashid involved in leaking secret information to the. journalist, reports the Hindustan Times...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-10-30
The Prime Minister will present the Ramnath Goenka journalism awards given by the Indian Express on November 2. Is he building bridges to the media, or is the Express Group building bridges to him?! In fairness to the paper it has not refrained in recent weeks from criticism in its own editorials and from..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-10-29
If you post a sad face emoji on Facebook now, don't be surprised if it morphs into a tiny monster face. The social networking site has introduced emojis like a laughing witch face, a crying Frankenstein face, an angry pumpkin face and so on in keeping with the spirit of..
Community radio—where is the community?
IN Community Media | 2016-10-28
Investigating community radio ownership--Part I. Out of 196 CR stations how many have been captured by government or corporate interests?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-10-28
The 7-judge Constitution bench of the Supreme Court asked if, and didn't say that, secularism was aloofness, during a hearing on a case. But the Times of India headline implies an order which it was not. The media tendency to report questions or observations made in court misleads readers. Curiously, the courts..
IN Opinion | 2016-10-27
On social media, selling hope to UP’s youth, the CM is a very different personality from the beleagured young politician under attack from his family.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-10-27
Tausif Ahmed Bhat, the Kashmiri youth in Chhattisgarh who was arrested on charges of sedition for liking a cartoon on Facebook, was finally granted bail by Justice Goutam Bhat of the Chhattisgarh High Court, on his fourth bail plea. The judge said he was not the author of the post..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-10-27
What does a politician who accuses the media of bias against him do? Start his own TV channel of course. It is precisely what Donald Trump has done by starting a television channel just two weeks before US goes to the polls. Named - Trump TV. The programming includes replaying the third..
IN Community Media | 2016-10-26
When the media ignore tribals and their problems, why not train some of them to inundate the media with press releases so that their views are aired?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-10-26
WhatsApp is helping government circumvent the law according to a two-part investigation in Business Standard. The Ministry of Rural Development used a chat group on WhatsApp called ENCORE this summer to convey directions to state officials implementing MGNREGA, in place of normal official channels of communication. Senior officials of the ministry as..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-10-25
NDTV bested some of the business channels in their reporting on the Tata story and the quality of the panel discussion which followed on Tuesday night. But in the course of the latter anchored by Sreenivasan Jain, during a comment by Supreme Court advocate Dushyant Dave on Ratan Tata's association..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-10-25
The Hindu’s Mumbai edition celebrates its first anniversary with an Open House with "chai and snacks", to meet with its Readers’ Editor on November 26. Sachin Kalbag, editor of the Mumbai edition tweeted the invite, and also tweeted that the paper is the first in the history of Indian journalism to appoint an..
IN Media Freedom | 2016-10-25
It all comes round again - political thugs dictating what film, play, or concert can go ahead. Karan Johar is just the latest to surrender to threats.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-10-25
The prime minister's wish is All India Radio's command. It has started a daily programme called #Sandesh2Soldiers on FM Rainbow and FM Gold channels, to be aired twice daily till October 30.The public broadcaster's statement says that it is responding to "Prime Narendra Modi's clarion call to send Diwali greetings..
Arnab G denies getting security cover
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-10-24
Oh dear. Apparently those of us who believed the Hindustan Times story about Arnab Goswami of Times Now being given Y category security cover because of perceived threats to him from Pakistan-based terrorists, were wrong. Newsminute.com says the anchor labelled the report as "bizarre and beyond ridiculous" and "sources in Times Now" told The..
Virtual reality debuts in Indian journalism
IN Media Practice | 2016-10-24
After the internet and the rise of digital media, VR could well turn out to be journalism’s next big technological disruptor.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-10-23
Swarajyamag announced today (Oct 23) that it had acquired OpIndia.com as the "newest addition to its portfolio." What it describes as a "trailblazing, digital-only publication" which has "created a huge social media footprint" has an ideological profile which Swarajya doubtless approves of, as demonstrated by the adjectives used by Opindia for..
And now, Puja selfies on prime time
IN Regional Media | 2016-10-23
Assam’s TV channels have come up with a new gimmick to increase television rating points at festival time,
The Nation Wants to Know! But which Nation?
IN Digital Media | 2016-10-21
When the agenda of a channel like Times Now is driven by a tiny group of Indians on social media, at least three fourths of the country is left out. What about their right to be informed?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-10-21
BARC India, which measures television viewership, and Kerala TV Federation have filed a police complaint after it was found that there were attempts to influence BARC’s television viewership measurement system in some of its panel homes in Kochi. BARC says there were attempts to not only find out the addresses..
IN Books | 2016-10-20
It’s the season for media biographies, as NDTV and TV18 publish their life stories. If NDTV comes across as self-righteous TV18 is open about its sins of commission.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-10-20
After each presidential debate ends CNN uses the term Spin Room on its screen when the analysis on the debate begins. Should Indian news TV which sometimes even sets up a 'War Room' to report on Indo-Pak issues call their newsrooms spin rooms as a more accurate description of what they..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-10-19
Facebook, Twitter, Amazon and Reliance Jio are among those who want media rights to the next cycle of Indian Premier League (IPL) reports ESPNCricinfo. The TV and digital rights are currently held by Sony Pictures Network India and Star India respectively, all of which will expire in 2017. While there’s no..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-10-19
The government of Ecuador has confirmed that it did cut off Wikileaks founder Julian Assange’s internet access on Saturday, reports The Times of India. Assange, who was given asylum by Ecuador at its London embassy in 2012 after he jumped bail to escape sex assault charges in Sweden, has carried..
Cost cuts clip BBC anchors’ wings
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-10-19
The BBC’s star presenters will no longer be parachuted into distant lands to report on news unfolding there. The BBC reportsthat in a move to cut costs, they will be confined to conducting two-way interviews from the studio with reporters on the ground, who, the Corporation’s bosses feel, have a better..
Cover your ears--community radio is polluting us!
IN Community Media | 2016-10-18
….or so it would seem from shocked monitors who say community radio stations aired ‘’obscene’ and ‘vulgar’ content without defining what this means.
IN Media Freedom | 2016-10-18
His paper banned for being a threat to ‘public tranquility’, a Kashmir Reader reporter reflects on recent events and what the paper stands for.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-10-18
NDTV India’s Ravish Kumar interviewed NALSAR VC Faizan Mustafa on a two-part programme on the current controversy regarding triple talaq & the Uniform Civil Code. Mustafa opposes the petitions in the Supreme Court seeking a ban on triple talaq -- and to let just one viewpoint come across in two..
Enter Arnab, trailing security
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-10-17
The Intelligence Bureau has detected a threat to the life of Times Now's Arnab Goswami from Pakistan-based terrorist groups, reports Hindustan Times. The high profile, hyper-nationalist TV anchor will now get Y category security which means a detail of two personal security officers and 20 guards. Goswami has been crowing about India having..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-10-17
The festival season has driven away most of the news from the Indian Express’s front page on October 17. Those who support the newspaper’s journalism have to grin and bear it. Pakistan’s Dawn likes to reminds readers of the online edition that their journalism is paid for by advertising. And appeals to them to..
IN Opinion | 2016-10-16
“You know the camps, you know the divisions and splits, and you know at any given time who may be interested in selling what. They exist in civ as much as they do in mil.”
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-10-16
Lalbiakthanga Pachuau, editor of the Mizoram newspaper, Zoram Tlangau, has been declared at age 90 to be the oldest working journalist in the country at a function held in Aizawl. The Nagaland Post reports that Pachuau, a war veteran-turned-journalist, wrote his first article on May 16, 1953 in Zoram Thupuan..
The missing media discourse at BRICS
IN Research Studies | 2016-10-15
Though it could be an important mechanism for fostering relationships between these countries, this and former summits have not factored in media as a sub group agenda.
IN Books | 2016-10-15
The BJP, the RSS and the security establishment have been equally, if not more, successful in mobilizing both the mainstream as well as social media for counter-insurgency, including to malign anyone critical of the government.
Film ‘31 October’ battles opposition to release
IN Media Freedom | 2016-10-15
The PIL is only the most recent hurdle for a film which revisits the 1984 riots and its aftermath in a commercial release.
The dalit stories which don’t make news
IN Media Practice | 2016-10-14
The anniversary would be a great event to cover on TV surely? No. As they do every year, the mainstream media boycotted this historic and gigantic gathering in Nagpur.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-10-14
The Hindu reports in detail the attempts of a TV channel crew to stage a suicide attempt by a Karnataka farmer who was destroying his withered red chilli crop. "...60-year-old Kurubara Kumarappa was asked by an electronic media crew and local leaders to act as if he was attempting to consume a..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-10-14
Pakistani newspaper The News International carried a startling story today, saying that Indian foreign secretary S. Jaishankar had told the German ambassador that Indian army’s surgical strike across the Line of Control was a bluff, reports The Times of India. Needless to say, it drew a swift rebuttal from India, with MEA spokesperson Vikas..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-10-13
In an unprecedented move, the Network for Women in Media (NWMI) has floated a petition to stop media accreditation being given to a fellow journalist called Rupesh Samant. The Goa police have filed chargesheets against Samant for committing multiple incidents of sexual harassment in the workplace while he was employed..
IN Media Practice | 2016-10-13
Two recent editions of Truth vs Hype try to link the growth of Salafism among Muslims with the appeal of ISIS to a few young Muslims.
TV9 Kannada rides roughshod over transgenders
IN Media Practice | 2016-10-12
The channel’s insensitive depiction of transgenders has put them at greater risk of violence and hostility, angering an already vulnerable community.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-10-12
P Chidambaram in The Indian Express about NDTV's censorship-- "I am asking the media: why are you guys falling like nine pins to unjustified demands, if any, from the powers that be? I don't know if the powers that be made any demand. But why are you guys falling like nine pins?" ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-10-11
On Oct. 10 Dawn Asst Editor Cyril Almeida tweeted that he had been informed and shown evidence of being on the Exit Control List. This is Pakistan’s system of border control which allows it to bar people from leaving the country. Almeida’s scoop on Oct 6 about the rift between..
Delhi’s homeless – remembered only in winter
IN Media Practice | 2016-10-10
Every winter stories are run about how the homeless need more shelters. During the monsoon and the heat – media silence.
Is NDTV’s censorship hypocritical?
IN Media Practice | 2016-10-10
Is the channel suggesting that the army should not be held accountable?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-10-10
Pulling out facts from a year ago is too much trouble for reporters. In the reporting on minister Mahesh Sharma's visit to Dadri after the death in jail of one of the accused from Bisara village, it was mentioned that the district magistrate had announced a compensation of Rs 25..
IN Media Practice | 2016-10-09
Watch their commentary on the current standoff and discover a rich world of diverse opinion, jingoism, humour, satire and impertinence.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-10-09
"NDTV will not air any remarks that risk security for political advantage." With that onscreen statement NDTV dropped the interview with P Chidambaram done by Barkha Dutt which was to air on October 6 evening. The Wire reports that In keeping with the new editorial policy, the channel will no longer allow politicians and other..
IN Media Business | 2016-10-08
The director of BBC Radio resigns, concerned over the impact of technology on journalism. The Prasar Bharati CEO resigns, amid concerns about decisions which impact revenue.
IN Media Practice | 2016-10-08
A talent show in Assam features people with disabilities but the judges and anchor ruin the effort with their patronising talk.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-10-07
'A lout', 'l-o-u-t', 'uncouth' and 'uncivilised' were the labels thrown at Jitendra Awhad, an NCP MLA from Maharashtra by Arnab Goswami on Thursday while discussing Rahul Gandhi's 'Khoon ki dalali' accusation, #SurgicalSelfgoal. 'Who do you think you are', the anchor asked, his voice rising, to be told he was 'invited', not thrusting..
Murder accused dies in custody
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-10-07
Shiv Kumar Vaishnav, formerly a journalist, an accused in the 2011 murder case of Nai Duniya journalist Umesh Rajput, died, allegedly of hanging, while in CBI custody on Oct 4, 2016. Vaishnav and his son, Vikas, had been arrested on September 26, 2016 by the CBI, which is investigating the case..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-10-06
The Outlook Group killed several birds with one stone last night (Oct. 5): it cashed in on the social media craze in the country by instituting the Lloyd-Outlook Social Media (OSM) Awards in a bunch of interesting categories including MLA of the year. It made up to the BJP by having..
More Muslims do not always produce more Urdu papers
IN Research Studies | 2016-10-05
According to RNI data, the Muslim demographic does not have a strict correlation with the number of Urdu newspapers in a state — and non-Muslims publish them too
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-10-05
A Kashmiri youth is lodged in a jail in Durg, Chhattisgarh, since August 3, on charges of sedition for allegedly liking a Facebook post that made fun of India. He has been refused bail twice and on Oct 4 when it came up again a judge of the High Court reserved his orders on Tauseef..
IN Digital Media | 2016-10-05
Facebook live videos of the US presidential debate drew 55m viewers. And Donald Trump dominated the conversation on Twitter. Here's how social media is unlocking voter sentiment in this tight presidential race.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-10-05
Top military officials speak off the record to ET, and TOI announces to the country at large that India's armed forces have told the political executive that only a sustained six-month campaign—not off and on strikes--will seriously damage the terror infrastructure in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). Good story, but hardly off..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-10-04
Two years after it took cognizance of a contempt petition filed by the Indian Federation of Working Journalists on behalf of Dainik Jagran employees against Jagran Prakashan Limited, the Supreme Court today decided to initiate contempt proceedings against JPL and to issue a notice to its CEO Sanjay Gupta. In Oct. 2014..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-10-04
When it comes to Twitter, no one does it better than external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj. As tension between India and Pakistan was mounting last week, a group of 20 Pakistani girl students on a friendship trip to India was apprehensive about returning home safely. The leader of the group,..
Urdu newspapers: growing, not dying
IN Research Studies | 2016-10-04
Far from fading, Urdu newspapers are flourishing and are widely distributed, especially in Delhi and UP. Insights culled from the RNI database from 1957-2015 are fascinating,
US Elections: Controversies trump policy issues
IN Media Monitoring | 2016-10-03
Three Harvard studies conclude that the US news media have paid scant attention to the policy platforms of the candidates in their coverage of the presidential election campaign.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-10-03
Ever since Tamil Nadu chief minister J. Jayalalithaa was admitted to Apollo Hospitals in Chennai on September 22, the media have maintained a round-the-clock vigil outside the hospital’s gates. With the rumour mills on an overdrive about Amma’s condition, a string of media tripods wait expectantly for any development at..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-10-03
On Oct 2 the state government banned the Kashmir newspaper Kashmir Reader by invoking section 144 CrPC read with section 3 of the Newspapers incitement of Offences Act 1971 and section 10 of the Press and Publication Act 1989. Why the ban? Says a reporter, "The government banned it because..
Her baby pictures on the potty…
IN Digital Media | 2016-10-02
...are not what a teenager wants her parents to post on Facebook. An Austrian girl goes to court against her parents over privacy, opening another chapter in the debate.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-10-02
On the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti and the second anniversary of Prime Minister Narendra Modi launching his Swachh Bharat mission, NDTV held a 12-hour “Cleanathon” on October 2 to clean up 10 iconic places in India, including Varanasi, Puri and the area around the Golden Temple complex in Amritsar. Anchored..
For the love of Gandhi's ideas
IN Regional Media | 2016-10-01
For over 50 years, the Sarvodaya Press Service has been spreading the Mahatma’s ideas by providing stories with a Gandhian theme to the Hindi press.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-10-01
You know the festival season is here when the news becomes really hard to find in your daily newspaper. Today (1 Oct) if you add up all the advertising in the first section of the newspaper, 16 plus pages out of 32 in the Times of India carry ads, preceded by another..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-09-30
Amar Chitra Katha, one of the largest selling comic book series in India, is coming out with a special edition where the PM is lauded for launching the Swachh Bharat campaign, reports The Economic Times. The special issue, which will be unveiled on Friday, tells school children: "Modiji knows how to make the..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-09-30
While TV news on Thursday night bristled with figures of casualties inflicted --how many terrorists per launch pad, therefore how many "neutralised" altogether, the morning papers are remarkable for the absence of details of damage inflicted or incurred. The Indian Express said the army gave no count of the dead on the Pakistani side...
IN Media Practice | 2016-09-30
The Indian Express’ tendency to rely on anonymous sources has surfaced again, this time in a ‘nudge, nudge, wink wink’ piece on Justice Chelameshwar
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-09-29
Why does the public broadcaster always cede ground to private channels even when the source of news is the government? While other channels responded to the surgical strike in the early hours of Thursday by getting a variety of spokespersons and analysts on air, by dispatching a reporter to the..
Media may have misjudged copyright verdict
IN Law and Policy | 2016-09-28
By writing about a court ruling allowing the photocopying of textbooks in David vs Goliath terms, the media may have missed the logic of copyright and the damage caused by its infringement.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-09-28
The Shiv Sena has always been quick to protest every real or imagined slight to the Maratha community. However, on Tuesday, tables were turned when the Navi Mumbai and Thane offices of the Shiv Sena mouthpiece Saamna were attacked for publishing a cartoon that allegedly hurt the sentiments of Marathas. On Wednesday, Saamna promptly carried an..
Bhagat Singh: a media role model
IN Regional Media | 2016-09-27
He was born 109 years ago today but Bhagat Singh can teach us a thing or two about writing for a noble cause while dodging arrest, repression, and jail.
IN Media Practice | 2016-09-27
The film with a strong feminist message has sparked off multiple debates. But what kind of impact can it have on men and behaviour?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-09-27
India’s TV reporters and anchors are in a class by themselves. The India Today TV reporter was telling the studio anchor on Monday night that if Nawaz Sharif had listened to Sushma Swaraj’s speech he would have learned how to speak at a forum like the UN. And Zaka Jacob on CNN News 18 asked his..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-09-26
Today's Chanakya, which shot into the headlines in May 2014 for predicting an absolute majority for the Narendra Modi-led NDA combine, is clearly not content to confine its energies to India alone. A day before the first debate between US presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, the polling agency..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-09-25
Former RJP MP Shahabuddin's suspected involvement in the murder of Siwan journalist Rajdeo Ranjan has been making news practically every day. On Sept 14 the Indian Express reported that a shooter wanted in the killing, Mohammad Kaif, had been spotted with the leader after his release, last week Kaif surrendered and was..
A new effort to reform defamation
IN Defamation | 2016-09-25
A private member’s bill by a BJD MP seeks to repeal the criminal defamation law and codify civil defamation. The Hoot has a copy of this media-friendly bill.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-09-24
As his wont, NDTV India's Ravish Kumar, conducted his prime time show from the street at Delhi's Batra Cinema on Friday (Sept 23) asking those preparing for competitive exams for government posts, if war with Pakistan was advisable. The area is full of coaching institutes. Retired generals were advocating war from TV..
IN Media Practice | 2016-09-23
Cast as the ‘other’, dubbed ‘Bangladeshi’ and incessantly victimized, the Bengal-origin Muslim is fair game, with the media actively whipping up hatred.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-09-23
Media fantasies about punishing Pakistan get more juvenile by the day. India Today's latest cover story is called 'How to punish Pakistan' with a cover picture of the Pakistan flag being wrung. It contains graphic depictions of options the country has: a covert operation to eliminate JeM chief Maulana Masoor Azhar in..
IN Media Practice | 2016-09-22
The media have lynched the party over the health crisis. Fair enough. But why are its excellent mohalla clinics being ignored?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-09-22
As Press Trust of India (PTI) chief editor M.K. Razdan bows out after four decades in the organisation, the country's foremost news agency is at the centre of a controversy surrounding cases of sexual harassment against its former senior principal correspondent in Goa, Rupesh Samant. This month the charges against..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-09-22
Short of little figures on the screen firing away at each other, TV news on Times Now is about playing at war. The options are on the screen:Why dont we immediately cut off trade ties? Can we sustain a protracted war? Can we strike surgically? Who loses more if we cut..
Kashmiri reporters caught in the crossfire
IN Media Freedom | 2016-09-21
Scorned by Kashmiris for being state ‘agents’ and abused by the security forces for being ‘Hurriyat sympathisers’, the media are getting it in the neck.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-09-21
On Monday NDTV journalist Namrata Brar was asked to leave a press briefing by Pakistan foreign secretary Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry in New York reports NDTV. When she requested to be let in, Brar said that she heard someone saying “Iss Indian ko nikalo (throw out this Indian).” In fact, not a single Indian journalist..
War and peace: how the media covered the Uri attack
IN Media Practice | 2016-09-20
TV and social media went to war. But newspapers and news portals brought sanity and balance to Indian media’s response to the Uri attack.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-09-20
The five Maoists who were arrested on Sept 19 from Bijapur district in Chhattisgarh have admitted that four of them were involved in the murder of journalist Sai Reddy who was killed with a sharp weapon near a market in December 2013. Reddy is one of 23 journalists killed since 2010..
‘Snowden,’ a picture of the cybersecurity state
IN Privacy | 2016-09-20
The extent and scope of intelligence agencies’ ability to intercept communications and collect information is mind-boggling.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-09-18
The Uri attack was naturally the focus on all prime time discussions on TV today. What was striking however was how every single channel only had male experts participating in the anchor led debates. So here are the cold statistics from a quick channel surf of the English channels -..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-09-18
A testimonial for the prime minister from a TV anchor which is proudly posted on the former's website? That's a first, surely. Times Now's Arnab Goswami has done a blog post heaping fulsome praise on PM Narendra Modi who had participated in an NDTV show he anchored years ago. Among the many..
IN Media Practice | 2016-09-18
Despite the complexity of the issue and the high emotions, the print and digital media did a pretty thorough and fair job of covering the Cauvery water dispute.
IN Opinion | 2016-09-18
With district newspapers exposing wrong doing and highlighting important issues, why are PILs not allowed in district courts?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-09-18
The Mumbai-based proxy advisory Stakeholders Empowerment Services (SES) has advised shareholders of the Chennai-based Sun TV Network Ltd to vote against Kavery Kalanithi’s re-appointment as Director at the company’s AGM next Friday, on account of the company’s unfair remuneration practices, reports Business Line. She and her husband Kalanithi Maran draw annual salaries of Rs 71 crore..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-09-17
Journalists in Delhi and Mumbai including Network 18 employees have become beneficiaries of Reliance Jio's inaugural munificence. Employees got five sim cards each to distribute among family and friends. Telecom beat journos in Delhi were offered a free sim card each for sampling. And the Mumbai Press Club's members are..
IN Opinion | 2016-09-17
Live on TV, for a whole gripping hour, Akhilesh was retelling the oldest story in the world, the stuff of both history and mythology.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-09-16
Uttar Pradesh has introduced a Twitter-based customer service tool, Twitter Seva, for its police force. Citizens will be able to tweet directly at the general police account with complaints and one of the 122 official police accounts will respond. (NDTV) ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-09-16
Pakistan had blocked the India Today website earlier this week after a recent issue of the news magazine carried a picture of Pakistan army chief General Raheel Sharif with a photoshopped slap mark on his face. The picture, which appeared on the cover of the September 5 issue of India Today with the headline..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-09-15
How does an SC clarification on sedition percolate to lower court judges actually hearing these cases? It evidently does not. Despite this SC observation last week that criticizing the govt is not sedition, a Kashmiri youth jailed in Durg in Chhattisgarh has been denied bail today, for a second time...
IN Regional Media | 2016-09-15
Critics of the reporter who filmed Dana Majhi carrying his dead wife have no idea what his working conditions are like.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-09-15
Why do newspapers have so much trouble publishing the name of a TV anchor who is in the news? AAP's health minister Kapil Mishra published the phone number of Deepak Chaurasia of India News and he was threatened, leading his wife to file a police complaint. The Hindu, HT, TOI..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-09-15
The News Hour Debate on Times Now is not for the fainthearted. High decibel shouting, verbal duels and an abrasive anchor are par for the course. But senior woman journalists turning on each other may be a first. Sept 13th's raging primetime debate was on the missing AAP leadership during the current..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-09-14
Facebook and Twitter have joined a group of media and technology firms wanting to filter out false news and online misinformation, reports Hindustan Times. First Draft News, which is backed by Google, announced on Tuesday that 20 news organisations, including The New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, AFP and so on, will be part of a..
The Twitter warrior trades insults for criticism
IN Opinion | 2016-09-14
As Delhi reels under the double whammy of dengue and chikungunya CM Kejriwal and his men are missing in action and battling critics from afar
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-09-13
What are the folks at the Hindustan Times thinking? You now have to access page one through a split page jacket ad? (September 13, Delhi edition). Fold back two halves to read page one? Thats expecting a lot of indulgence from the reader. Meanwhile its sister paper Mint has gone broadsheet after having been..
The biggest strike in world history? No thanks
IN Media Practice | 2016-09-13
When millions of workers go out on strike in the second-largest country in the world you’d think that would merit some kind of news coverage, right?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-09-12
In the mayhem that engulfed Bangalore on Monday over the Cauvery dispute a journalist showed exemplary courage in the field. Rohini Swamy of India Today and her cameraman were roughed up by lumpen elements while they were filming them destroying public property. Swamy gave chase to the hooligans and her..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-09-12
The Times of India has three full pages of colour advertising on Snapdeal's red-themed rebranding. And the Economic Times has a six-column red-themed story on the top of page six on the re-branding and the company's new logo. Both advertiser and the Times Group should be happy. ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-09-11
Outlook magazine was seriously embarrassed on Sunday when its OSM (Outlook Social Media) app users reported that the app had gained access to their Twitter accounts and was sending out unauthorised tweets in their names. For example, Rahul Mahajan, son of late BJP leader Pramod Mahajan, seemed to have tweeted this:..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-09-11
Last week Facebook faced a tsunami of criticism after it censored the iconic Pulitzer Prize winning “Napalm girl” picture which was published by a Norwegian writer in a post about historic war photography. On Friday the social media giant reversed its decision to delete the picture of a naked child..
IN Digital Media | 2016-09-11
Ranting, hatred, bigotry and shrill ignorance characterize much of the opinion on online news platforms. Curb it. Filter it.
Kuldeep’s homecoming, live on television
IN Regional Media | 2016-09-11
Released by his abductors, a young man in ULFA’s captivity for a month, returns home to hounding by the TRP brigade.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-09-10
An extraordinary confrontation between the Bastar Range IG Police SRP Kalluri and the Hindu reporter in Chhattisgarh Pavan Dahat is taking place. In response to this Hindu story Kalluri posted a comment on various WhattsAap groups of reporters, police, and politicians in Chhattisgarh, titled "Heartless Reporting and Meaningless Support." It accuses..
Does social media chatter help a film succeed?
IN Digital Media | 2016-09-10
Both controversies and a marketing push lead to a buzz on social media for a film. But should such manipulated discussions influence movie goers on what to watch,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-09-09
This is just sort of thing Twitter loves. A self goal by Subramaniam Swamy even as he was trying to make a point about the UPA's media cronyism. He tweeted a link to a story published in the website Jan Satyagrah, titled, ‘Journalists who became most frequent media delegates during prime minister’s official foreign..
Striking a false note on unions
IN Media Practice | 2016-09-09
The Delhi Union of Journalists had to urge its tribe to cover the September 2 strike. Why? Because labour issues are ‘passe’ and no longer ‘sexy’.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-09-08
Reliance Chairman Mukesh Ambani thinks the controversy over Reliance Jio’s launch ad using a picture of the prime minister is baseless. “He is as much your prime minister as he is my prime minister. He has given a Digital India vision which I am personally inspired by…there is nothing political..
Nuances of Haji Ali ruling lost in the reporting
IN Opinion | 2016-09-07
The Urdu press downplayed the Haji Ali ruling and the English media ignored a vital aspect of it altogether. Simplification at its worst.
IN Community Media | 2016-09-07
Through its news portal, Moirabari Press Club in Assam helps farmers, women and students by giving them the news and information they need
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-09-06
Former PM Deve Gowda to the Indian Express:“The media did not accept me….Who is going to present a leader? It is the media. The media can make or break a person. Please understand, I am not blaming the media, but they were naturally against me because I was unable to speak..
IN Opinion | 2016-09-06
A former professor ‘celebrates’ Teachers’ Day by explaining why he left teaching---because of the nonsense, deceit, and shenanigans he encountered in the academic world.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-09-05
On Monday the Supreme Court threw out criminal charges against cricketer M.S. Dhoni who had been accused of having hurt religious sentiments when Business Today magazine depicted him as Lord Vishnu on its cover in April 2013. NDTV Sports reports that the magazine's cover, headlined "The God of Big Deals" showed Dhoni as a..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-09-05
On Sunday separatist leaders in Kashmir snubbed the efforts of five Opposition members of an all-party delegation that tried to to reach out to them. Arnab Goswami was so inflamed by the affront that his voice was shaking with indignation as he ranted about how Indian MPs had been humiliated by “Pakistani..
The media’s rockstar humanitarian
IN Media Practice | 2016-09-05
The Catholic Church’s latest saint in heaven is really the first “saint” of our mediatised, hyper-exposed times — at once glorious and flawed.
IN Digital Media | 2016-09-04
He is a young Kashmiri man charged with sedition. His offence? Sharing a cartoon showing India being swept by a broom on Facebook.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-09-03
The Prime Minister’s image building is well served by the private sector Doordarshans his media outreach is spawning. If Times Now bit the bullet to get the first TV interview by a Indian channel with the PM, and has since pushed the govt’s case for interfering in Balochistan, CNN News18..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-09-02
Can the PM's picture be used in an advertisement announcing the launch of a new commercial service? Twitter erupted in disapproval on Friday over the full page jacket advertisements for Reliance Jio's 4G services in The Times of India and Hindustan Times which appeared with a picture of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The picture..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-09-02
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, once so loath to talk to the country’s English language media, seems to be finally opening up to them. After his interview with Times Now’s Arnab Goswami in June, it’s now the turn of CNN News 18’s editor-in-chief Rahul Joshi to have snagged a coveted interview..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-09-02
There was visible excitement on CNBC-TV18 over the launch of Reliance Jio, smiles all round in the studio and gush from a reporter who tested the speed of Jio and rival networks and pronounced Jio was much faster. There was also some effort at a balanced discussion on what the..
Kejriwal rides out setbacks on Twitter
IN Opinion | 2016-09-01
The master politician that he is, the Delhi CM has sought to convert every debacle over the last few days into an opportunity.
IN Media Freedom | 2016-09-01
In the 27 cases of journalists murdered for their work in India since CPJ began keeping records in 1992, there have been no convictions.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-08-31
CNBC-TV18 is running a long discussion on the first quarter GDP numbers just out. And in-between a lot of flashing headlines on the economy you get intermittent promotions on the right of the screen saying “Reliance’s 42nd AGM tomorrow”! “A Historic AGM”! No matter what the news, the owner must..
Asked to manufacture anti-Kashmir news?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-08-31
In this Rising Kashmir story a journalist working for IBN7 says he quit the channel this month because of being "forced" to prepare "fabricated anti Kashmir" reports. He says he was being asked to prepare reports on the situation in Kashmir which were misleading in their facts about both Burhan Wani as well..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-08-31
Both state and private media are going the whole hog in their embrace of Balochistan. According to the Director General AIR the external services division of All India Radio is shortly going to start a news bulletin in the Balochi language, particularly for the people living in Balochistan province of Pakistan..
Tripura: when reporting is concealing
IN Media Practice | 2016-08-31
The media betray flagrant bias in reporting on the tribes people and, in the process, conceal the truth about a major demographic transformation.
The awesome unreadiness of WION
IN Media Practice | 2016-08-31
Its reportage is rudimentary, programming sketchy and analysis of news and current affairs next to non-existent.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-08-31
Is India Today competing with Times Now? Its latest cover could have been designed by Arnab Goswami, featuring as it does a photograph of the Pak Army chief with the imprint of a slap on his face. Says the text,"By upping the ante, the Indian prime minister had slapped the Pakistan Army,..
Is a film with no PR destined to be a flop?
IN Media Business | 2016-08-30
The answer is usually yes because so many films are vying for attention. But sometimes, a film can make it on its own steam.
IN Media Freedom | 2016-08-29
Over-reaching itself yet again, the Election Commission now wants to ban political ads in print for 48 hours before an election.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-08-28
Doordarshan is trying hard to win brownie points with the PM. It has joined the govt’s propaganda war over Balochistan. Yesterday, Aug 27, it broadcast an interview with rebel Baloch leader Nawab Brahumdagh Khan Bugti in Geneva, a first for the channel which usually sends a team abroad only if..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-08-27
Headlines in various publications on the Scorpene leak and the govt response are interesting to compare in how they formulate the govt response:The Hindu: Not of concern, Business Standard: Downplays concern, Indian Express: Pockets 8th concern, but not worry, India Today: Not big concern, Tribune: There are some concerns, HT: Assuming the worst, Statesman: Not a big worry, Telegraph:..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-08-27
A state that is due to go to the polls cannot afford to get tough with journalists. After the Supreme Court said allotment of govt property to private bodies or persons should be discontinued, the UP govt asked journalists to vacate govt housing. Then 300 affected journos met the CM and..
IN Statistics | 2016-08-26
REGISTRAR OF NEWSPAPERS FOR INDIA: Press in India 2014-15 Ownership of publications: 2014-15 Ownership of publications (periodicity wise) Ownership pattern of publications (Periodicity-Wise/ In percentage) Distribution of ownership of publications (Language-Wise) Distribution of ownership of publications (State-Wise) Circulation of publications under diverse ownership Ownership of `NEWS & CURRENT AFFAIRS’ Newspapers For more details visit http://rni.nic.in/pin2014_15/pin-05.pdf ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-08-26
On the August 25 Newshour Arnab Goswami on Times Now was more aggressive than usual. The recorded conversation that Rahul Mukhrejea had with his step-mother Indrani and father Peter Mukherjea, both suspected of being involved in the death of Sheena Bora, was being played. Dubbed a 'mega-exclusive' and 'super exclusive'..
Indian M&E industry growth projection
IN Statistics | 2016-08-26
FICCI-KPMG report projects Indian M&E industry at INR 2260 billion by 2020, digital advertising continues to grow at a robust pace • Media and entertainment sector grew by 12.8 per cent from INR1026 billion in 2014 to INR1157 billion in 2015 • Overall advertising grew by 14.7 per cent from INR414 billion..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-08-26
The Express Tribune in Pakistan published this nice little story two days ago. Apparently the Indian High Commission in Islamabad went out of its way to expedite visas for Pakistani students chosen to participate in the 10th Asian Science Camp taking place in Bengaluru. They were going to get a chance to interact with..
Indian M & E Industry Trends and Analysis
IN Statistics | 2016-08-26
The Indian Media & Entertainment Industry 2016 Chaitanya Chinchilkar, Whistling Woods International From slideshare.net http://www.slideshare.net/chait123/the-indian-media-entertainment-industry-2016#likes-panel ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-08-26
Actress Ramya’s comment, “Pakistan is not hell”, and the subsequent complaint filed against her, has made her into a media celebrity of sorts in Pakistan, reports Bangalore Mirror. While her comments, which were a repudiation of defence minister Manohar Parikkar’s, got slammed on social media by Indian trolls, Pakistani media played up..
IN Regional Media | 2016-08-25
The Kerala media reported a May ruling by the Central Information Commission as ‘news’ in August. Why?
IN Media Practice | 2016-08-25
Comedian John Oliver’s takedown of the way the media is headed with their digital-first strategy is riotously funny and devastating,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-08-24
The Southasia Trust is suspending publication of Himal Southasian, the pioneering magazine promoting cross-border journalism in the region. The decision was taken by the Trust’s Executive Board on 22 August, “due to non-cooperation by regulatory state agencies in Nepal that has made it impossible to continue operations after 29 years..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-08-24
Should the media refrain from mentioning the names of lawyers while reporting a court case? That’s what the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court thinks. In a startling judgment, the bench directed the court’s registrar to instruct media not to do so as that would apparently be tantamount to..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-08-23
The Deccan Chronicle reports that a senior journalist was found murdered on Monday night, in his office in Junagadh in the Saurashtra region of Gujarat. Kishore Dave, bureau chief of Gujarati newspaper Jai Hind,was stabbed at 9 pm when he was writing a story. He was alone in the office..
IN Books | 2016-08-22
A new book of essays by insiders chronicle NDTV’s role in transforming television news. They have compelling stories to tell
Media’s escalating romance with RBI governors
IN Opinion | 2016-08-22
Journalists have lost all sense of proportion in the attention they give to a routine technocratic appointment that means little to the citizen,
Is Trump a victim of media bias?
IN Media Practice | 2016-08-20
It is as if large sections of “objective” journalists have decided to come to the rescue of the country and save it from a possible Trump presidency.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-08-20
Call it a piece of ardent wishful thinking. While an entire nation was watching the women's singles badminton final between P V Sindhu and Spain's Carolina Marin at the Rio Olympics, social media started buzzing with a startling bit of news from NDTV.com. "P V Sindhu upsets Carolina Marin to..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-08-19
Rajyavardhan Rathore, minister of state for information and broadcasting, today made a strong pitch for government giving people greater access to information, reports The Indian Express. “We need to open up. Typically, governments have been with iron curtains all around. But today time is changing, so we first need to change our..
IN Media Freedom | 2016-08-19
Is most free speech becoming seditious because the law is being applied so casually, without the care that is meant to be exercised?
Aunty Sushma leaves foreign policy to PM
IN Opinion | 2016-08-19
Forced by Modi to keep a low profile, Swaraj has become the one person in the cabinet who offers a human touch when Indians need help.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-08-18
The morning after Sakshi Malik's triumph the Dainik Jagran beat its English language counterparts by managing to get the news of India's first Olympic medal at the Rio games onto page one as a second lead. The others could only manage to accomodate PV Sindhu's quarter final victory, and the..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-08-18
When Sakshi Malik got her bronze our journalists outdid themselves at Rio. They prompted her on what to say. On NewsX she could be seen flanked by two men, one a well known sports journalist, being told say something about Swach Bharat. Then, “say Mera desh mahan”. "Here, show a..
China paper slams Indian media
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-08-17
Global Times, a state-run Chinese newspaper, has launched a frontal attack on Indian media, reports The Times of India. Relations between India and China are not improving because Indian media have been criticising China and holding it responsible for preventing the country’s admission into the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), the paper said...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-08-17
Gawker Media, which went bankrupt after it lost a privacy suit filed by ex-pro wrester Hulk Hogan, has been bought over by media company Univision at a reported price of $135m, according to The Guardian. Earlier this year, a US court ordered Gawker to pay $140m in damages to Hogan for having published..
IN Media Practice | 2016-08-17
A new Canadian style guide offers help on navigating the shoals of ethnically and racially diverse societies.
IN Opinion | 2016-08-17
Some sniggered at his remark but TOI’s Vineet Jain was right when he said people want news in a short, fun format.
IN Law and Policy | 2016-08-16
The Kerala government ups the ante by going to court over its refusal to disclose details of cabinet meetings under RTI, copying its predecessor’s stand.
Has the media failed Sharmila?
IN Media Practice | 2016-08-15
While the aura around Irom Sharmila has grown since she started her fast 16 years ago before a single camera, it has not let to a deeper media focus on the impact of AFSPA on the ground,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-08-15
Given how high it is on patrioitism Zee decided to launch its new international channel WION (World is One News) on Independence Day. You will get international news here, theoretically, through a South Asian lens. Ambitious project and the first such, east of Al Jazeera in Qatar. Hopefully it will be..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-08-13
Outlook magazine gets a new editor, Rajesh Ramachandran from the Economic Times, even as its outgoing editor Krishna Prasad is named in a case filed against him, the writer and the magazine’s publisher, by BJP affiliates in Assam. This is for a July 29 cover story on the trafficking of 31..
Hacks, some really bad news for you
IN Digital Media | 2016-08-13
And you thought Artificial Intelligence was being used for driverless cars? Silly, it means a robot will write your stories.
Snapping communication further in Kashmir
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-08-13
On August 13, two days before Independence Day, the restrictions on communication tightened further in Kashmir. All broadband services were suspended in the evening, even those of BSNL. The print and digital media will be handicapped with the exception of Greater Kashmir which has V-Sat connectivity. ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-08-12
Newspapers in Kashmir are reporting that the government has ordered internet service providers to block high speed internet services to newspapers and other institutions including hospitals ahead of Independence Day. Also the government has again blocked private mobile services and a very limited access is available to BSNL mobiles and..
Remembering my fallen colleague Mehmood Khan
IN Opinion | 2016-08-12
Quetta is no stranger to gloom and doom; but when death visits your workplace and snatches away a young, energetic mind full of dreams, the sense of loss is deep and profound,
The giant who straddled Nehru and Bhagat Singh
IN Media Practice | 2016-08-12
Remembering Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi and his paper Pratap for their vital support for both the Congress and the revolutionaries.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-08-12
On Thursday Rajyavardhan Rathore, minister of state for information and broadcasting, revealed in the Rajya Sabha that the licences of 73 television channels and 24 private FM radio stations had been cancelled by the government in recent years. The licences of TV channels such as Mohua Punjabi, Mohua Telugu, Key TV and..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-08-12
Pakistan’s legislature has put its stamp of approval on the controversial Pakistan Electronic Crimes Bill, which would enable the government to take down online content “in the interests of the glory of Islam,” reports Hindustan Times. Under the provisions of the bill, ISPs may also be ordered to block online content if it..
Ammunition for the uncharitable
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-08-11
“Indian journalists congratulate each other on Quetta Blast” apparently seeing it as a ‘serve them right’ response for Kashmir, reports a Pakistani newspaper. In both Pakistan and India, it seems, if you look for ammunition in support of uncharitable intent, you can find it! Twitter is always there to oblige...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-08-11
India Today group editorial director Kalli Purie is in Rio and the channel has been putting out editions of Kalli’s Rio diary. Her encounters with atheletes, her take on the opening ceremony and on Rio’s happening night life. The channel’s consulting editor, Sports, Boria Majumdar, is on hand to do..
Outlook refuses to be muzzled by FIR over its story
IN Media Freedom | 2016-08-10
The filing of a complaint against an Outlook investigation on child trafficking in Assam is the latest attempt to silence the media
When the BJP top brass did not retweet @narendramodi
IN Opinion | 2016-08-10
It certainly looked like both @Amit Shah as well as @rajnathsingh wanted to maintain an element of deniability on the issue of gau rakshaks.
For corporate media, Bloomberg is the better billionaire
IN Opinion | 2016-08-09
The media moghul’s appearance at the Democratic convention was covered as a celebration of conservative centrism, never mind his former mayoral record,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-08-08
Zee Punjabi channel’s daily news show called ' Mudde ki baat' had to be cancelled on Sunday when the Aam Aadmi Party’s Sukhpal Khaira, who was to be a panelist for a discussion on drugs, was suddenly told that he could not participate. The channel wanted a milder panelist for ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-08-08
Rajat Sharma of India TV and Smita Prakash of ANI took part in the MyGov Townhall on August 5. They were on a panel discussion alongside ministers Arun Jaitley and Ravi Shankar Prasad and hailed this government initiative. Prakash said the Modi government has optimized the use of social media..
Will social media define the success of the Games?
IN Digital Media | 2016-08-08
As the London Olympics and the Sochi games showed, social media can provide an alternative narrative to the mainstream TV coverage of the games.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-08-07
The Rajasthan Patrika has declared war on Rajasthan CM Vasundhara Raje Scindia. In an editorial which is also available in audio on the paper's website, the chief editor Gulab Kothari begins with the suspension of advertising to the group and goes on to ask why this has happened when advertising to this paper was..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-08-07
Diplomacy can be charted through what newspapers put out. Now that the Saudis have gone on a counter offensive, the story of Indian workers in Saudi Arabia has changed to being just the case of one company. Their version is in the Hindu and other papers superseding earlier reports which gave the version..
The sly media lies about Kashmir
IN Media Practice | 2016-08-06
Kashmir is portrayed with deliberate dishonesty. The purpose is to silence Kashmiris and keep the pro-India narrative going.
IN Media Freedom | 2016-08-06
Pondicherry University’s student magazine is anti-national and subversive, says the ABVP, eager to crush dissent.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-08-06
Navamalayali.com has announced that it has appointed a citizen reporter from one of the tribal communities in Kerala, the ‘mullukkuruma’ tribal community of Wayanad. The online magazine has published the reporter's forward to what his upcoming stories will be. The magazine claims this is the first time Kerala's media world will have representation from the tribal..
How the media exploited the Bulandshahr rape case
IN Media Practice | 2016-08-05
Even as they reported the family’s evident unease about being swamped with media attention, reporters went on hounding the rape survivors.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-08-05
On Thursday night news channels hammered away at Pakistan for not running on TV home minister Rajnath Singh's speech at SAARC where he said that terrorists should not be eulogised as martyrs. Then the MEA put an end to the hollering with a clarification that a live telecast is only done..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-08-05
'Jung' means war in Urdu, and when interviewing Delhi Lt Gov. Najeeb Jung on the Delhi HC order on the LG being the administrative head, not the CM, Rajdeep Sardesai used it on his nightly India Today show: "If I may pun, how long will this 'jung' continue between you..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-08-04
The Pakistan state media today blacked out a speech by home minister Rajnath Singh who was in Islamabad to attend a SAARC meet. Singh said: "There should be strongest action not only against terrorists but also against nations who support terrorism.” He also said that there should be no glorification..
Pentagon: reporters are not ‘enemies’
IN Media Freedom | 2016-08-04
The Pentagon’s revised military manual says journalists working independently in conflict zones are not necessarily spies or saboteurs, but civilians to be protected.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-08-03
Vineet Jain, managing director of BCCL, on ‘leading India’s media into the future': “We are moving from pure news toward entertainment, short-form content, and fun videos. The definition of news has changed completely…Millennials want to consume content from wherever they are, especially on social media. They want to read what their friends are sharing,..
IN Media Practice | 2016-08-02
Neither his employer nor other media veterans buy Arnab Goswami’s fulminations on what can or cannot be said about Kashmir.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-08-02
It couldn't get verse or could it? The Times of India's news desk was rhyming without reason on the resignation of Anandiben, the Chief Minister of Gujarat. It headlined the old lady of Boribunder on the front page of its Delhi edition today thus: 'Dalit fire, Patel ire and Land..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-08-02
If you thought Smriti Irani’s alleged "demotion'' to the textile ministry would banish her to the shadows, think again. In a move to whip up enthusiasm for handlooms, Irani launched a campaign on Twitter yesterday called #IWearHandlooms, posting a picture of herself in a silk saree from Bihar and requesting..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-08-01
The Hindu reports that a Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader in Geedam block of Dantewada has allegedly posted in a social media group that journalists like Prabhat Singh (recently released on bail in Chhattisgarh) should be shot dead and have their hands, legs and heads chopped off. A charming sentiment that underscores what..
Media still under attack in Kerala
IN Media Freedom | 2016-08-01
Reporters covering the courts have been assaulted by lawyers, taken into police custody, and their access to the courts restricted
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-07-31
In what could be the first case of its kind the Goa police has registered an FIR against a newspaper management's officials for extortion, under Sections 384, 511 read with 34, of the IPC. Management officials of oHeraldo newspaper were booked after a freelance journalist published videos on Facebook which showed..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-07-30
Even as Arnab Goswami hyperventilates about how criticism by fellow journalists of the handling of militants in Kashmir is anti-Indian, pro-Pakistan, and pro-terrorist, the joint resistance camp in Kashmir led by Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Mohammad Yasin Malik has issued a statement urging people in the state..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-07-30
Several French news organisations, including the daily Le Monde, Catholic newspaper La Croix and television station BFM-TV, have decided not to carry pictures of those responsible for terror attacks in order to avoid “the potential effects of posthumous glorification”. Le Monde took the decision after the terror attack in Nice..
The Kashmir the media does not report
IN Archive | 2016-07-30
And then, I ran. Not because I wanted to shirk off my journalistic duties but because no story is worth a life.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-07-29
The news story of an Indigo flight from Dubai to Kozhikode making an emergency landing in Mumbai following the unusual behavior of a passenger, shows how IS-obsessed our media are. Many immediately declared that the passenger shouted pro-IS slogans. But reports were corrected later and some even regretted. The Hindu, for example,..
Social media helps Una dalits remain uncowed
IN Digital Media | 2016-07-29
The dumping of cow carcasses by large numbers during protest rallies was a unique form of protest made possible only by social media.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-07-28
Network 18 takes on the Times group? On being sold out to the BJP? Wow. We thought in India dog did not eat dog. And disclaimers about being competitors, etc. are in order. But Firstpost carried a piece on July 27 titled “Arnab Goswami's transformation from 'presstitute' to Pokémon Go-Swami” ..
Mamata 2.0: ABP stoops to concur with Didi
IN Regional Media | 2016-07-28
The state’s leading media group has changed its tune. It is generous to Didi and reserves criticism for TMC’s party rank and file,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-07-28
Stepping up its clampdown on the media in the wake of the failed coup earlier this month, the Turkish government has ordered the closure of scores of media organisations by a decree late Wednesday, The Washington Post reports. On Monday 42 journalists were detained. And yesterday detention orders were issued against nearly 50 journalists and..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-07-27
A mighty slugfest has broken out between two of India’s most watched television journalists — Times Now Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami and NDTV’s consulting editor Barkha Dutt. During Times Now’s Newshour debate on Tuesday, Arnab launched a tirade against sections of the media that he said were sympathetic to Pakistan fomenting..
Media parrots the BJP in Aligarh
IN Media Practice | 2016-07-27
Muzaffanagar, Kairana, Aligarh…….why do leading newspapers spread the false stories of ‘a forced Hindu exodus’ concocted by the BJP?
IN Opinion | 2016-07-27
The serial that tried to make a difference ran longer than any other soap but now calls it a day after eight years.
Kashmir’s blackout means family anguish
IN Media Freedom | 2016-07-27
The mobile-internet blockade has left families in the dark about the well-being and whereabouts of their loved ones.
TV reporters turn crude voyeurs
IN Media Practice | 2016-07-26
In reporting sexual harassment in the film and TV industry, Odisha’s news channels highlighted sex-for-favours but showed insensitivity towards the victims.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-07-26
In the unfolding saga of the extortion sting which exposed blackmail by the OHeraldo newspaper in Goa, and the retaliatory case of data theft filed by the paper, the latest is that the police are pressing the journalist who uploaded the sting to reveal his source. On July 26 Mayabhushan..
Free speech verdicts good, logic bad
IN Judgements | 2016-07-25
In their Udta Punjab and Perumal Murugan rulings, the courts missed an opportunity to lay down some fundamental principles
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-07-24
As India expels 3 Chinese journalists from India, it's worth revisiting this essay by one of them who has a long India connect, Tang Lu of Xinhua. Her writing on her experiences as a foreign correspondent here appears in the book, Media at Work in China and India, Discovering and Dissecting...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-07-23
It's not clear why a Kashmir-related protest should provoke the Bangalore police into placard and slogan pre-censorship but that is what happened as this detailed account shows. A group applied for permission to the police to hold a protest regarding the civilian killings in Kashmir and received a questionnaire to be filled...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-07-22
Following the making public of an extortion sting which exposed the O Heraldo newspqper in Goa, the paper has now filed a complaint with the Goa Police Crime Branch Cyber Cell, in which they have tried to implicate the journalist who exposed the sting, in a data theft and hacking case. In a news..
For Indian media, Kashmir is a minor story
IN Media Monitoring | 2016-07-22
The publishers that were analyzed included several English language daily newspapers, online news sites, one television channel and several wire services.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-07-22
Actress Leslie Jones quit Twitter this week after being subjected to an avalanche of sexist and racist messages following the release of the all-female remake of the iconic 80s film, Ghostbuster. When Jones, who stars in the film, brought the matter to the notice of Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, some abusers were..
Lying about Kashmir with old videos
IN Opinion | 2016-07-22
When channels air old footage to tarnish demonstrators, they act as partners of the army, spreading propaganda instead of the facts.
Kerala clash caused by misreporting
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-07-22
Kochipost.com reports that the spat between lawyers and journalists at the Kerala High Court was actually triggered by a misleading report in the Kochi edition of Deccan Chronicle. This said that a resolution passed by the Advocates Association condemning police atrocities on a government pleader was not carried because of a difference of..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-07-21
Adivasi journalist Somaru Nag has been acquitted by a trial court in Chhattisgarh. He was arrested on July 16, 2015 on charges of aiding Maoists. Another Bastar journalist, Santosh Yadav, is still in jail. The acquittal is a comment on arbitrariness of his arrest and long incaceration by the Chhattisgarh..
The life and times of an independent writer
IN Opinion | 2016-07-21
What’s it like to be an independent journalist? Is the work satisfying, can it pay the bills and is such a life possible today?
Facebook censoring posts about Kashmir
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-07-20
The Guardian reports that Face-book is censoring posts on user accounts, posted about the crisis in Kashmir after the killing of Burhan Wani. It says “academics, journalists and the pages of local newspapers are among those who have had photos, videos and entire accounts deleted by Facebook.” ..
The wily @rajnathsingh & the #Kashmir crisis
IN Opinion | 2016-07-20
When you are not a social media pro, you do your political fencing inside Parliament and post your speeches on YouTube. As Rajnath Singh and Ghulam Nabhi Azad did last week.
Kashmir cut off: why internet bans are bad for democracy
IN Digital Media | 2016-07-20
To muzzle the internet at the hint of trouble is to respond like paranoid dictatorships. More safeguards are needed in the law invoked,
No newspapers in Kashmir till govt apologises?
IN Media Freedom | 2016-07-20
Government doublespeak angers the Kashmir press, as Mattoo claims CM did not know of the three-day ban.
Please increase diversity in your newsroom!
IN Media Practice | 2016-07-19
An open letter to NDTV India's Ravish Kumar : Please look at the Brahmin domination in your own backyard,
After the coup in Turkey, media feels the heat
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-07-19
Post coup, the impact on press freedom is being felt by the media. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) warns the Turkish authorities against any temptation to silence critical media outlets on the pretext of punishing supposed supporters of the 16 July coup attempt. More than a dozen news websites suspected of “endangering national..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-07-19
The central government's effort to counter the theory of home grown militancy being behind the unrest in Kashmir by saying that Pakistan is waging a proxy war in the state, is bolstered by a story in the Times of India, attributed to the Ministry of information and broadcasting. This one says Pakistan..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-07-18
When Bihar has prohibition, how is it there are 'bar girls' in the state? TV 18 telecast amateur video howing a JD(U) MLA, Shyam Bahadur Singh "dancing with bar girls". Unless one dances in a bar, as they used to in Maharashtra, she cannot be a bar dancer. Or is this a..
Should AIR do propaganda or Jan ki Baat?
IN Community Media | 2016-07-18
AIR is to increase tribal language broadcasts in districts affected by Left wing extremism. But is this purely to counter Naxalism or to genuinely connect with tribal India,
Letting Chhattisgarh journalists work
IN Media Freedom | 2016-07-18
In response to the persecution of journalists, a new law has been drafted to protect them against the police and vigilante groups
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-07-18
As the Republican convention to formally declare Donald Trump as the party’s presidential nominee gets under way in Cleveland, Ohio, later today, experts are wondering what it might mean for the US media. “It could be …a defining moment in American media, especially for the TV networks,” writes a commentator in the New..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-07-18
Kashmir's print media gag of three days has been achieved without any written order, which would have required citing of some law. It has been achieved by brute force on day one, with police teams raiding printing presses and seizing copies of papers printed, followed by a verbal explanation on..
Kashmiris turn against media, local journalists affected
IN Media Practice | 2016-07-17
Kashmiris react with fury to the dubious or false stories that some media outlets have been peddling during the current protests against Wani’s killing.
Local media gagged, national news channels promoted
IN Media Freedom | 2016-07-17
It is routine for Delhi-based media houses to parachute journalists into Kashmir when there is a crisis, demonstrating mistrust of their local correspondents.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-07-16
The Jammu and Kashmir government on Friday night launched a crackdown against media in the Valley. Police raided printing press offices of Kashmir's largest circulated newspaper Greater Kashmir, as well as Kashmir Uzma, Kashmir Reader, Kashmir Observer, Tameel-e-Irshad. In these offices as many as 11 employees were also taken into..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-07-16
Like it or hate it social media is useful when the chips are down for you. Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan has been an "avowed enemy of social media who has frequently made Twitter and Facebook a target" but he addressed the country via a FaceTime video call reports Reuters. That is..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-07-15
Did India Today know the cover of its latest issue would spark such a sensation? The cover, tweeted out yesterday, shows yoga guru and formidable FMCG entrepreneur Baba Ramdev in a version of the Prasarita Padottanasana, (a jaw-dropping tangle of arms and legs to the uninitiated) and carries the tag..
Let’s talk about Theresa May’s shoes
IN Media Practice | 2016-07-15
The appearance of British women politicians is dissected with a sexism that is mercifully unthinkable in India, so far.
An extortion sting implicates Goa's Herald
IN Media Practice | 2016-07-14
The revelations, accompanied by the serialised release of a video recording, concern Goa’s boldest and most visible daily.
Bastar journalists and jail, a year on
IN Media Freedom | 2016-07-14
Those fighting to free Santosh Yadav and Somaru Nag from jail themselves need defending in a state where the odds are stacked against both.
The great Modi reshuffle: tiresome punditry
IN Opinion | 2016-07-13
The opinion of the Great Unlearned fell into three categories: it was all political, all about delivery, or all rubbish.
IN Digital Media | 2016-07-13
Peace TV, at least to the casual viewer, is about advocating being a suffocatingly good Muslim rather than a murderous one.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-07-13
In between blogs on Smriti Irani's sudden ouster and depressed investor sentiment, NDTV's blog site gives us an unexpected piece of whimsy. In a blog that has gone viral, the channel's Mumbai correspondent reveals how he fell in love and married the network's output editor based in Delhi over 'talkback'. Talkback, for..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-07-11
This Scroll.in story shows how TV channels including Times Now, Zee News and NDTV 24x7 took off on an accusatory binge linking preacher Zakir Naik to the July 1 Dhaka attacks, claiming that they were inspired by him. All extrapolated from a report in Dhaka’s Daily Star which said that..
Life and death in Kashmir, on social media
IN Opinion | 2016-07-10
How do you deal with the glamorisation of militancy, so completely different from the Pakistan-sponsored terrorism of the 1990s?
Mobile internet blocked in Kashmir
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-07-09
The government has suspended mobile internet services across Kashmir to prevent escalation of protests over the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani. Mobile phone service has also been suspended in many parts of south Kashmir. Wani was killed after serving as a militant for 6 years in Southern Kashmir's Kokernag..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-07-08
When the state can't solve a journalist's murder it placates the media community in other ways. Mumbai journalist J Dey, Mid-day’s Editor-Investigations, who was gunned down 5 years ago, will be immortalised by naming a square in a tony colony at the behest of Mumbai Press Club. D-Mart Circle, in..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-07-07
Ravish Kumar’s open letter to MJ Akbar is a bit puzzling. It is not clear why Akbar has to answer for the trolls who heap abuse on Kumar: “Akbar ji, when you came from journalism into politics, did people call you a pimp too, abuse you, vilify you - like..
Murdoch's waning influence on the Australian elections
IN Opinion | 2016-07-07
Did Murdoch’s media influence count for much in the elections currently under way in Australia?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-07-07
US presidential candidate Donald Trump’s hate-hate relationship with the media was taken a notch higher on Wednesday when he called them “dishonest” and lambasted them for giving him bad press for tweeting an image that was widely perceived to be anti-Semitic. The image, which featured Clinton and a six-pointed star..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-07-06
Smriti Irani usually evokes strong feelings. So the moment news broke that the HRD minister had been demoted to the job of the infinitely more lightweight minister for textiles, much of Twitter erupted in malicious glee. There were the inevitable sexist jibes, but journalists had their say too: Om Thamvi..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-07-05
What price TV punditry? As the news of the ministerial announcements came in and the discussion unfolded, Rahul Kanwal was jumping up and down on Aaj Tak and India Today about what he called the big demotions: Smriti Irani losing HRD and Arjun Jaitley losing I and B. (Since when..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-07-05
MJ Akbar is the only journalist among the newly inducted ministers, but he has been among the least active parliamentarians, according to data released by Parliamentary Research Services this evening. The number of debates he has participated in is 3, with only one person scoring lower than him, Ramesh Chandappa..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-07-05
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has said that that he will not hold press conferences after cabinet meetings which was a practice followed by former UDF and LDF CMs. To add insult to injury he said a CM did not have to do the role of a PRO. He added..
The dubious ethics of linking to dubious videos
IN Media Practice | 2016-07-05
The case of Hasan Suroor, the British vigilante group Unknown TV, and the mainstream Indian media.
Character test for publishers?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-07-04
The Mumbai chief metropolitan magistrate’s office passed an order on May 13 decreeing that publishers in Mumbai will have to furnish “character certificates” issued by the police each time they file a declaration for a new publication, reports The Indian Express. The Mumbai Police Special Branch’s “character and antecedent” certificate..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-07-04
On July 1, the Supreme Court directed senior Zee TV journalists Sudhir Chaudhary and Samir Ahluwalia to submit their voice samples while hearing the case of their alleged attempt to extort money from industrialist and Congress leader Naveen Jindal. In November 2012, the duo were arrested after the steel tycoon..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-07-04
"At 9.30 pm that evening, my digital desk told me the interview hashtag #PMspeakstoArnab had crossed 1 billion potential mpressions on Twitter. Our friends at Facebook told us they were seeing unprecedented traction, and that the kind of video downloads was greater than a Hollywood blockbuster. Both the global social media giants put..
The online obsession of the #DhakaAttack-ers
IN Digital Media | 2016-07-03
The terrorists uploaded their own pictures during the attack, to internationalise the mayhem and sow fear in the hearts of those watching -- and reading.
“I write what I see and experience”
IN Opinion | 2016-07-03
Barkha Lakra, an adivasi activist-journalist from Jharkhand, reports on social justice issues in tribal areas and the oppression of adivasi women.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-07-02
This week social media giant Facebook announced that it was changing its news feed algorithm in order to prioritise content posted by friends and family. So content posted by publishers will show up much less on FB news feeds, with considerable loss of traffic and revenue for them. Facebook too said it..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-07-02
It always helps to have your own correspondent posted in the other South Asian countries. While most channels struggled for information from the ground on the hostage crisis in a leafy restaurant in the diplomatic area of Gulshan in Dhaka, it was only ABP Ananda that scored with a view..
The Odisha casting couch smears the ruling BJD
IN Regional Media | 2016-07-01
Allegations of trading sex for roles in the film industry and shady business practices cast a shadow over Odisha’s Ollywood.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-06-30
Who says TV news is only studio chatter, opinion, and no action? On Times Now on Thursday night, the reporter was running alongside Robert Vadera's car, shooting questions breathlessly at the man inside. The only problem was its darkened windowpanes were up. That was soon after he put a comment..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-06-30
News World India, the Hindi news channel owned by industrialist Naveen Jindal, is close to shut down. Five bureaus have been shut, staff including the CEO are serving out their notice period. They have been told that the operation is being reduced to bare bones. It is currently on 3..
After Arnab coup AAP in form, others dozing
IN Opinion | 2016-06-29
Even as #PMSpeakstoArnab broke records, it became clear just how unequal old style political parties are to combat on Twitter
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-06-29
Social media is a great place for grievance redressal. And happily, our ministers are increasingly responding to tweets to solve citizens’ problems. Recently, IT and communications minister Ravi Shankar Prasad took note of a tweet about the absence of a post office in a remote village in Uttarakhand. Within days,..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-06-28
Kapil Sibal tweeted yesterday, "Modi ji, have a press conf. Let our journalists ask you questions. This is better than an interview with one person." What did he mean by 'our' journalists? Congress hacks as opposed to BJP hacks? Or did he mean the 'nation's' journalists? ..
Mr Prime Minister, the nation wants to know!
IN Media Practice | 2016-06-28
Unlike his more adversarial interview with Jaitley the week before, Goswami mostly showed deference to the office of the prime minister.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-06-28
A prime minister enjoying himself during his first long interview as PM with India's much-hyped TV terror, was a sight to watch. Narendra Modi waxed expansive and eloquent, as Arnab Goswami indulged him and lobbed enabling questions. Brought up the opposition's obstructionism in Parliament and forgot to mention that the..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-06-27
One in four people watching. (People, as in?) Over 2 lakh video views on Facebook in two hours. Twelve crore impressions on Twitter. 800 million potential impressions. 28 lakh users on Facebook. 1.5 lakh views on Facebook. And so on, all in quick succession, even as the interview was running..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-06-27
Mutual promotion society: ever heard of the PMO promoting the PM's interview with a TV anchor using the programme slug? From the PM's Twitter handle on June 27: Does the nation want to know what I frankly shared with Mr. Arnab Goswami? Find out 6 PM onwards on @timesnow. Mr..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-06-27
Are editors touchy about being edited? Shekhar Gupta, senior journalist and former editor of The Indian Express, reacted with obvious ire on Twitter when Suhel Seth pointed out an error in one of his tweets. The word in Gupta’s tweet should have been “for” rather than “four” — clearly a typo..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-06-26
Journalists, like politicians, apparently do not have to retire if they are in leadership positions. At the end of this month the Mumbai Press Club is felicitating the group editor of the Lokmat Group Dinkar Raikar, on completing 46 years in journalism at the age of 75. The club's statement..
DD during the Emergency and other media tales
IN Books | 2016-06-26
'Candid Canvas' is rich in original documentation such as DD memos from an Engineering chief asking colleagues to destroy all material shot and used during the Emergency.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-06-25
Shekhar Gupta in his Walk the Talk programme on June 24 told Anurag Thakur, president BCCI, that when BCCI reserves the right to pick the anchor for the broadcast channel they select for telecast of matches, that was the 'worst form of paid news' . He also grilled Thakur on..
AP’s political media yells ‘free speech’
IN Regional Media | 2016-06-24
Telugu media houses flaunt their political affiliations and function as the assault teams of the main parties while professing ‘fearless journalism’.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-06-23
As Britain votes in the EU Referendum, the British media’s role in influencing the debate merits a glance. The Economist of June 22 has a graphic based on the EC’s website on countering disinformation published by the British press since the 1990s. It says over 400 colourful myths have been..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-06-22
As news broke this evening that Aveek Sarkar, who had reigned as chief editor of the Kolkata-based ABP group for nearly 30 years, had stepped down, former associates took to Twitter to express their sentiments. Journalist Vir Sanghvi, who edited the Group’s Sunday magazine for many years, and knew Sarkar..
Ra-Ra Rajan: media and the Rajan effect
IN Media Practice | 2016-06-22
News of 'rock star' RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan's exit sparked a torrent of media coverage -- reverential and otherwise.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-06-22
This Caravan story lists a number of Delhi journalists appointed by AAP to the governing boards of Delhi colleges. It grants that one of those journalists has continued to be critical of AAP in her reporting, when warranted. And another said she considered it her civic duty to serve on..
How Pakistan’s Dawn covers India
IN Media Monitoring | 2016-06-22
An analysis of The Hindu and Dawn shows the latter giving India more space and more diverse coverage than vice versa.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-06-21
On June 15 India Today began a 30-day countdown to the release of Rajnikant's Kabali, on its programme UP South. Almost an entire half-hour was devoted to it that day. Since then there is something every day, often with a gushing reporter filing a story. ..
Defamation lawsuits that drag on and on
IN Judgements | 2016-06-21
Twenty-two years…18 years…that is how long the courts take to settle defamation cases which are becoming increasingly routine and frivolous.
India’s second oldest newspaper
IN Regional Media | 2016-06-20
As part of a special series, the HOOT looks at Jam-e-Jamshed, the voice of the Parsi at home and abroad, but also much more.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-06-20
If there has been a rash of recent headlines on the crisis in the Congress Party, as well as (contradictorily enough) the promise of Rahul Gandhi, it is because Rajya Sabha MP Jairam Ramesh has written a book. Not on the crisis in the Congress or on the promise of..
Jammu-Kashmir’s moonlighting babus
IN Regional Media | 2016-06-20
Three govt employees have been suspended. Will it now curb a practice that affects journalism in the state adversely?
IN Opinion | 2016-06-19
Sundays are ruined with his grumbling and mumbo-jumbo. Give your readers a break please, dear Indian Express.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-06-18
The Performance Gurus website has a story and an audio recording which says that there was a mole in the Indian Express office who recorded conversations in the editor’s office and passed them on to intelligence agencies. It has an audio recording of one such conversation in which the then..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-06-17
This ET story is extraordinary. It amounts to undiluted airing of the BJP's communal accusations. When a reporter tracks a BJP fact-finding team to Kairana, the town that is in the news for the alleged exodus of Hindus and the story is accompanied by a video, should she then file a report without..
Framing the California textbooks debate
IN Media Monitoring | 2016-06-16
How did the US and Indian media convert an attempt to erase ‘’India’ and ‘Hinduism’ into a fight between ‘bad’ Hindus and ‘good’ secularists?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-06-16
Giving awards to politicians is a bit dicey if you do not want to displease the ruling big daddies. It leads to awkward situations if the jury picks the wrong person. Last year CNN News18 (then known as CNN IBN) gave a politician of the year award to Finance Minister..
IN Regional Media | 2016-06-15
As the AP and Telangana governments try to muzzle the media, the latter, playing its own games, has either bent or crawled.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-06-14
HRD minister Smriti Irani never shies away from a Twitter spat. This afternoon, Bihar Congress leader Ashok Chaudhary snarkily addressed her as “Dear @smritiirani ji” and asked her to take time off from politics and pay attention to the new education policy. The ever pugilistic Irani hit back immediately —..
Was India Today's Mathura sting ethical?
IN Media Practice | 2016-06-14
By naming and showing two policemen who exposed the UP government’s lies, India Today’s sting operation put the men at risk of retribution,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-06-13
Journalist and commentator Inder Malhotra who passed away on June 11 was perhaps the only one among the editors from the Times stable in the 1980s who is remembered for having stood up to Samir Jain, the then Vice Chairman of the Times Group, as he sought to cut journalists..
Living legends: India’s oldest newspapers
IN Regional Media | 2016-06-13
As part of a new HOOT series, we look at some legendary newspapers. The Mumbai Samachar is Asia’s oldest newspaper at 193
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-06-12
The Punjab Medical Council has sent a complaint to the Press Council of India dated June 10 protesting against the soliciting of ads from doctors by a marketing person of the Times Group. The complaint quotes an sms received from a rep. of the group which says the paper is..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-06-11
Vijender Gupta, BJP MLA in the Delhi Assembly standing on a chair in the House to protest against AAP, was the source of much ridicule on Arnab Goswami's prime time on June 10. But does Goswami employ different rules for different guests on his programme? On June 9 he was..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-06-11
On June 9 Mumbai tabloid Mid-Day set a cat among the pigeons when columnist Malavika Sanghvi wrote a diary item saying that Tarun Tejpal, former editor of Tehelka magazine, was on a comeback trail. Tejpal, once quite the media star, faces charges of having raped a young colleague in 2013..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-06-10
The Sangai Express reports that the Press Council of India (PCI), had taken up a suo moto case of threats and intimidation of media personnel in Manipur, and a bomb threat to the secretary general of Editors' Guild, Manipur and Editor in Chief of Impact TV, Yumnam Rupachandra. On June..
IN Opinion | 2016-06-10
While the debate over Udta Punjab rumbles on, what about the Punjabi songs that glorify drugs and alcohol in popular culture?
IN Books | 2016-06-09
Sue the Messenger is a breezy read by Subir Ghosh and Paranjoy Guha Thakurta of recent SLAPP cases in India.
Case against Hasan Suroor dropped
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-06-08
Hindustan Times reports that Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) on Tuesday dropped its case against Indian-origin journalist Hasan Suroor on the ground that it had “no evidence” to support the allegation of “sexual grooming” made against him by a vigilante group last November. Suroor said he was considering suing the..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-06-08
The Mukesh Ambani owned news network is expanding. This article describes how. Network 18's ETV network has just soft launched 3 more news channels in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Assam under the News18 banner...
HT Media grows in non-print areas
IN Media Business | 2016-06-08
While the company’s profits came largely from print advertising, revenue growth has come from language, radio and digital.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-06-07
Business Standard reported last week that Flipkart is in talks to sell an a percentage of stake to Bennett, Coleman and Co Ltd. The paper said the deal would “entail a combination of cash and advertisements” whereby Flipkart would get value via ads on BCCL’s properties. Seems nobody is using..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-06-07
Haryana’s social justice and empowerment minister is often in the news for his runaway tongue, caught on camera abusing officials and other govt. personnel. So he thought the solution was to keep the media out of venues where he might end up putting his foot in his mouth. On June..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-06-06
The Indian Express has contradicted the Hoot report on newspapers carrying a baseless story on a law student dying while taking a selfie. It clarifies that they never had this misleading report, and in fact had two subsequent reports which gave the correct version. The Hoot's link was to their Facebook page which had..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-06-06
Time.com reports that for the third year running being a newspaper reporter has been ranked as the worst job! It figures 10th on CareerCast.com’s list of the 10 worst jobs of 2016, below firefighter, pest control worker, enlisted military personnel, and so on. The rating was done using the following..
Why the mighty US media is backing Gawker
IN Media Freedom | 2016-06-06
A Trump presidency and Hulk Hogan’s bankrolled lawsuit bodes ill for the freedom the press currently enjoys.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-06-05
It was certainly a television moment. The Home Minister cupping his hands and bestowing an imaginary spank on Shekhar Gupta in a moment of camaraderie. The gesture was in response to Gupta asking Rajnath Singh on his show Walk the Talk on NDTV 24x7 to honestly assess PM Narendra Modi, adding..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-06-04
'Wait ! ' she said waving her fingers at the cameras ...' don't talk too much !!' ..this was the Mathura BJP MP and Bollywood's former heroine Hema Malini on Friday dismissing reporters who dared to ask her why she was busy with film shooting while Mathura was witnessing a major law..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-06-04
Shishir Gupta, Executive Editor of the Hindustan Times has sent a legal notice to the website pgurus.com which they have posted. The notice says the call records are false, that he made infrequent calls to Sanjay Bhandari, and that during his tenure as EE negative stories on Sanjay Bhandari..
Hitting the wrong note in Assam
IN Media Practice | 2016-06-04
The media got the story of the Muslim boy who topped the Class 10 exam wrong. His religion was irrelevant.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-06-03
Is Ravi Shankar Prasad aspiring to become the PM's favourite minister? He retweeted 13 of MyGovindia's "Government of Firsts" tweets on sundry schemes at one go this afternoon (June 3) and then around six in the evening began retweeting them again... Those who follow him must be running for cover..
Mainstream media turns away from "Gujarat Files"
IN Books | 2016-06-03
Why did the mainstream media block out Rana Ayyub’s book on the Gujarat riots and fake encounters?
Mainstream media’s collective fictionalising
IN Media Practice | 2016-06-03
How on earth did so many media outlets propagate a totally baseless story about a young woman killed in a seafront accident?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-06-02
Egotistic CMs are a boon for newspapers which are raking it in. After Kerala CM Pinayari Vijayan brightened our morning post election with his red ads, it is Telangana CM K Chandrashekar Rao’s turn to enrich media coffers from the public exchequer. Leading general and financial dailies in Delhi sported..
Slow justice for murdered journalists
IN Media Freedom | 2016-06-02
Since 2010, 23 journalists have been murdered, three this year. There has been only one conviction in which an appeal is pending.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-06-02
A story on this website run by a bunch of professionals suggests that in the Vadra London property case a large number of calls (478) to the arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari were made by HT’s executive editor Shishir Gupta. If it was for a story, no story was broken by..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-06-01
Headline under the DNA masthead: Dr Subhash Chandra files RS nomination papers. With a nice picture of the gentleman. Helps to own a newspaper when you aiming to get elected to the Rajya Sabha. ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-05-31
“I chose to be a journalist and I will die a journalist” screamed Arnab Goswami, editor-in-chief of Times Now, pointing an aggressive finger at the camera at the fag end of his prime time show on Tuesday night. The programme had been discussing the issue of Robert Vadra's telephone conversations..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-05-31
The Hindu reports that its circulation registered a 20 per cent growth in the latter six months of 2015, according to Audit Bureau of Circulation figures released on May 30. That’s unusually high growth. ..
Ruffling feathers: a luxury for the few
IN Regional Media | 2016-05-31
Criminal defamation is not about the law but about society’s underlying power structures. They determine what you can do and can’t do.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-05-30
Barkha Dutt and an NDTV colleague protested vigorously on Twitter that NewsX had lifted their story on Robert Vadra's benami London mansion. Somebody piped up in response that it wasn't really their exclusive, Hindustan Times had carried some details earlier which must have given NDTV its lead. A little..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-05-30
Today (May 30) is the day when the first Hindi publication Oodunta Martand (Rising Sun) was launched back in 1826, in Kolkata, by a Kanpur lawyer. It was a weekly and the language used in it was an early form of Hindi before it was standardised...
Digital journalism start-ups in India
IN Digital Media | 2016-05-30
Six Indian case studies are selected in this Reuters Institute study to illustrate the strategic choices digital journalism start‑ups have to make.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-05-29
The BJP government's huge spectacle at India Gate turned out to be a made for TV, people-less wonder with no crowds visible. When the tight camera frame showed the audience the PM was speaking to, it comprised only his ministers. That the location was India Gate was not in doubt...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-05-29
In this anti-Arnab piece a poll is embedded, about what his type of discussions mean for public discourse. But there is no disclosure at the end that Firstpost's owner also owns a rival news channel, CNN-News18. You also wonder why the journalist in the piece whom Arnab defamed in his studio did..
The Maggi school of election coverage
IN Media Practice | 2016-05-28
In the scrum to be first, we get instant analysis mixed with bias. Is this what complex elections and budgets deserve?
TRAI’s fresh thoughts on net neutrality
IN Law and Policy | 2016-05-28
It tries to make its earlier regulation more nuanced by proposing three models of zero-rating without discriminatory tariffs.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-05-27
Independent journalist Rana Ayyub launched her self-published book,"Gujarat Files, Anatomy of a Cover Up" in Delhi on May 27. It is an account of her undercover investigation of those culpable in the Gujarat 2002 riots. Ayyub said that when she came back with the sting after eight months, a senior..
Snarl, shove, throttle: reporters at work
IN Regional Media | 2016-05-27
As two TV journalists in Kolkata come to blows over a story, it shows how feral the fight to be ‘first’ has become.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-05-27
On the government’s big day it was amusing to watch the DD News anchor prompting two carefully picked panelists during a discussion on the government’s performance. If one of them said that exports were down, the anchor would quickly butt in, “because of global contraction”. If the panelist from Deccan..
Busking on journalism’s footpath
IN Opinion | 2016-05-26
What can an evolved, fifty-something journalist do with his experience when the media has evolved too and cannot accommodate him?
Overhyping the Ajmal Factor in Assam polls
IN Regional Media | 2016-05-26
Sections of the media failed to see the BJP wave and made the mistake of over-estimating the role of AIUDF’s Ajmal.
HRW: Govt urged to stop treating critics as criminals
IN Special Reports | 2016-05-25
The Indian government should repeal or amend both recent and colonial era laws that are used to criminalize peaceful expression.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-05-25
When the Left is back in power they splurge from the exchequer on full page advertisements (coloured a communist red) in several newspapers including the more expensive ones, announcing the swearing in of a chief minister. Between Mr Pinari Vijayan and Ms Jayalalitha's page one self-indulgence there only seems to..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-05-25
What was the last time a Reserve Bank governor acquired rock star status in the public imagination? Apart from the media pitching for him to get a second term there is now a Change.org petition circulating demanding this for Raghuram Rajan. As well an Amul butter advertisement punning on the..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-05-23
The Indian Express in Mumbai today had a story about how a "small single column advertisement in a corner of the Times of India" worked wonders in identifying a dead man. Unusual, because the two papers are rivals. Curiously the Express did not name two other papers which too had..
Why the drought is not The Big Story
IN Opinion | 2016-05-23
If the media’s drought coverage had been relentless, it would have forced governments to act. By being sporadic, it failed to impact.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-05-22
State recruitment as media spectacle
IN Opinion | 2016-05-21
Why does the media not question this antiquated ritual irrelevant to modern India rather than glorifying it with uncritical coverage?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-05-21
The incident regarding the Bastar collector's charges against JNU professors visiting Chhattisgarh gets more colourful. Today (May 21) Dainik Bhaskar published the audio transcript of an exchange between C'garh journalist Kamal Shukla, who has been fighting for the release of jailed journalists there, and Amit Kataria, the Bastar collector. Shukla refers..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-05-20
Tehelka.com reports that Rajesh Singh, a journalist working for a leading regional daily in Bihar was abused and threatened by four unidentified men in Nalanda district on May 19. They were supporters of a JD(U) MLC Heera Prasad Bind. They asked him about a report he had written, and also..
Journalist murders in regional media
IN Media Freedom | 2016-05-20
When stringers are attacked or killed, the struggle for justice begins with determining whether they are journalists at all.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-05-19
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..
Sweet victory, despite the media coverage
IN Media Practice | 2016-05-19
Does goondagiri and corruption loom much larger for journalists than it does for voters? Is that why they missed the Mamata sweep,
Sadiq Khan's candidacy challenged UK media
IN Media Practice | 2016-05-18
The British media’s coverage of the new Mayor of London’s campaign was marked by strong biases.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-05-18
ET reports that Sun TV shares have hit a 52-week high after exit polls show DMK winning in Tamil Nadu. The story says,"Analysts say there is a strong connect in the performance of the Sun TV Network to the period in which the DMK is in power." The company's channels were denied..
Rajasthan removes RTI from textbooks
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-05-18
The Hindu reports that the BJP regime in Rajasthan has deleted the RTI movement from the class 8 social science textbook despite the key role played by marginalised villagers in this state in bringing in this legislation. The MKSS, a Rajasthan-based NGO, had initiated the struggle for this legislation here. ..
Awful reasoning and tortuous verbosity
IN Judgements | 2016-05-17
The central flaw in Justice Dipak Misra’s criminal defamation ruling is equating right to reputation with right to free speech as a fundamental right.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-05-17
Malini Parthasarathy, former editor and now a director on the Hindu board tweeted on May 16: "Tired of being tagged on negative comments on @the_hindu's editorial content. I am no longer editor and not responsible for its content." ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-05-17
Just how many different users is one photograph going to show up? First Amit Shah brandished an Outlook cover to justlfy PM Modi's claims on malnutrition in Kerala. Then a website pointed out that the cover picture was a picture of a mother and child in Sri Lanka which Outlook ..
Voters strike back at TN’s captive political media
IN Regional Media | 2016-05-16
With the major parties running propaganda media outlets, voters turned to WhatsApp and Facebook this time to spoof their leaders.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-05-15
Last week some of the people who matter at the Economic Times were in Athens for an off-site brainstorming and the following nuggets of wisdom reportedly emerged: The paper is the Harley Davidson of the newspaper industry. It is an underleveraged brand that has lost circulation because of market conditions..
Mobiles top device for news access: youth survey
IN Research Studies | 2016-05-15
And news websites are the largest source of news for youth followed closely by newspapers and newsapps.
When Parliament functions it is not news
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-05-14
The budget session ended with a high rate of productivity in both houses, 121 per cent in the Lok Sabha, 91 per cent in the Rajya Sabha. The session also had the highest percentage of Bills introduced and passed within same session in 10 years. But on Saturday morning the..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-05-14
Two journalists have been shot dead over a 24 hour period on May 12 and 13. A TV journalist, Indradev Yadav who worked for Taza TV was killed in Chatra in Jharkhand on the night of May 12. Another killing took place in Siwan in Bihar on May 13. Rajdeo..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-05-13
Dipak Misra, the judge who was part of the SC bench which upheld the constitutional validity of criminal defamation today, has given this memorable definition of ‘reputation’ in an earlier judgement: “It is a nobility in itself for which a conscientious man would never barter it with all the tea..
Kafka in India: the mysterious J-visa
IN Opinion | 2016-05-13
How long does it take for a foreign journalist to get a visa? One month? Six months? Maybe never?
Mufti Govt: turning on the press
IN Regional Media | 2016-05-13
The new government in Kashmir has begun badly where press freedom and free speech are concerned.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-05-12
On April 11 the fourth floor of the Times of India building in Delhi caught fire. Today the paper patted itself on the back for having brought out an edition despite this major disruption, and wrote a three column story on how it did it. Its newspaper rivals reported the..
Want to use a map? Go get a licence first
IN Law and Policy | 2016-05-12
Like earlier regulatory attempts, the draft Geospatial Bill is yet another response by the state to its bafflement about the Internet and how to govern it.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-05-11
CNN News18’s Dawood’s house story demolished Pakistan’s denials about him in 5 min 24 seconds! The story wasn’t such a big deal and Zakka Jacob needs to tone down his dramatics a bit. It sounded silly when India Today had a much newsier interview at that point with Christian Michel...
Erdogan: “You laughing at me kid?’’
IN Media Freedom | 2016-05-11
The prosecution of a German comedian’s satire against Erdogan betrays a Turkish inability to stomach dissent and German cravenness.
IN Media Freedom | 2016-05-10
“...Externalities like economic needs, political compulsion, socio-cultural and religious demands have narrowed press freedom in Nagaland”.
Chhattisgarh scribes protest at Jantar Mantar
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-05-10
Drowned out by the Jat reservation rally in the next enclosure, Journalists from Chhattisgarh joined the many petitioners at Jantar Mantar on Tuesday to protest the arrest of their colleagues in that state. The speakers included those who had been jailed for short periods of time for their reports and..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-05-09
A photographer was tragically killed in an accident in Jhansi on April 9. PTI reported the incident and cause of death the same day but did not name the publication he worked for. TOI’s own report gave the cause of death but did not name the publication. Indian Express, the..
Two years of Modi Sarkar—ring out the reporters!
IN Digital Media | 2016-05-09
In the mostly one-way information super highway built by this govt. there is little room for doubts or questions.
Pundits were arrogantly wrong about Trump!
IN Opinion | 2016-05-09
…you do have to wonder why so much energy is devoted to crystal-ball gazing when nothing seems to be learned when pundits are way off target.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-05-07
The Shourie-Thapar interview on India Today on April 6 had moments when Shourie would let Thapar put words in his mouth. “I have to put this to you—you’re suggesting that Mr Modi is not good for India.” “No… you see, if he changes… but this is the direction…” “But you..
Get permission from a DC to post on WhatsApp!
IN Media Freedom | 2016-05-07
Kashmir’s new curbs aim to stop false rumours spreading but they infringe the right to free speech and section 79 of the IT Act.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-05-07
After continuous losses in recent years New Delhi Television Ltd. (NDTV) turned profitable in the March quarter of 2016. It posted Rs 7.5 crore net profit this quarter compared to a Rs 10.7 crore net loss in the same quarter last year, reports Business Standard...
Why is the media naming the Kerala rape victim?
IN Media Practice | 2016-05-05
Kerala’s ‘Nirbhaya’ has been named and her photo published. Because of pressure from social media? Or because she was a dalit?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-05-05
Headline in the Indian Express web edition this morning: "Manohar Parrikar on AgustaWestland probe: Invincible hand guided action or inaction". The text also said, "it appears that an 'invincible' hand was guiding the action or inaction of CBI and ED." Evidently the mistake is 'invisible' to the paper's desk, though..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-05-05
Both the Times of India (Delhi edition) and its sister publication Maharashtra Times observed World Cartoonists' Day using their mastheads. The first used some of R K Laxman's memorable caricatures, but the second used a different cartoonist, and both papers mentioned the occasion on their mastheads...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-05-04
Staff at the Hindustan Times got confirmation today that Aparasim "Bobby" Ghosh, until now editor at large at Quartz, will be taking over as editor of the Hindustan Times, succeeding Sanjoy Narayan. Other changes that the paper is predicted to see soon according to a report in vccircle.com are the..
The Environment for India's Environment
IN Videos | 2016-05-04
The Media Foundation's B G Verghese Memorial Lecture, delivered on March 17, 2016, by Jairam Ramesh, former Union Minister for Environment and Forests...
Getting away with murder in Akhilesh Yadav’s UP
IN Media Freedom | 2016-05-03
Eleven months after the uproar over his death, court pronouncements and govt promises, there is neither chargesheet nor arrest in the case of Jagendra Singh.
Four months, 22 assaults on the press
IN Media Freedom | 2016-05-03
All over India, journalists at the district level are vulnerable but things are worst in Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-05-03
What exactly is ground zero when you are reporting on a forest fire? TV anchors have been speaking of reports from ground zero in covering Uttarakhand's forest fire, which is impossible unless s/he is becoming a cinder in the process of filing the report. And from the fringes of the..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-05-03
On April 30 the Indian Express in Jaipur carried a few pages from the Times of India in that city! The mishap seems to have occured as both of them have same printing press, and there was a technical error! ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-05-03
There have been 21 cases of attacks on journalists and their property so far this year in India and one case of hostage taking. These have taken place in Odisha, Manipur, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Gujarat, Jammu and Kashmir, UP, Delhi, Tamilnadu, West Bengal, Karnataka, Assam and Maharashtra. Six cases of threats..
Nepal SC quashes Dixit detention
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-05-02
On the eve of World Press Freedom Day, appropriately enough, the Supreme Court of Nepal quashed the detention of veteran editor Kanak Mani Dixit who was arrested on April 22 by the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority. He had been admitted into ICU when his health deteriorated. He is now a..
Bail pleas of two journos admitted in C’garh HC
IN Media Freedom | 2016-05-02
On the eve of World Press Freedom Day, the prospects for four jailed scribes are mixed in Chhattisgarh.
IN Opinion | 2016-05-01
These pundits are like frogs for whom every event is a monsoon shower which makes them sing in joyous disharmony.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-05-01
Hindi newspapers pioneered the practice of incentivising news stringers to bring in advertising. For the ads you procured you got a commission. The Rajasthan Patrika's management has applied this policy to staff hiring as well. Its online news site Catch News has announced a recruitment referral policy which incentivises staff ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-04-30
While the Benegal committee recommends limiting the CBFC's powers to certification, the current CBFC chair Pehlaj Nihalani continues his bull run. In a hearing before the Supreme Court on April 29, he submitted an order passed on April 21, 2016 that the documentary 'En Dino Muzffarnagar' must be denied a..
BJP's social media champs and duds
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-04-30
India Today reports that PM Modi asked the BJP's digital media cell to report on the social media performance of its MPs and they came up with a list. Among ministers, Sushma Swaraj is among the 10 best performers on Twitter and Maneka Gandhi in the list of 10 worst. Arun Jaitley..
IN Archive | 2016-04-30
A Hoot Retrospective from 2013: Tourism in Rome, Milan and Sicily will get a boost as Indian investigators shop for insights into the chopper deal.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-04-29
Pray, what exactly is a "laser wall"? PTI didn't explain, but which newspaper added that "dear reader" paragraph to elucidate?..
Film certification overhaul needs change in law
IN Law and Policy | 2016-04-29
The Benegal panel recommends restricting the CBFC’s powers but, while welcome, this doesn’t go far enough. India’s 1952 law on films must also change.
JNU videos—NBSA’s deafening silence
IN Law and Policy | 2016-04-29
The AAP has stepped in to pick up the whip which the Broadcasting Standards Authority should have cracked over the doctored JNU videos.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-04-29
Nidhi Razdan has been named executive editor at NDTV and the channel’s prime time anchor line up is about to change. Barkha Dutt and her show will move from 9 pm to 8 pm from next week, and the faces at 9 pm are likely to include Nidhi Razdan, Sonia..
Late night invite, even later cancellation!
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-04-28
After the much talked about asset sale of JSW Energy, business journalists in Delhi witnessed this strange situation. At about 10 pm on April 27, JSW sent an invite for a press conference this morning at 10 am and then sent another email after 1 am (28th) to inform them..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-04-28
Ahmed Patel, MP and Sonia Gandhi's political secretary, itching to end Arnab Goswami's loud inquisition on Augusta, reminded the anchor that he had agreed to only three questions on the camera by a hook up (not for him to visit a studio). When a few more questions popped up, with..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-04-27
At the 2016 Redink Awards Nite in Mumbai Minister Piyush Goyal lectured to journalists about the importance of media getting its information right. "Correctly sanitized data" and "accuracy of that data" are necessary he said. He should know! It's his government that relied on doctored videos to put JNUSU students..
Handwara girl’s video: a hornet’s nest
IN Media Practice | 2016-04-27
Her minor status raises a host of issues about the legality of her detention, the video, its leak, and the disclosure of her identity.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-04-27
Hanuman, according to Maharashtra governor Vidyasagar Rao, was the first instance of a reporter under attack for his work, if you stretch the definition of journalism a bit. "The job of a journalist was never easy. Hanuman was perhaps the first messenger to be attacked. He had his tail burned..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-04-27
Rajdeep Sardesai on India Today did an Arnab Goswami on his News Today at Nine on April 26--placed an empty chair to show viewers that the Congress backed out from the "debate" on Augusta choppers. Minutes later he waved his cell phone implying a text message: Randeep Surjewala would come..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-04-25
Even as some newspapers including the Dainik Jagran and Indian Express are reporting that an informal group of ministers has suggested ways to step up focus on the BJP government's achievements as it approaches its second anniversary, unnamed "top" government sources quoted in TOI are hastening to scotch the reports...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-04-24
The Delhi govt takes three TV channels to court for airing allegedly doctored footage of the Feb.9 protests at JNU. The hearing will be on April 25. The Indian Express has it on page 1 and names the channels--Zee News, NewsX and India News. The Hindu puts the news on page 1 but does..
IN Media Practice | 2016-04-23
Global coverage of Nepal soared with the earthquake and died down immediately after, attention did not return when Nepal was reeling under a ruinous Indian blockade.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-04-23
This Catch News story describes how two photographers from PTI and Tribune tried to create more provocation at a tame Jantar Mantar protest against the recent Handwara killings so that they could get more newsy pictures. It names the journalists and has their photographs. From the story: "Zeroing in on..
Zee TV fined Rs 20 lakh in CP shootout case
IN Judgements | 2016-04-23
Three policemen guilty of killing two innocent persons in 1997 sued Zee for defamation. They have won. Is this a flawed judgement?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-04-22
Himalmedia co-publisher and well known civil rights activist Kanak Mani Dixit was detained today in Kathmandu on the direct orders of the Chairman of the Commission to Investigate the Abuse of Authority (CIAA). The Federation of Nepalese Journalists said in a statement that he was detained on Friday just before..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-04-22
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..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-04-22
Megan Peterson, an American who claimed being raped by an Indian Catholic priest in 2004, spoke to India Today TV on the phone about how the priest had been reinstated, calm about her ordeal. Her lawyer Jeff Anderson speaking from New York was equally calm, listing out how she would..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-04-22
Megan Peterson, an American who claimed being raped by an Indian Catholic priest in 2004, spoke to India Today TV on the phone about how the priest had been reinstated, calm about her ordeal. Her lawyer Jeff Anderson speaking from New York was equally calm, listing out how she would..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-04-22
Bhupendra Chaubey’s Big5@10 show on CNN News 18 has added an Adaab to the programme’s opening salutation. Will Sat Sri Akal follow? ..
Migrant crisis makes EU journalists hate targets
IN Media Freedom | 2016-04-21
Stuck between the right wing accusing them of being ‘refugee lovers’ and twitchy governments, the media is under attack in this polarized climate.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-04-20
Reserve Bank governor Raghuram Rajan speaking at the NIBM convocation after the brouhaha over his description of India's growth. "...every word or phrase a public figure speaks is intensely wrung for meaning. When words are hung to dry out of context, as in a newspaper headline, it then becomes fair game for..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-04-20
The Mumbai Press Club has sought information from journalists on the implementation of the Majithiya Wage Board with a promise that the "identity of the journalist will be kept confidential if required". A joint action commitee of scribes' bodies is to meet the Maharashtra labour minister on the issue...
CNN NEWS 18--too consumer oriented?
IN Opinion | 2016-04-20
Either you will enjoy the channel’s new cockiness or it will get on your nerves, making you go to the tried and tested NDTV 24x7
The unsung hero of the Washington Post
IN Media Practice | 2016-04-20
The staff researcher whose work contributed to four of the six Pulitzer prizes the Post won earlier this month is profiled
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-04-19
The Hindu reported on April 19 that the Election Commission has decided to let ham radio operators provide communication from 24 polling stations in North 24 Parghanas for the ongoing elections. Forty seven such operators will be working in the mobile shadow areas of the district to enable a free..
2002-3 Mumbai blasts: swallowing the police version
IN Opinion | 2016-04-19
Even in reporting the verdict, journalists accepted the police version as gospel, glossed over crucial facts and distorted the true picture.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-04-18
Is Piyush Goyal slipping up on his media relations? Today some journalists walked out of an event hosted by the government company POSOCO as the power, coal and renewable minister did not turn up till 3 pm for an event scheduled at 1 pm. The usually media savvy Goyal has..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-04-16
On April 15 the Hindustan Times reported that Gurgaon's name switch to Gurugram had sparked a web race to book Gurugram-related domain names. It quoted web experts as saying reselling domain names could fetch upto Rs one lakh. It said nothing about its own company. On Saturday the Indian Express's..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-04-16
The Indian Express carried an exclusive on Friday morning about the Kerala DGP objecting to PM Narendra Modi and the Congress Vice President visiting the temple where explosions had taken over 100 lives. It would disturb the police work, the paper quoted him saying. By early afternoon, amazingly, the story..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-04-15
When a news channel anchor puts forward a data driven story should one be suspicious? Read this account by Vivek Kaul in his blog, about Rahul Kanwar using his data on India Today without attribution and then getting it wrong...
Telangana media: Hey, thanks for the free flat!
IN Regional Media | 2016-04-15
For Telangana journalists, Christmas has come early. Santa Rao has given them flats virtually free of cost.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-04-14
The government has suspended internet services in North Kashmir after protests in Kupwara resulted in four people being killed there. There have also been attacks on journalists, with the Kashmir Reader reporting that on Wednesday journalists were beaten by police while covering the events there...
NIT Kashmir: local and national versions differ
IN Media Practice | 2016-04-14
The national media whipped up emotions by carrying provocative stories. The Kashmir papers stuck to the facts.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-04-13
The fire brigade rescued a large number of people from a Bhiwandi residential building which also had power looms, but how many were the lucky ones? Times of India said "over 200" in the copy, but the headline said 250. Indian Express: "300 evacuated "; The Hindu : "170 saved"; DNA: "63..
The LA Times and erasing India from textbooks
IN Media Practice | 2016-04-13
In reporting California’s history curriculum changes that will remove the words ‘India’ and ‘Hinduism’, the LA Times has been less than truthful,
NDTV’s Battleground Assam: wrong on history and facts
IN Media Practice | 2016-04-12
Prannoy Roy classifies all Muslims in Assam as migrants and Ahoms as Assamese but the earliest Muslim settlers came before the Ahoms did,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-04-12
The TOI (April 12) had fun with the visiting royals with photos of the Duchess's billowing hemline, both on its front page and inside, though most Delhi dailies opted for more staid pictures. The 'Marilyn Monroe moment' headline was echoed around the world, mostly in the British press which also..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-04-11
Arnab Goswami opened his Monday's Newshour saying 90 days ago, they had "spearheaded" the women's right of entry to places of worship. Wasn't it, unless we are grossly mistaken, the Bhumata Ranragini Brigade for temples, and the Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan with regard to Haji Ali? The Nation wants to..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-04-11
TOI reported on April 11 that Maharashtra governor Vidyasagar Rao has come out openly in support of a law to prevent attacks on scribes across the state. Three chief ministers have paid lip service to the idea, the current one included, but nothing has moved so far. This is the..
Panama Papers: the Indian journalists behind it
IN Media Practice | 2016-04-11
An Indian Express team was among the 250 journalists in the gigantic, global investigation which has begun to topple presidents and prime ministers.
Mamata, Gogoi fight without media support
IN Regional Media | 2016-04-09
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 | 2016-04-08
"Visit any newspaper or channel's office, and you will see the vertical divisions among journalists, Raj Thackeray said on Friday night at his party's annual rally. "If one is with a political party, and the other is with the rival". Media owners and journalists share platforms with political parties and..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-04-08
A visibly glammed up Mamata Banerjee is on the cover of Outlook magazine. Foundation, a touch of rouge and reddish lips. Or did they just touch up her photograph?..
Aadhar: why classification matters in law making
IN Law and Policy | 2016-04-08
Using classification strategies to get legal sanction for new, controversial technologies is not unique or a one-off.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-04-07
DNA began with its editors drawn from print but is increasingly becoming integrated into Zee's TV empire. First Uday Nirgudkar who headed Zee 24 Taas was asked to head its editorial operation after the last editor drawn from print, C P Surendran quit. Now he moves over as business head..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-04-07
Times Now editor Arnab Goswami needs one victim on every prime time show . On April 6 it was sports anchor Charu Sharma whom he held personally responsible for the IPL being held in Mumbai despite such a massive water shortage. Sharma in turn challenged Goswami asking him if the..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-04-06
More than 170 journalists from print, electronic and online media were taken for a joyride on the Gatimaan Express on March 5 for a taste of India’s first semi-high speed train. Arrangements were quickly made as a lot of journos had asked to be taken. Although Indian Railways had reserved..
Kashmir’s cronyism means a news blackout
IN Regional Media | 2016-04-06
Khyber Agro Farms is convicted for adulterating milk but the story is absent from the top papers
IN Opinion | 2016-04-06
That’s the implication of a government form which insinuates that Urdu is the medium of expressing anti-national sentiments.
Free speech: a dire three months
IN Special Reports | 2016-04-05
The first quarter has seen not just censorship but violence, sedition and defamation cases, arrests and a murder
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-04-04
Eyebrows rose in Srinagar when ETV Urdu put up hoardings congratulating PDP chief minister Mehbooba Mufti on becoming the first woman CM of the state. ETV Special Correspondent Rifat Abdullah, who was working since 2005 with the channel said he submitted his resignation today on "moral grounds" after the hoardings..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-04-02
The mainstream media is finally getting around to building some pressure on what is happening to journalists in Bastar. After the Editors Guild's fact finding report made public earlier this week, NDTV aired an edition of Truth Versus Hype on journalists' arrests in Chhattisgarh on Saturday. But the man at..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-04-01
Will someone tell The Hindu deskhands that a stopwatch (that can be started and stopped to measure exactly a race, for instance) and a watch that stops showing time are entirely different things? Just as apt headlines and too-clever ones are different propositions. ..
Anonymous sourcing at the New York Times
IN Media Practice | 2016-03-31
Journalism as a profession has a long, sordid history of misusing and abusing anonymous sources. The New York Times is no exception.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-03-31
Earlier this week a lecturer from Edinburgh University wrote to the University of Hyderabad that he and other academics felt "compelled to ask whether we can any longer continue to sustain research links and ties with the UoH. Many of us have strong academic connections and affiliations to colleagues at..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-03-30
It is understandable by Indian standards that an anchor would be excited that he or his channel has an "exclusive" on the "Indian Spy" story. But it came to a point on March 30's 10 pm show when Shahzad A Chaudhry, a former Pakistani diplomat, had to ask Rahul Kanwal (India..
IN Media Freedom | 2016-03-30
Police are increasingly dispensing with due process in handling offences involving media,
The Editors Guild gets around to investigating Bastar
IN Media Freedom | 2016-03-30
‘We could not find a single journalist who could claim with confidence that he/she was working without fear or pressure’
Priyanka Kapoor: It’s all her fault
IN Media Practice | 2016-03-29
A Hindustan Times’ report on her suicide commits all the same errors that the papers were guilty of in the Aarushi Talwar case
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-03-29
How many fake RSS Twitter handles are there and how much damage can they do? @RSS_org for instance is not the official RSS handle. It has 6000 plus tweets (the two official handles @RSSonweb, @RSSorg have barely 500 plus tweets between them) and when it retweets some sly poison from @friendsofRSS do the..
Don’t be like the Indian media
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-03-29
The Pakistani TV regulator PEMRA advised the country’s media in the wake of the Lahore attack to cover events with utmost professionalism, and said, “Pakistani media needs to follow the example of professional handling of Brussels attacks by international media rather than following in the footsteps of Indian media that..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-03-28
Did social media communalise and mainstream media self-censor the lynching of a Delhi dentist last week? The police actually had to list the religion-wise break-up of the mob that did the lynching to counter what they said was social media disinformation. "Out of 9 accused persons, 5 are Hindu…” an..
Journalist arrested in Dantewada
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-03-26
Deepak Jaiswal, the Dantewada bureau chief of daily newspaper Dainik Dainandini has been picked up by police, according to Kamal Shukla, convener of the struggle committee for the security of local journalists. With two journalists already in jail and Prabhat Singh, arrested this week on charges of obscenity for a Whatsapp message, Jaiswal..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-03-26
Some stories are hardy perennials and the one about Vrindavan widows playing holi breaking with a 400-year-old tradition is one such. It pops up every year as a first. In 2013 the Hindu reported it: first colourful holi for Vrindavan widows. In 2014 Firstpost and others said ‘Vrindavan widows' first..
Afghanistan journalists’ worsening reporting perils
IN Media Freedom | 2016-03-26
Government officials and elements of the Afghan military accounted for many of the attacks – 82 cases, or 43 percent, according to the AFJC.
IN Media Practice | 2016-03-26
The picture of the Jet Airways employee has gone viral but what about her privacy and how the picture was used?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-03-26
Two members of the DNA staff in Mumbai fainted in office on Friday (March25) because the air-conditioning has failed for the last few days. Repeated attempts to bring this to the notice of the HR department have come to nought. A new spin to 'hot' news? ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-03-25
When you own a newspaper, 39 photos of your Holi party go up on it's website. Part of the "advertorial, entertainment, industry promotional feature" business? ..
Cricket on TV: Egos, axes, and biases
IN Opinion | 2016-03-25
Why do TV channels choose ex-cricketers with a less than glorious track record to commentate on the glorious game?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-03-25
PM Narendra Modi started following Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal and Delhi finance minister Manish Sisodia on Twitter. Both were highly gratified, and tweeted pleased messages thanking him for following them. And promptly put in requests for pending clearances from the Centre. Whatever bills the Delhi Vidhan Sabha passed in a..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-03-24
The Telegraph reports that several writers have begun a campaign for the boycott of the Jaipur Literature Festival if the Zee Group continues to be its chief sponsor. The paper says that they are "upset with the channel for allegedly airing 'doctored videos' in the JNU case and labelling poet Gauhar Raza..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-03-23
The Hindu has announced that Mukund Padmanabhan who was editor of Business Line will be the next editor of the paper. Raghavan Srinivasan, Senior Associate Editor of Business Line, has been named as editor of Business Line. The paper says that both appointments were made on the basis of the..
Failing to curb J&K’s bogus newspapers
IN Media Business | 2016-03-23
A new advertisement policy is intended to tackle ‘litho’ papers but look closely and its loopholes will allow them to get through the net
Kerala backtracks on RTI restrictions
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-03-23
Apropos our earlier brief on the Kerala government order restricting information which could be given under RTI on vigilance probes, the latest is that the order has been withdrawn after the Opposition created a ruckus over it. The Hindu reports that the office order issued by the Vigilance and Anti..
IN Media Freedom | 2016-03-23
A reporter is picked up on an obscenity charge even as two others still languish in jail in Bastar. Conflict zone pits journalists against each other.
Another C'garh scribe picked up
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-03-22
Sources in Chhattisgarh report that Prabhat Singh, a fearless local journalist from Dantewada, was picked up by the police last night. He had reportedly been a strong critic of I G Police S P Kalluri, and had played a key role in highlighting many of the police atrocities in Dantewada district...
IN Media Practice | 2016-03-21
Enfants terrible grow old, a lurch to the Right, family coups and the rise of Arnab the Terrible.
The media’s record on SAR Geelani
IN Archive | 2016-03-21
As the December 13, 2001 Parliament attack accused S AR Geelani is acquitted by the High Court, it is instructive to revisit the reporting on his case,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-03-21
This advert appeared in the Mumbai Times of India today: “News Channel, Already on Tata Sky, Dish, DD Freedish, and cable networks, Desires to sell TIME SLOTS for News Bulletin and Entertainment content. Producers, Broadcasters, Journalists and Cable Operators may call…” Who needs an uplinking licence from the ministry of..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-03-20
The Kerala government has imposed restrictions on providing information on vigilance probes against ministers, MLAs, MPs and all-India service officials under the RTI Act. The Indian Express reported that according to a government notification issued in January the T-Branch (Top Secret Section) of the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau has been..
Deutsche Welle seeks more visibility
IN Media Business | 2016-03-18
Although the German channel is available on some DTH platforms, it is now poised to reach the urban middle class through Tata Sky.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-03-18
Loksatta, a Marathi newspaper of the Express Group, has withdrawn its editorial 'Asantanche sant" published on March 17, with the editor expressing regret if "it has hurt the sentiments of the readers". The editorial had questioned sainthood of Mother Teressa. The withdrawal was posted on the newspaper's website. Girish Kuber..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-03-18
A job aspirant on the J.P. Nagar Infosys campus is killed by falling bricks. The Hindu did three stories in its Bangalore edition and one decently displayed story in its national edition (March 16) and the TOI carried a small story in its Bangalore edition. So did Deccan Herald and Deccan..
Trump gets the most free media
IN Opinion | 2016-03-17
The media prioritizes Trump, then Clinton, and, if there’s time left over, Sanders. Sanders’ major sin appears to have been choosing to discuss policy,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-03-16
The TOI's reporting of the case involving the reporting of an RTI reply in Milli Gazette is intriguing. Three other papers describe Pushp Sharma who was picked up by the police on March 15 as a journalist working for Milli Gazette. But TOI does not mention the publication and insists..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-03-16
So was Kanhaiya Kumar's rustication recommended by the JNU panel or not? The TOI's page one headline said `JNU panel for expulsion of Kanhaiya, five others', as did Hindustan Times'. But The Hindu headline mentioned only two students. The copy said the rustication of Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya was..
IN Books | 2016-03-15
Whatever fixed ideas you have about the Chinese media vs the Indian, forget them. Both are constrained, in different ways.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-03-14
"Secularists shaken by Sri Sri's grand show" said the headline for Swapan Dasgupta's 'Usual Suspects' column in the Pioneer. But the column itself rambled on from News TV's Delhi obsession, to Kanhaiya Kumar, to the assertion that a similar event by a minority faith group would not have seen the..
Jamia Radio: Hello, hello.....?
IN Community Media | 2016-03-14
Is anyone listening to Jamia Community Radio? If not, is it because its content is irrelevant?
Some like it soft: Indians and satire
IN Opinion | 2016-03-11
Satirical news websites are not sharp, witty and edgy. Despite a good start, they have fallen back on a formula.
Forgotten the Good Times, asks Mallya
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-03-11
As the media heat on Mallya grows expect some embarrassing disclosures about media honchos to surface. The Hindu has a foretaste today in a tweet from him which it quotes: "Let media bosses not forget help, favours, accommodation that I have provided over several years which are documented. Now lies..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-03-10
Doesn't Zee News ever get tired of its own hyped up nationalism act? Last night (march 9) Sudhir Chaudhary was at it again on his programme called DNA, ranting about an 'Afzhal premi gang' which supports the breaking up of the country. The specific target was scientist and poet Gauhar..
Yamuna and AoL: selective environmentalism?
IN Media Practice | 2016-03-10
The frenzied media outrage over the event is great but where were the channels all these years when others were guilty too?
Will diversification bail out NDTV?
IN Media Business | 2016-03-09
NDTV’s expansion into a digital business and e-commerce could rescue a TV venture which has been losing money for years.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-03-09
On March 8 this year Doordarshan pulled in their celebrated women anchors of yesteryear to return to the studio. Ghazala Amin, Rini Simon, Usha Alberqurque and others participated in a 6.30 pm discussion to mark International Women's Day that had great nostalgia value. ..
IN Media Practice | 2016-03-08
…this article was a masterclass in avoiding a word, a specific word — the word “crook”…or any variant thereof.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-03-08
On Monday when the Delhi government decided to take legal action against channels which had been accused of airing doctored footage on the JNU episode, Zee TV owner Subhash Chandra went on his channel at night saying they had not doctored any videos and the allegations against Zee TV were false...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-03-08
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's forthcoming jamboree on the banks of the Jamuna spread over 1000 acres of land has run into a huge controversy. While some channels like NDTV India and CNN IBN on Monday evening discussed the environmental concerns raised with 35 lakh people expected to attend, Aaj Tak took the..
Criminalising the public discourse
IN Opinion | 2016-03-07
A much bigger game is being played out in the JNU episode, involving political power and corporate interests. Eyeballs are not sought for advertising alone,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-03-07
The media is intent upon launching Kanhaiya Kumar on his political career earlier than he might have planned. With a little help from Sitaram Yechury who claimed him for the CPM last week. The interviews are endless: when he is not making speeches on the campus, the JNUSU leader has..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-03-05
NDTV anchor Barkha Dutt has been receiving death threats for her JNU coverage. She filed an FIR on March 4 and the police visited the NDTV premises. This comes after the death threat to Asianet news editor Sindhu Suryakumar for hosting a discussion on 'Whether Celebrating Mahishasur Jayanthi is an..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-03-04
Zee TV now spends a lot of its energy countering real and imagined attacks on its JNU coverage, specially its videos. Late last night anyone who tuned into Zee News caught Sudhir Chaudhury holding up offending English newspapers (HT, IE, TOI) and railing against their coverage of the JNU episodes...
The good news is, there’s plenty of it
IN Digital Media | 2016-03-04
A portal called The Better India which carries only good news gets over four million hits a month. Get inspired by their stories.
How the media twisted Irani on Mahishasura
IN Media Practice | 2016-03-02
Why were her remarks framed as being in opposition to Mahishasura worship rather than as opposition to the denigration of Durga?
News apps: DailyHunt and Inshorts blaze a trail
IN Digital Media | 2016-03-02
NDTV is still the leader but these two apps, with more than 11 million downloads, are snapping at its heels.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-03-01
In the spades of coverage that the FM’s rural focus in the Union Budget got, a significant aspect was almost entirely un-commented on, with one exception. Who was much of this rural spending going to be channeled through? It took an economist-turned-journalist-turned finance minister to point out that the Rs..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-02-29
The finance minister answered questions from the public on Doordarshan. The interlocutor was adman Piyush Pandey, and the public was on Twitter, as Pandey read out questions for Arun Jaitley to answer. ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-02-29
The Hindu website helpfully provides this glossary of terms used in the budget for those who want to comprehend budget talk. The paper also gave a minute by minute enumeration of budget proposals as they unfolded, interspersed with soundbites from their editors. ..
Peddling simplistic ideas of nationalism
IN Opinion | 2016-02-29
The media is trying to redefine and appropriate definitions for concepts like nationalism under a propaganda-induced context.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-02-29
Nobody at the editorial set up at Catch News is clear yet about why editor-in-chief Shoma Chaudhury was called to Jaipur last week and asked to quit. The site's editor Bharat Bhushan remains for now, he has not been asked to quit. ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-02-29
As the finance minister was reading the Budget speech the Press Information Bureau helpfully informed journalists that this year hard copies of the budget will not be distributed at Parliament House and at the National Media Centre. The number of hard copies had been curtailed it said, as part of..
Murthal rapes: the risks of premature news
IN Media Practice | 2016-02-29
The initial Tribune story, with no victims and limited evidence, raises questions about reporting during social unrest when rumours abound.
Instagram blocks pix in Kashmir
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-02-28
Are social media sites getting more hyper after the JNU incidents? A piece of graffiti in Srinagar yesterday, clicked by a photographer and posted on Instagram, resulted in the latter removing the picture. It said "Kashmir hearts beats only for Pakistan" (sic), the occasion being the Indo-Pak cricket match on..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-02-28
Prannoy Roy was impressed with this year's Economic Survey. His programme with Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian on NDTV on Feb 26 began thus: "In 15 years of covering the economic survey I have never said this. It is the best researched, most comprehensive, pathbreaking, most excellent economic survey that..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-02-27
Mathew Samuel who investigated Tehelka's Operation West End in 2001 and has been editing that magazine of late, has just launched a new venture naradanews.com which is kicking off with an investigation on Congress politician Rajeev Shukla. It alleges a money laundering scam involving match fixing money and provides documents..
A religion born out of new media
IN Digital Media | 2016-02-27
Dinkoism has emerged in Kerala from the vibrant troll culture that rules the Malayali social media scenario.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-02-26
The Indian Express's 2016 pullout on the 100 most powerful Indians does not explain either the criteria or the methodology adopted by the paper in making its selection. It does not explain why those dropped from last year's list have been dropped. The latter list includes the editor-owner of Dainik..
What does the internet mean to low-income Indians?
IN Research Studies | 2016-02-26
It’s a basic need. They all want it. But a new study shows how education, age and gender determine internet access.
The art of manufacturing international outrage
IN Opinion | 2016-02-25
One area of persistent obfuscation in many media accounts, especially in international media, was the use of Kanhaiya Kumar’s speech of Feb 11 as the reason for his arrest.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-02-25
Said Smriti Irani at one point during her speech in the Lok Sabha on Feb 24, "This is not a video, not a police, not an Arnab Goswami, this is the report of the security personnel who do not have connection with the government". Are his competitors eating their hearts..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-02-24
The article for which Ashish Nandy has said he is willing to apologise was titled Blame the Middle Class, and published by the Times of India on January 8, 2008. Most news reports on Feb 24 did not name the daily while reporting what Nandy told the Supreme Court. This..
“The government started to give up control”
IN Media Business | 2016-02-24
Twenty five years after the 1991 liberalisation The Hoot interviews leading media business players on how it shaped India’s media explosion.
Saintly Melodrama at Prime Time
IN Opinion | 2016-02-24
Ravish Kumar’s histrionics on NDTV are well-received while other anchors are lampooned as dangerous rabble rousers.
Fake videos: checks channels can do
IN Digital Media | 2016-02-23
As the Kanhaiya video controversy continues, the BBC's Social Media Editor explains how to handle videos.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-02-22
On February 21 and 22 the Special Task Force in Delhi has been tracking down journalists who are covering the JNU student protests, visiting their homes or calling them up. Reporters from DNA, HT, Dainik Jagran and NDTV are among those who have received such unwelcome attention. The men receive..
IN Videos | 2016-02-22
The BG Verghese memorial lecture by Gopal Gandhi, March 19, 2015 at the Indian International Centre, New Delhi. A panel discussion on Shrinking space for Dissent, March 19, 2015. Panelists: Siddharth Varadarajan, Shubha Mudgal, Ashok Malik, Nilanjana Roy. ..
How Zee TV fuelled state action against JNU students
IN Media Practice | 2016-02-21
Local police filed their FIR not on the basis of the information they gathered on campus on February 9, but on the basis of Zee TV footage made available to them.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-02-20
The JNUSU events in Delhi since February 9 have seen two kinds of assaults involving media—an attack on journalists within the Patiala House Courts, and an assault by some TV anchors on the JNU student community, repeated every day. Journalists protested all week about the first, and have been totally..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-02-19
Even as press freedom advocates are now absorbed in protesting the attacks on journalists in Delhi, the situation is becoming grimmer for the Scroll.in reporter whose property was attacked last week. Malini Subramaniam's young household help was summoned to the police station twice for interrogation, and kept there for hours...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-02-19
The BJP government's commitment to the right to freedom of information shines through in every appointment of information commissioners that it makes. The two latest names to be announced are of former I & B Secretary Bimal Julka, and former special director in the Intelligence Bureau D P Sinha. Julka..
“Liberalisation allows you to play in a much bigger field”
IN Media Business | 2016-02-19
Twenty five years after the 1991 liberalisation The Hoot interviews leading media business players on how it shaped India’s media explosion.
Can Wikipedia revive dying Indian languages?
IN Digital Media | 2016-02-19
Yes, by encouraging content and involvement, Wikipedia language communities keep languages relevant.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-02-18
Various news channels' coverage of the JNU crisis and the Patiala House Court attacks range from the outrageous to the laughable. Arnab the Terrible on Feb 17's Newshour Debate, lashed out at the media at large for being unprofessional (read anti-national) and not having the courage, as Times Now did, ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-02-18
On Zee TV Prime time anchor Sudhir Choudhary while unraveling the day's events in his news show aired a clip from the epic tele-serial Chankaya in which the legendary statesman talked about the importance of Rashtra Dharma and how supporting nationhood was the ultimate and foremost duty of every individual...
Arnab Goswami constructs moral panic
IN Opinion | 2016-02-17
Racial comments are so common in social media. Goswami provided one more opportunity for it,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-02-17
Public broadcasters Door-darshan and All India Radio, have been functioning without regular DGs for over an year now. Now DD's acting DG Lalrosanga, who was appointed last year to head the broadcaster till a regular DG is chosen, has sent in his papers to the Information and Broadcasting ministry citing “personal..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-02-17
For a channel that didn't report on the attacks by lawyers on the media and JNU students, in its Feb 15 primetime shows, Times Now in its Feb 17 afternoon coverage more than made up by closely following the latest attacks against the media and students by a belligerent set of..
The art of manufacturing nationalist outrage
IN Opinion | 2016-02-17
Evidently the Times Group does not have a problem with the damage their anchor and channel can do.
Playing Down the Malda Violence
IN Opinion | 2016-02-17
Was it because the mob was Muslim and the victims Hindu? The English media’s credibility is at issue.
A black day for media and democracy
IN Media Practice | 2016-02-16
Sedition charges, BJP assaulters, attackers in lawyers’ robes, nationalist anchors—the media’s freedom was tested on Monday by all of these.
Arnab does JNU’s anti nationals a favour
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-02-16
I am talking about hypocrisy with a capital H, Arnab Goswami screamed on Times Now on Feb 15, referring to free speech issues which arose during the UPA regime. He claimed that he did not see freedom of expression become an issue then. Not only was he rewriting history, he..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-02-16
PTI and others report that “a TV channel has been directed by a Delhi court to pay Rs 20 lakh damages to three sacked police officials, including former ACP S S Rathi, who are serving life terms in the 1997 Connaught Place shootout case, for harming their reputation by showing defamatory contents.”..
The Hindu’s troubled financials
IN Media Business | 2016-02-15
Over the last two years the paper and its parent company have been increasingly in the news for their human resource and financial management,
IN Digital Media | 2016-02-14
The social media giant removed a cartoon published in Kashmir on Afzhal Guru’s death anniversary.
IN Regional Media | 2016-02-13
Rape, beatings and looting in Bastar by the security forces remain hidden because of media indifference.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-02-13
The Economic Times was the only paper to write a first edit on Mukesh Bansal's exit from Flipkart. On Feb 12 it had an effusive headline--Bye, Third Fiddle, Hail Entrepreneur--and explained why the paper thought his exit would benefit both Flipkart and the man himself. And it ended with an amazing final..
In its hurry, TRAI ignores crucial aspects
IN Law and Policy | 2016-02-13
Its regulation ‘saving’ the internet can be seen as unconstitutional in that it limits freedom of expression.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-02-13
A TV spectacle. Last night Nupur Sharma of the BJP and anchor Zakka Jacob had a royal spat on CNN- IBN while debating the JNU students sedition issue. It deteriorated by the second and had Jacob asking Sharma if she lacked any TV decorum and Sharma actually said yes she..
IN Opinion | 2016-02-13
What appeared in the HT was not a column but an Ode to Hollande by Karan Thapar
Zika vaccine and press release journalism
IN Media Practice | 2016-02-12
Coverage of Bharat Biotech’s Zika ‘’vaccine’’ was almost totally uncritical despite the dubiousness of the claim.
Here’s why Chhattisgarh police won’t act against attackers
IN Regional Media | 2016-02-12
Local Hindi papers expose links between the Samajik Ekta Manch (which attacked the Scroll contributor’s house) and the police.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-02-11
Each year the Press Information Bureau in Delhi comes up with a large coloured calendar that has beaming pictures of beneficiaries of government schemes. This year it does that and manages to promote the PM too. Cutouts of him posing in a range of jackets--a different pastel shade for different..
IN Media Business | 2016-02-11
Even Arianna Huffington has failed to figure out the future of video news.
How politicians let their hair down
IN Media Practice | 2016-02-11
Dancing a jig on TV, firing in the air, disco-dancing –politicians seem to have become bolder and more open.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-02-10
Its great to be a member of the Mumbai Press Club. Goodies keep coming your way. The latest is Vodafone offering a special corporate scheme for members. This includes free replacement of the 4G sim, unlimited free calling within group, waiver of the activation deposit, exclusive tariffs for Mumbai Press Club, etc. etc...
Sex-obsessed hacks and the harm they do
IN Media Practice | 2016-02-10
Hacks use sex to tarnish and malign the accused. The coverage of the Arzoo murder is a case in point,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-02-09
In what must be a record for media companies anywhere in the world the Times Group has reported a profit growth of 44 per cent in FY 2015. According to the data provided by the company to the Registrar of Companies (ROC) BCCL's income was three and a half times more than..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-02-09
While reporting on February 7 on the murder of the 23-year-old from Delhi University many news channels, prominent among them India Today, kept repeating that the victim was found in the home of her ‘boyfriend’ even as her distraught mother was shown weeping inconsolably. The network even suggested that it..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-02-08
TRAI ruled today in favour of net neutrality, and prohibited discriminatory tariffs for data services on the basis of content. What are the implications of this for Facebook's Free Basics? Free data to some extent is allowed only as long as it is website agnostic. So in effect it strikes..
Dubious ethics in Bengaluru assault reporting
IN Media Practice | 2016-02-08
The media hypes up racism, but who will call out the racism that Deccan Chronicle and others displayed,
New Yorker Shooting Blindly at Bernie Sanders
IN Opinion | 2016-02-08
The 'New Yorker' is clearly in this attack mode. It ran a piece by Alexandra Schwartz asking, “Should Millennials Get Over Bernie Sanders?” You can guess the answer.
Tell us and we'll tell the world
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-02-07
Some kinds of sponsored trips for journalists are not a bad idea. In January the Sikkim government took journalists from Delhi to study how the state had become India’s first fully organic farming state. The trip was meant to coincide with the prime minister's visit to Sikkim to announce this..
Requiem for a demonised university
IN Media Practice | 2016-02-06
The coverage of such crises have always thrown up the responsibility aspect of our media. In its quest for prime time justice it seems oblivious to the damage it does,
Delaying defamation verdicts defers justice
IN Judgements | 2016-02-06
The Star News and IBN7 cases show how the courts are failing to hold the media to account.
IN Media Freedom | 2016-02-05
The outlook for 2016 is even worse. The draft Cyber Security Law proposes to make it an offence to use encryption programs or publish anonymously.
The BJP government’s preferred icon
IN Special Reports | 2016-02-04
Sardar Patel is energetically memorialized by this government, Ambedkar embraced, and Nehru snubbed,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-02-02
Mumbai saw a 3-4000 strong morcha against Rohith Vemula's suicide on Feb. 1, unusual by the city's apathetic standards. Traffic in the commercial hub of South Mumbai was held up. Predictably, that was the aspect emphasised in the English press. TOI Mumbai said on page 1: ``Rohith death: Stir hits..
Where would you be without us?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-02-02
Arnab Goswami's modest take on the change Times Now has brought about in 10 years: "The coverage by Times Now from 2010 to 2012 brought in a massive change in terms of bringing corruption as a subject of public debate and a subject on which politicians were held accountable. Before the Times..
IN Media Practice | 2016-02-02
The YouTube channel, Dalit Camera Ambedkar, captures events and emotions the mainstream media has no time for.
IN Books | 2016-02-01
The latest book on the North East is essentially journalistic ethnography--it explains complexities and leaves the judging mostly to the reader.
Media and civil society only hear dead people
IN Opinion | 2016-02-01
Media misread campus politics. The ABVP’s Hindutva aggression is not normal student activism, but they ignored this until it led to Rohith’s suicide,
IN Books | 2016-01-30
The entrepreneur from Haryana who built the Zee empire tells an unvarnished story. Tact and discretion do not figure.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-01-30
On Jan. 30 Divya Bhaskar has a 2.59 minute drone video on the journey of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi from Mohandas to Mahatma. The paper claims it is the first time that its readers are being offered a unique video taken using drones. The video is called Gandhi Circuit. It takes the readers to Porbandar,..
When Kannada papers outdid the English press
IN Media Practice | 2016-01-29
The Republic Day release of convicts in Karnataka got better and a more humane coverage in the Kannada press rather than the English press.
When just reporting is not enough
IN Media Practice | 2016-01-28
As an expat reporter in Bahrain, Anwar Moideen’s stories uncover the lives of poor Indian workers and touch the conscience of local people.
Media, journalism and technology predictions 2016
IN Digital Media | 2016-01-28
In the survey of 130 leading Editors, CEOs and Digital Leaders for this report, 79% said they would be investing more in online news video this year
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-01-27
The confession of the constable in the Chungkham Sanjit case also helps two vindicate two journalists who have faced repeated enquiries since then. Six and a half years ago Tehelka magazine carried photographs of a man being shot dead in an alleged encounter, following which the then correspondent who procured..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-01-26
This years Padma awards had its share of journalists in every category. The Padma Vibhushan was conferred upon Ramoji Rao, the founder of the Eenadu Group. Barjinder Singh Hamdard, the managing editor of the Punjabi newspaper Daily Ajit, and columnist and TV commentator Ashok Malik were conferred the Padma Bhushan..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-01-25
Why is TOI repeatedly using the word death in this story about Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose in inverted commas? Does the paper not believe that he is dead? (TOI, January 23) ..
Global news from a South Asian perspective
IN Media Business | 2016-01-24
‘People want to see the world from a South Asian lens. They have never had this opportunity before.’
Kashmir’s fake news and fake journalists
IN Digital Media | 2016-01-24
The rumour about anti-polio drops killing Kashmiri children is the latest example of fake journalists misusing social media to spread lies.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-01-23
Does the PMO screen books that the PM agrees to release at 7 RCR? If they scanned Zee founder Subhash Chandra’s autobiography their either missed or decided to ignore some tales. One on former PM Vajpayee who would not appear on Aap ki Adalat before the 1999 elections because he..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-01-23
The Economic and Political Weekly which has been in the news recently following the resignation of its editor, announced today that Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, journalist, publisher, author, Hoot contributor and Media Foundation board member will be the next editor of the journal. Among the members of the Sameeksha Trust who..
DB returns to English publishing
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-01-22
Four years after exiting DNA, their joint venture with Zee media in Mumbai, the Dainik Bhaskar group will be launching an English newspaper in the city that is their base: Bhopal. To be called DB Post, the venture's first move has been to poach good people from the Hindustan Times's..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-01-22
Whats with this habitual self-censoring of the names of media outlets while reporting? TOI reports actress Poonam Pandey filing a Rs 100 crore defamation suit against "a media house" for a scurrilous story they carried. HT and India Today.in report the same but also decline to name. Why not? It is clear from the story. ..
Maharashtra leads in free speech violations
IN Special Reports | 2016-01-21
Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka are the states which registered the most free speech related cases in 2015.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-01-21
PM Modi is generous with time and praise for those media men who have been part of his life’s journey. In Dec. 2014 it was for Rajat Sharma celebrating the 21st anniversary of Aap ki Adalat. On January 20 he released Zee founder Subhash Chandra’s autobiography at his residence. A small gesture to make..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-01-21
Siddharth Varadarajan, founder editor of the Wire, was held hostage for half and hour in the office of the VC at Allahabad University by ABVP members of the student union journalist on January 20, according to TOI. In Ahmedabad journalist Revati Laul was attacked by riot accused where she went to research her book, reports..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-01-20
Facebook’s aggressive ad campaign after TRAI asked for its Free Basics to be put on hold may not have been such a bright idea after all. In this point by point rebuttal of Facebook's response to TRAI, the regulator takes apart its methods for drumming up support for Free Basics. It spells out why the..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-01-19
Media houses such as Rajasthan Patrika and Dainik Bhaskar are sponsoring events at the Jaipur lit fest. The Patrika is sponsoring an event on Trial by Media featuring Avirook Sen, Shoma Chaudhury and others. The irony is that this is a paper which participated in a similar trial by media with the kind of reporting it..
When journalists also pitched in…
IN Media Practice | 2016-01-19
The media overcame its scepticism of the odd-even scheme to publicise and support the scheme in a big way.
IN Digital Media | 2016-01-18
The prime minister is not afraid to be boring, and sounds remarkably like Doordarshan. The CM is not afraid to be pugnacious, and retweets journalists all the time.
IN Opinion | 2016-01-18
Two new videos depicting men who accept dowry as objects purchased by the bride, have received very little play in the media.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-01-17
India and Pakistan may have deferred official talks following the Pathankot attacks but an Indian channel - India Today - began track II diplomacy of sorts by telecasting a joint broadcast with Pakistan's premier media house, Dawn News. Anchoring the programme at the India Today end, Rajdeep Sardesai declared that..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-01-15
On January 8, 2016 the Pune bench of the National Green Tribunal upheld the appeal of fishermen in Gujarat against the environment clearance given by the MOEF to the expansion plans of the Adani-Hajira Port Pvt. Ltd. It held the EC illegal and set it aside. The NGT said mangrove..
IN Community Media | 2016-01-15
In this Adivasi region, about 80% of the residents not only have Bluetooth technology-enabled phones, but also routinely utilise it to transfer songs and films,
IN Media Business | 2016-01-15
On January 13, we learned that Al Jazeera America would soon close. If AJAM gave us one thing in its brief life in the US, it was a dedication to covering economic inequality in the wake of Occupy Wall Street.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-01-15
In a reversal of roles, UPA heavyweight P Chidambaram interviewed Barkha Dutt at the Mumbai launch of her book ``This Unquiet Land''. The interviewer was sharp; the interviewee not always so. When Chidambaram blamed the media and NGOs for thwarting govt. efforts to strengthen anti-terror measures, Barkha was quick to retort:..
Twitter’s policy reboot: the good, the bad, and the ugly
IN Digital Media | 2016-01-15
The lack of transparency in what is considered the promotion of terrorism risks Twitter applying its new policy to users inconsistently and arbitrarily,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-01-14
The RSS thinks it is getting bad press as a communal organisation and needs to do something about it. It will hold a five-hour session for journalists on Friday Jan 15 to acquaint them with the true nature of the organisation, its history and thinking. There will be discussion on..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-01-13
Pankaj Mishra, formerly with ET and Mint, along with a few others, is launching a new media platform which is looking to be India's answer to Vice+Atlantic+Verge. Apparently, Accel Partners, which also has interests in Facebook, is funding it. Like several others, they are also in informal talks with the new..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-01-13
Caravan has published 'The Father of Man', a short story by Saikat Majumdar on its web exclusive Vantage section, with the explanation that the story 'was summarily dropped by Mint Lounge, just as the paper was on the point of carrying it in a year-end fiction special issue'. The decision was reportedly taken after..
IN Opinion | 2016-01-13
TV godmen thrive and astrology is embedded in the papers. But neither media, politicians, nor courts want to curb the mumbo-jumbo epidemic,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-01-12
While the 'selfie' tragedy occupies media interest in Mumbai, a front-page report from Mumbai Mirror today (Jan 12) mixed up the names of the young girl who was rescued and the one who has not been traced. They fell into the waters off Bandra Bandstand while taking selfies. The paper had two..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-01-11
Competition is always good for consumers. With the advent of Netflix last week in the Indian market, Tata Sky has had a change of heart. Its online app Everywhere TV which offered 80+ streaming TV channels live for Rs 60 a month, has now become free for Tata Sky subscribers. For..
Ignoring Sadhvi Prachi’s latest
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-01-11
Dainikbhaskar.com seems to be the only news site which reported Member of Parliament Sadhvi Prachi’s controversial statement in Lucknow that following the Pathankot incident Muslim officers in the Indian army should be investigated for their possible links to Pakistan. "Kahin unke taar Pakistan se to jude nahin hai…” she is reported..
Facebook: Opening the gates to the Web or closing them?
IN Digital Media | 2016-01-11
Does the fact that only 30 websites are part of Facebook’s Free Basics mean an increase in its ‘gatekeeping’ power?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-01-10
Keep your questions short, Barkha Dutt tells her audience while anchoring a session with three Nobel Peace Laureates on NDTV. She needs to watch a playback of this session to see why this is advice she needs to follow herself. After she’s done ranging all over the place, you want..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-01-09
Barely two weeks after CM Raman Singh promised a delegation of journalists that his government would work to find a route for the speedy release of two journalists in jail, bail has been denied to one of them, Santosh Yadav, after the state prosecutor opposed it. What price a chief minister's assurances? ..
Will media now pursue names of big defaulters?
IN Media Practice | 2016-01-09
A Supreme Court ruling will finally force banks to reveal who is defaulting on loans. Public interest will trump secrecy if reporters persist with RTIs,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-01-07
Former Indian Express editor Shekhar Gupta’s latest venture, a broadcasting and media production company called ThePrint, is kicking off with an event series whose format is identical to the Express Adda, started during his stewardship of the newspaper. This one is called Off The Cuff, and has him interviewing Soft Bank Corp president..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-01-07
The next stage in Facebook's relentless advertising push for Free Basics is a single page ad which appears on January 7 only in the Times of India and the Hindustan Times. In it Mark Zuckerberg ups the ante, personally urging people to respond to TRAI's consultation on whether free basic internet services should..
TV anchor certifies I & B minister's integrity
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-01-07
India TV proprietor and anchor Rajat Sharma made minor history by deposing in court in defence of the information and broadcasting minister’s 'integrity, honesty and high moral standards’. This was at the Patiala House court in Delhi, during a hearing on Arun Jaitley's defamation case against Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal and 5 other..
Reporting on the Naxal movement
IN Research Studies | 2016-01-06
How well do India’s multiple language dailies provide essential political knowledge to citizens of this electoral democracy?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-01-05
Malini Parthasarathy who quit the editorship of the Hindu today said in her mail to her colleagues that she had done so "in view of the strong feedback I have been receiving on 'general dissatisfaction' with my performance as Editor these last 11 months." She added that she was deeply..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-01-05
Malini Parthasarathy dropped the description editor from her Twitter handle today setting off speculation about her not remaining editor of the paper. Her Facebook page remains unchanged. News coming in from Chennai indicates that an interim editor has been appointed, Suresh Nambath. The board will meet in coming days, and..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-01-05
The Tamil Nadu government has begun the new year undeterred, filing two criminal defamation complaints against TOI and Dinamalar for their coverage of the Chennai floods. In Dec. 2015 the Supreme Court had observed that the bulk of defamation cases in the country are filed in Tamil Nadu. The city..
Five net neutrality myths busted
IN Digital Media | 2016-01-04
Neither side in the debate fully supports the public interest in its entirety, only partially.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-01-04
Are Indian Muslims comparable to Muslim immigrants in Europe? While both are minorities surely the crucial difference is that Muslims in India are Indians, not immigrants? Praveen Swamy in his question to the Belgian Ambassador in the Express `Idea Exchange' (January 3) seems to forget this. It's the ambassador who points..
KCR govt persists against Outlook
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2016-01-03
Outlook magazine is not totally out of the woods in the defamation case filed against it for an item on an IAS officer in the CM's office in Telangana. Even as the Hyderabad high court quashed the case against it calling it an "abuse of legal process", the Telangana government got a defamation case..
Environment reporting in digital media
IN Digital Media | 2016-01-02
When rated for the degree of original content offered, The News Minute and Catch News came out on top.
IN Special Reports | 2015-12-31
Eight deaths, 30 attacks, 48 cases of defamation, 14 of sedition—its been grim year for free speech in India.
Doesn't climate change affect Hindi readers?
IN Media Monitoring | 2015-12-30
A comparative analysis of coverage from and related to the Paris summit shows that Hindi newspapers gave substantially less coverage than the English press.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-12-30
This year information and broadcasting minister Arun Jaitley threw a Christmas party on December 29 with bishops, sundry Delhi citizens of the Christian faith and and an assortment of Christian journalists invited, mostly Malayalis, for some reason. A choir sang Christmas carols and the guests took home gifts of Christmas..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-12-30
This has been a bad year for journalists in India - killed, attacked, beaten and now, spat at! The Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK) chief Vijayakanth, who has been attacking Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalitha, decided to 'spit' out his fury towards journalists for their alleged lack of courage in..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-12-27
No occasion is too serious or solemn to be turned into an opportunity for self congratulation. After the Rajya Sabha passed the amendment to the Juvenile Justice Act the Times of India ran a large advertisement on December 26 taking credit for leading the campaign to lower the age of..
IN Opinion | 2015-12-27
The Supreme Court’s 66A ruling earlier this year bolstering free speech was widely applauded. Its downside, though, is torrential abuse on social media,
Facebook’s battle, media’s gain
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-12-25
Facebook is advertising aggressively after TRAI has asked for its Free Basics to be put on hold, and the newspapers are raking it in. TRAI has asked Reliance Communications, Facebook’s telecom partner in India, to stop offering Free Basics until it can determine whether it conforms to Net Neutrality, the..
Allegations against Jaitley played down?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-12-24
It is not unusual for a story which rages on TV networks on any evening to figure only in the inside pages of newspapers the next day. But when charges of nepotism are levelled against the finance minister and occupy prime TV time, one expects newspapers to also report them..
Neelabh Mishra quits Outlook Hindi
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-12-23
Neelabh Mishra, editor Outlook Hindi, has quit the magazine following the announcement that Alok Mehta will be returning to this magazine as chief editor. The group had originally hired Mehta in 2002 to start the magazine, and he has edited several publications in the interim. These include Nav Bharat Times, Hindustan, Nai..
Mumbai costs hurting the Mahavishnu
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-12-23
The Hindu's Mumbai edition, launched with much fanfare last month, has set off a crisis for the paper. The editor is under pressure from some members of the Board for exceeding the budget set for the edition. The cost overrun is huge, and the price for it is being paid..
CM Raman Singh promises release of scribes in jail
IN Regional Media | 2015-12-23
C-garh journalists organise against police harrassment, govt concedes demands. “We were adamant that the media representatives on the committee should be field reporters, and not owners or editors.”
Raman Singh govt acts on scribes' plea
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-12-22
The coming together of 300 journalists from across the Bastar region to court arrest in front of the office of the IG police, seems to have led the Raipur government on Monday to do something about police cases against the media. CM Raman Singh met scribes and agreed to consider their demands..
Is media creating mass hysteria?
IN Media Practice | 2015-12-21
Was the juvenile brutalised by his depiction? Do the facts of the case fly in the face of the media myth-making?
IN Opinion | 2015-12-21
The media – an instrument of democracy – is used by the ruling elite to undermine the interests of the majority in a democracy.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-12-20
Tavleen Singh interviewed Arun Jaitley for the Indian Express on the DDCA accusations made by the Aam Admi Party. It is a delightful example of how to do an enabling interview. No tetchy cross-questioning here. ..
One blunders, another blusters
IN Media Practice | 2015-12-20
If anchors would do some homework before launching into shrill debates, the outcome would be more informative for viewers,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-12-20
A journalist from a Rajasthan newspaper is arrested and denied bail for reporting that a Pakistan flag was seen flying in the Dausa area. This is after residents file a complaint saying it is actually the flag of a community and the report was an insult to their beliefs. The..
Newspaper shut down in Manipur
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-12-18
The journalist fraternity of the State came out on Imphal streets on Wednesday to protest against the bomb threat on Impact TV editor-in-chief Yumnam Rupachandra Singh who is also the general secretary of the Editors’ Guild of Manipur. The newspapers did not come out on December 17. A grenade was found at the..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-12-17
Does HT have a policy on ads it will not accept? On grounds of decency or grammar? This appeared in the Mumbai edition of the paper on December 17: Alliya Parlour. "Wanted male give full body massage to rich housewives foreigners earn 45000/ guaranteed daily..." etc. The paper actually has..
Media and migrants: fanning prejudices?
IN Special Reports | 2015-12-17
When stories of migrants are reported with no facts or context, the result is toxic, says a new study of migration coverage.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-12-15
Slum demolitions are not normally page 1 news for Delhi’s English press. A child could even die unnoticed. But when a CM gets into the act it drives the story. The news about the Shakurbasti night time demolitions by the railways on Dec 12 broke when Arvind Kejriwal tweeted at..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-12-15
The chargesheet in the Govind Pansare murder case has finally been filed in Pune, ten months after the murder and one day before the judicial custody of the accused was to end. It was filed by a special investigation team of the state police and has been accepted by the..
IN Censorship | 2015-12-14
How does one turn to the state to censor when an image does not have a single meaning, when the intention of the author is not fully known, and when the reception is multiple?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-12-12
Freebies for journalists become more wide ranging by the day. A group of "experienced eye surgeons" who say they have come together to open a "state of art multispeciality eye centre" in the heart of Mumbai at Opera house, have cleverly invited all members of the city's press club to..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-12-11
In the first 10 days of the month so far three new cases of sedition have been filed, one each in Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and in Tamil Nadu. There were two arrests for sedition in Punjab and Haryana, and one case of denial of bail in a sedition case to..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-12-10
Jobs are a major concern of the Delhi citizenry, right? But maybe not of the English newspaper readership. Yesterday (Dec 9) was the concluding day of a three week job fair (November 16-December 9) which the Delhi Administration had organised, the second of its kind. Not a line on its..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-12-09
TRAI's efforts to regulate the number of advertisements run on news and non news channels have not been very successful. While it is mandatory for channels to submit data on the number of minutes of advertising to programming, the data submitted by channels to TRAI shows that close to 140 channels flouted..
Leaks: to report or not to report?
IN Regional Media | 2015-12-08
The Telangana media, by reporting the ruling party’s leaks, has become complicit in its violation of the election code of conduct.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-12-07
Reporters from outside Tamil Nadu covering the floods are discovering the self censorship that prevails in the state. Officials won't answer questions at press conferences, they read out statements invoking Amma every now and then. Journalists say their papers will have defamation cases filed against them if they are critical..
IN Media Practice | 2015-12-07
2015 marks the 125th birth anniversaries of both Ambedkar and Nehru, but the treatment given by GOI to the two is strikingly different.
IN Opinion | 2015-12-07
A few brilliant reports apart, the preconceptions of the English press prevented them from grasping what was happening in the Bihar election.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-12-06
Journalists are not immune to the start-up fever that they have been reporting. Three of them have left different editions of the Economic Times in recent weeks to start digital companies. That includes the principal correspondent and the technology editor at the Bangalore ET who are partnering another person to..
IN Media Freedom | 2015-12-04
Over four years of conflict, Syria has become a graveyard for both international and local journalists. But a new generation of citizen journalists are replacing war correspondents.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-12-03
While TV channels all over the country are full of footage on the Chennai floods the channels belonging to the ruling AIADMK-- Jaya TV, Jaya Plus and Jaya Max-- are either unable or unwilling to telecast any news at this time. Jaya Plus has an endless lead-in to a bulletin..
Meet the people who put together the Chennai rains spreadsheet
IN Digital Media | 2015-12-03
Over 250 people have offered their homes so far, promising to accommodate anywhere between two people to 50 families.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-12-02
Starvation deaths in West Bengal’s tea gardens have been intermittently reported in the mainstream media in the last few months. Surely more prominent display would force more attention on the issue while Parliament is in session? The Pioneer reports a figure of 106 deaths from hunger in the past three..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-12-02
The floods in the city are not the only crisis affecting the Hindu in Chennai which failed to come out on December 2. Easing out is apparently taking place of senior staff, though nobody is confirming the names as yet, or how many. ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-12-01
Offices of the Lokmat newspaper across Maharashtra were attacked for a cartoon in the paper's supplement which picturised funding for ISIS as a piggy bank. DNA reports that the article titled 'ISIS cha Paisa' (ISIS' money) and the cartoon irked members of the Muslim community and hundreds of them in..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-12-01
TV18 and CNN International have extended their collaboration on CNN-IBN. Both parties have entered into a licensing agreement for use of the “CNN” brand and CNN news content by TV18 with effect from January 1, 2016. CNN entered India by partnering with IBN, an English-language news channel launched by Network18, in 2005...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-12-01
The number of Indian channels blocked in Nepal by Cable TV operators has risen to 42. The block is in protest against what is being called an unofficial "blockade of goods" into the country. A former Maoist splinter party started a campaign against Indian movies and TV channels in Nepal...
Punjab crackdown on social media
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-11-30
With hatred spreading on social media against the SAD led government, police in Punjab have registered over a dozen cases in the past one month -- including eight against NRIs -- for sedition, issuing threats and posting derogatory material on the internet. At least a hundred requests have been made..
The fringe element is in our living room
IN Media Practice | 2015-11-30
In the intolerance debate, TV channels have been stoking the Hindu-Muslim fires.
IN Special Reports | 2015-11-30
As the Paris talks begin Reporters Without Borders (RSF) investigates the ‘Hostile Environment for Environmental Journalists.’
Free speech umbrella for paid news?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-11-28
Speaking at the Times Litfest in Delhi on Saturday evening on legal cases that have shaped Indian democracy, I and B minister Arun Jaitley said the one area in which the Supreme Court has always ruled liberally is free speech. He gave several examples to show how the apex court..
Appeal to Release Journalists Jailed in Chhattisgarh
IN Media Freedom | 2015-11-27
Journalists and activists petition ministers for the release of jailed Chhattisgarh journalists.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-11-27
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 Opinion | 2015-11-27
Do the Ramnath Goenka awards try to honour the excellence of journalists working for small publications and in small places or only those who belong to the elite?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-11-25
The Ramnath Goenka award for the best broadcast journalist in Hindi for 2013 was given to Sudhir Chaudhary of the Zee-Jindal extortion case fame. A wag wants to know if journalism awards have become stain-removers. As for Chaudhary who is a leading anchor of Zee News, he quizzed Aamir Khan..
Aamir's 'alarm' and media bias
IN Opinion | 2015-11-25
The cliche ‘one is an anecdote, two is a coincidence and three is a trend’ explains the media’s ‘intolerance’ narrative,
IN Media Practice | 2015-11-25
Enough of personal opinion masquerading as reporting. Lamenting this new trend,
IN Media Freedom | 2015-11-24
The Governor of Assam and Nagaland, PB Acharya gives the Assam Rifles-Naga Press controversy a fresh lease of life.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-11-23
Medianama reports that the Times of India management has linked the target variable pay (TVP) of their journalists and content developer’s salaries with the amount of social sharing they do of stories written for the paper. The site said it had access to emails which clearly states that every journalist working..
Seeking legitimacy for hate speech
IN Judgements | 2015-11-23
The outcome of Subramanian Swamy’s case is going to be important for the future of both free speech and hate speech in India.
It’s True, media did cover Beirut bombings
IN Media Practice | 2015-11-22
…About 1/40th as much as they covered Paris attacks. The New York Times did cover the Beirut blasts—in one story, on page 6.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-11-21
The Hindu reports that the Enforcement Directorate has served a show cause notice on NDTV Limited, involving a sum of Rs.2,030 crore, for violation of FIPB conditions and FEMA rules. NDTV has said that it had received the notice, has been advised that it was not legally tenable and would..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-11-20
A former diplomat posted in UK at the time of Narendra Modi's 2003 visit wrote an insider account for The Wire on November 17. It was a piece fairly damaging to Mr Modi's recent version of the event, cited on his UK trip. Thereafter the article apparently disappeared from the..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-11-20
Earlier this month PEMRA (Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority) asked all Pakistani broadcasters to refrain from covering 72 banned groups including LeT, JuD and FIF under UN restriction. But Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed has challenged the decision to ban media coverage of his outlawed organisations Jammat-ud-Dawah and its front..
IN Opinion | 2015-11-20
India’s intellectuals are guilty of dishonesty in their depiction of India under Modi.
Assam Rifles:infected with Foot-in-mouth Disease!
IN Opinion | 2015-11-19
Through decades of armed conflict, the media in Nagaland have been playing their role intrepidly and with as much fairness and objectivity their situation allows them.
Paid news in Telangana bypoll?
IN Media Practice | 2015-11-18
Misuse of family-owned media at election time is exemplified in Warangal by the CM's newspaper and TV channel.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-11-18
What call should a newspaper take on picturising a story about a gruesome incident involving a child? In the case of the Hyderabad schoolchild who died after her head was caught in a lift, most papers used pictures of the school or a passport pic of the victim. The Deccan Chronicle had..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-11-17
The Bihar elections may have been driven out of people's news recall by subsequent events but the outcome still rankles for Today's Chanakya, the pollster who inverted the results somewhat. It has now come up with a new effort to retrieve its reputation: a release saying that they would just..
IN Media Practice | 2015-11-17
The Kerala media have been self censoring stories to protect advertisers and influential people.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-11-16
The editors of six newspapers in the North East have issued a statement reacting to the Assam rifles order. Three have left their editorial space blank today. The Morung Express said, “On the occasion of the National Press Day, The Morung Express is exercising its independent choice to leave the..
Guardians of the law attack free speech
IN Censorship | 2015-11-16
Between the state and some high courts, free speech is constantly under attack. The Assam Rifles order is only the latest in a string of diktats.
The army is totally out of line
IN Censorship | 2015-11-14
“Would the Assam Rifles dare extend the same order to ‘national’ media houses?”
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-11-14
Does Jawaharlal Nehru's legacy only belong to the Congress Party? On the 125th birth anniversary of India's first prime minister it is difficult to find government ads commemorating the occasion. Only front page ads put in by the Congress party, and others by the Rajiv Gandhi Study Circle or the Himachal..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-11-14
After Prime Minister Modi's speech ended at Wembley Stadium, Times Now made full use of its ratings by airing some medical advertising practically in a loop. An advertisement, made to look like a news story, highlighted Apollo Hospital's success in preforming simultaneously a liver and heart transplant surgery. At the end of..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-11-13
All of Friday evening (Nov 13) there was no other news as the news channels shifted focus to Wembley Stadium and stayed there. Dishing out non stop hyperbole: Modi rules Britannia! Londoners welcome Modi! Indian tricolor over Wembley, world's biggest political event, London lights up in saffron white and green!..
IN Law and Policy | 2015-11-13
From folk songs to Facebook comments, the charge of sedition is being generously applied.
No Modi mania, only Modi phobia
IN Media Practice | 2015-11-13
Coverage of Narendra Modi’s visit to the UK has highlighted his ability to divide and arouse hatred.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-11-12
The PM is in London, and don’t expect Doordarshan to cover anything else. We were told in the first hour by several NRIs it interviewed how important the visit is for Britain, and how Britain needs India economically more than India needs Britain. If you want a slightly souped up..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-11-12
While reporting the London case of entrapment for paedophilia of Hasan Suroor, the Hindu describes him as a British Indian columnist who writes for a range of publications in India and the U.K. No mention of the fact that Suroor was employed by the Hindu for more than 15 years,..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-11-10
Has opposition to Congress programmes by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad become so legitimate that governments should change their programmes in deference to the latter's threats? The anchor on the Newshour 10 pm debate on Times Now on Tuesday repeatedly asked the Karnataka Congress spokesman whether his government's decision to celebrate..
Unlawful to report militant statements
IN Media Freedom | 2015-11-10
The Assam Rifles warns editors in Nagaland that they will be breaking the law if they do so.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-11-09
The Chandigarh Tribune is a conservative newspaper not usually given to taking on prime ministers. But the current editor Harish Khare who earlier served as former prime minister Manmohan Singh's media advisor is breaking with this tradition. In a comment titled "The Modi presidency is over" he says the prime minister has lost..
IN Books | 2015-11-09
An army officer’s confession reveals chilling details about ‘live kills’ and how awards for officers are linked to body counts.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-11-09
The Axis exit poll which CNN IBN chickened out of using when it predicted the huge margin of victory for the Grand Alliance accurately, now stands vindicated. The pollster, Axis-Ad-Print-Media put out a statement stressing its 100 per cent accuracy. It had predicted 169-183 seats for the JDU alliance and..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-11-09
Who came the closest to getting the final seat outcome in Bihar right? Neither a pollster nor journalist nor political pundit, but an economist. In a column in the Indian Express on November 5 Surjit Bhalla gave 175 seats to JDU+ and 60 seats to the NDA. He says he arrived at those figures..
Winning channel, losing pollster
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-11-08
By 11 am on November 8 there were two clear media outcomes. CNN IBN which had been calling itself the election headquarters just as Times Now had, was the clear leader among channels, with far more leads at a given time than the others. It called the Bihar elections just..
IN Media Freedom | 2015-11-07
Journalists are being killed around the world in greater numbers than ever before.
One step forward, two steps backwards
IN Media Practice | 2015-11-07
Caste dominated the Bihar election and its coverage. The state's progress was seen through its prism
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-11-05
Today's Chanakya turned out to be the exit pollster that did not subscribe to the photo finish theory. It stuck its neck out and predicted for the BJP and its allies a comfortable 155 seat win. And it sent out mailers announcing its projected outcome thus: "Bihar sings & rhymes..
IN Media Freedom | 2015-11-05
CPJ's 2015 Global Impunity Index spotlights countries where journalists are slain and the killers go free.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-11-04
Modi government getting flak? Zee TV will be on permanent trouble shooting duty. On Nov. 4 night it wanted to know why the troubled intellectuals in this country were not shedding tears over the Kashmiri Pandits, and the ghar wapasi they have been denied all these years. It ran a..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-11-04
When it suits its interest the TOI will even reprint an entire column from another paper. The Mint column it reprinted in its business section on November 4 was making the point that e-commerce advertisers get more mileage for their ads in offline media, because people are more receptive to..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-11-04
A woman who called an accountant "unprofessional, rude and obnoxious" in a Facebook review has won out in a defamation case, using the rarely-successful defence of honest opinion. As reviews of businesses take off on social media, the District Court of Western Australia was asked to consider whether a series..
Sexual harassment: setting legal precedents
IN Judgements | 2015-11-03
DOCUMENTATION---On October 14 and 30, two judges in Goa have given separate judgements in complaints filed by 3 journalists.
IN Media Freedom | 2015-11-02
On the UN International Day to End Impunity for crimes against journalists, we revisit the 8 murders of journalists this year.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-11-02
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!’..
Facebook changes 'real name' policy
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-10-31
Responding to a public outcry and a global campaign by advocacy groups called the 'Nameless Coalition', Facebook announced changes in its 'real name' policy whereby users provide additional context to their chosen names and complainants against fake accounts give more robust information to ensure that trolls do not misuse the policy. In..
IN Special Reports | 2015-10-31
The RTI Decade: Part III---RTI is proving to be a powerful tool for exposing wrongdoing but the backlog of applications and a gradual watering down of some of its provisions are weak areas.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-10-30
From the Ahmedabad Mirror, in a story on the banning of fire crackers: Parvez Jivani, 43 Vendor, Delhi Darwaza. “I've been in the business of selling firecrackers for 65 years now and have seen generations uphold the tradition of bursting crackers…” that’s a bit difficult, if you are 43...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-10-30
Freedom House's global Internet freedom survey ranks India at 40 (0 best, 100 worst) and describes the Net here as partly free. It gives India a score of 12 on obstacles to access (0-best, 25-worst), a score of 10 on limits on content (0-best, 35 worst) and 18 on violation of user..
Are one per cent of Indians using RTI?
IN Special Reports | 2015-10-29
A decade of RTI, Part II---How many Indians are using their right to information? Studies suggest that the figure of users has yet to cross one per cent of the population in a given year, but there could be substantial under-reporting.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-10-29
The atrocity earlier this month at Sunped village in Haryana in which a Dalit home was set on fire and two children died, was reported by most news outlets as being a clash between Dalits and Rajputs. Kafila.org however carried a long report which described it as a clash between Dalits and..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-10-28
CNN-IBN has announced that Umesh Upadhyay, President of News, Network18, is moving back to Reliance Industries, having laid a "strong foundation" for the growth of the Network. In July 2014 Upadhyay moved from Reliance where he was media director for a few months, and the move came after Reliance took management..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-10-28
Those who did not see the online version of The Hindu on October 26 missed this gem called "Meeting a quake". Apparently a bunch of senior editors of the paper and the editor were sufficient traumatised by the Hindukush quake that shook Delhi that afternoon to crawl under a conference..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-10-28
A report in The Hindu on Romila Thapar's talk: on "Indian Society and the Secular'' in Mumbai Oct 26, was headlined: "Secularism begins with Uniform Civil Code''. But she did not say that. She spoke of the need to curtail the power of religion over the state's functioning, and to..
IN Media Practice | 2015-10-27
No one cares about the profound farming crisis in Punjab. Look at how the media have covered the prolonged agitation and all you find is chaff,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-10-27
It is not clear why Arun Jaitley decided to deliver this year's Sardar Patel memorial lecture but he is the first I & B minister to do so. Since 1955 when it was instituted in memory of Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel, India's first minister of information and broadcasting, it has..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-10-26
Zee TV is riding the anti cow slaughter bandwagon. On Sunday when all other channels were busy analysing why India lost the ODI series against South Africa, a Zee anchor launched into a 9 pm harangue on cow slaughter: Dharm bechain, kanoon lachar." (Religion is restless, the law is helpless.) It was billed as an..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-10-25
The bad press BJP ministers are getting for things they say is the media’s fault. Journos are among the “Usual Suspects” Swapan Dasgupta writes about each week in the Pioneer and according to him ministers and MPs don’t realize that when the media chases them for quotes it is not..
Codify privilege to prevent abuse
IN Media Freedom | 2015-10-25
But even after codification the legislature can legally codify its privileges in a manner which clearly violates fundamental rights.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-10-25
RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat's 'small incidents' are not small in online perception. The I & B ministry's cell which monitors over 400 news channels and websites on a minute to minute basis, is apparently reporting that the huge positive blast generated online by the prime minister's US visit was undone..
IN Books | 2015-10-23
Since Modi became PM a vigorous debate has been going on about the intellectual atmosphere in the country. But who exactly is an intellectual? Who creates them?
IN Special Reports | 2015-10-21
The RTI decade—I. The first of a three-part series on ten years of the Right to Information Act.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-10-21
In what is the fifth reported attack on a journalist in UP this year a journalist was shot at by unidentified assailants who tried to rob him in Uttar Pradesh’s Kannauj district, on Tuesday, according to the police. They think it could be the result of a robbery attempt. (IANS) Meanwhile..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-10-21
The Bachchans do well for themselves whenever the Samajwadi Party is in power in UP. Three generations of Bachchans have been given the cash award Yash Bharti Samman for their contribution to the arts. Now Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya Bachchan and Abhishek Bachchan will be among the first beneficiaries of the..
IN Digital Media | 2015-10-21
Some of Facebook’s policies fuel hatred against women and minorities. Time for some answers from Mark Zuckerberg,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-10-20
The BJP permitted FDI in news when Sushma Swaraj was I & B minister in A B Vajpayee's government. Now if minister of state Rajyavardhan Rathore is to be believed the government is considering increasing the amount of FDI permitted in news. He said this after an industry rep at..
ABP blooper: retire Sehwag, then analyse why
IN Media Practice | 2015-10-20
Tributes flowed following PTI and ABP’s gaffes. The amazing sequence of a newsbreak that wasn’t. And then was!
IN Censorship | 2015-10-20
…We don’t deserve your music because, in this new India, you are just a Pakistani agent.
IN Media Practice | 2015-10-18
The media blame politicians for exploiting social issues for political mileage but are the media any different with their feeding frenzies around tragedies, as the Dadri coverage showed?
Troubling Times in US newsrooms
IN Media Practice | 2015-10-16
As attention paid to Cecil grew, I wondered why it was that everyone knew a lion’s name and face while virtually no one knew the name or face of a Palestinian baby burnt alive by an Israeli zealot.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-10-15
The sexual harassment case filed against journalist Rupesh Samant who is Goa bureau chief of PTI and also works for the news channel HCN, has reached an unprecedented denouement. On October 14 an additional sessions judge in Mapusa passed an order rejecting his anticipatory bail plea. Today a look out..
CNN IBN's elusive investigator
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-10-14
On October 13 CNN IBN came up with its second exclusive on Pakistan in less than a fortnight. But who is the mysterious reporter producing these? One Manoj Gupta whom you never see on screen. He provided the input for the 'Living Hell in PoK' story dated September 30 and is..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-10-14
Starting 23rd October BARC India will release rural TV viewership data, it announced today. Doordarshan is waiting for it in the hope that it will magically produce evidence of a bigger viewership for the public broadcaster. Other private channels are watching out for it will a degree of apprehension---nobody knows for..
IN Media Practice | 2015-10-14
After each attack on free speech, the television channels choose to rant and bring in a chorus of Parivar apologists to fully justify their politics.
IN Opinion | 2015-10-13
The death of the legendary comic actress, Manorama, leaves a huge gap in the industry that will be hard to fill.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-10-12
The democratic presidential debate for the US elections is 30 hours from now, and CNN is, believe it or not, doing a countdown already, with a timer counting down in hours minutes and seconds. It will be a CNN debate so the channel will not stop hyping it. It is..
Now BJP cast as free speech defender
IN Media Freedom | 2015-10-12
Maharashtra CM Fadnavis is all set to put his government’s might behind the Kasuri book launch as a free speech issue even as the Shiv Sena blackens Sudheendra Kulkarni’s face.
IN Media Practice | 2015-10-12
... of No Negative News Day. Each Monday Dainik Bhaskar urges its readers to “Jiyo No Negative Life”.
Prove charges, Bastar scribes tell state govt
IN Media Freedom | 2015-10-12
The arrest of two journalists has triggered a movement among Chhattisgarh journalists to demand protection against police and Maoist harassment.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-10-12
The Times of India took boss Vineet Jain's assertion that the company is in the advertising business very seriously on October 12. Page one was on page 5, four pages of advertising preceded it. Then after page one you got two more pages of only ads, then one more page..
BARC’s new norms for ratings claims
IN Media Business | 2015-10-11
“Analogous misuse of TV ratings is commonplace and BARC India… must use the powers vested in it by its constituents to prohibit it.”
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-10-09
Jansatta, the Hindi daily of the Indian Express group has had a change of editors and with it, apparently, a change of heart. On October 8 the paper carried an article reader would not have expected to find in Jansatta earlier. Its main edit page article was written by BJP..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-10-09
The Hindu's page one story on GVK Biosciences and its disgruntled whistleblower quotes the company, the Commerce Ministry, the Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance and a drug controller here to rue the loss of reputation for the drug maker. The story suggests that the harm done to the company's reputation by international..
Truth has two versions in Bastar
IN Media Practice | 2015-10-08
Did villagers seek police help against Maoists or did they visit the police station to secure the release of villagers wrongly accused by police of being Maoists?
Arrested, tortured, jailed in South Bastar
IN Media Freedom | 2015-10-08
Nag was a rare Adivasi journalist in the region. Yadav was a very active reporter, and villagers often approached him for help since he knew Gondi and Hindi.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-10-08
After Nayantara Sahgal, Urdu writer and Sahitya Akademi awardee from Maharashtra Rahman Abbas has decided to return his award. He cited the example of others like poet Ashok Vajpeyi, Kannada writers, Veeranna Madiwalar, T. Satish Javare Gowda, Sangamesh Menasinakai, Hanumanth Haligeri, Shridevi V Aloor and Chidanand Sali and said it..
IN Media Freedom | 2015-10-08
The demand for a ban on ‘Agnes of God’ reveals a new assertiveness among Christians.
Digital India and the political class
IN Digital Media | 2015-10-07
If the personal use of digital tools is a measure of conviction, many leading politicians today, including several cabinet ministers, would fall short.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-10-06
Being the media partner in a movie production means you can rewrite facts. It is a movie after all. We said on Oct. 5 that "Talvar" produced by the Times Group had shown a crucial interview that NDTV did with Noopur Talwar, which affected the case, as being done by their media..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-10-06
Dadri continues to simmer on the front pages of all general newspapers, and Dainik Jagran continues to downplay it as much as possible. For the last 7 days it has failed to figure on page 1 of the Rajdhani edition of the world's no.1 paper as it called itself on October 4: Duniya ka number..
Impact of ad blockers on the media
IN Media Business | 2015-10-05
The technology battle over ad blocking will hurt the web: Readers have the right to use ad blockers, and publishers will be pushed to block users who use ad blockers.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-10-05
Karan Thapar in his Sunday column in Hindustan Times eloquently describes his interaction with Aung Sang Suu Ki in Yangon, Myanmar (or Rangoon and Burma as Thapar prefers even though the country has officially changed its name in 1989). While drawing out the challenges facing ‘the Lady', he writes, that..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-10-05
Granted that Vineet Jain, MD of the Times Group, is one of the producers of the film, Talvar. But that should not mean that the film should twist facts to suit the producer's media company. One of the triggers of the case was a detailed interview by NDTV's Sonia Singh's..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-10-04
The Dainik Jagran must be one of the very few papers in Delhi to not consider the incident at Dadri and its aftermath a continuing page one story. October 2nd onwards it has not figured on page 1 in Jagran. On Sunday there could have been a good reason for such an..
IN Digital Media | 2015-10-03
Half the country’s CMs have no truck with websites, blogs or Twitter.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-10-03
Back in May 2008 TOI had famously headlined a story on Rajesh Talwar "Dr Death and the House of Horror". And carried one more: "Attack Showed Clinical Precision and Planning" (Earlier this year TOI referred to both headlines without attribution! ) But now the circumstances are a little different. A..
Raising the threshold for defamation
IN Defamation | 2015-10-03
A new court order in a defamation case finally tilts the balance slightly in favour of journalists and bloggers and against powerful corporations.
Bollywood screenwriters strike for better contracts
IN Media Business | 2015-10-02
At the stroke of midnight on Oct 3, 2015 all writers from the Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, Bhojpuri and other film industries will go on an indefinite strike.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-10-02
Talk of looking for provocative speeches and returning disappointed. This Tribune report describes a book launch on the life of the VHP's Ashok Singhal which reporters descended upon, looking for headlines. It says the Sangh Parivar members present "preferred to mouth inane statements rather than raise political temperatures." The item is headlined..
Are judges influenced by media?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-10-02
The jury's still out on that one, despite the grim observations by outgoing Law Commission chairperson and former Supreme Court judge, Justice A P Shah. But, in a surprising directive to police while ordering the release of alleged Maoist leader Maruti Kurtwarkar, Justices Bhushan Gavai and Justice Prasanna Varale of the..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-10-01
The PM's Silicon Valley lovefest ensured that some not-so-cordial topics did not come up. Such as the Competition Commission of India's ongoing investigation against Google for its "anti-competitive conduct". It did not figure either in Mr Modi's one on one with Google CEO Sundar Pichai or during the hackathon at..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-10-01
The PMO website is gearing up to offer its content in all major regional languages, The Economic Times reports. Right now it is only in English and Hindi. PMO officials nurture the fond hope that when this is done the website could become the first government site in the world to be..
Talvar: ‘Why we made it this way’
IN Media Practice | 2015-10-01
“Tragic incidents give us a chance to look at our system - the different departments, how we deal with crisis.”
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-09-30
September was a useful month for a reality check on the euphoria over Digital India. When the month began a mobile internet ban was continuing in Gujarat, and was lifted on Sept. 2 but not for Ahmedabad and Surat. Sept. 3 saw an internet and sms ban being imposed in Manipur, followed by a Sept 24 ban..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-09-29
Mr Modi wasn't the only one who went to Menlo Park. A bunch of Indian journalists from top newspapers did too, as guests of Facebook. As the debate in India over Net Neutrality and Facebook's Internet.org grows, the company evidently decided on a PR corrective. As Mark Zuckerberg tells both the Hindu and..
Media at Work in China and India
IN Books | 2015-09-28
Complex factors affect India and China’s negative media coverage about each other, even as India ranks low in the news priorities of Chinese media.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-09-28
The Indian and Chinese media behaved similarly over their respective leaders' visits to the US last week and the visits got similar treatment from the US media. Neither President Xi Jingping nor PM Modi could compete with the Pope for coverage in the US media though both got passing mention. But both countries sent large..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-09-28
On september 24 and 25 three women journalists filed sexual harassment cases at a women's police station in Panaji against Rupesh Samant, the Goa bureau chief of PTI and TV anchor with a local cable TV news network. Anonymous complaints about him have been circulating on Goa journalists' mailing lists for some..
Will Free Basics respect Net Neutrality?
IN Digital Media | 2015-09-27
The programme now known as Free Basics violates Net Neutrality and establishes Facebook as a global gatekeeper for internet connectivity.
Keeping the veil on Reliance down
IN Media Business | 2015-09-25
By and large, coverage of the Sheena Bora murder has excluded a 2013 official report suspecting fraud in Reliance’s links with the Mukerjea-owned INX/NewsX group.
Journalists regulating journalists
IN Media Practice | 2015-09-25
Wardrobe malfunction and below the belt stories (literally) about women and their clothing are not new, but this particular story triggered a chain reaction from within the media itself.
IN Community Media | 2015-09-25
“The calls have stopped certainly, but the bravado with which he could threaten us despite being under arrest and being in a police station, makes us wonder what backlash we might face.”
Taking offence – the new reflex action
IN Media Freedom | 2015-09-23
For a country with serious problems to worry about, the list of non-issues agitating both citizens and the powers that be is breathtaking.
Criticise Hindu nationalists at your peril
IN Media Freedom | 2015-09-23
The intimidatory tactics used by right wing Hindu nationalist groups against journalists, writers and rationalists are on the rise.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-09-23
Capital markets regulator SEBI slapped what is apparently its highest ever fine on PACL, a Delhi-based real estate company, but for some mystifying reason all papers downplayed the story. The regulator fined this company Rs 7269 crore for not registering its collective investment scheme which mopped up thousands of crores..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-09-22
Justice Kanade of the Bombay High Court has stayed the Maharashtra government's controversial sedition circular which seeks to bring into its purview negative comments against elected representatives. Adv Mihir Desai, who appeared for petitioners (cartoonist Aseem Trivedi, womens' rights activists Sandhya Gokhale, NJ Hasina and anr.) pointed out discrepancies in the Marathi..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-09-21
Aaj Tak did a story on the price of onions in Delhi which has ended up costing the tax payer a lot of money. Because the Delhi government's response, true to form, has been to take out full page ads in many newspapers countering the facts in the Aaj Tak's..
‘But aren’t you going to pay?’
IN Media Practice | 2015-09-21
Reporters asked questions, took exclusive bites and even exchanged numbers during the event. But it became clear after the press meet that local reporters of the Telugu print media and TV channels wanted cash for their pains.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-09-20
The Union government's Department of Information and Technology (DEITY) has come out with a draft national Encryption policy through draft rules under Sec 84 of the amended IT Act, 2000. While it acknowledges the need for confidentiality of information and helpfully notifies the technology for this, it says plain text of encrypted..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-09-19
A two-para report in TOI's Mumbai edition (19/09) titled `Slaughter ban passes quietly in Lucknow' says: ``Lucknow's butchers quietly respected the Jain festival called Paryushan...though a few shops tried to open in the morning, Lucknow Municipal Corporation was vigilant enough to stop them. LMC officials say it was imposed every..
IN Media Monitoring | 2015-09-18
The Indian Express had five times as many opinion pieces on politics/political history/political economy as the Times of India, and five times as many on economy/finance/ business.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-09-18
For a change this protest is not against a Hindutva-related diktat. Prominent intellectuals, including historians Prof Romila Thapar and Irfan Habib, artists Gulammohammed Sheikh, Vivan Sundaram, academics Utsa Patnaik, Amar Farooqui and others have condemned the fatwa issued by the Mumbai-based Sunni Muslim group, Raza Academy against music composer A..
IN Media Monitoring | 2015-09-16
The media coverage of the Census data on religion focused on the timing of its release and the politically controversial aspects. Many deeper and more complex layers were totally ignored.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-09-15
What exactly is Dainik Bhaskar upto? Its web edition on Sept 15 announced that pegged to the Bihar elections it was starting a flashback series on glimpses of Bihar's historical events. So the first episode has a headline which says "Muslim sashak ne lagwai thi Nalanda mein aag, hazaron ki..
Journalist wins third court appeal against Zee News
IN Media Business | 2015-09-15
The channel was wrong to sack a journalist during her pregnancy, a Bombay High Court judge has ruled.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-09-15
The powerful Gujarat Samachar group in Gujarat is refusing to be cowed by the ministry of Information and Broadcasting's notices to its TV channel, GSTV. The tussle began in February and is continuing. The two points of provocation are references to an unnamed leader who initiated the Swacch Bharat Abhiyan but does..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-09-15
The well known grassroots journalists of UP who run Khabar Lahariya in Banda district have been battling a stalker and an incredibly callous and sexist police network, their only point of appeal. The entire gory account can be read here. Will Akhilesh Yadav take note? ..
Unethical use of unrelated videos
IN Media Practice | 2015-09-14
Footage used by India Today and News24 purporting to show Manipuris attacking Biharis was unrelated to the so-called `story` being reported.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-09-14
There is a new no-no for those who freelance for The Hindu. If you decide to write for The Wire as well you do so at your peril. A former Hindu employee who continued her association with the paper through a weekend column in the Chennai Metro Plus found it..
IN Media Practice | 2015-09-11
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.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-09-11
Did the government call in the Saudi ambassador to ask for diplomatic immunity to be waived in the case of the first secretary accused of raping two Nepal nationals, or did the MEA's chief protocol officer call on the Saudi ambassador? Only The Hindu said "called on", everybody else said "called..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-09-11
A reader has sent this example of Facebook journalism in ToI Bengaluru on the September 9, 2015. A reporter files a complete story on a fake school bus picking up a child (and gets it accepted) based merely on a Facebook post! Does not loot look like he talked to the school,..
IN Media Practice | 2015-09-10
A hell of a lot, actually, but it’s all been missed by the media who covered the renaming of Aurangzeb Road in their usual simplistic fashion.
Moneylife wins defamation case
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-09-09
The Bombay High Court has ruled in favour of the journalists who run Moneylife in a defamation case filed by the National Stock Exchange against the news portal. The court has ordered that Sucheta Dalal and Debashis Basu be paid Rs. 1.5 lakh each and fined NSE for Rs. 47..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-09-09
If ET Now is indeed beating CNBC TV18 in the English business news viewership segment it doesn't really need a puff job from the group's dailies does it? But on September 9 ToI saw fit to carry a three column top-of-the-page story on how brilliantly the channel was doing in..
IN Regional Media | 2015-09-09
People on each side want to know about the other side. But there is a huge information and perception gap between the two parts of the divided state.
BSES vs ToI: a defamation biggie
IN Defamation | 2015-09-08
BSES Limited, a company in the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG), has sought a stupendous Rs 5,000 crore as damages from BCCL for a series of stories in August based on a draft CAG report.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-09-08
The Indian Express reports in its gossip column Delhi Confidential that the BJP is set to rename its TV channel Yuva TV, launched in 2009, to BJP TV. It will be an online channel. The party is also constructing a four-room studio in the BJP headquarters so that its spokespersons can take..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-09-08
The uproar over the Maharashtra sedition circular was caused by translation into Marathi, and editing of the original English clause in the court guidelines. The government circular reworded the court guidelines to project a harsher view of what constitutes sedition. The original court guidelines said that the "words, signs or representations against politicians..
Such generosity! Such hypocrisy!
IN Media Practice | 2015-09-07
The migrant crisis is the consequence of the actions of Western governments. Why is the Western media fighting shy of making the linkage between the causes and effects of the refugee crisis?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-09-06
Last week the Delhi High Court admitted a petition challenging the definition of journalist under the Working Journalist and other Newspaper Employees and Misc Provision Act, 1955. A Division Bench of the Court issued a notice to the Union of India on widening the definition of a working journalist to..
Thin line between free and seditious speech?
IN Media Freedom | 2015-09-06
The Maharashtra guidelines ignore the SC distinction and bring elected representatives and government officers within the ambit of sedition.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-09-04
A legal firm AZB & Partners is sending around letters to the media on behalf of their client Star India saying that repeated references to Peter Mukherjea’s “historical association” with Star India while reporting the Indrani Mukherjea case are defamatory to their client. “while we respect your ability to report..
IN Media Business | 2015-09-03
Diligent Media’s accumulated losses have resulted in the complete erosion of the net worth of the company, while its yearly losses affect Zee Media’s bottom line.
More Women In The Newsroom, A Smart Business Move
IN Media Business | 2015-09-03
A better gender balance in the newsroom makes for a smarter business strategy. Editor-in-Chief Emeritus of Bloomberg MATT WINKLER describes his dedicated strategy to increase the gender balance in both the newsroom and in the editorial coverage
This is No Way to Cover a Murder Story
IN Media Practice | 2015-09-03
Amidst all the hand-wringing over a woman’s, and a society’s morals, relatively few bells have been rung about the ethics of the media scrum that has developed around the Sheena Bora murder case.
IN Media Business | 2015-09-02
Why did the partnership between two media giants flounder? And why does the Zee group continue to absorb DNA’s losses a decade after its launch?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-09-02
The unrest caused by the Patel agitation triggered a ban on mobile-based Internet services in Gujarat, which has now been lifted with the exception of Ahmedabad and Surat cities. The Hindu reports that the police fear that “Some miscreants could circulate video clips of clashes between the police and the residents..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-09-02
A Tamil news channel is fighting an order issued by the I and B ministry, alleging that two of its broadcasts has showed the prime minister in poor light and violated certain provisions of the Programme Code prescribed under the Cable Television Network (Cable) Act, 1995. Sathiyam TV, a Chennai-based..
IN Media Practice | 2015-09-01
Violence is part of Hardik Patel's psyche. The media reports his talk of breaking hands and gouging out eyes but passes little judgement on it.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-08-31
The ToI is hooked on the Sheena Bora murder case. Its ‘Murder in the Family’ series has been running non stop from August 27, on one full inside page every day. Last Saturday it went up to 1.5 pages. HT has been close behind, with ‘Sheena Murder’ not going off..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-08-31
A reader from Bangalore writes that while the media was tirelessly covering the Sheena Bora case as if there is no other important issue in India, the prominent Kannada scholar M M Kalburgi was shot dead in his house in Dharwad. “But every Kannada channel was busy with film actor..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-08-31
Judges don't read newspapers the same day because they don't have time, and they are not affected by what the media says because they do not see what they say, an Indian Express gossip column quotes a judge as saying. He was responding to a lawyer's complaint that a newly-filed case..
Kid glove treatment for one’s own
IN Media Practice | 2015-08-31
Every time media barons themselves are in the news for all the wrong reasons, the public never gets the answers it deserves.
Sheena Bora case: Where is the media headed?
IN Media Practice | 2015-08-29
We are experiencing a kind of journalism that has thrown all media ethics, morality and laws to the wind.
Journalists across border talk
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-08-28
While the NSA talks may have been called off journalists of the two countries went ahead with their talks. Rising Kashmir reports that a delegation of 12 journalists from Kashmir attended a conference with journalists "from other side of Kashmir" during a week long visit to Pakistan and PaK. A..
IN Defamation | 2015-08-27
Defamation cases against the media are being filed thick and fast in 2015, with the pace picking up as the year wears on.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-08-26
How newspapers played the findings of the religion census spoke volumes about how loaded headlines can be. Nuance is the last thing they sought to convey. The Pioneer said, unsurprisingly, "Muslim numbers up, Hindus down." Its Hindi paper said the same thing. The Danik Jagran said, "Badhi Muslim hissedari", the percentage of Muslims has increased...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-08-26
The murder allegations against Indrani Mukherjea, founder of 9X Media and wife of former Star TV CEO Peter Mukherjea, gave TV channels their story for the day. And they got lucky. Instead of the usual spectacle of the family involved dodging the media, here were her husband and son talking freely..
Stuck between censors and thugs
IN Censorship | 2015-08-25
Two films on the Muzaffarnagar riots struggle to be seen as the censor board denies certification and right-wing activists disrupt screenings. Protest screenings of one of them are scheduled for today,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-08-24
The Hindu will be launching an edition in Mumbai before the end of the year, a November date has been set. Recruitment of senior people has begun. That should warm the cockles of many a South Indian heart in the city...
IN Media Practice | 2015-08-24
Do media exclusives, based on evidence from the security agencies, run counter to Narendra Modi's insistence on the need for 'secrecy' to get Dawood Ibrahim?
Assam TV lectures women on how to dress
IN Media Practice | 2015-08-21
“Scantily-clad girls are a summer-time nuisance” says an Assam news channel, highlighting the paternalistic approach towards women that has become common.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-08-20
The copy says a "special underground road" and "tunnel". The blurb speaks of a "tunnel". But the headline announces it would be a "special six lane flyover". DNA, there's a vast difference between what's built underground, on ground, and above it. Elementary. ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-08-19
After executive editor Lakshmi Chaudhry who had resigned earlier exited Firstpost last week, the website which is part of the Reliance-owned Network 18 has created the post of editor and appointed BV Rao to it. Rao who was most recently News and Communication Director at Reliance moves in a couple..
IN Opinion | 2015-08-19
With advertisers grabbing the front page for their jacket ads, the sanctity of the front page is vanishing.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-08-19
Is this the new 'face' of Facebook now? The social media network disabled yet another account, this time of a senior journalist and former India Today Managing Editor Dilip Mandal, reportedly over critical comments made against the government, Prime Minister Modi and the RSS. A couple of weeks ago Facebook disabled the accounts of..
IN Media Freedom | 2015-08-19
As the government came under pressure from not only media but also sections of the ruling Awami League, police produced Probir Sikdar in court, where he was granted bail.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-08-17
While show cause notices have gone to Aaj Tak and ABP News for interviews with Chota Shakeel on July 30 and 31 relaying his comments on Yakub Memon's hanging, there has been no such notice issued to IndiaTV for running an audio interview later, (published on Youtube on August 12), in which..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-08-17
Kiran Nagarkar, author of Cuckold, Ravan and Eddie suggests a Fund to hire "big lawyers" to fight "censorship cases" involving books. He had talked about it in Bangalore while launching his Rest in Peace and "people in the auditorium came up to give me money for it". He wishes he had not forgotten to talk about it at its..
A reporter’s chilling hindsight
IN Books | 2015-08-16
Each of these books is stunning for what it reveals, each is an indictment in its own way of this country’s police and investigation system.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-08-15
The ongoing FM radio frequency e-auctions figured in prime minister Narendra Modi’s Independence Day speech. “I came under a lot of pressure. People said to me, Modiji radio is for the poor. There is no income to be had from it. Don’t auction this.” There used to be no income..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-08-14
BS reports that Left party MPs were not amused at the publicity former Aam Aadmi Party leader Yogendra Yadav garnered on news channels for his protest highlighting the woes of farmers. They focused on Yadav, Prashant Bhushan and others when he was arrested on August 11. The MPs wondered why the half..
IN Media Practice | 2015-08-14
The subcontinent’s two biggest states don’t have a single reporter in each other’s countries
National interest trumps media freedom
IN Media Freedom | 2015-08-13
“The day we sink, all this freedom of the press will also sink.” National Security Advisor AJIT DOVAL’s hard talk.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-08-13
The public broadcaster should not carry news which criticises the government? Even when it is by a state chief minister? When did that become the norm? ET reports that officials of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting pulled up the director general of All India Radio for carrying a report on the..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-08-13
The headline in The Times of India says eunuchs "stripped naked", a duo, but the text beneath has something else. First, "paraded them naked", and then, "paraded them in semi-nude condition", there being a vast difference between the two descriptions. The newspaper needs to gets its act together...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-08-11
On August 11 the lead story in the Indian Express said that “as recently as 2013” an unnamed Delhi-based lawyer who is also a Congress leader told his party leadership that Dawood Ibrahim was ready to return to India and face trial. This is confirmed by unnamed top officials of the former UPA government...
IN Media Practice | 2015-08-11
When Prime Minister Modi announced the signing of a Naga accord and described it as 'historic', the media just lapped it without checking for details,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-08-10
The Economic Times has used the same story twice and did it really think nobody would notice? On Saturday it told us that the BJP and Amit Shah were plotting "India's political future", no less, in Patna. A long story followed which talked of the kind of mobilisation, human and technological, taking place..
Kerala scribe joins Al-Qaeda in Syria
IN Media Practice | 2015-08-10
One journalist joins Al Nusra and another wants to join IS.
IN Media Freedom | 2015-08-09
Free speech champions support media freedom even when it errs on the side of excess.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-08-07
NDTV’s Q1 results are very telling, coming on the heels of an upbeat story it put out about its own digital business prospects earlier this week. The TV business is sinking, digital is its future. The company posted a net loss of Rs 24.3 cr in Q1 FY16. Its TV and media business related..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-08-06
When the interrogators of Mohammad Naveed shared a phone number that had he had revealed with a Hindustan Times journalist, they did the state a favour. The resulting phone call to his parents was both a spectacular scoop as well as a propaganda coup for India. ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-08-06
NDTV.com reported with a straight face on the investor funding obtained by NDTV Ltd for its new ecommerce ventures, and in the course of the story said several flattering things about the performance of its sister website NDTVGadgets.com, and the car and bike content on Ndtvauto.com. It added for good..
IN Media Business | 2015-08-06
The Forbes’ list of top actors in terms of income has three Indian stars in it. That’s interesting.
Fired for reporting sexual harassment
IN Media Practice | 2015-08-06
First a channel used intimidation to silence an employee’s complaints of sexual harassment, then it fired her.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-08-05
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamta Banerjee has ordered a CID investigation into the report of the missing journalist from North Bengal's main newspaper Uttarbanga Sangbad. Chayan Sarkar, who received threats after his report of an admission racket, went missing from Aug 2. The Alipurduar and Jalpaiguri Press Club have alleged that he was kidnapped and the local BJP..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-08-05
A sharp eyed reader has pointed out a gaffe in the TOI of August 5--somebody there is unaware that the Speaker of the Lok Sabha changed more than a year ago. ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-08-04
The July 20 article by editor R Jagannathan that riled “upper management” at Firstpost which had it removed from the site, is available here. Gst, Land Bill On Hold: Modi May Have To Rethink Jaitley As Finance Minister. Problematic, doubtless, for an industrial house like Reliance when one of the publications..
Why this blatant cherry picking?
IN Media Practice | 2015-08-04
Saif Ahmad Khan’s article on online Hindutva included comments on Swarajya magazine that twisted the facts to support his theory.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-08-03
According to AFP, Iran has banned a weekly newspaper the '9th Dey Weekly', owned by a critic of its nuclear deal and issued a formal warning to Kayhan daily and the Raja news website for alleged breaches of reporting guidelines...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-08-02
Things are beginning to look somewhat grim for Firstpost on the editorial independence front. First an article written by the editor R Jagannathan talking about Arun Jaitley's performance was unceremoniously pulled from the site a few days after it appeared in July. Here is the tweet about the article. Towards the end..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-08-02
The Hindu reports that the family of Jagendra Singh, the social media journalist alleged burnt to death in Shahjahanpur in June at the behest of an UP government minister, has decided to withdraw murder charges. The police are getting ready to declare the death a suicide says the story. And..
IN Digital Media | 2015-08-01
Want to know the nasty, ugly, pathetic characteristics of a troll?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-08-01
In response to the brief 'Ignorant news anchoring' CNN IBN anchor Ananya Dasgupta responds, "In your column Media Watch Briefs you criticize me as ignorant. The segment in question is called Twitter Deck- reactions of the public on a current issue. I was quoting a tweet that said that UR Ananthamurthy..
The fluctuating fashions of byline use
IN Media Practice | 2015-07-31
To give or not to give a byline is an existential question. The use of bylines has waxed and waned over the years.
IN Censorship | 2015-07-31
No tripods, cameras, books or pens are to be allowed during jail visits, according to new, draconian rules.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-07-31
Sometimes a TV anchor's ignorance grates. On July 31, on CNN IBN anchor Ananya, while reeling out reactions to the FTII students strike, said that a critic had questioned U R Ananthmurthy's appointment as FTII chairman in an earlier term, since he had nothing to do with the world of..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-07-31
The Hindustan Times has a daily fine print disclaimer for its "valued readers" on the bottom of its HT Cafe: "...some of the coverage that appears on our pages is paid for by the concerned brands". But it does not specify which of those "some" are paid for. Helpful confusion..
IN Media Practice | 2015-07-30
The night before Yakub Memon’s execution, the television channels were filled with vituperation.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-07-30
Peeved at the 'spectacle' TV was making of Yakub Memon's hanging, Kiran Bedi gave a tutorial to CNN-IBN's Zakka Jacob on how not to escalate public passions. Stop giving a blow-by-blow account. Take away the cameras and the people would cease gathering near the Nagpur jail. Just announce the hanging..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-07-29
Perhaps to indicate how strongly the paper felt about the death penalty an editorial for The Hindu's July 30 editions was uploaded on its website around 10 pm on Wednesday 29 July. It began,“Judicial finality need not necessarily mean that India should hang Yakub Memon,” and referred to the fresh..
Mumbai 1993 – in three stories
IN Media Practice | 2015-07-29
The Daily in Mumbai with a handful of staff scooped three sensational exclusives related to the blasts.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-07-29
This one takes the cake. The equivalent of an half page ad in the Hindustan Times misquotes Adolf Hitler slightly to pay tribute to "The Missile Man of India":"If you want to shine like a sun then burn like sun." Tagged on to this are the ten key principles given..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-07-28
The passing away of Abdul Kalam was big news because of the kind of president he was. The coverage on television shifted from the Gurdaspur terror attack during peak time on most television channels the moment the story broke from Shillong. It was as if there was no attack, with..
IN Media Practice | 2015-07-28
News of former president Abdul Kalam’s death plunged some television channels into confusion.
IN Opinion | 2015-07-27
Only the Financial Times’ huge digital subscriber base can explain the price Nikkei has paid for it.
Like the curate’s egg: good in parts
IN Books | 2015-07-27
Nalin Mehta’s impressive knowledge of the television industry is evident in his latest book but bias and inconsistencies mar it.
Celebrity events: slim pickings
IN Media Practice | 2015-07-27
Indian reporting on celebrities is striking for its failure to gain access to stars and their special moments.
Between a rock and a hard place
IN Regional Media | 2015-07-27
To be a journalist in Kashmir is to be prey to violence, suspicion, accused of taking sides and having to think of the consequences of every word.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-07-26
Rather unusually, the Indian Express has an advertisement on its Idea Exchange page where newsmakers take questions from the paper~s senior staff. It is from an auto air-conditioning systems company and it simply says "Saluting the Great Visionary." Presumably a reference to the guest at the July 26 Idea Exchange,..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-07-25
The Hindu is reinvigorating its editorial product and wants to do it in full public gaze. On July 25 editor Malini Parthasarathy and her colleagues tweeted away at what they called their “Way Forward conference of The Hindu~s editorial team leaders”, a steady stream of bland tweets on design, writing, supplements and what not...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-07-25
On July 23 Telangana journalists in Hyderabad are reported to have performed a “paalabhishekam” (anointment with milk) of the Chief Minister’s portrait at Telangana Memorial at Gunpark. Reason: KCR has finally given the orders for issuance of health cards to journalists on par with the State government employees, a year after he..
WHEN THE DISH KNOCKED DOWN THE ANTENNA
IN Videos | 2015-07-24
The DTH revolution is sweeping India's villages and the public broadcaster Doordarshan is losing its rural audience to commercial DTH players.
AIADMK files 112 defamation cases
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-07-23
In Tamil Nadu the AIADMK has filed 112 defamation cases against media and political rivals, according to this Mint report from howindialives.com, the search engine for public data in India. The latest is a criminal defamation case against Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Subramanian Swamy for a tweet on the..
IN Media Freedom | 2015-07-23
…the burning question is, why more journalists are being assaulted and murdered? Has the nature of the profession changed, bringing new risks?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-07-22
The Indian Express reports that a BJP MLA from Anupgarh constituency Rajasthan, has been videographed revealing that she sent envelopes containing cash to all journalists in her constituency before the 2013 Assembly polls. The revelation was reportedly made at a recent event that local journalists organised "to honour her for facilitating allotment of plots..
IN Media Business | 2015-07-22
We’ve now been profitable for six of our seven years, but chosen to grow our bottomline, not our topline.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-07-21
According to Amitabh Bachchan he took no money for his endorsement of DD Kisan, and entered into no contract for it but Prasar Bharati has coughed up Rs 6.21 crore to Lintas nevertheless. A bit odd. And Lintas tells the Hindu which had broken the story, that it welcome~s Bachchan~s..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-07-21
Reporting on the clash between the AAP and the police in the Anand Parbat police station area on July 21, the India Today anchor had this to say: "This is not restricted to this area, it is likely to spread to other areas". Did he have foreknowledge of the AAP~s..
IN Media Practice | 2015-07-21
An Economic Times debate on the ills of the IPL failed to frame the right questions and focus on the real issues.
IN Opinion | 2015-07-21
If Jeff Bezos fails to turn the paper around, the death knell will sound for all papers.
IN Media Practice | 2015-07-20
The attack on Babu Ram Chauhan will be treated as another criminal case notwithstanding that he helped remove encroachments on over 17,000 hectare of irrigated land.
Ethical issues in the use of eyewitness material
IN Media Practice | 2015-07-20
The new world of journalism includes the use of raw footage and eyewitness videos but the ethics of attribution lag behind.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-07-19
The Deccan Chronicle ran a story on July 18 which said, "The Andhra Pradesh government’s move to hand over a Rs 70-crore event management contract to a company allegedly belonging to the Times Group under a Swiss Challenge method...has aroused a lot of curiosity and criticism." After giving details of the event it..
Video recording in Calcutta HC
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-07-18
On July 15 a Calcutta High Court judge permitted video recording of court room proceedings, and the advocate who had requested it claimed it was a first. The judge however made it clear that the proceedings recorded "would not form part of the official records of this Court as there..
When a story is a vicious non-story
IN Media Practice | 2015-07-18
Celebrity website Gawker has apologized for its prurient story about top Conde Nast executive David Geithner.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-07-17
Said Arvind Kejriwal to Rajdeep Sardesai in an interview on India Today today: "Our fight is against those who have vitiated the media" in an apparent reference to Mukesh Ambani, who took over CNN-IBN. The Delhi Chief Minister also pointed out that the interview was agreed upon on a condition: Sardesai would..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-07-17
An editor, Shirin Dalvi has sold her jewels, borrowed, and started translating work because she lost her job at Avadhnama, a Mumbai Urdu daily because she published a cartoon from Charlie Hebdo, is facing criminal charges and is doing rounds of the court. Indian Express reports she hasn~t been able to get a job in the ~male-dominated~..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-07-16
Headline in the Hindustan Times: HT Media Q1 revenue rises 5% to Rs 615. Headline in its sister publication Mint:HT Media net profit declines 15.2 % in Q1...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-07-16
Amid the private TV~s ~breaking news madness~, DD News moves with caution. Today, a full 15 minutes after ~PM calls off Varanasi trip due to rains~ ran on other channels, DD showed authorities there speaking of all arrangements, including waterproof enclosure and pumps to evacuate water at the venue. The..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-07-16
It may be the digital age with the Internet of everything, but some media houses have regressed to the Jurassic age. Come July 16, DNA will implement a ~no mobile policy~ in its offices in Mumbai and Thane and employees have been instructed to surrender their phones to the security. The policy (copy with..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-07-16
The paper that has been running a campaign claiming it is for the ~Indian Intelligent~ should not insult the intelligence of those readers. One July 15 the Mumbai edition of the Indian Express had on its Talk page an entire column devoted to a young dancer and researcher who really..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-07-15
IBN-Lokmat Lunch Time newscast ran a story of seven farmers getting their compensation only after they sought permission of authorities to commit suicide. The anchor interviewed one such farmer on phone who said till yesterday no money was credited. Then came the brilliant question, "How did you know it is..
The edit page - A relic of a bygone era?
IN Opinion | 2015-07-15
The edit page has become like nipples on the male chest: decorative but useless.
The BBC’s single source scoop is suspect
IN Media Practice | 2015-07-14
Owen Bennet-Jones stands by his story but the London police deny having on record any confession by a MQM leader about R&AW funding,
The rise and rise of online Hindutva
IN Digital Media | 2015-07-13
Having helped the BJP come to power, online Hindutva is trying to turn public opinion and discourse towards the right.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-07-12
Given the troubles which beset the Deccan Chronicle owners, DC~s sister paper Financial Chronicle has become a low budget operation heavily dependent on wire agency copy. A reader points out that on July 8th it carried a small item on Flipkart which..
IN Opinion | 2015-07-12
With so little research happening in India, it’s no surprise that publications carry too many anniversary stories and reminiscences.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-07-06
The Hindustan Times carried a story on page 9 about the PM's visit to the Central Asian republics today. A box item carried information and fun facts about the five STANs which he is scheduled to visit. The fun fact about Uzbekistan talks about its leader Islam Karimov boiling two..
Poverty and public broadcasting
IN Media Practice | 2015-07-06
If it cannot meet the information needs of the most deprived sections of the population, Prasar Bharati should not be in business,
Information low income viewers do not get
IN Books | 2015-07-06
While entertainment choice is wide, information content is inadequate on both public and private television.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-07-04
On July 3 Hema Malini's injuries figured in newspaper headlines, the child her car killed, did not. Today the papers are making up with reports on the family which lost a child. The actress was rushed to Fortis hospital, but the injured child and her mother were not, says the..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-07-03
A year after former editor in chief Shekhar Gupta’s departure, the Indian Express proprietor Viveck Goenka made expansive speeches to staff at both Mumbai and Delhi about how well the paper was doing, how politicians read it with both trepidation and anticipation,..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-07-03
Freedom First, a monthly from Mumbai to promote liberal thought and the Swatantra Party ideals, founded 64 years ago by Minoo Masani, will close its print edition and continue only online, www.freedomfirst.in. An announcement in its July edition cites "paucity of financial..
Stop the country cousin treatment
IN Media Practice | 2015-07-03
Modi's visit to Dhaka and the Indian cricket debacle forced the media to cover Bangladesh.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-07-03
On July one the story about J&K minister Lal Singh messing with a woman doctor was online everywhere. It was the most commented on story in the Hindu . Yet none of the print-editions of the papers on July 2 (apart from the Indian Express) carried the story or the..
NIE drops Chawla from printline
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-07-02
Prabhu Chawla's name used to appear as Editorial Director of the New Indian Express until the July 1 issue. It is no longer there on July 2. There has been a shake up of the editorial heads. Till yesterday V Sudarshan was billed on the print line as executive editor,..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-07-02
We love the way the Mumbai Press Club does awareness raising for its journalist members. "With an endeavour to spread the message of “Safe and Responsible Driving”, Mumbai Press Club in Association with SKODA India is planning a Monsoon Drive for journalists to Lavasa on 25 & 26th of July, 2015. SKODA India will provide Skoda cars and make necessary arrangements for..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-07-02
BJP spokesperson Nalin Kohli, facing fire from Time Now Editor in Chief Arnab on Lalitgate (July 1), posed a question- "By this yardstick if you are a journalist in Times Now, you cannot have a spouse working in the government". If Kohli thought he would leave this as a rhetorical..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-07-02
Swaraj Kaushal had rejected Lalit Modi's request to be his alternate director on the board of Indofil, and NDTV broke this bit of news on July 1. It became the day's staple from the moment Barkha Dutt anchored this 'breaking news'. And the focal point of all discussion, dragging it..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-07-01
Outlook has earned a legal notice with its highly suggestive gossip item on a junior bureaucrat in CM KC Rao’s office in Telangana. It said what exactly she did there was a puzzle but she wore lovely saris and served as eye candy at meetings. And knew exactly what time..
IN Media Practice | 2015-07-01
ET's story on a possible change in the law on homosexuality was quickly retracted, for no apparent reason.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-07-01
Some 19 months after the media storm over her handling of the rape accusations at Tehelka forced her to quit, Shoma Chaudhury, former editor of Tehelka is back as editor in chief with a new digital property called Catch, promoted by the Rajasthan Patrika group. Former Mail Today editor Bharat Bhushan is editor. The digital..
IN Opinion | 2015-07-01
When the going gets tough, it's time to get in touch with God. That's what the Kerala papers are doing to get readers,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-06-30
In an example of Times Now’s noisy bluster they had a report on June 29 about how the Ministry of External Affairs “stonewalled” their RTI query on the ‘Lalitgate scandal’. An unidentified person on the show pointed out that the questions being..
Attacks in Kashmir - selective indignation?
IN Media Freedom | 2015-06-30
Leading journalist Javid Malik was beaten up in the Valley. Journalists protested. Good.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-06-29
Prominent people linked to Lalit Modi could learn a thing or two about aggressive comebacks from the New Indian Express Editorial Director Prabhu Chawla who last week was named as one of the people who testified in support of Lalit Modi in London three years ago. In his Sunday column..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-06-28
Tunku Varadarajan’s column on Anshu Jain, the former co-CEO of Deutsche Bank, was eyebrow-raising enough when it appeared in the Indian Express two weeks ago. It told old-school-buddy tales and said he was a remarkably good banker who had resigned for the sake of the bank. (No mention of the..
Praful Bidwai: tribute to a scholar journalist
IN Opinion | 2015-06-27
In the age of Wikipedia, Praful was the person you called for things you could not find on the Net, or discover after a Google search.
Anatomy of a journalist's murder
IN Media Practice | 2015-06-27
Was Sandeep Kothari a journalist, a blackmailer as the police and the accused claim, or an RTI activist?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-06-26
Did Sanjay Gandhi really slap his mother at a dinner party? A scroll.in interview by Ajaz Ashraf with the Washington Post correspondent who wrote that story, Lewis M Simons, appears this morning and suggests that the story is true. Coomi Kapoor in her book on the Emergency being launched today..
IN Books | 2015-06-26
In weaving a rich tapestry of facts, vignettes, documents, archival material, and portraits, Coomi Kapoor has produced more than a personal history of the Emergency and its excesses.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-06-26
To columnist Tavleen Singh’s credit, vilified as she has been for her intermittent championing of Narendra Modi, she did come out strongly against her long time friend Vasundara Raje on the NDTV programme on June 24, saying that she ought to quit..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-06-26
Doordarshan’s non-stop glorification of the role those currently in power played during the Emergency has interesting omissions. One is its own role as the government’s handmaiden in rolling out the 20 point programme and the five point programme. The other is that of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and the..
Dirty tricks in the Telugu states
IN Regional Media | 2015-06-25
Chandrababu Naidu is fighting political embarrassment by muzzling the media in two ways: invoking the 'public interest' and misusing the Cable Act.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-06-24
Journalist, commentator and anti-nuclear activist Praful Bidwai, passed away in Amsterdam on the 22nd night. He first became a household name with his commentary in the Times of India. He was the author of several books including Politics of Climate Change and..
Naidu at war with TV news channels
IN Regional Media | 2015-06-24
TV channels are caught in the crossfire when Andhra Pradesh and Telangana fight. But they also make the fur fly because their owners are politicians.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-06-23
``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..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-06-23
The opposition has demanded Vinod Tawde, Maharashtra's Education Minister resign for holding an allegedly 'bogus' degree from an university which does not exist anymore. He has clarified that he read engineering at Dnyaneshwar University though it was unrecognized and mentioned it in his election affidavit. The university was founded in..
Getting into a twist over noodles
IN Opinion | 2015-06-22
The coverage of Nestle's Maggi controversy was massive but unbalanced, with fulsome praise for the brand and irrelevant nostalgia. Its controversial record abroad was ignored.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-06-21
It is the second killing of a journalist this month. After a scribe was set on fire in Shahjehanpur in UP earlier this month, another reporter from Balaghat district in Madhya Pradesh, Sandeep Kothari, was killed and his burnt body was recovered on the..
Media legacies, the Emergency and beyond
IN Media Practice | 2015-06-21
This sort of centralized bullying is hard to comprehend today because there is so much more media.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-06-21
On Sunday morning, India Today TV, tables were turned. Baba Ramdev put Rahul Kanwal, its anchor through yoga postures for about 15 minutes, with abundant praise before a select studio audience at the Taj Palace hotel, including making him bend backwards. Any..
A war photographer's erratic saga
IN Books | 2015-06-20
A Pulitzer prize winning war photographer recounts her experiences in different war zones.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-06-20
The News Minute reports that one of the new appointees to the Press Council, Karnataka BJP MP Pratap Simha, has interesting credentials. On May 7 this year a journalist had lodged a police complaint against him for threatening to "finish him off" after he did a story on Simha's Facebook..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-06-20
Giving his opinion on the Sun TV case the Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi has said that denial of security clearance to the Group's 33 channels amounts to denial of the right to run a TV channel, which is a violation of Article 19(1) of the Constitution. He said it infringes..
IN Law and Policy | 2015-06-19
Justice Katju accuses the CJI of corruption and gets away with it. Why is there silence from the mainstream media on the issue?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-06-19
A reader points out that this TOI front page story on June 18 on the murder of a 2-year-old is a reconstruction by the reporter which cites no source, and states the murder as fact before a charge sheet has been filed and before anything is proven in court. The word..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-06-18
With more people hopping on every day on the yoga bandwagon the media is beginning to follow suit. The Zee group, unsurprisingly, has pressed its empire into service. A press release says that the companies which are lending support to this initiative are Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited, Zee Media Corporation..
Seductions of the Green Saviour
IN Media Practice | 2015-06-18
The British press has found that Greenpeace, besides its entertaining hyperbole, can also be misleadingly indulgent with facts.
No protest marches for Jagendra Singh
IN Media Freedom | 2015-06-17
His horrific death confirms the growing fear that politicians are targeting the local journalists who know what they are up to.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-06-17
On one channel a cocky Lalit Modi is telling Rajdeep Sardesai, when you come to talk to me do your homework. On another Times Now is hollering away about why he didn't talk to them: because Modi wanted a contract under British law before giving the interview and Times Now..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-06-17
Aggressive marketing does not always pay. The Advertising Standards Council of India, has upheld CNBC-TV18’s complaints against the advertising campaign released by ET NOW on May 31. Of ET NOW’s claim - “India’s No. 1 Business Channel,” it said this declaration is misleading by omission on the advertiser’s part and contravenes Chapter I.4..
The art of headlining is in a coma
IN Opinion | 2015-06-16
The fact that 'Headless Body in Topless Bar' remains the ne plus ultra of headlines 32 years later shows how the art is dying.
Contesting the Hoot's Network18 analysis
IN Media Business | 2015-06-16
The data published in The Hoot on the performance of CNBC TV18 after the Reliance takeover was selective and therefore misleading.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-06-16
While Times Now continues to hammer away at the Lalit Modi-Sushma Swaraj story it has also become part of the story. On June 15 Sushma Swaraj's tweet about Navika Kumar, political editor of Times Now-- "Look who is preaching propriety-of all the persons Navika Kumar! "--was doing the rounds. Today..
IN Media Practice | 2015-06-15
When does the vivisection of women's bodies end? Not in death, as a book by two Hollywood morticians shows.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-06-15
The Hindu carried Mukesh Ambani's speech at RIL's AGM in its Saturday edition, headlined Simple, smart, secure Jio which was his view or claim. By not attributing it in the headline, or using inverted commas, the impression given is it is the paper's view. Best avoided, since the Reader's Editor wrote about the publication's..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-06-15
Times Now was going to town on Sunday morning with its “Sunday morning exclusive” (June14) on how the British MP Keith Vaz had helped get Lalit Modi his travel documents and how external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj batted for Lalit Modi. That..
IN Media Business | 2015-06-14
After Reliance took over Network18, how have its TV channels fared as compared with rivals?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-06-14
As reported earlier in this space a journalist is burnt by the police for something he wrote indicting a Samajwadi government minister, and dies of wounds inflicted. Now a ghastly video of the burn victim’s testimony is on the Net here, in..
Policy response to opinion polls
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-06-14
Here is a new one. The polling agency Today’s Chanakya claims that its findings in a Railway Opinion Poll have evoked a response from the railways which announced that Tatkal rules will be changed with effect from Monday July 15. The changes reflect two suggestions made by people surveyed: that..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-06-13
A less superficial knowledge of Hindi by the country's leading English daily, The Times of India, might be in order. An edit page piece, 'The Ballad of Lalu and Nitish,' refers to the upcoming electoral battle in Bihar between the BJP and..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-06-13
The capital's media who cover the Congress beat were so miffed at not being spoon fed by the party about Rahul Gandhi's walkabout with the striking safai karmacharis on Friday, that they en masse boycotted the regular party briefing. Why the inattentive..
IN Media Practice | 2015-06-12
Faced with a critical article about a tender, the Bar Council of India has made threatening noises.
Bold new plans by North East rebels
IN Books | 2015-06-12
Rajeev Bhattacharyya's new book reveals that North East separatists plan to establish their own government in Myanmar, like the Tibetans' in Dharamsala.
IN Media Practice | 2015-06-11
As junior information minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore entered the Times Now studio, the complexion of the war changed.
IN Opinion | 2015-06-11
The editorials rained praise on 'Rambo' for the Myanmar raid. But they tut-tutted over any gloating over the affair,
IN Regional Media | 2015-06-11
The channels in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana have nailed their colours to their antennae over the Reddy bribing scandal
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-06-11
Was the Indian Army's action against NE rebels a 'hot pursuit' or not? A minister said it wasn't because "We contacted Burma authorities before the attack". On the same page in The Times of India, another story is about, Why India did not keep Myanmar in the loop, using unnamed sources to explain that Indian..
IN Media Business | 2015-06-10
In its latest available balance sheet BCCL has written down it's entire investment totalling Rs 514 crores in Times Global Broadcasting which runs Times Now.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-06-09
Did an Ambani group entity give an interest free loan to Prannoy and Radhika Roy and their private holding company RRPR Holding Pvt Ltd. in 2009, which was actually a bailout and takeover in the guise of a loan? Moneylife has published today the details of a loan agreement under..
Journalist dies, minister responsible?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-06-09
Zee News and several other news sites are reporting that a Shahjahanpur-based journalist Jagendra Singh who received serious burn injuries during a police raid on his house on June 1, succumbed to his injuries on Monday night. He is described as a social media journalist who raised questions on his Facebook page about..
Will news wires go the way of cassettes?
IN Media Practice | 2015-06-09
How can news wire services survive the digital revolution, including Facebook's leviathan News Feed?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-06-09
When the I and B ministry wants to take on the Home ministry on the issue of denying security clearance to the Sun TV channels, it seems to need the media’s help. So the Indian Express helpfully reports what the former plans..
Modi's foreign policy triumph?
IN Opinion | 2015-06-09
While The Hindu showed a remarkably precise understanding of the various issues, the Telegraph disappointed. The bhadralok contempt for the bangaal was there for all to see,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-06-08
Focus News did a story on May 8 on the power woes of the people of Muzaffarnagar and said that the supplier Essel Power was not doing a good job of power distribution. It spoke to BJP leader Sushil Modi as well. Unexceptionable you might say, to look at the..
IN Media Business | 2015-06-08
For 22 years the media-politics saga of the Marans and the Sun Network was truly spectacular.
Victory for Kashmir documentary
IN Law and Policy | 2015-06-08
Pankaj Butalia wins the right to screen the Textures of Loss without the Censor Board's cuts.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-06-05
The market regulator SEBI has imposed a fine of Rs 2 crore on NDTV for delayed disclosure of a Rs 450 crore tax demand. SEBI passed the order against NDTV on May 4. The Hindu quoted NDTV as saying that it had not thought the disclosure warranted since “it does..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-06-05
On Wednesday (May 3) Google apologized to PM Narendra Modi for the fact that his image appears in image search results for the query “top 10 criminals in India.” Along with him the search engine was throwing up images of Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt, underworld don Dawood Ibrahim and a..
IN Opinion | 2015-06-05
Unusually, the papers took the same line on the RBI's rate cut. It made for rather dull reading,
IN Media Practice | 2015-06-04
If Indian reporters had followed these tips during the Nepal earthquake, they would not have been reviled.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-06-03
Facebook has been sued by a Sikh separatist group, Sikhs for Justice, in a US court for blocking access in India to its page. Its unclear whether this was a result of a directive from the Indian government to the social networking organisation, but Facebook restricted access in India to 5832 pieces of..
IN Media Practice | 2015-06-03
The BJP's misuse of the media has echoes of Indira Gandhi's Emergency. Yet when out of power, the party is in campaign mode for the autonomy for Prasar Bharati.
Yoga Day: directive or suggestion?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-06-02
First the schools, and then the media. The government is going all to promote International Yoga Day on June 21. Now, a letter has been sent by the ministry of information and broadcasting to all television stations, FM channels and community radio stations that they 'may like to promote International Yoga Day (lYD) by carrying special features..
IN Media Practice | 2015-06-02
A show with Smriti Irani descended into an ugly spectacle, seemingly by design.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-05-31
After the TOI, it was the turn of Business Standard to write about kings we actually don't have. To it, Mysuru's Yaduveer Wodeyar is the "newest king" of Mysore - the name was changed to Mysuru months ago - and he is set to marry "princess" Trishika, daughter of "Prince" Harshvardhan Singh of..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-05-31
Uncle Modi wants you to send him pictures of your summer holiday with the hashtag Incredible India. He is also here to buck you up in case you failed in the exam season. And he wants you to be careful in handling the summer heat. The prime minister’s Mann ki..
Glimpses into the universe of the poor
IN Media Practice | 2015-05-31
On good days, the media gives us insights into the private and endless hell of poor Indians.
Amar Ujala to go public: burying a controversial past?
IN Media Business | 2015-05-31
The decision to go public has come nearly five years after the international hedge fund, D E Shaw, decided to withdraw its investment of Rs 117 crore in Amar Ujala Publications Limited.
Meghalaya High Court gags the press
IN Regional Media | 2015-05-29
An already beleaguered media in this hill-state will lose its freedom after this order.
Mumbai Mirror film critic quits
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-05-29
The Mumbai Mirror film critic Rahul Desai whose rating for the film Tanu Weds Manu Returns was upgraded by the newspaper in response to what the paper claimed was research and viewer feedback, has now quit, he says on his Facebook page. He writes, "It's not always wise to adapt..
The new TV ratings system has drawbacks too
IN Media Business | 2015-05-29
"The problem with BARC is that this measurement system is controlled by those who are being measured."
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-05-28
TS Sudhir of Headlines Today interviewed on Wednesday some senior citizens, including one 80-year-old, on how to beat the current heatwave in Hyderabad. They explained how -- drink fluids, wear a cap if out, stay indoors -- and curiously enough, he did it in the open, the cruel sun shining..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-05-28
If environmental problems are to be solved reporters need to care more about the issue. Piyush Goyal, the Minister for power, coal and new and renewable energy, held a press conference on one year’s performance. He described how the government was fast tracking the LED bulbs rollout, had brought down..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-05-28
The Times of India seems to have forgotten India has been a republic for over six decades. Its headline on May 28 was "Mysuru prepares for next king's coronation". The copy has words like "yuvaraja", "23-year-old king", and also "royal family". Its royalty fixation continued on some web editions with how..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-05-27
From Headlines Today to India Today, with a little help from the PM. Narendra Modi happily posed on the June 1 cover of India Today magazine. Shutterbug Rohit Chawla, known for shooting stars and models, did the honours. He had a grim-looking Modi peeping out of a frame, blow dried and..
Verbum ergo sum - I talk therefore I am
IN Opinion | 2015-05-27
The editorials agreed that Narendra Modi is long on talk and short on delivery.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-05-26
Rich pickings for media houses on May 26. The Indian Express has three full pages from the Tamilnadu government on the achievements of the honorable chief minister, minus her photograph, thanks to a Supreme Court ruling. Competing with her is the prime minister's half-page message on the completion of a year, a..
IN Media Practice | 2015-05-26
Is a PM who sought to sidestep mainstream media slowly discovering that it does not work?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-05-25
This is the thin edge of the wedge for film critics everywhere. The film section of Mumbai Mirror on Monday, 25 May, has issued a small clarification called “RATING REVISED”. On Friday, Mirror’s film critic Rahul Desai had given the newly released film Tanu Weds Manu Returns two and a..
Kerala racism towards migrants
IN Regional Media | 2015-05-24
A debate on a Kerala channel that vented hatred of migrants was an example of the way the media fails migrant workers.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-05-23
On May 22, the ET supplement Panache had a story called “Woo her back”. It was meant for men who had cheated on their partners. "Perhaps it was a one time thing," it begins, helpfully. “But, instead of ending the relationship, all you want to do is make it work...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-05-22
On May 21, all Mumbai newspapers reported on page 1 the NIA charge sheet against Areeb Majeed, the Kalyan boy who went off to join ISIS last year. But when the Indian Express asked Areeb's family his mother contradicted the NIA claim that Areeb had "sneaked into'' India and was..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-05-21
In an Indian Express mailer, the paper calls itself the third most-read news website in the country at 3.8 million unique visitors per month, a distant third after ToI (20.5 million) and NDTV (9.7 million). The Express has marginally more online visitors than the Hindu (3.7 million), and Firstpost which..
Gowns, parties, paparazzi, the red carpet...
IN Media Practice | 2015-05-21
…Oh, and there are films too at Cannes but you would hardly know it judging by the media coverage.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-05-21
A panel discussion on one year of the Modi government conducted while floating on the Ganga? CNBC Awaaz thought up that one, and if the discussion on how much Varanasi was changing thanks to its heavy weight MP was lukewarm, at least the ghats at night were a refreshing change..
The dynasty: inverting news values
IN Media Practice | 2015-05-20
When a headless body turns up in a topless bar or a man bites a dog, it is news. In India, it is news if Rahul and Sonia Gandhi speak.
Modi went, Modi saw, Modi did not conquer
IN Opinion | 2015-05-20
Perhaps the Hindu's decision is the correct one: why write an edit when absolutely nothing has happened?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-05-19
Why do English news channels call non-English-speaking ordinary folk to their shows at all? On May 18, NDTV's Ankita Mukherjee conducted a discussion (Left, Right and Centre) on Mumbai nurse Aruna Shanbaug's death. Aruna's colleagues had looked after her all these years so it was fitting that one of them..
IN Media Practice | 2015-05-18
Unobtrusively, the Modi government has taken many controversial decisions which merit more attention than they have received.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-05-18
Busy ministers have to be innovative to get maximum mileage in maximum media. Piyush Goyal, MoS with independent charge for Power, Coal & Renewable Energy, needed to oblige the financial papers with 'one year report card' interviews. So he flew with a bunch of journos to Kolkata where he had..
The 'first draft' of history: where is it?
IN Digital Media | 2015-05-16
In the newspapers, of course. But since so few newspapers have digitised their archives, it is not available to us. India is still in the pre-digital era,
IN Media Practice | 2015-05-15
How does one make sense of the Official Secrets Act in the Age of the Right to Information?
Predictable squawks over 'Amma' verdict
IN Opinion | 2015-05-13
The Pioneer whose BJP orientation made it look for the political benefits, did not bother to hide its joy at what this would mean for the NDA government.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-05-13
HT in Mumbai says the editor of a city-based Hindi newspaper was arrested for allegedly molesting a sub-editor working there. "The complainant told the police that the accused would often touch her inappropriately in the office. The woman approached the management, but to no avail. She was then fired from..
IN Media Business | 2015-05-12
The Times of India and the Hindustan Times have been slugging it out through fiesty ads, accusing each other of inflating circulation figures.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-05-11
According to a recent TRAI report, 140 channels—39 news and 101 non-news—are currently not complying with the 12-minutes per hour ad cap regulation. The TRAI report is based on the average duration per hour of advertisements—both commercial and self-promotional—on TV channels during peak hours (i.e. 7–10 pm) between 23 February..
CR stations in Nepal struggle to restore broadcasting
IN Community Media | 2015-05-11
108 community radio stations in approximately 30 districts have been affected. But Gorkha FM is one of the first to be back on air in the quake affected areas,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-05-10
Running a government seems to trigger an allergy to the media. After the BJP government’s criticism of the media reporting on various issues, the AAP government in Delhi has asked all its officials to lodge a complaint with the principal secretary (Home)..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-05-09
If you don't know that achche din are already here as promised a year ago, you are watching the wrong channels. Just stay with DD News. You will know that the Naxals are being banished from Dantewada with good governance initiatives such as an education city, social security schemes related..
Fabricating stories against the AAP
IN Media Practice | 2015-05-09
With its ludicrous nonsense about the AAP's Kumar Vishwas' 'love affair', the media sank to new depths.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-05-07
The Indian Express’s May 4 page 1 anchor was one helluva story: the public broadcaster sanctions a 128 episode serial on the prime minister’s community, scheduled to run for ten years? And the PM’s brother is there at the muhurat? Except that..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-05-07
Shailaja Bajpai underscored in the Indian Express the news TV's Salman Khan obsession but the print media was not far behind. In Mumbai the Hindustan Times had as many as 15 stories, apart from graphics and boxed quotes galore. Times of India..
NDTV: Practising what it preaches?
IN Media Practice | 2015-05-07
In its latest promos, NDTV decries tabloid journalism and positions itself as different.
Decriminalise defamation: Rahul
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-05-07
Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi, fighting a defamation case for his utterances on the RSS involvement in the killing of Mahatma Gandhi has intervened in the Subramaniam Swamy petition seeking decriminalising of defamation. The provisions are antiquated and have a chilling effect on free speech, his petition said. Interestingly, in 1988,..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-05-06
The business press can’t have enough of e-commerce related gee-whiz stories. So on April 30 The Economic Times carried a small bylined story on page 6 on the digital payments provider Pay-U getting ready to spend Rs 60 crore in the next few weeks on branding and marketing. Essentially the..
Dimapur lynching: a travesty of reporting
IN Media Practice | 2015-05-06
The way Nagaland's English newspapers covered the events leading up to, and including, the lynching of an 'illegal Bangladeshi immigrant' suggests that they were complicit in the hatred mongering.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-05-05
So The Hindu reports what's so off the record. And says it was off the record. "So much so that an official at the Indian Embassy, speaking off the record, had told The Hindu last Wednesday that the Army had decided not to take any more journalists on the expeditions". The..
IN Media Practice | 2015-05-05
Nepali outrage over what many see as crass, insensitive and self-glorifying coverage by the Indian media has erupted on Twitter.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-05-04
On 3 May, #GoHomeIndianMedia became one of the top trending hashtags on Twitter. Apparently this began after Sunita Shakya, a non-resident Nepali, wrote a blog post for CNN on 1 May called “Letter To Indian Media” pointing out Indian TV channels’ insensitive reporting from Nepal in the aftermath of the..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-05-03
At the end of a year in power do this PM and his ministers trust the media more than before? From what the Hoot can gather from reliable sources, only a few elements within it and print editors more than TV ones...
Courts bat for press freedom on defamation
IN Media Freedom | 2015-05-03
By and large, the courts have backed journalists against charges of criminal defamation by government and public figures over the past year. A World Press Freedom Day special.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-05-03
The Syedna of the Dawoodi Bohras appears in public only on religious/ceremonial occasions, with frenzied followers at a worshipful distance. So when a claimant to the Syedna’s post, Khuzaima Qutbuddin, appeared in court over two consecutive days, and was cross-examined in the witness’ chair, every English newspaper in Mumbai reported..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-05-03
Some 7,500 journalists from across the new state met on April 19 in Hyderabad to set up the Telangana State Union of Working Journalists. It was billed as the biggest ever congregation of working journalists in the history of independent India. They pledged to become "vigilant sentinels of the freedom..
IN Opinion | 2015-05-02
A series on TV journalism, Reporters, fails miserably.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-05-01
Apropos the woman journalist from a Marathi TV channel being asked to vacate a front row at a function in Mumbai (see Hoot brief below), the organizers claim they treat men and women equally but had merely "instructed to devise separate seating..
Chronicle of a death replayed endlessly
IN Media Practice | 2015-05-01
The media coverage of Gajendra Singh's suicide raises issues of ethics and sensitivity.
Mamata triumphs, Telegraph carps
IN Opinion | 2015-04-30
The editorials focused on the BJP's failure to emerge in second place.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-04-30
A woman journalist from a Marathi television channel was told to get up from the front-row seat she occupied at a function organised by the Swaminarayan Temple in Dadar, Mumbai to felicitate Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Phadnavis for bringing in a ban on beef in the state. The journalist was..
Why more Dalits don't opt for journalism
IN Media Practice | 2015-04-29
Allegations of casteism arose when a Dalit journalist died of cancer. But is Dalit employment in media a more complex issue?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-04-29
On 28 April, the Supreme Court directed all state governments to appoint an officer within four weeks to conduct a survey on the implementation of Majitha Wage Board Award and asked for a report to be filed before it within three months. All the 42 contempt petitions have been kept..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-04-28
Earthquake-hit Nepal's Foreign Minister, Mahendra Bahadur Pandey, has said that they "have divided areas between India and China" in conducting relief operations. But where are the reports, in print and TV, about the Chinese involvement, its extent, speed and quality of the work? China's competitive interest in the region is..
The media's short shrift to Dalits
IN Opinion | 2015-04-28
The media have no excuse for their unpardonable indifference towards crimes against Dalits.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-04-27
Nobody has ever said earthquakes can be, or have been predicted. And yet, when worries of aftershocks prevail, the Times of India on Monday ran this scary headline: VERY SEVERE QUAKES LIKELY TO OCCUR ANYTIME across 8 columns on page 9 of its Mumbai edition. The story quoted an official..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-04-27
Indian TV reporters have landed in large numbers in Kathmandu and fanned out across Nepal. While their presence is welcome to bring to the public the extent of the damage, the competition between the channels, is resulting in some shrill coverage. On day two after a biggish after-shock some of..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-04-27
Sitaram Kunte, Mumbai's civic chief's term ends on April 30, four days away, and his successor, Ajay Mehta, another IAS official has been named. Simply because the Mumbai Development Plan ran foul of the citizens and the chief minister for its innumerable errors, did it mean Kunte was removed, as..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-04-26
Internal records of the Indira Gandhi International Airport record under the category “restoration of property” an incident on March 30 when a passenger left an envelope containing cash at a check-in counter by mistake. It disappeared. On his complaint airport security scanned..
IN Media Practice | 2015-04-25
As every party shamelessly exploited Gajendra Singh's suicide for their own ends, AAP's spokesman Ashutosh outdid them all with his studio tears.
Laziness, malice and axes to grind
IN Media Practice | 2015-04-25
Given the arrant nonsense that passes for news these days, perhaps the very word needs to be redefined.
AAP bats for working journalists!
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-04-23
The Delhi government has appointed a special officer to oversee the implementation of the Majithia Wage Board for newspaper employees. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Deputy CM Manish Sisodia told a delegation of the Majithia Wage Board Implementation Sangarsh Samiti that the Labour department will submit a report into the..
IN Opinion | 2015-04-23
For his simplistic stand on issues, some editorials ripped apart Rahul Gandhi's Enid Blyton approach to politics.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-04-22
Al Jazeera is the latest channel to be penalised by the Indian government with a short-term broadcasting ban. It has been forced to go off the air till April 27, for showing an incorrect map of India on different occasions. The offence..
Net neutrality: shrill voices, zero-rating and revenue envy
IN Digital Media | 2015-04-22
TRAI has muddied the waters by appearing to favour the arguments of the telecom service providers in its consultation paper
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-04-22
Newspapers are struggling to manage costs, and shifting to cheaper offices in the process. The Indian Express recently moved to Noida from Delhi's Fleet Street, Bahadurshah Zafar Marg. Next week it will be the turn of the Hindu, which plans to move to Milap Bhavan on Bahadurshah Zafar Marg from PTI..
IN Opinion | 2015-04-21
Sitaram Yechury's election as general secretary of the CPI(M) revives an old angst at the South v East divide in the party.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-04-21
The BJP governments in the states are more enamoured of journalists than the ruling politicians at the Centre. On Sunday even as the prime minister was turning on the media, CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan in Madhya Pradesh was giving away three different awards to various journalists from Delhi and from..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-04-20
If you are feeling the heat, turn on the media. On Sunday the PM charmingly defended minister V K Singh, author of the presstitutes remark, and slammed the media for failing to highlight the government's good work. On Monday, during the debate in the Lok Sabha on the agrarian crises in..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-04-20
Media, both print and TV, do like sexing up events. For instance, Headlines Today's Gaurav Sawant said Rahul Gandhi "will aggressively" lead on the land issue even before he had spoken at the rally. The same channel later, with Rajdeep Sardesai anchoring the midday show, debunked Rahul's speech. Today, Badshah..
The tale of a dalit journalist
IN Opinion | 2015-04-20
Nagaraju Koppula overcame impossible hurdles to become an English language journalist.
Can free speech be stretched horizontally?
IN Law and Policy | 2015-04-19
The fracas over the publication of an e-zine by students of St Stephen's College tests the elasticity of freedom of speech.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-04-19
At least 18 news channels may have been showing the Congress rally live on Sunday morning but Doordarshan's DD News found the PM's address to BJP MPs at a workshop in New Delhi more newsworthy. It spent more news time on this. Are opposition parties not entitled to live coverage..
IN Opinion | 2015-04-19
What can you say about the new Janata combine? Not a lot. And that's what the editorials did, as
Airtel is for Net Neutrality too!
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-04-18
Stung by the unprecedented support for the campaign on net neutrality and against the TRAI consultation, Airtel has come out with an email to its subscribers telling them it is in favour of net neutrality! Airtel Zero, the letter says, only charges application developers, content providers and internet sites that..
Of the people, and for the people
IN Regional Media | 2015-04-18
The mouthpiece of the people in Golaghat district in Assam, the weekly Saptahik Dhansiri has just turned 35.
IN Media Practice | 2015-04-18
Outlook's cover story on Smriti Irani was based entirely on anonymous sources.
Can free speech be stretched horizontally?
IN Censorship | 2015-04-17
The fracas over the publication of an e-zine by students of St Stephen's College tests the elasticity of freedom of speech.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-04-17
Following Subramaniam Swamy's lead, Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal has also moved the Supreme Court to challenge the constitutional validity of the penal provisions of criminal defamation. He too faces cases under these. Now if Rahul Gandhi, accused of defamation by the RSS would also pitch in to fight..
TRAI goes off at a tangent on net neutrality
IN Media Practice | 2015-04-17
For internet freedom activists, the TRAI consultation paper is trying to smuggle in controls that will deepen the digital divide.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-04-17
In a discussion on Rahul Gandhi's return to India after his sabbatical, Arnab Goswami with a smirk on his face asked the Congress spokesperson, "Is your leader well?" He repeated it three times: "Is your leader's health okay?" Let us even grant for a moment that that the basis of..
Bluster replaces investigation
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-04-17
Thursday night saw Arnab Goswami asking on his Newshour if the secrecy around Rahul Gandhi's vacation for introspection wasn't like the "KGB-style secrecy". But the point is, it is being asked after he returned earlier in the day. We don't know if Times Now deployed all its resources to locate..
IN Media Practice | 2015-04-16
The Vogue My Choice video starring Deepika Padukone makes gender equality look deceptively easy.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-04-15
The politics around the B R Ambedkar anniversary makes news: on April 15 several papers had stories on the RSS and Congress competing to celebrate him in order to claim the Dalit vote. But atrocities against Dalits which continue to happen claim far less attention. A February 18th incident of..
The law that muzzles free speech
IN Law and Policy | 2015-04-15
Imagine this: Rahul Gandhi, accused of defaming the RSS, joins forces with sworn enemy Subramanian Swamy to overturn the criminal defamation law.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-04-14
Guessing who among Narayan Rane of Congress, Trupti Sawant of Shiv Sena, and Siraj Khan of AIMIM would win the Bandra East Assembly seat is difficult, and Sakal newspaper said so in its April 14 edition and printed stories with these headlines (roughly translated from Marathi), all on one single..
IN Media Practice | 2015-04-13
General V. K. Singh lashed out at the media last week.
The death of a fine journalist
IN Media Practice | 2015-04-13
Ram Prakash Meel was honest, well-informed, and could not be bought.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-04-10
Gushing tweets about an editor? Thats new for prime minister Modi. After his interview with the editor of the Hindustan Times he tweeted : "Quite the multitasker ‪@sanjoynarayan is having breakfast, asking Qs, listening, thinking, recording & taking photos with his small..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-04-10
Watching Times Now on Wednesday night April 9) was like witnessing the theatre of the absurd..the entire programme was about what the word 'presstitute' meant. Shekhar Gupta said, "we journos are used to being given gaalis..the more gaalis the politicians give, the more credible we are.." Then he went on..
On, off, on....a Press Club for Kashmir
IN Regional Media | 2015-04-10
Jammu has a press club, Srinagar does not. And the Srinagar building that Kashmiri journalists had hoped would be turned into a press club has gone to a government department.
Let's decriminalize defamation
IN Law and Policy | 2015-04-10
The latest attempt to bring this about is welcome because this law constitutes an unreasonable restriction on free speech.
DEITY says 2341 URLs were blocked in 2014; refuses to reveal more
IN Media Freedom | 2015-04-09
The government's refusal to share information on blocking of online content renders legislative safeguards ineffective.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-04-09
Le Monde, France's leading daily, has refused to run an interview with Prime Minister Narendra Modi because they were told to settle for written answers. A tweet from the paper's South Asia Correspondent Julian Bouissou says that they couldn't interact with him...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-04-08
Look who's holding forth against the law criminalising defamation? In its 'Times View' on the Supreme Court decision to review the constitutional validity of Sec 499 and 500 of the Indian Penal Code, the Times of India says criminal defamation must go and that it is a tool to harass..
Jests and literalism on Twitter
IN Digital Media | 2015-04-08
General V. K. Singh's Twitter joke against the media over the Yemen rescue mission triggered a literal reaction from Times Now.
The Sunday Indian in the dock again
IN Law and Policy | 2015-04-08
The Tata Group's case of criminal defamation against the magazine has been re-opened after seven years.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-04-08
Television anchors speak a lot more than guests on their shows, and some don't even let them. Ravish Kumar's Primetime on NDTV India, where guests wait their turn, popped a surprise on Monday. After his 3-4 minute preamble on stings and revelations, he mentioned Snowden and told the audience to..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-04-07
Times Now has once again been attacked on Twitter. This time it was after the news channel charged MoS External Affairs Gen. V. K. Singh of mocking stranded Indians in Yemen for his comment “Yemen operation is not as exciting as Pakistan embassy visit” and tweeted Singh’s statement with the..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-04-06
On 5 April, Praveen Togadia, the International Working President of the Vishva Hindu Parishad, held a press conference in which he blamed the West Bengal government for muzzling his freedom of speech. This came after he was prohibited from addressing a rally in North Dinajpur district by the Mamata Banerjee government..
Zee Media vs. Positiv Television: The Mahabharata of defamation
IN Media Business | 2015-04-06
Since 2012, there have been four more lawsuits and three judgements. The scale of this litigation and the sordid facts reveal a new dimension to the escalating war between Naveen Jindal and Subhash Chandra,
Twitter and Swaraj to the rescue in Yemen
IN Digital Media | 2015-04-04
Indians stranded in Yemen were using Twitter to reach out directly to Sushma Swaraj. Who in turn responded to their Twitter handles.
Christian persecution: fact or fiction?
IN Media Practice | 2015-04-03
By selectively focusing on violent incidents in Churches, the media has created a Christians-under-siege narrative.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-04-03
Maharshtrians take pride in their linguistic identity, which explains the rise of the Shiv Sena. That's why when an IAS officer of Maharashtra cadre, and a Maharashtrian, Dr Shrikar Pardeshi is the "first" officer to be appointed to a post in the PMO, it becomes "a historic development" for Pune..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-04-02
DNA editor CP Surendran told an edit meeting on April 1 that he had been asked to quit. It is believed that he was asked to quit as part of a general change of guard at DNA. The new CEO is Uday Nirgurkar, formerly editor-cum-business head of the Marathi news..
IN Media Practice | 2015-04-02
Deepika Padukone's Vogue video, My Choice, has provoked some surprising vitriol on social media.
IN Media Practice | 2015-04-02
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 | 2015-04-02
This Firstpost piece says Giriraj Singh had asked phones and cameras be switched off for an "informal of-the-record" conversation" before he made the had-Sonia-been-a-Nigerian remark. Don't sting me, he had also warned. But in these days of multiple recording devices, does something called 'off the record' have any meaning? ..
Restricting reporting on Salman
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-03-31
Defence lawyers in the hit-and-run trial against actor Salman Khan have issued a statement to media houses citing a July 24, 2013, interim court order asking for a restriction on the reportage of the case. On March 27, 2015, another application was filed by Salman Khan's lawyers restraining the media..
IN Opinion | 2015-03-31
The tumult in the Aam Aadmi Party dominated the editorial pages.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-03-30
On March 29 Al Jazeera had a ten-minute coverage on The Indian media's rural blind spot: it contained figures from small surveys, such as the monthly coverage of rural India on the first page of Hindi and English papers (1.4 % for Hindu in Dec. 2014; zero for rest) and..
The long fight for low power FM in the US
IN Community Media | 2015-03-29
In India people don't have as much free time to do something like voluntarism and there's more of a culture around radio being a very serious business. It's not something fun,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-03-27
Today was India Today’s turn to get castigated on social media (#ShameOnIndiaToday) – and deservedly so: this was after the magazine’s website posted a video with caption “Deepika or Kim Kardashian who’s your choice for a one night stand”. India Today took down the article and offered an apology, “Dear..
Arnab Goswami, a bit of balance please
IN Media Practice | 2015-03-27
His big, brash cocktail of news and views packs a punch and he highlights issues other channels ignore, but Goswami's Newshour can do with some nuance.
IN Media Practice | 2015-03-27
Arnab Goswami's diatribe against the Indian cricket team led to a Twitter backlash.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-03-26
Soon after India lost to Australia in the World Cup today, Headlines Today showed images of people lined up somewhere in India with one among them throwing down a television set in presumed disgust. Rajdeep Sardesai even wondered "if they were second-hand" because the cameras were around. A similar thing..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-03-26
In the good old days most parties including the Congress, had just one spokesperson, like V. N. Gadgil, and they had a full briefing on policy from a boss, like Indira Gandhi. On 24 March, the Congress announced a revamped communication team, probably in preparation for Rahul’s anointment as the..
Poor ethics not just an Indian problem
IN Media Practice | 2015-03-26
Shady practices blight the media not just in India but in many other countries, says a new study.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-03-25
As newspaper bloomers go, this should take the cake! A photograph of India's NSA Ajit Doval shaking hands with the Chinese state councillor Yang Jiechi during the 18th round of talks of the Special Representatives appeared in Tuesday's Hindustan Times (Mumbai edition) with this caption: One of the convicts in..
IN Law and Policy | 2015-03-25
In an impressive judgement, the Supreme Court has protected free speech by striking down Section 66A of the IT Act.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-03-25
In most cases, the first-off information about a court proceeding or an order comes from the lawyer. Now, after this, how much should the media believe them?..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-03-25
The Bangalore Mirror on March 24 said in its lead story that the "state government on Monday made a sensational claim in the High Court giving credence to news reports that deceased IAS officer DK Ravi wanted to get into a relationship with a woman IAS officer". But the news..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-03-25
According to The Hindu Gen VK Singh had been "nominated as government representative earlier" to attend the Pakistan National Day. The Economic Times says the PMO decided to send a representative "at the last minute". What is the real story?..
What next for the section 66A cases?
IN Law and Policy | 2015-03-24
For a law that was just barely four years old, it was an extraordinary unleashing of police powers against a range of ordinary users of the Internet.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-03-24
Who shot the picture of India's sons and daughters cheating in exams? The photo of relatives of Class 10 students helping their wards with cheat sheets went viral and became part of contested national pride but photographer Rajesh Kumar is living, and..
Sec 66 (A) is unconstitutional!
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-03-24
The Supreme Court has read down the rules on the draconian Sec 66(A) of the Information Technology Act. Justices J Chelameswar and R F Nariman have struck down the rules on the amended act and said content will be taken down only after a court order. ..
IN Media Freedom | 2015-03-22
The democratic set-up has opposition, but when it comes to dissent, democracy and dictatorships equally dislike them. Dissent revives, in a way, when space shrinks.
Masarat Alam's release: different tunes
IN Media Practice | 2015-03-21
The tone of the edits of most Delhi papers evoked nationalism, while the dailies published from J&K had a remarkably different pro-Sayeed, anti-Centre tone.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-03-21
Ujwal Nikam, a special prosecutor with many convictions including Pakistani terrorist Ajmal Kasab's, told ToI this week that he had feared "an emotional atmosphere" in the undertrial's support outside the court and decided to "fool" the media. Because, when Kasab bent his head and wiped his tears, the media went..
Can guidelines prevent misuse of bad laws?
IN Media Freedom | 2015-03-20
Guidelines for Sec 66 A of the IT Act and now, for sedition, are scant protection.
Can guidelines prevent misuse of bad laws?
IN Media Freedom | 2015-03-20
As two recent incidents show, guidelines for Sec 66 A of the IT Act and now, for sedition, are scant protection.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-03-19
A university for mass communication named after a Congress CM, started by a subsequent Congress CM, has run into trouble with the BJP government. The trouble began last June for a university in Jaipur named after Haridev Joshi, begun by Ashok Gehlot. The Vasundhara Raje government has now announced that it..
IN Opinion | 2015-03-19
Computers have begun writing reports and data analysis for news organisations.
Mere criticism is not seditious: Bombay High Court on Aseem Trivedi's cartoons
IN Media Freedom | 2015-03-18
Freedom of speech cannot be encroached upon if there is no incitement to violence or intention of disrupting public order, says the judgement.
IN Media Practice | 2015-03-18
The media has plunged into infamy in recent years because of paid news at election time and journalists working as the paid agents of corporations.
Mere criticism is not seditious: Bombay High Court on Aseem Trivedi's cartoons
IN Law and Policy | 2015-03-18
Freedom of speech cannot be encroached upon if there is no incitement to violence or intention of disrupting public order, says the judgement.
Pulling their punches on Manmohan Singh
IN Opinion | 2015-03-17
Among the editorials on the former PM's arraignment, two newspapers chose to keep totally mum.
Snooping on media in Lok Sabha?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-03-17
On March 16, the Delhi Union of Journalists condemned the government’s move to post security personnel in the Lok Sabha Press Gallery. This, it said, was "tantamount to snooping on journalists and interfering in their professional duties." It added that the checks and curbs on journalists have increased in the..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-03-17
Kasturi & Sons Ltd., publishers of The Hindu, have announced a voluntary retirement scheme for their employees, for the first time in the company's 136-year history. Their statement said it was part of an ongoing organisation-wide restructuring focused on turning around the performance of the company: "Employees opting to apply..
None of Jaitley's arguments stand scrutiny
IN Law and Policy | 2015-03-17
While in London, Arun Jaitley defended the ban on 'India's Daughter'.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-03-15
On March 11, more than 20,000 people from all over Maharashtra walked from Byculla to Azad Maidan in Mumbai to protest against the killing of the veteran communist leader Mr Govind Pansare (and of Dr Narendra Dabholkar earlier) by unknown assailants last month. After a very long time, the city..
IN Opinion | 2015-03-14
The anecdotes about Vinod Mehta are legion. But for a vivid portrait of what it was like to work with him,
Delhi High Court bats for free speech
IN Media Freedom | 2015-03-13
Its judgement on Greenpeace amounts to a judicial whipping of the government's position. But its ruling on the AAP poster issue is odd,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-03-13
Mohamed Asif, a former Congress Delhi MLA, has disclosed that AAP offered him a cabinet berth to tie-up with the latter "at the residence of a senior journalist in Noida who was acting as a go-between". He had held back so far because he "didn't want to put him in..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-03-13
Dainik Jagran, which calls itself the world's largest-read daily, is facing an internal revolt from some of its employees on the issue of wages. On 7 February 2014, the Supreme Court passed a judgement upholding the Majithia recommendations, and directed that all journalists and non-journalists be paid arrears starting from..
Media trials do influence judges!
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-03-12
Incredibly, that's what Justices B. D. Ahmed and Sanjeev Sachdeva of the Delhi High Court admitted, albeit as an observation, when hearing a petition challenging the ban on controversial documentary India's Daughter. According to reports, the judges, who said they were prima facie opposed to a ban, nevertheless felt that..
IN Media Practice | 2015-03-11
Films like 'India's Daughter' need to be shown, just as Uganda faced up to the truth of the AIDS crisis in the '90s.
Budget analysis in the Hindi press
IN Regional Media | 2015-03-11
The Hindi press struck a positive note on the Budget, shunning strong ideological positions.
IN Media Practice | 2015-03-10
Since 2012, the media, perhaps out of good intentions, have over-sensationalised rape as though it is peculiar to Indian men.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-03-10
On 27 February, a Calcutta High Court judgement struck down the TMC government’s decision of not giving ads to the Bengali daily Ganashakti. The government had alleged that the paper was a CPI(M) mouthpiece, saying giving advertisements to it “would amount to funding a political party.” The judgement said, “the..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-03-10
The latest in the India's Daughter controversy is the statement from Anjali Bhushan, who was Leslee Udwin's collaborator on the controversial film, about how the latter terminated her agreement for pointing out ethical issues in the making of the film. Curiously, the Hindustan Times, which carried the statement, took it..
The flaws in 'India's Daughter'
IN Media Practice | 2015-03-09
The voice of the rapist dominates the film rather than that of the victim.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-03-09
Niti Central, the website which describes itself as "bold and right", has put forth an analysis on why rape in India is getting so much international coverage. Why does a rape in a cab in Delhi make it all the way to the New York Times? Particularly since in terms..
Dhaka media controversy: enraged by a picture
IN Media Freedom | 2015-03-09
A picture of an Islamist in a Dhaka paper has aroused the anger of the Prime Minister.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-03-08
For a man who gleefully described himself as a pseudo secularist, Vinod Mehta would have been chuffed to see the eminences across the ideological spectrum who turned up at his funeral. L K Advani, Arun Jaitley and Ravi Shankar Prasad and other..
IN Opinion | 2015-03-08
He could, and did, stand up against the might of the richest industrialist, the most powerful politician and the highly influential bureaucrat to uphold journalistic ethics and media freedom, like few before him.
Can't sack TV reporter for pregnancy
IN Media Practice | 2015-03-08
In time for International Women's Day comes news that will bring cheer to women working in the broadcast media in India.
IN Media Practice | 2015-03-07
The ban on 'India's Daughter' is unjustified. It breaks no law and is a criticism of India rather than a defamation,
IN Media Practice | 2015-03-07
Were the angry protests over 'India's Daughter' really the best way to handle an undoubtedly patronizing film?
IN Opinion | 2015-03-05
For once, the leaders captured the historic significance of the new PDP-BJP regime in Jammu & Kashmir.
IN Media Practice | 2015-03-05
After letting ISIS hog the public imagination with their monstrous beheadings, people are hitting back with spoofs.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-03-05
Every major English paper today -- ToI, HT, Express, Hindu, Telegraph -- has an edit, arguing against the banning of the documentary film India's Daughter, based on the December 16 gang rape. Pioneer does not have an edit. Meanwhile, not only did the BBC go ahead and air it on..
Leslee Udwin no, Honey Singh yes
IN Opinion | 2015-03-05
Since there is so much outrage over a film which is documenting reality, why is there none over the entertainment industry's contribution to misogyny,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-03-04
The Hindustan Times yesterday carried a "big story" about how cricketer Virat Kohli abused a HT journalist at Perth, mistaking him for another journalist who had recently written about his relationship with an actress. The readers' comments on HT's website as well as its Twitter and Facebook pages, however, seemed..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-03-04
Sunil Mittal of Airtel has been extensively reported in newspapers from Barcelona, commenting on the imminent spectrum auction. The Economic Times had both a front-page story and a half-page Q&A with him inside; Rediff, PTI, and the Times of India also had stories. Only the Hindu Business Line revealed how the correspondents got..
IN Opinion | 2015-03-03
With a few exceptions, the editorials lavished praise on Arun Jaitley's budget.
Has this government really clammed up?
IN Special Reports | 2015-03-03
Did reporting government just get harder under the NDA? No access to cabinet notes, no leaky babudom, beat ministers not talking, lobbyists banished from corridors of power.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-03-02
The bonus in the bad press that former IPCC chief R K Pachauri has been getting over the sexual harassment charge against him is that lazy journalists have elevated him to the status of a Nobel laureate. Several media outlets made this mistake. It was the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on..
IN Media Freedom | 2015-03-01
Two men butchered Avijit Roy on a busy Dhaka street last week and severely injured his wife Rafida Ahmed. He paid for being a freethinker with his life,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-02-28
The difference between the Radia tapes and the Essar emails is that this time around the disclosures are being reported with alacrity. Last time it took a day or more for the mainstream media to start acknowledging the revelations. The PIL affidavit on Essar mentions seven journalists in different contexts,..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-02-28
There was a brief war of words between CPI (M) politician Brinda Karat and BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra on NDTV 24x7, which has been telecasting its coverage on Budget 2015 from the premises of CII in Delhi, where the budget has generally got positive reviews. Karat talked about reduction of..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-02-28
Times Now had a duet going in praise of the Jaitley budget, featuring M J Akbar and Arnab Goswami. "We are calling it a breakthrough super budget," said the anchor as a hashtag along those lines kept flashing. Even Doordarshan had a more muted "Budget of Hope" tag. Akbar was..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-02-27
Is the Lok Sabha TV channel now being run by the information and broadcasting ministry? Yesterday LSTV recorded an interview with the railway minister, and the channel staff were bemused to find that the feed went out without the LSTV logo on..
IN Media Practice | 2015-02-27
A Kerala government enquiry has pointed to instances which smack of ads for coverage in the paper, and another report of a finance inspection wing has questioned the manner in which it was given advertising.
IN Opinion | 2015-02-27
Why are some topics ignored in edits? Why does science rarely feature?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-02-27
A new Marathi daily, Mi Marathi LIVE, was launched last night amid much fanfare in Mumbai. Its owners are the same as those of the TV news channel, Mi Marathi. Given the traditional reluctance of newspapers to carry advertisements announcing new rivals, it had adopted a strategy -- a four-page..
Jagran's report card for Rahul
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-02-25
Adding to the flurry of comments about Rahul Gandhi's vacation, Dainik Jagran on Feb. 25 went a step further and produced a career “report card” which asked whether Gandhi's performance inside the parliament or outside had been substantial enough that his break should evoke such a hue and cry. He..
IN Media Freedom | 2015-02-25
After banning two TV channels eight months ago, the Telangana chief minister has ordered journalists to get out of the Secretariat.
IN Opinion | 2015-02-25
News of Rahul Gandhi's 'break' triggered understandable mirth and mockery.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-02-25
Today's Economic Times (Feb. 25) has a report on page 13 on Central support for eight schemes coming to an end. It says this is "in line with the recommendations of the 14th Finance Commission" presented in Parliament yesterday. ET quotes the report both in the story and in a..
IN Media Practice | 2015-02-24
Why do we continue using hoary words that either date back to the Raj or are out of tune with the character of our modern Republic?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-02-23
DNA, it seems, has got into a habit of publishing in-house news as news reports. (Please see our Feb. 7 brief.) On Feb. 23, the paper published a report on Punit Goenka’s (CEO, ZEEL) address on ‘India: Delivering the Dream’ at The Wharton School. Once again the paper forgot to..
IN Media Practice | 2015-02-21
What does Facebook's ostensibly philanthropic move to offer the internet for free actually mean--for its competition, for the consumers targeted, and for the concept of net neutrality?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-02-20
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..
Journalist arrested in leaks case
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-02-20
The Economic Times reports that the Delhi Police has arrested former journalist Santanu Saikia, who runs the news website Indianpetro.com and businessman Prayas Jain in connection with the probe into the alleged leak of petroleum ministry documents to corporates. It quotes police sources saying the two could have been among the alleged recipients of..
IN Opinion | 2015-02-20
Narendra Modi's belated statement condemning religious violence was either welcomed in fairly pedestrian editorials or ignored by some business papers.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-02-20
The New York Times front-page story, As Rivals Falter, India's Economy Surges Ahead, has led to a raging Twitter debate.The article by Pulitzer prize-winning journalist, Keith Bradsher, based in Hong Kong, has many questioning whether this assessment is not premature given no major economic reforms have been put into place. While..
IN Opinion | 2015-02-19
How indispensable are professional PR and advertising agencies to a political party at election time?
Shireen Dalvi: Urdu-English press divide
IN Media Practice | 2015-02-19
Between the reaction of Urdu journalists to the Shireen Dalvi controversy and the reaction of the English press lies a huge gulf.
The Newshour or the Rant-hour?
IN Media Practice | 2015-02-18
Arnab Goswami plumbed new depths in a discussion over the Greenpeace activist stopped from going to London.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-02-18
Mr Modi's traditional backers in the media have begun to turn critical of him. The Dainik Jagran wrote a sharp editorial on Feb. 18 in response to the PM's remarks on Tuesday at a Catholic church forum. It said this had come rather late, he should have spoken up unequivocally..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-02-17
During the India-Pakistan cricket match on Feb. 15, Buzzfeed India editor Rega Jha found herself on the receiving end of nationalist and sexist attacks when she tweeted, “it's so sad that no matter who wins, Pakistanis will continue to be way hotter than us and we'll continue to be their..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-02-16
On Feb. 16, the Twitterati went into a frenzy after Cobrapost announced they were going to break “Biggest Story of All time ‘Operation R’.Press Conf at 11.45 am on Feb 17th, 2015 at Press Club of India [sic.].” Turned out the investigation was actually the launch of a comic graphic..
IN Regional Media | 2015-02-16
Known locally as 'litho' newspapers, these rags are purely devices to attract government advertising.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-02-16
Almost two decades after she joined NDTV, Group Editor Barkha Dutt is moving on from the channel that truly brought private news to India. Scroll.in reports that she is starting her own company. Having made her name reporting the war in Kargil, Dutt became one of NDTV's most prominent faces, anchoring..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-02-16
Talk about the nexus between politics, business and the media. Rajat Sharma epitomises it all. A detailed profile of one of India's most high-profile television anchor-owners by the Economic Times highlights how individuals and firms associated with the corporate conglomerates headed by Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani have been generous..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-02-15
T Venkatram Reddy, the chairman of Deccan Chronicle and The Asian Age group of publications, was arrested on Saturday afternoon after being interrogated by the Central Bureau of Investigation or CBI in connection with a bank cheating and fraud case filed in..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-02-14
Forget cuss words in English or Hindi, forget 'maarna', 'lena', 'dena' - if used in a sexual manner, don't use Bombay when you mean Mumbai, don't 'glorify' bloodshed or 'violence against womans' (sic) and, if you still don't get it, remember No. 15 of the list of prohibited words from..
All internet users, pay attention
IN Digital Media | 2015-02-13
The way the Net Neutrality Debate has been framed is woefully simplistic.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-02-13
The Pioneer writes an entire edit today on how the Shiv Sena shouldn't have called AAP's win a "tsumani" and said that "the BJP has been reduced to 'dirt'". Wonder what the paper will make of this cartoon by the MNS chief...
When Kejriwal defeated the media
IN Media Practice | 2015-02-12
The AAP leader had gone over our heads, effectively used social media, but most importantly, gone directly to those who really mattered: the voter! Pompous editors, noisy anchors and a corporatised media ownership had all been defeated,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-02-11
On Feb. 9 Derek O'Brien, quizmaster and a Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MP, published on his blog his letter to Aveek Sarkar, the chief editor of the ABP Group, in which he said that he would no longer be writing his three columns for Anandabazar Patrika and The Telegraph. He..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-02-11
On 11 Feb., the front page of Rajashtan Patrika, across many of its editions, featured an unusual ad by a certain Jaipur-based Rai Publication: the ad mocked BJP by complimenting it—a “haardik badhai”—for having won 3 seats in Delhi assembly elections. In the ad, the owner of the publishing house..
IN Opinion | 2015-02-11
Without grassroots canvassing, a party's media campaign cannot influence voting.
IN Media Practice | 2015-02-11
Failed to watch all the channels and the chat on the Arvind Kejriwal comeback?
IN Opinion | 2015-02-11
As a BJP supporter, Pioneer wrote a huge 1,235-word edit that downplayed the BJP's loss, carefully let Modi off the hook and focused on a long homily to the AAP.
What advertising could not buy
IN Books | 2015-02-10
…An election. A veritable blitzkrieg by the BJP in the final week of the Delhi polls, came to nought even as AAP, a party that took out no newspaper ads at all, swept, 67-3.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-02-10
In the midst of all the upbeat election coverage of a sweeping victory this vicious little exchange between Shazia Ilmi of the BJP and Shekhar Gupta on NDTV went on air. He called her a defector and an "aya Ilmi, gaya Ilmi"..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-02-10
India Today has announced that it is closing down its weekly editions of Tamil, Telugu, and Malayalam. Chief editor and proprietor Aroon Purie said in an office communication that this week's edition will be the last. He says these editions have been incurring loss for over two decades and a..
IN Media Practice | 2015-02-09
The latest incident of sexual assault has highlighted the hostile conditions in which Assamese women journalists work.
Free speech, religiosity and Urdu press
IN Media Practice | 2015-02-09
"I want to ask the English media, should the community not have gone to the police station? Not adopted a democratic approach?" A month after the Hebdo killings and its repercussions here with the Shirin Dalvi case,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-02-09
How very strange. Indian Express reported the comments of BSE chairman Ashishkumar Chauhan on Islam being a more 'equitable religion' in his speech to students of Nirma University on February 6, only to remove it later. The sanitised report is vastly different from this cached version, which was removed, a notice says, on 'legal advise'..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-02-07
NDTV's books have turned black in Q3 as it saw its revenue improve in double digits. After a long time, the company has posted a net profit in both standalone and consolidated businesses. In the standalone business, which comprises NDTV’s news channels including NDTV 24X7 and NDTV India, the company..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-02-07
The DNA on Feb. 7 has a report on Subhash Chandra of Zee TV talking to journalists before a recording of a forthcoming edition of his talk show in Jaipur. While Chandra talked about how "media can be used to lift the society so that clarity on right practices is brought about,"..
IN Regional Media | 2015-02-06
Not only do these officials block job opportunities for educated unemployed youth, they also violate the service rules that prohibit a government employee from taking a"casual" second job,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-02-06
"Hounded Urdu editor unable to return home", says the Times of India in a front-page second lead on February 6. This is a continuing Mumbai story which other media seem reluctant to play up. The Hindustan Times follows up the story on page 15 same day, but anything prominent on..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-02-05
Aaj Tak, the India Today group’s news channel, has published a small note of mutual regret on the bottom right-hand corner of its website, in its settlement of a Rs 1 crore defamation suit brought in 2012 by Louise Khurshid, the wife of Congress politician Salman Khurshid, Mint reported on..
IN Opinion | 2015-02-05
If AAP's Arvind Kejriwal got many a TV anchor's goat last year when as chief minister he staged a sit-in protest at Rajpath, this year he seems to bug them rather less than BJP's chief ministerial candidate for Delhi,
Institutional sanction for censorship
IN Censorship | 2015-02-04
In the AIB case, the government's 'swacch sanskruti' efforts seeks to use the law to impose its idea of a 'decent' society.
IN Media Freedom | 2015-02-04
Reactions to the AIB 'roast' reveal a gulf in opinions on what is funny and what is abusive.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-02-03
Some channels telecasting PM Modi's Rohini rally said prominently that they were using video footage sourced from the BJP. Others seemed to be doing the same but declared nothing. NDTV had a split screen showing two feeds, NDTV and BJP. The former focused on showing the crowds, but their cameras..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-02-03
The rest of this country has to suffer the wall to wall coverage of the Delhi elections till Feb. 7. But the public service broadcasters are an option. When Narendra Modi was addressing his third rally in the city on Feb. 3 the only channels not showing it live were..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-02-03
CNN-IBN reporter Arunima was interviewing one of the Avam leaders on their financial allegations against the Aam Admi Party. She asked the Avam leader whether he belonged to the BJP. He said no he did not. The reporter persisted and asked him who his leader was. Said he without blinking:..
Film-maker challenges film certification rules
IN Censorship | 2015-02-02
Documentary film-maker Pankaj Butalia's The Textures of Loss provokes an SC judge to comment on balanced portrayal.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-02-02
The Hindustan Times on Feb. 2 had a long, detailed report on land acquisition in Raigarh, the coal-rich Chhattisgarh district. But while the report explained the strategems that “agents of the region’s mining giant” employ to get land from the tribal population, it didn’t name any of the “private firms”..
Film-maker challenges film certification rules
IN Media Practice | 2015-02-02
Documentary film-maker Pankaj Butalia's The Textures of Loss provokes an SC judge to comment on balanced portrayal.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-02-01
On January 30 Network 18 announced its 'Media Institute Initiative', which will collaborate with universities to train students in media skills. Its first partnership is in the BJP-ruled state of Chhattisgarh with the journalism university called Kushabhau Thakre Patrikarita Avam Jansanchar Vishwavidyalaya...
IN Opinion | 2015-01-31
Edits on the Jayanthi Natarajan bombshell have ranged from off-with-their-heads to more genteel criticism of the Gandhi duo.
Should the freedom to react be absolute?
IN Censorship | 2015-01-30
Shirin Dalvi, the editor of Urdu newspaper Avadhnama, was arrested in Mumbai for publishing a cartoon of the Charlie Hebdo cover.
Should the freedom to react be absolute?
IN Media Freedom | 2015-01-30
Shirin Dalvi, the editor of Urdu newspaper Avadhnama, was arrested in Mumbai for publishing a cartoon of the Charlie Hebdo cover.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-01-30
Both, the Wall Street Journal blog INDIAREALTIME and the Washington Post website, have uploaded what they call the Indian government's air-brushed video of the Obama visit. They point out how the Ministry of External Affairs' 8-minute video carefully omits Obama's comments on religious freedom made at Siri Fort. Both media of..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-01-30
On 30th Jan., BJP released a new ad targeting AAP ahead of the Delhi assembly elections: the cartoon in the ad showed Kejriwal lying after swearing in the name of his children; it also showed a garlanded Anna Hazare on the wall, showing how Kejriwal’s deception killed him. Kejriwal was..
IN Opinion | 2015-01-29
He was fond of collecting brass and bronze statues and artifacts, he would clean them lovingly and then smear oil to give them an ancient look and to protect from sea air.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-01-29
The SC on Jan. 28 passed an interim order asking that search engines of Google, Yahoo and Microsoft block ads for sex determination tests, a report said. The companies claim that they already comply with the rules, with Google’s lawyer making a distinction between “search and information” and “promotion and..
IN Opinion | 2015-01-28
It is difficult to tell whether the Mahavishnu of Mount Road is more afflicted by its financial uncertainties or its editorial ones.
The Pioneer rationalises, poor dear
IN Opinion | 2015-01-28
The Pioneer edit was an awful embarrassment as it tried to explain away Obama's remark on religious tolerance.
Not secular or socialist anymore?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-01-28
How strange that the media missed the omission of the words 'secular' and 'socialist' from a government advertisement on Republic Day. A watermark of the preamble, which forms the backdrop of the advertisement featuring models fro different parts of the country, has dropped the terms - introduced in the 42nd amendment to..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-01-27
Kiran Bedi provided more grist for Arnab Goswami’s mill than President Obama did. On Tuesday (Jan 27) night he decided to take her on, on Times Now, demanding to know why she was make a blooper a day, and fulminating at her..
IN Opinion | 2015-01-27
The first thing that struck me about him was his insatiable curiosity about people, places, birds, animals and every conceivable mechanical object.
The India Today of the working class
IN Media Business | 2015-01-27
For over two decades, Saras Salil has decidedly catered to the newly literates.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-01-27
In Zee TV PM Modi has a fan club whose gush would make him blush if he had time to watch it. On Jan. 26, the two Zee news channels outdid themselves. On Zee Business a commentator gloated over the rich irony of a country which had denied Narendra Modi..
IN Opinion | 2015-01-25
Some editorials on the Supreme Court judgement on the BCCI got to the nub of the issue while others, unaccountably, ignored it.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-01-24
Pankaj Srivastava who recently publicised his own sacking from IBN7 on Facebook, is the latest in a recent stream of senior exits from IBN7 and CNN-IBN. He was first sidelined despite his seniority and considerable news experience into vetting the thousands of daily stories which come in from the ETV..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-01-23
On Jan. 20, Satish Sharma, the editor of the English daily Garhwal Post sat on a hunger strike outside the chief secretary’s office in Dehradun to protest non-payment for government ads. The payments for ads carried in over 200 newspapers is pending, Mr. Sharma told The Hoot, because the Uttarakhand..
Topless shots go down... then up again
IN Media Practice | 2015-01-23
Reports of the death of The Sun's Page 3 topless shots have proved unfounded.
Online Censorship laws needs reform
IN Censorship | 2015-01-21
The law allows authorities to block large amounts of content in secrecy, without adequate demonstration of necessity, and in a disproportionate manner.
Online Censorship laws needs reform
IN Law and Policy | 2015-01-21
The law allows authorities to block large amounts of content in secrecy, without adequate demonstration of necessity, and in a disproportionate manner.
IN Judgements | 2015-01-20
Dhaka-based journalist David Bergman has been convicted of contempt over his blog on the Bangladesh War of Liberation.
IN Law and Policy | 2015-01-20
Dhaka-based journalist David Bergman has been convicted of contempt over his blog on the Bangladesh War of Liberation.
The A to Zee of Subhash Chandra
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-01-20
It certainly helps to sponsor an event. Quickly scan the profiles of the speakers attending the 2015 Jaipur Literary Festival and whether you are a V.S. Naipual, Paul Theroux or a Sarah Waters, they border on factual and inevitably downplay the author's stature. But the wordy profile of Subhash Chandra,..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-01-19
Film-maker Pahlaj Nihalani who produced the 'Har Ghar Modi' video before the Lok Sabha polls, is the new chairperson of the Central Board of Film Certification, following the resignation of Leela Samson who had alleged political interference. The members include Ashoke Pandit of Panun Kashmir fame; Chandra Prakash Dwivedi (the tele-serial Chanakya's..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-01-19
When papers take sides on important issues in their edits, it’s hard to say if the views are genuine or if the publication is simply pandering to ideology. The Pioneer, in its Jan. 19th edit, on the resignation of CBFC chief Leela Samson along with 13 other CNBC members over..
IN Regional Media | 2015-01-19
A Naga newspaper doesn't merely inform readers, it also helps preserve the tribe's culture and identity.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-01-19
Kanwar Sandhu, until recently executive editor of the Tribune, takes his professional battles to YouTube. When he was at a channel called Day and Night News, which he had launched, he posted a video on the problems he was having with cable..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-01-18
What should be longer: the question or the answer? Participating in the Nothing But The Truth programme on Headlines Today on Jan. 17, Ajay Maken of the Congress, evidently frustrated at not being given enough time to present his point of view, wanted anchor Karan Thapar to calculate the length..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-01-17
Last week Headlines Today carried a Tom and Jerry-style cartoon mocking the rivalry between Nitish Kumar and chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi. In this “politoon,” Manjhi was depicted as a rat who gets the better of the Nitish cat, who made him CM thinking it a safe thing to do...
IN Law and Policy | 2015-01-16
Reporting on national security is as hard as ever, despite the RTI Act.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-01-15
AAP politician Raghav Chadha was stopped as he was about to enter the CNN-IBN studio for a discussion, the day elections for Delhi were announced. The channel has its gatekeepers in place to ensure AAP politicians are not carried live on it...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-01-15
Newslaundry has reported a money trail linking the owners of NDTV to Reliance through multiple intermediaries. It lays out a series of transactions that begin with Reliance Industries Limited and end with a loan of Rs 403.85 crore to Radhika Roy Prannoy Roy Private Limited (RRPR), which owns 29 per cent stakes in NDTV. ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-01-14
Times Now’s Newshour on Jan. 13 saw Arnab Goswami hammering away with the statement of Congress MP Shashi Tharoor to the Delhi Police two days after Sunanda Pushkar's death in January 2014. Goswami said Tharoor was “hyper-desperate,” floating “all kinds of theories in less than 48 hours after his wife’s..
IN Opinion | 2015-01-13
The leaders on the NITI Aayog were mostly trite in the 'only time will tell' style, plain wrong or lazy rewrites of the press release.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-01-12
On Jan. 3rd, four days before the Charlie Hebdo shooting in Paris which killed 17, Boko Haram militants in Nigeria attacked the border town of Baga and surrounding villages, slaughtering the residents – majority of them women, children and elderly. The death toll has been reported to be more than..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-01-12
The decision to reprint the controversial Charlie Hebdo cartoons may be foolhardy even if it is an article of faith. While the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten decided not to do so, closer home, Mint went ahead and front-paged some of its covers in its January 8 print edition. But now, it..
What about free speech in Telangana?
IN Regional Media | 2015-01-12
With free expression in the news the continuing blackout of two TV channels in Telangana bears remembering.
"Nobody wants to die for a cartoon"
IN Media Freedom | 2015-01-09
"For those in France, free speech is an absolute. France makes a fetish of it. but that does not necessarily have to be the model for the rest of the world."
IN Media Freedom | 2015-01-09
The High Court bans media coverage of opposition leader Tarique Rahman.
IN Opinion | 2015-01-09
Journalism production and consumption now has a digital divide which is also partly a generation divide. The tools are different,
IN Media Freedom | 2015-01-08
The Charlie Hebdo massacre will re-ignite the long running debate over free speech versus Muslim beliefs.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-01-08
Last night, when the world was being shown the Paris massacre in calm tones on BBC, CNN and Al Jazeera, TV channels here were focused on Sunanda Tharoor. Including Headlines Today where Rajdeep Sardesai keeps saying he wants to to bring news back to prime time. Times Now and NDTV..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-01-07
Headlines Today served up on January 6 night a classic example of living rather distastefully off the dead. The channel obtained footage of Sunanda Pushkar after her death in a hotel room, focused repeatedly on injury marks on her body, and anchor and reporter kept spinning out the same details..
Violence against journos in AP
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-01-06
The Press Council of India has constituted a three-member fact-finding team to probe two cases of violence against journalists in Andhra Pradesh. PCI chairman Justice CK Prasad has asked the state government to take necessary remedial steps so that journalists are allowed to carry out their professional obligations without any impediment...
Court reporting: a difficult art
IN Law and Policy | 2015-01-06
Sloppiness by journalists and misuse of contempt powers by judges results in poor reporting.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-01-05
P Sainath came to Delhi (among other city stops) to present his digital venture People's Archive of Rural India to an audience. He drew an overflowing crowd at a large local hall, much to the surprise of those who came and found they could not get in through any of..
IN Media Practice | 2015-01-05
By not checking the ground reality, reports on conversions end up being sketchy and misleading.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-01-05
Five financial journalists have moved on from the Economic Times over the past two months, four in the space of a month. Three are headed for large corporate houses while two are joining or planning their own start-ups. Changes in the editorial management, stagnation in the top-heavy ET editorial team..
IN Opinion | 2015-01-03
When it comes to overt anti-minority actions by Hindutva organisations, the English press has rarely pulled its punches.
IN Media Practice | 2015-01-03
By attacking the timing of M. S. Dhoni's retirement, actor Tom Alter misunderstands the man and his motives.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2015-01-02
The category of media news that truly sets cyberspace agog is leaked internal emails, and of late a lot of these are emanating from the Hindu. The latest is Rahul Pandita's mail to editor Malini Parthasarthy which was sent two weeks ago but has surfaced now in the news and..
Ends okay but we don't like the means
IN Opinion | 2015-01-02
The business papers agreed with the ordinances on land acquisition because they tend to speak from the brain. The general papers didn't because they tend to speak from the heart,
IN Censorship | 2015-01-01
Vigilante Hindutva groups have perfected the art of violent protests.
IN Opinion | 2015-01-01
B. G. Verghese's life and work mirrored the best aspirations of Indian democracy. He was also a warm and concerned human being.
Toasted, then roasted by the media
IN Media Practice | 2015-01-01
Who were personalities and parties who enjoyed a rollercoaster ride with the media in 2014?
A prolific and indefatigable optimist
IN Opinion | 2014-12-31
George Verghese took intellectual positions that defied consistent labeling. He was dubbed a stateist on some issues, anti-establishment on others.
A silly fuss over Aamir Khan's PK
IN Media Practice | 2014-12-30
Ignore the professional protestors.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-12-29
Speaking at the Institute of Rural Management, Anand, in the last week of November, RBI governor Raghuram Rajan criticised companies who have wilfully defaulted on loans to banks, saying that such borrowers should be seen as freeloaders rather than being celebrated as captains of industry. In Tavleen Singh’s December 28 column..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-12-28
If the Hindustan Times is to be believed the PMO presided over by Manhoman Singh was only sent ‘positive’ press clippings by the Press Information Bureau, but the Modi PMO is now specifically asking to be sent clips of negative reports in..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-12-28
Delhi’s citizenry may or may not have noticed any difference in the city’s state of cleanliness but the Delhi government has enriched local print and electronic media by spending Rs 6 crore on advertising given to them since the Swach Bharat Abhiyan..
IN Regional Media | 2014-12-27
This headline in the Assam Tribune was a reflection of the state of English journalism in Assam -- mindless and communal,
IN Opinion | 2014-12-25
A strong leader can set the terms of discourse for the media. But only so long as more discordant disruptions don't take place under his watch.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-12-24
On December 24, the official Twitter account of Doordarshan News posted a picture of PM Modi in discussion with senior BJP colleagues. The accompanying text, though, read: “JINGLE ALL THE WAY !!!...A man dressed as Santa Claus feeds monkeys ahead of #Christmas at a zoo in #China”. DD was quick..
IN Media Practice | 2014-12-24
The media's distortion of the theatre performance Thoda Dhyaan Se in Jaipur last week as 'obscene' was a travesty.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-12-24
The caption of a photograph on the Indian Express' website to visualise the results of the recent elections in Jammu and Kashmir made for interesting reading. The caption ran, "Kashmiri supporter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) shouts slogans at an election rally in Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir." The picture was..
Inaccurate and biased reporting
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-12-24
Media coverage of the Gujarat police charge of embezzlement against social activists Teesta Setalvad and Javed Anand and three survivors of the Gulberg Society carnage -- Firoz Pathan, Salim Sadhi and Tanveer Jafri -- was not just inaccurate but biased, alleges a press release from the Citizens for Justice and..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-12-23
While discussing the assembly election results in Jharkhand and Jammu and Kashmir on Dec 23, Navika Kumar of Times Now argued that because the recently declared income tax returns by the Congress politicians exceed that of their BJP counterparts, Congress candidates must be spending more on the elections. Are IT..
An editor on his life and craft
IN Books | 2014-12-22
Vinod Mehta's latest memoirs are deceptively lightweight. On a closer reading, they are packed with musings on journalism, personalities and the key events of his own life,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-12-21
Are private radio channels being pressured by the government to air PM Modi's Mann ki Baat radio chat every month? A Hindustan Times report on December 19 says the PMO pressurised the information and broadcasting ministry last month to "pursue privately-owned media..
IN Media Practice | 2014-12-20
Veteran reporter P. Sainath launches a new platform to portray rural India in all its complexity.
IN Statistics | 2014-12-19
M & E INDUSTRY TRENDS 2016
IN Statistics | 2014-12-19
FICCI- KPMG REPORT 2014: TV industry revenue: TV broadcasting industry size: Print industry overview (figures in INR billion): Print media market matrix (figures in INR billion): Projected revenues from newspapers and magazines: Circulation revenue mix (figures in INR billion): Projected circulation revenue (figures in INR billion): Size of radio industry (figures in INR billion): ..
IN Statistics | 2014-12-19
REGISTRAR OF NEWSPAPERS FOR INDIA: Press in India 2013-14 Ownership of publications: 2013-14 Ownership of publications (periodicity wise) ..
IN Statistics | 2014-12-19
AUDIT BUREAU OF CIRCULATIONS: 2015 Average qualifying sales July-Dec 2015: Details of most circulated publications for the audit period Jan-June 2014: Language-wise most circulated dailies for the audit period Jan-June 2014: Language wise certified circulation figures for the Audit period January-June 2014: ..
Internet, broadband and mobile phone
IN Statistics | 2014-12-19
FICCI- KPMG REPORT 2014 India internet connections: 2013 (E) – 2018 (P): India internet vs. TV connections: 2013 (E) – 2018 (P): Percentage spend on mobile internet, 2012-13: Internet users by device: 2013 (E) Internet penetration: Average connection speeds (mbps): 3G subscribers in India: Total unique visitors in millions (2013): ..
IN Statistics | 2014-12-19
FICCI- KPMG REPORT 2014 TELEVISION: Overall advertising revenue: Top 10 categories of advertisement on TV: Top 10 advertisers on TV: PRINT: Print media market matrix (figures in INR billion): Print sector growth during last five years (percentage): Percentage share of advertising and circulation: Internet/ Broadband/ Mobile: Digital advertising market in India 2013 (E) – 2018 (P): Digital ad spend category-wise,..
IN Media Practice | 2014-12-19
Media coverage of the Uber taxi rape has over-simplified the link between social attitudes and sexual violence.
IN Media Practice | 2014-12-19
Rajdeep Sardesai talks darkly of media persecution under Modi.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-12-18
On December 16, when all media was focused on the Taliban attack in Peshawar, Press Council chief Markandey Katju decided to contribute his tupenny worth on Facebook: “In my opinion such incidents are a direct and inevitable consequence of creating a theological state in a subcontinent of such diversity. We shall..
IN Media Business | 2014-12-17
Management interference is making journalists leave.
Free speech under attack from violence and defamation suits
IN Media Freedom | 2014-12-16
Physical attacks against journalists are nothing new but the increase in defamation suits and notices has emerged as the new tool of choice for those who want to silence the media.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-12-16
When the English-language newspapers claim exclusives, the presumption is that something that appeared a day or two before in the Hindi press does not count. So the Economic Times claimed on December 15 that its page-two interview with Jugal Kishore, the VHP functionary in charge of "Ghar Wapasi", was an..
IN Opinion | 2014-12-16
The Telegraph which has turned into a major critic after having supported the Trinamool Congress till 2012, went into Alfie Doolittle-like rhetoric.
"India is at a turning point for internet freedom of expression"
IN Media Freedom | 2014-12-15
A new report on internet freedom says India is still only 'partly free' but has improved its score. India's weakest point is user rights since parts of the Indian IT Act have potential criminal liability for intermediaries,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-12-13
Vinod Mehta's last book "Lucknow Boy" was dedicated to Outlook proprietor Rajan Raheja whom he called a prince among proprietors. His latest one "Editor Unplugged" explains how supporting his editorial decisions finally became unaffordable for Mr Raheja. Publishing the Radia tapes cost..
Is SC's wage board ruling counterproductive?
IN Media Business | 2014-12-12
After the Supreme Court ruling on wage board implementation, publications in Andhra Pradesh are resorting to various manoeuvres to reduce their wage bill,
IN Digital Media | 2014-12-12
In urging viewers not to drink and drive, My Husband Made Me a Prostitute packs a punch.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-12-11
The UP CM Akhilesh Yadav allotted 68 acres in Noida today to the Times Group to set up a world class university. BCCL MD Vineet Jain was with the CM in Lucknow today, reports ETV. The group is evidently spreading its reach beyond media. ..
IN Opinion | 2014-12-11
One takeaway from the lives of these men is the role of entrepreneurship in their ascent and in the kind of influence they wield. If you don't own your media platform the influence you wield can be transient,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-12-10
A special TADA court has ordered all unsold copies of a book, 'My Name is Abu Salem', written by journalist-author Hussain Zaidi, be withdrawn until the trial of Salem is over, and the judgement delivered. A chapter is about a builder's murder in 1995, and he is being tried as..
Why Pakistani serials trump ours...
IN Media Practice | 2014-12-09
At last, serials with real characters, good acting, compelling storylines, and an understated tone.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-12-09
A reader writes: BJP's Sanjay Kaul and Congress' Ragini Nayak were on Rajdeep Sardesai-anchored News Today at Nine on Headlines Today (December 8) to talk about the Uber cab rape. When she spoke, Sardesai said: "Moment we bring a politician on the show, they start politicising". What else do you..
IN Media Practice | 2014-12-09
…without probing the facts, the result is a mess under which the truth is buried.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-12-08
Who is the most influential media person in the country? If you judge a journalist-entrepreneur by his power to draw the powerful to celebrate his success it should be Rajat Sharma. His 21st anniversary of Aap ki Adalat had the president, the prime minister, most members of the cabinet, chief..
IN Media Practice | 2014-12-08
Rajdeep Sardesai on Narendra Modi and how the media have lost the capacity to question him. "Journalists have moved from asking questions to taking selfies."
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-12-06
The Deccan Chronicle has taken the Times of India to court for a systemic theft of classified ads from its pages. On December 5 it published a report where it said it will publish “in a series, ad after ad that appeared in the ToI a few days after they..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-12-06
On Friday in Kolkata the West Bengal government banned movement of journalists inside Nabanna, the secretariat with a policeman threatening them with "serious consequences" if they moved beyond the press corner. A circular issued on January 15 had said that only a reporter having a prior appointment with a minister..
IN Opinion | 2014-12-06
It was a nice play on words for anyone who is not a minister. But alas, the lady is one and everyone, including the Prime Minister, was appalled.
How Indian journalists use social media
IN Books | 2014-12-05
The Hoot surveyed journalists to ascertain exactly how, and to what extent, they use social media in their daily professional lives.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-12-05
CNBC TV18 was running an hourlong exclusive interview on December 4 with Mukesh Ambani of Reliance Industries (who owns the channel) on growth in the different sectors Reliance is in. It was repeated at night. The Economic Times meanwhile was saying on its website that comments made by Ambani during..
First Nagamese daily completes a year
IN Regional Media | 2014-12-03
Despite being the lingua franca of Nagaland, Nagamese has been ignored and neglected as a pidgin language.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-12-03
The Times of India published an article titled "Panel to draft intellectual property policy riddled with conflict of interest” on Dec 1, 2014, and took it down a short while later. The story was on an intellectual property think tank set up..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-12-02
The CAG of India has said in its audit report on the management of satellite capacity for DTH services that most DTH operators in India opted for Ku-band transponders on foreign satellites because of poor management by the Department of Space. Out of the total 76 transponders used by Indian..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-12-02
The Economic Times' celebratory coverage of its awards for corporate excellence last Saturday (Nov 29) runs to six pages inside, and half the front page. It tells us among other things that the hosts served saffron mineral water. Presumably to gladden the saffron hearts in power...
The readers' editor: an ignored element of self-regulation
IN Media Practice | 2014-12-01
Under certain conditions, a readers' editor can bring greater transparency and accountability to a news organisation, qualities that the media constantly demands of other democratic institutions.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-11-30
In interviews, interviewers asks questions. The interviewee responds. Then why is it that when Karan Thapar, is interviewing Ramchandra Guha on Headlines Today, the strapline says, "Karan Thapar talks to Ramchandra Guha"? Isn't it the other way round? At the end of..
Oil mafia behind killing of Andhra journalist?
IN Media Freedom | 2014-11-29
Andhra Prabha journalist MVN Shankar wrote about the kerosene oil mafia in Guntur just days before he was fatally attacked.
Oil mafia behind killing of Andhra journalist?
IN Media Freedom | 2014-11-29
Andhra Prabha journalist MVN Shankar wrote about the kerosene oil mafia in Guntur just days before he was fatally attacked.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-11-29
Earlier it was a shower of 'liar, liar..." from Subramanian Swamy on Arnab Goswami's Newshour. On Nov 28, it was Pakistani Admiral (Retd.) Javed Iqbal, Defence Analyst's turn to keep going at him with a chant of "shut up!" One counted -- he said it eight times when discussing the Arnia incident in Kashmir...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-11-29
Twitter was abuzz with one gaffe after another in the venerable Times of India. Reporting cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar's message mourning Phil Hughes's death, the paper said 'RIP Sachin Tendulkar! Twitterati quickly pointed out another: 'Messi joins Rahul as top scorer'. Rahul who?..
IN Media Practice | 2014-11-29
Most media reports on the 18th summit of SAARC remained anxiously focused on the Modi-Sharif intrigue thereby missing out on informed reportage on Southasia's critical challenges,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-11-28
TV9 telecast a Kannada astrology programme last Tuesday of predictions on rape, according to your zodiac sign. If it is Virgo, the probability is the girl will be raped between the ages of 14 and 20 and below the stairs in her own home. If you are a Capricon there..
IN Media Practice | 2014-11-28
The scramble for TRPs distorts the truth and hinders justice.
Abject ethnic and racial profiling?
IN Opinion | 2014-11-28
Letter to the Hoot: Ketkar's reference was to the Bohras in the crowd at the two venues, with men sporting scull-caps and beards and women clad in open burqas.
IN Opinion | 2014-11-28
Who gains and who loses from a media stable created during the almost simultaneous ascent of a little known businessman and a politician attempting to overthrow an entrenched ruling party?
IN Media Practice | 2014-11-26
In covering controversial godman Rampal, news channels ignored their own role in promoting superstition.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-11-26
The Daily Mail, London mentions that the wife in a world's oldest pair is Kartari, her 109-year-old husband for nearly 90 years being Karam Chand. The Times of India does not even think it fit to name the 102-year-old spouse. A typical gender bias?..
IN Media Business | 2014-11-25
Of the 81 individuals listed in BCCL's annual report for 2013-14 as highly-paid directors and/or employees, three members of the Jain family received 54 per cent of the total remuneration paid to all of them.
IN Opinion | 2014-11-25
Modi's Obama master stroke left some editorialists disconcerted.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-11-25
TV9 has run into trouble with the Karnataka government. According to a statement from the channel, it has been taken off the air by several cable operators in the state, reportedly after a directive was issued by the state's Energy Minister D K Shivakumar. This is the second state where it..
Resisting attacks on free speech
IN Media Freedom | 2014-11-24
Sometimes, all it takes is for one person to stand up and say 'Enough'!
Watch Telugu channels in English
IN Regional Media | 2014-11-24
Has it become fashionable for Telugu channels to use English even when it is not necessary? Or is it that those in charge have a poor knowledge of Telugu?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-11-22
Some of the employees of the Hindi news channel P7 News, which is owned by Pearls Broadcasting Corporation Ltd and is based out of Noida sector 57, went on a strike yesterday, demanding salary for the previous few months. In the evening the channel even broadcast a “breaking news”: “salary..
Naga editor's book banned by tribal body
IN Censorship | 2014-11-21
Upset with Monalisa Changkija's new book, the tribal body Ao Senden has banned it.
Naga editor's book banned by tribal body
IN Media Freedom | 2014-11-21
Upset with Monalisa Changkija's new book, the tribal body Ao Senden has banned it.
IN Media Practice | 2014-11-20
…was truly Orwellian after the management fired journalists for refusing to work during a lockout over a new union.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-11-20
A young journalist, Shivam Bhatt, 25, who worked for Zee News was killed and two other journalists were critically injured in a road accident when they were returning from coverage of the Satlok Ashram incident at Hisar. The accident occurred near Kultana village of..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-11-20
The Delhi High Court ruled on November 17 that 272 workers of the Hindustan Times be reinstated with back wages for the past nine years. Justice Suresh Kait has termed their retrenchment arbitrary, and upheld the earlier judgement of the Industrial Tribunal on January 23,..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-11-19
Tehelka Managing Editor Mathew Samuel is still on bail, contrary to several news reports that he was arrested and his bail was cancelled in a case charging him with violating the Official Secrets Act. Samuel had done a story on the Tehelka website in 2000 about Dutch NGOs funding insurgency..
IN Digital Media | 2014-11-19
In light of the debate over the FCC recommendations on regarding charging more for high-speed Internet, we present a briefing on what the issues are.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-11-19
The unprovoked attack by policemen on journalists in Hisar apparently has a precedent. Around nine years ago at the same ashram of the same godman police had targeted journalists. And the followers of Sant Rampal had entered the office of Dainik Bhaskar in response to the coverage the newspaper gave the..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-11-18
Last week Vinod Mehta, who likes to call himself technologically challenged, joined Twitter: “pl bear with me i am just learning this twitter business.” Only two weeks ago Mehta devoted his Outlook column to talking about his struggles with sending an sms: “I spend close to six minutes composing a single sentence..
AIUDF's court offensive against NewsX
IN Media Practice | 2014-11-17
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,
IN Opinion | 2014-11-16
Letter to the Hoot --While Narendra Modi did address students at the Queensland University of Technology, the leader who set the tone for the G20 was undoubtedly President Obama.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-11-15
The Visakhapatnam edition of Deccan Chronicle on November 14 had the same article on the edit page as well as op-ed page. The article "Maha-mayhem" was by writer and journalist Kumar Ketkar. It was a seven-column bottom spread on the edit page and also occupied almost half a page in the..
IN Media Practice | 2014-11-13
The depiction of the US media scene in the film Nightcrawler - zero ethics and standards - should alarm us. How long before India gets there too,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-11-13
The Indian Express hosts Arvind Kejriwal at an Express Adda sponsored by IIFL Private Wealth Management (See Express ad in Delhi edition, November 13). Nice juxtaposition with the Aam Admi, what? ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-11-13
In a press conference organized by Uco Bank in Puri yesterday, Pinaki Mishra, the BJD MP of the temple town, allegedly tried to bribe journalists by giving Rs 200 in envelopes. After some journalists boycotted the conference, Mishra, who heads the Standing Committee on Urban Development, and about which he..
IN Opinion | 2014-11-13
Digitisation is a job half done which has so far benefitted the government the most, by way of taxes, and the consumer the least.
Honey, I shrunk the editorial...
IN Opinion | 2014-11-12
Nothing is better for an editorial than to be reduced, condensed, whittled away at. Let me show you how it's done,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-11-11
The CBI now says there is enough evidence to prosecute chairman of Aditya Birla Group KM Birla and former coal secretary PC Parakh, in the Hindalco case. The Hindu, TOI, Indian Express and others carried it on page one. The Hindustan Times played it down to a tiny item on..
Portrait of a man and an election
IN Books | 2014-11-11
Rajdeep Sardesai's book mixes insight and anecdote to offer an analysis of the making and remaking of Narendra Modi.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-11-10
After the ministerial induction Rajdeep Sardesai flaunted his Brahminical identity on Twitter. (He has 1.7 million-plus followers, the highest among all Indian journalists.) He tweeted: “Big day for my goa. Two GSBs, both talented politicians become full cabinet ministers. Saraswat pride!! @manoharparrikar and Suresh Prabhu.” His followers pointed out the..
Haider: to depict or not to depict...
IN Media Practice | 2014-11-10
...that is the question posed by Vishal Bhardwaj's film. Why is it that women are portrayed as marginal and Kashmiri Pandits have been neglected by film makers,
Who cares what the doctor ordered...
IN Media Practice | 2014-11-08
Pundits are scrambling over one another to tell Congress how it can regain its health.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-11-08
One little nugget from the prime minister’s recent meeting with editors has gone unreported. The subject of his impressive oratory came up and he was asked if had speech writers and people to give inputs. No nothing like that was his response. It was all intuitive, it was God’s gift,..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-11-08
Another nugget figures in Rajdeep Sardesai’s book which had its release in Delhi on Friday. He says he called Narendra Modi in Ahmedabad at night after he was re-elected in 2012 to congratulate him and asked him whether his decision to deliver a victory speech in Hindi was the clearest..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-11-05
Prime Minister Modi today found himself in the piquant situation of receiving advice from his predecessor's media advisor. Sanjaya Baru was among the economic journalists and commentators whom he met in his third session of reaching out to media. He said little, they all gave him expansive advice. He was..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-11-05
Responses from Subramanian Swamy to Arnab Goswami on the Newshour on November 4 started with "you ignoramus" and were followed by other abuses: 'liar', 'use your brains, if any', 'you dumbo', 'mentally retarded', 'shame on you', 'you are making a spectacle of yourself', so on and so forth. Later Swamy..
IN Books | 2014-11-05
'For Modi, the media is important yet untrustworthy, an ally for publicity, an adversary on issues. It is his intimate enemy -- he grudgingly relies on it for feedback but scorns it when it acts as a mirror or sounding board.'
IN Opinion | 2014-11-05
The media has lost its moorings over Modi and his team, as seen in the gushing outpouring over Maharashtra Chief Minister Fadnavis. A critical distance needs to be restored between the media and the country's rulers,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-11-04
With fresh elections in Delhi seeming likely, CNN-IBN will have the tricky challenge of covering the Aam Aadmi Party professionally without offending the Network 18 ownership. Having Aam Aadmi spokespersons on live panel discussions will apparently be a no-no. Ditto for interviews with AAP leaders. Ever since displeasure over the..
Scandalizing the court - time for reform?
IN Law and Policy | 2014-11-03
What is so special about our judges that they should be insulated from public criticism or comment that other public officials have to face on a daily basis?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-11-03
This PM knows how to keeping working on his communication act. On Sunday there was no getting away from Man Ki Baat, whether or not you were tuning in to All India Radio. Switch on Tata Sky and there it was, instead of the usual looping ad. Switch on any..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-11-02
Sagarika Ghose on Twitter: "Unacceptable to refer to Priyanka in terms of item number. @sardesairajdeep shd immediately retract it if he said so." And @sardesairajdeep responds: "@sagarikaghose was trying to make the pt politics is 24 x 7, can't flit in and out.Realise choice of words should have been better...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-11-02
India Today’s cover story on Arun Jaitley describes him as Ram's Arjun, with the author saying she assumes a cross-mythological reference is allowed in this age of Hindutva. Modi is Ram and has both a Lakshman (Amit Shah) and an Arjun. What will the saffron brigade make of this gem? ..
IN Law and Policy | 2014-11-01
On matters of great public interest, the Supreme Court's proceedings should be televised. Cameras in court will allow the public to see justice being done,
IN Media Practice | 2014-11-01
Salacious, prurient, insensitive - that is the yellow journalism practiced by much of the media when it reports on gays.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-11-01
​The first petition, albeit orally but on live television, that Maharashtra's new CM Devendra Fadnavis received was from journalists covering the state government: 1) Quickly enact a law to prevent attacks on media; 2) Extend health care assistance of Rs 1 lakh available to each accredited journalists and to the..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-11-01
Is the media self-censoring on PM Modi’s more bizarre pronouncements? While Headlines Today and the Guardian were quick to jump on his October 25 speech taking mythology as proof of ancient Indian science, except the Indian Express, Indian papers reported it with a straight face with surprisingly little comment till Karan..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-10-31
The Maharashtra cabinet's swearing-in ceremony was widely telecast live, with the BJP providing the feed. Only some channels intermittently acknowledged that-- 'Courtesy BJP'. Since the Maharashtra Government has said it would pay for the ceremony but the extravaganza would be at BJP's cost, how will the telecast costs be split? The..
IN Opinion | 2014-10-30
There are politicians who dabble in media and mainstream media owners who dabble in politics. Which category has the advantage?
IN Media Practice | 2014-10-30
What is really going on behind the veiled headlines of the global coverage of Ebola? How many of the 'right questions' have the media missed,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-10-30
A chief minister and his cabinet are sworn in by the Governor of the state, but The Hindu has an entirely a new construct on it. "Governor Ch. Vidyasagar Rao will attend the function", the paper said, in which case it did not explain who would induct the new team..
The 'witches' let down by the media
IN Regional Media | 2014-10-30
Witch hunting is a disturbing crime against women in Assam, but the media's approach has been disappointingly simplistic and crass,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-10-29
The Indian Express reports that the three-member committee which selected the new chairman of Prasar Bharati, A Surya Prakash, included the secretary of the ministry of information and broadcasting. In 2012 the current CEO of the public broadcaster was also selected by a committee which included the I & B secretary...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-10-28
A spot near Hiranandani Gardens in Mumbai where J Dey, an expert on the city's underworld, and Investigations Editor of Mid-Day, was gunned down on June 11, 2011 is to be named after him, according to the minutes of Mumbai Press Club's AGM. " A decision has been taken" by..
Trial by media: how journalists are used
IN Media Practice | 2014-10-27
The media must cross-check information put out by investigating agencies or else journalists could prejudice the rights of accused persons and influence trials,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-10-27
On October 25, The Times of India posted an article with a headline “5 months in power sees increase in crorepatis in Union Cabinet: ADR”. After a while, though, the article was taken off the website. Meanwhile, the information in the ADR press release was used by several non-mainstream news..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-10-25
On October 24, US President Obama nominated the Iranian-American business strategist Azita Raji, a major fundraiser for his presidential campaigns, as the US ambassador to Sweden. The Indian media rushed to claim Raji as an “Indian-American”. This included leading publications like India..
On culture, TV channels score zero
IN Media Practice | 2014-10-25
When it comes to literary reporting, the only notable exception to the inferior climate of reportage is also the one least expected: Doordarshan.
No protection for scribes, whistleblowers
IN Opinion | 2014-10-24
Journalists and whistleblowers are vulnerable to demands to disclose sources.
Mangalyaan, the social media native
IN Digital Media | 2014-10-24
Unlike space missions of the past, ISRO concentrated on the 'social image' of Mangalyaan: the personified Twitter account and the first-person updates preceded the launch.
IN Media Practice | 2014-10-24
Journalists and whistleblowers are vulnerable to demands to disclose sources.
Modi's team violates copyright?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-10-23
Bimal Nepal, a Massachusetts-based photographer, has charged PM Narendra Modi on social media of violating copyright. On October 21, Mr. Modi’s Facebook page published a modified version of a photograph that apparently Nepal had clicked and posted on his Flickr page in November 2012. In his Facebook post the same day, Nepal called..
The Hindi press on the decline of regional politics
IN Media Practice | 2014-10-23
How did the Hindi press evaluate Modi's grand vikaswaad rhetoric? Their analysis was often marred by clichés and lack of nuance,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-10-22
The Tamil news channel Thanthi, which allegedly telecast the bail application hearing (on October 17) of former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa in the Supreme Court on October 18, has landed itself in a legal soup. The All-India Bar Association has sought suo motu contempt proceedings against the channel in the..
IN Opinion | 2014-10-21
After the September bye-elections, the editorialists quickly claimed Modi had lost his appeal.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-10-20
Today's Chanakya, whose exit polls came closest to predicting the performance of AAP in the Delhi elections last year and the BJP strength in the Lok Sabha polls this year, didn't quite pull off a hat trick this time. It did give the BJP a clear victory in Haryana (five..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-10-18
On 16 October, on the top of the second page of TOI's business section was a curious news item on Sahara attributed to Times News Network. Titled "Sebi fails to find investors, Sahara case drags on", it was an analysis passing for news, no attribution or quotes. Just TNN's opinion on Sebi's handling..
IN Media Business | 2014-10-17
DOCUMENTATION:"Technology companies will find it very difficult to get into news because news is a peculiar business…news companies will find it much easier to learn technology,"
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-10-16
Late night on 15 October, the polling day in Haryana, Focus News Haryana was consumed by a single news event which it looped again and again. That was footage of Zee Media chairman Subhash Chandra in a polling booth in Hissar, demanding to see the id cards of polling agents..
The narco judgment that the media has forgotten
IN Media Practice | 2014-10-15
The media keeps forgetting an important Supreme Court judgment when it writes about narco analysis. Stories regarding its continued use continue to pop up in the national media with an uncomfortable frequency,
IN Media Practice | 2014-10-14
When Kailash Satyarthi won the Nobel peace prize, people should have asked: Why did I not know of Kailash Satyarthi?
Is media obsession on security issues affecting Indo-Pak trade?
IN Media Practice | 2014-10-13
DOCUMENTATION: The underreporting on trade-related activity between India and Pakistan is an important impediment to trade normalization between the two neighbouring countries.
IN Media Practice | 2014-10-13
Modi's America trip and his Clean India campaign prompted journalists to expound very different notions of India.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-10-12
October 11 was Nanaji Deshumukh's birth anniversary and an anthology of his writings was released on the occasion by the prime minister. He was one of the founders of Bharatiya Jana Sangh. The entire event was telecast live on DD News which will doubtless assert again that it was eminently newsworthy. Mr..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-10-11
Candidates caught in paid-news deals, are quickly making payments to newspapers at state government​ advertising rates which are far lower than what other advertisers pay, and show it in their accounts to escape further trouble, Marathi newspaper Loksatta reported on Oct 10. District-level panels set up by the EC to spot..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-10-11
The Hindu management has cut its bonus and incentive package for employees this festival sason because of the losses the company has suffered this year. Last year every employee received Rs 50K at bonus time, in past years the amounts have been different. This year employees have only been told..
Banned for telling the truth about riots?
IN Media Freedom | 2014-10-10
Shubhradeep Chakravorty's widow is planning to take the fight to screen his film on the Muzaffarnagar riots to the courts.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-10-10
In the feeding frenzy over the latest revelations about Sunanda Pushkar's death NewsX is breathlessly ahead, bringing us "exclusive pictures" of "significant bruises" on her body. What are state agencies doing leaking photographs gathered during forensic investigations? And what price our self-regulatory bodies on media regulation? ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-10-10
Narendra Modi has stopped taking the media with him on his overseas trips, except for PTI, AIR and DD journalists. Outlooks's Vinod Mehta writes in The Times of India that those who went to the US to cover the Modi visit "were all travelling at enormous personal expense". Excuse me,..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-10-09
MV Kamath, who died on October 9 morning at Manipal, was a Times group veteran for much of his career. A former editor of The Illustrated Weekly of India, he was also the Washington Correspondent for The Times of India in the 1970s and did a stint as editor of..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-10-09
The latest setback to the Bhaskar Group with regard to wage board pay scale implementation comes from the Gujarat High Court. It rejected the media house’s objection to the petition of Divya Bhaskar journalists for the implementation of the Majithia Commission’s wage board award, and said their petition was maintainable...
Media exposure and voter behaviour
IN Opinion | 2014-10-09
Recent research has tried to understand the link between media exposure and voting behavior based on election studies done since 1996.
Lessons in science popularization from MOM
IN Media Practice | 2014-10-09
Will scientific understanding of the planetary system and the universe lead to rational thinking and rejection of superstitions related to so-called impact of planetary movement on our lives?
Now protecting RTI from the judiciary?
IN Media Freedom | 2014-10-08
Numerous attempts have been made to amend or weaken the RTI but the latest came from an unusual quarter - the High Court of Madras. But this time too public opinion, through a vibrant media, has stymied it,
Is media painting a true picture of Assam's displaced Muslims?
IN Media Practice | 2014-10-08
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 Media Watch Briefs | 2014-10-08
The golden rule of ensuring that you have the correct news and don't rush to go on air with speculation merely to be the first, was violated by the TV channels on Tuesday. Even as the Jayalalitha bail plea was being heard in the Karnataka high court, several leading TV..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-10-08
It was strange to see the former Editor-in-chief of The Hindu, N. Ram, on different TV channels criticising the denial of bail to J Jayalalitha in the Karnataka high court today. He said she had behaved in an 'exemplary' way in jail and hence should have been given bail. Did..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-10-06
Close to a year after the Tehelka episode, The Indian Express has finally notified an internal committee on sexual harassment for its staff. This was made a requirement under the Vishaka Guidelines years ago, after a 1997 Supreme Court judgement. But several big media houses have still not complied. Organisations..
Media houses: how much disclosure?
IN Law and Policy | 2014-10-06
MEDIA REGULATION DEBATE: While useful, TRAI's recommendations on the media were insufficient. We can do much more to restore the media's credibility and one way to start is to impose a disclosure policy,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-10-05
When ABP Mhaza, the Marathi news channel, did a live telecast of Narendra Modi's rally in Mumbai on Satuday evening, it was the only one among the majors to acknowledge that the feed was from the BJP. Wonder why others fought shy of doing so...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-10-05
Bangalore Mirror reports that Shekhar Gupta, until recently vice chairman of the India Today group and still a consultant there, has floated a venture called Mediascape which will provide a range of content across media platforms as well as handle major events. The paper says the former editor of the Indian..
IN Media Practice | 2014-10-04
The second Urban Lens film festival in Bangalore dwelt on how the poor create space for themselves, and offered insights into urban development.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-10-03
The I and B minister Prakash Javadekar says disingeniously that Doordarshan carried a one hour telecast of an RSS function for the first time not because of any government diktat but simply because it is feeling more free than before. He said..
Another media regulation initiative
IN Law and Policy | 2014-10-03
In the first of its kind, a public hearing by the Law Commission on the future of media regulation drew forth divided opinions.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-10-02
V S Sampath Chief Election Commission has said there are complaints that media outlets are ignoring smaller political parties while the bigger ones get a lot more coverage, according to a report in Pudhari. He expected that this would be corrected. Elections are underway in Maharashtra and Haryana. ..
IN Media Practice | 2014-10-02
The Deepika Padukone cleavage row has exposed the TOI's belief that female celebrities are a collection of body parts.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-10-02
The Delhi High Court has issued notice to former Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan on a plea against its single bench decision setting aside the Election Commission's order holding him guilty of filing incorrect expenses for the 2009 Assembly elections. A two..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-10-01
Is the President taking his cue from the PM when he decides to start restricting the media delegation on his tours to just the official media? Pranab Mukherjee used to take a 20 plus media delegation on his tours but has now decided to only take along DD, AIR and..
From Modified America: visceral hate or fair criticism?
IN Media Practice | 2014-10-01
Some of the media coverage exposed the visceral hate Modi supporters attract in certain sections of the Indian and international media.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-09-30
Zee news carried this extraordinary news report on the episode involving Rajdeep Sardesai's physical tussle at the Madison Square Garden with Narendra Modi supporters. It began by asking what a Indian journalist's conduct should be on foreign soil, should he be giving space to those criticising the prime minister, and..
IN Regional Media | 2014-09-30
Jayalalithaa's conviction attracted some interesting coverage from Kannada news channels, particularly TV9.
IN Media Practice | 2014-09-29
The media hysteria was focused on everything except the strategic give and take.
IN Media Practice | 2014-09-29
A landmark case against Ashok Chavan has been dismissed by the Delhi High Court.
Cable digitization and the poor
IN Media Practice | 2014-09-27
A country that recognizes its extreme inequalities has to find ways to administer policy transition better,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-09-27
The Delhi High Court has restrained IIPM (Indian Institute of Planning and Management) from using the term 'management' for its courses. It has asked the institution to say prominently on its website that it is not recognised by any statutory body or authority. The court referred specifically to the "huge expenditure..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-09-27
In the past TV journalists accompanying the PM overseas managed a few minutes of airtime, sometimes hiring a local crew to hold a camera. Now that they are on their own, teams have flown to USA to cover Narendra Modi. Times Now, CNN-IBN, and Headlines Today are already there with..
What men women and children watch in rural and urban India
IN Research Studies | 2014-09-26
We are putting out raw data for researchers and media planners. The sampling is from focus group discussions and household surveys in five states.
IN Opinion | 2014-09-25
Never before have journalists had quite the same sense of being on their own where their access to information, and the protection of their freedom to function is concerned.
IN Media Practice | 2014-09-25
British journalists come from richer and more privileged backgrounds than ever before, a new study shows.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-09-25
The Times of India will be flattered at the quarters in which its obsession with women's bodies is sparking outrage. This article on Angelina Jolie and Britney Spears has drawn criticism from the Independent and the editor of Cosmopolitan for the body shaming it does. And of course the Deepika..
IN Media Practice | 2014-09-24
Secular liberals in the media don't realise that what seems "communal" to them - imagery, vocabulary, symbols - are merely the everyday idiolect of millions of Indians.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-09-23
Expect to read just about anything now in the Times of India. After actor Deepika Padukone took them on over a reference to her cleavage, they’ve turned vicious, with Bombay Times printing a story with revealing pictures of her, even as the text had mocking references to their cameras not zooming into..
IN Law and Policy | 2014-09-23
The question to ask is, would we want the CM to ban and unban channels at will? By which constitutional or legal authority is the CM of a state being bestowed such powers,
What Hindi press said about the assembly by-polls
IN Media Practice | 2014-09-23
The BJP's rout in the by-polls has come in for scathing criticism even in the Dainik Jagran.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-09-23
Shiv Sena's Saamana says media have been reporting talks between the party and BJP which were not even held, and accused them of distortions. Fortunately, it noted, when Gandhi and Jinnah met for their long talks, there were no TV crews outside second guessing what was being said by whom...
IN Opinion | 2014-09-22
The 2006 editorials on the Chinese premier's visit could have been reproduced with the names and dates changed and no one would have noticed the difference.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-09-21
Journalists can contibute to diplomacy when the occasion demands. With the interview billed as ‘India on the world stage’ Fareed Zakaria’s 'world exclusive’ on CNN was statesmanlike, not inquisitorial. He sought to set the stage for a state visit, hence all those questions on the India–US relationship. Hence also the..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-09-21
Two Indian correspondents in the US paint contrasting pictures of President Obama’s nominee for US ambassador to India. K P Nayar of the Telegraph says Richard Rahul Verma is a lightweight who is unlikely to have direct access to the President in..
The art of the political interview
IN Media Practice | 2014-09-20
Teasing something genuinely new out of a politician is a rare skill all over the world.
Gender representation and empowerment in DD serials
IN Research Studies | 2014-09-19
The current study attempts to analyze the fiction content of the public service broadcaster using the canvas of gender representation and development.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-09-19
Former DD news anchor Ajai Shukla tweeted that a Doordarshan news anchor has been sacked after she read"Xi Jinping" as "Eleven Jinping" on the late night news! The Hoot has now confirmed this with DD top brass...
IN Opinion | 2014-09-18
The use of the term "love jihad" by the media needs questioning, alongside other issues of why inflammatory remarks by politicians are reported and the treatment they are given.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-09-18
The prime minister had a birthday and the newspapers got no advertising from the party faithful wishing him? Now that is a change. The only ads on Wednesday were from the Gujarat and MP governments promoting local schemes or inviting investment, with the PM's pictures...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-09-18
TV Today's Kalli Purie has hit upon a new idea to market the brand. Bright red T-shirts with the logo of the TV channel have been distributed and all anchors and reporters have been made to click their photographs wearing those. These pictures are now being used as display pictures..
Using flood rescue for vested interests
IN Media Practice | 2014-09-17
The army's rescue operations in Jammu & Kashmir are being used as propaganda to bolster India's image.
PrasarBharati: Programme, demand mismatch
IN Research Studies | 2014-09-17
The challenge of public broadcasting - I: There is technological and programming mismatch between viewers' needs and Doordarshan's output,
Public broadcasting in Kalahandi and Kandhamal
IN Research Studies | 2014-09-16
The study was conducted in two phases to assess the viewer's perception and the impact of public broadcasting on disadvantaged groups.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-09-16
This government's reluctance to interact with journalists is leading to bizarre situations. This story says last week a journo (apparently from Mint) sat through a closed-door meeting between Power minister Piyush Goyal and state power ministers, in the guise of an event manager, leading to CCTV cameras now being installed..
Neglecting the environment at our peril
IN Regional Media | 2014-09-16
With Jammu & Kashmir deluged, should the media be doing more to cover the environmental issues that culminate in these disasters?
IN Media Practice | 2014-09-15
The national media did not quite capture the calamity of the Kashmir floods in all its myriad aspects, human, social and political.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-09-15
On July 5 this year Kajal Basu posted on Facebook that he was taking over as editor of Tehelka. Now he's quit. Its part owner K D Singh has not found a buyer for his stake in the company. Ten months after the magazine's fortunes went into a tailspin with..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-09-14
Deepika Padukone has blasted the Times of India for tweeting a video with a headline "OMG; Deepika Padukone's cleavage show" on Twitter. The actor tweeting from the handle has retorted by positing a series of tweets "Supposedly India's 'LEADING' newspaper and this is 'NEWS'!!?? She goes on to say: "Dont..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-09-14
On Sunday morning a NewsX reporter in Kashmir repeatedly referred to the Line of Control as 'the international border'. Will somebody from the Ministry of External Affairs enlighten him?..
Who will tick off the journos?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-09-13
The press reported that a government minister had handed out gifts to journalists after a press conference. The report says that this was a possible first, as its usually corporates and not the government that hands out freebies (sweeteners?). The press reported that the Prime Minister ticked off the minister..
IN Regional Media | 2014-09-12
The divisive climate in the newly created states is leading to a worrying new news dynamic which is never discussed.
Regulator, broadcaster, video entrepreneur
IN Opinion | 2014-09-11
One did not know whether to laugh or cry at the spectacle of mighty broadcasters like Star and Zee confronting the threat posed to them by pesky video entrepreneurs.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-09-11
Rajdeep Sardesai, former editor-in-chief of CNN IBN, is the India Today Group's latest acquisition. He will be doing a marquee show on Headlines Today and contribute to the revamp of the channel as consulting editor, said a report on indiatoday.in...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-09-10
Achal Vohra of NDTV reporting from a rescue chopper is seen literally thrusting her microphone at women who have barely been hauled up from rooftops in Srinagar onto the chopper, asking the most inane question - 'are you ok?'. The rescued victims have barely been able to even catch their..
IN Opinion | 2014-09-10
The Hindi press took the same stand as the English media on the Narendra Modi government's first 100 days in office, namely, measured praise.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-09-09
Economist Bibek Debroy tweeted about his mother-in-law’s new flat being available for rent. On the strength of just that the Economic Times carried this Third Eye snippet titled 'Planning Much Ahead'. It said that while there is only speculation so far about who will be on the new planning body, a..
IN Media Practice | 2014-09-08
Print provided rational assessments but the TV debates were mere sensation-mongering and that too, over trivia rather than real issues.
Media silence over Tripura scam
IN Media Practice | 2014-09-08
An order to Tripura schools to use their funds to buy books written by Chief Minister Manik Sarkar and former bureaucrat Sanjoy Kumar Panda is a scandal.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-09-08
The Hindu is getting ready to shift to a contract basis for its employees. They have been informed that it will be "voluntary" and they can choose whether they want to continue under the wage board or shift to contractual employment. Details of what this will constitute have not been..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-09-08
Journalists at the Delhi bureau of the Week have a new problem. Regardless of the nature of their work they have to clock in by 11 am. Nor can they leave for the day before 6 pm. If you need to attend a mid-morning press conference or go to Parliament, too bad...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-09-05
With his innings at Network 18 behind him, founder Raghav Bahl said news media is the most thankless business to be in. "You never make a friend, you only make enemies. And if you write something good about someone you are on the take." About high level exits at the..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-09-05
Aroon Purie, proprietor Living Media and TV Today said on Friday that Indian regulators were destroying the news industry with their populism and regressive ideas. The cable industry has to keep prices down, subscription income does not come, and paying carriage fees is killing the industry. And then TRAI has..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-09-05
According to Quartz India, Prime Minister Narender Modi has a bigger Twitter audience than The Times of India acquired from his handles @narendramodi and @PMOIndia. India's social media savvy PM has a Twitter audience of 8.5 million and growing, more than the combined readership of The Times of India, which..
Trust deficit persists on news on Community Radio
IN Community Media | 2014-09-05
But TRAI recommendations make some headway on licencing and advertising on community radio
IN Opinion | 2014-09-05
Everyone agrees it is too short a period and then goes to town criticising new governments for not doing enough in 100 days,
No escaping the surveillance state ?
IN Privacy | 2014-09-04
Indians are routinely subjected to government surveillance on a staggering scale -7500 to 9000 telephone interception orders by the Central Government each month!
Video: When the dish knocked down the antenna
IN Research Studies | 2014-09-04
The DTH revolution is sweeping India's villages and the public broadcaster Doordarshan is losing its rural audience to commercial DTH players.
No escaping the surveillance state?
IN Defamation | 2014-09-04
Indians are routinely subjected to government surveillance on a staggering scale -7500 to 9000 telephone interception orders by the Central Government each month!
The Twitter debate on grisly videos
IN Digital Media | 2014-09-03
The Steven Sotloff beheading has not been shown on social media, in line with Twitter deciding to remove the James Foley video. As social media increasingly set the news agenda,
IN Opinion | 2014-09-03
"When you start to take risks you know that it is pure luck that you didn't get killed there… It's not worth these things. It's not worth your life."
IN Books | 2014-09-01
What is monetarily beneficial for broadcasters is less so for viewers who earn very little, some of them reported cutting back on food and savings to meet the increased costs of watching television post digitisation.
Post-digitization changes in TV viewing patterns
IN Research Studies | 2014-09-01
Many families took a long time to switch over to the new regime, primarily because of the higher cost
What does Doordarshan telecast?
IN Research Studies | 2014-09-01
A one-month content mapping of five DD channels shows a consistent pattern in the programing priorities of the broadcaster. Entertainment predominates because Doordarshan is forced to earn its own revenues.
Public Service Broadcasting and the digital switchover
IN Research Studies | 2014-09-01
Has digitization changed television viewing in the country?Why have people migrated to digital signals? What are their programming needs?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-09-01
After two months of speculation about when the India Today masthead would change to reflect Shekhar Gupta's takeover there, it turns out it won't. Proprietor Aroon Purie sent around an internal mail which said that that they had agreed to "restructure our arrangement to our mutual benefit". Gupta is being..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-09-01
Public memory is indeed short. Soon after the Delhi gangrape case, there was a legitimate hue and cry about the Yo Yo Honey Singh whose lyrics were shown to be extremely vulgar and sexist. His rock show in Delhi was cancelled that December thanks to the protests. But in August-September..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-08-31
The much awaited TRAI recommendations on community radio were released last week but despite numerous demands from community radio stations (CRS), no headway was made on the contentious issue of independently-produced news on community radio. Instead, they can only use AIR news...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-08-27
A front-page Loksatta report today says leading Maharashtra newspapers are into pre-election paid news business. A Hindi newspaper is marketing its reach with data on its readership as voters. Another has stopped routine coverage of ticket aspirants unless Rs 1.5 - 2.5 lakh was forked out per constituency. Coverage of foundation-laying,..
IN Censorship | 2014-08-26
The censorship was bad enough, but now corruption has made a mockery of film certification in India
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-08-26
The Times group has raised staff hackles by appropriating their personal Twitter and Facebook accounts and has inserted clauses in service contracts to the effect that personal and company accounts are merged. According to reports, staff will have to post regular updates. Curiously, the company will continue to hold the account..
Our public intellectual spaces are women free
IN Media Practice | 2014-08-26
Why does the media never invite women to comment on publicly debated issues such as the reform of the Planning Commission,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-08-25
At a India Today conclave on women being telecast on Headlines Today, Rahul Kanwal, seated in the audience, popped THE question to Smriti Irani, the HRD Minister : the discrepancy in her affidavit on whether she was a graduate or not. In the first round , she evaded it saying she should be..
So where should the money come from?
IN Media Business | 2014-08-25
THE MEDIA REGULATION DEBATE: The TRAI report does not explain who is allowed to own or finance media, nor does it do enough homework.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-08-24
It is not only the non family members of the staff who are quitting the Hindu. A tweet on Sunday confirmed what has been rumoured for a while: that the Hindu’s Beijing correspondent Ananth Krishan is leaving the paper. Krishnan is the..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-08-24
The Navhind Times in Goa published an exclusive story on Sunday across five columns which said that the Pradesh Congress Committee president had been sacked by Congress president Sonia Gandhi. The Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) however issued a statement callling it baseless paid news planted by anti party activists. The statement also..
IN Digital Media | 2014-08-23
Humour and satire are flourishing on web-based portals that take the mickey out of Indian life, from spoofing Arnab Goswami to ridiculing Salman Khan's tweets.
Move over columnists and op-ed writers
IN Digital Media | 2014-08-23
Web videos are more powerful in sending out catchy messages and triggering debate.
IN Media Business | 2014-08-22
THE MEDIA REGULATION DEBATE : TRAI raises all the right issues. But it totally ignores the economic realities of the business. Without acknowledging those how can the Indian news media business get out of its mess,
IN Digital Media | 2014-08-21
A monkey clicks a photo. It goes viral. Does the monkey who grabbed the camera own the copyright or the photographer?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-08-21
Media, especially TV, refer to the post now denied to the Congress as LoP, whatever it means, while it ought to be LoO, short for Leader of Opposition. LoO probably sounds nasty? Sanjaya Baru, one time media advisor to former PM Manmohan Singh noted this on his Facebook wall...
IN Law and Policy | 2014-08-21
MEDIA REGULATION DEBATE : What is conspicuous by its absence in the TRAI recommendations is proposed measures to promote horizontal plurality and prevent horizontal consolidation
Book Extract: Nasreen's Tragic Tryst with Fame
IN Books | 2014-08-21
By conventional mass communication theories, media attention is a great force multiplier.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-08-20
A twin march towards the Red Zone by Imran Khan and cleric Taher Quadri in Islamabad in the late hours of August 19 and alleged reports of the Pakistani army laying seige to the PM's residence had the Indian channels scrambling for 'Live' feeds from Pakistani channels- the recently banned..
Anticipatory bail for editorial freedom
IN Law and Policy | 2014-08-19
THE MEDIA REGULATION DEBATE: TRAI's recommendations are a sort of anticipatory bail for editorial freedom.
IN Opinion | 2014-08-19
Leader writers were not at all convinced that the the new law is an improvement over the collegium system,
IN Media Practice | 2014-08-18
Zee News master class in bad reporting - interviewing the child of a woman who committed suicide.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-08-18
The RSS is reportedly eyeing the top chair of several cultural bodies, including the Indian Council of Cultural Relations, the Sangeet Natak Akademi and the Central Board of Film Certification. The latter has enough on its hands, as it deals with the embarrassment of the news of the CBI raid on..
IN Media Practice | 2014-08-17
The UK media's coverage of the conflict has aroused charges of a pro-Israeli bias and re-ignited issues of objectivity.
IN Media Practice | 2014-08-17
Detecting mistakes on the paper's op-ed pages produces rich pickings because of the casual attitude towards accuracy,
IN Opinion | 2014-08-16
They all either missed or refrained from latching on to the double entendre when Modi referred to himself, right at the start of the speech, as the pradhan sevak.
IN Law and Policy | 2014-08-15
THE MEDIA REGULATION DEBATE: Do TRAI's latest set of recommendations constitute regulatory overreach or an attempt at vital reform?
Pressure builds up for a regulator
IN Media Practice | 2014-08-15
Advocates of media regulation question the efficacy of the self-restraint exercised by the media and question its lack of accountability.
IN Media Freedom | 2014-08-14
The FIR against Telangana politician K Kavitha underlines the need to jettison this colonial-era law.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-08-14
That age plays a major role in employability is an unofficial truth but All India Radio is all set to make it official. It decided to drop 100 radio jockeys in Kolkata because they were on the wrong side of 30! The All India Radio Broadcasters’ Welfare Association, Kolkata (AIRBAWAK) and..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-08-14
Over 40 employees of Focus NE, a television station based in Guwahati, Assam, were either sacked or forced to resign as per management’s decision to “cut costs”, according to the Indian Journalists Union. They included journalists, newsroom staff and camera people...
IN Media Practice | 2014-08-13
The bold new trailer highlight prejudices against the north east.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-08-13
The Union ministry of Civil Aviation issued this press release to refute media reports that 'insinuated' that international airports in Tirupati, Vijawada and Vishakhapatnam were being built to woo voters. The truth was that the airport was being built as part of the reorganisation of the state, the release clarified...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-08-10
Queen Victoria died in the year 1901 at the age of 81. NewsX spent a good bit of time on Sunday afternoon hollering away about her “ life size 200-year-old statue” being vandalized by right wing goons in Lucknow. Two hundred years..
Whither Parrikar govt's sense of humour?
IN Censorship | 2014-08-09
First it criminalized dissent on social media, now it seeks to regulate 'tiatr', Goa's traditional satirical performances
Rajya Sabha supports banned Telangana channels
IN Regional Media | 2014-08-09
A debate on media freedom denounced the ban by MSOs in Telangana as unjustified.
IN Media Practice | 2014-08-09
Is Prime Minister Narendra Modi's reliance on social media amounting to a repudiation of the journalistic function,
The judiciary and free expression
IN Books | 2014-08-09
The Indian judiciary's approach to issues involving freedom of expression has been inconsistent over the past few years.
Whither Parrikar govt's sense of humour?
IN Media Freedom | 2014-08-09
First it criminalized dissent on social media, now it seeks to regulate 'tiatr', Goa's traditional satirical performances
IN Media Practice | 2014-08-07
Taken aback at the moral indignation over Facebook photos that people mistakenly thought depicted the Delhi gang rape,
IN Opinion | 2014-08-07
In assessing claims that Twitter has changed the way politics is practiced and the way journalists function, we need to remember a few things,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-08-06
Five journalists at Kurukshetra were seriously injured in a police lathi charge on Wednesday, August 6. They belong to the Hindustan Times, Tribune, PTC channel, Dainik Bhaskar, and Zee News. This happened during a clash between the police and the Haryana Sikh..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-08-06
NDTV footage comes handy
IN Media Practice | 2014-08-06
A paid encomium to a Mumbai MLA was happily published by four papers.
Mining mafia silence the media
IN Media Freedom | 2014-08-05
The sand mafia has enforced 'no reporting zones' but the media must not ignore environmental destruction.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-08-05
Is the Indian media too quick to categorize people by religion/community? The Times of India Reuters report on the resignation of UK foreign minister Baroness Warsi, in protest at her government's policy on Gaza, is headlined "UK's Muslim minister Sayeeda Warsi quits over govt's Gaza policy". In the Jerusalem Post the same..
IN Regional Media | 2014-08-05
Goa journalists use an awards function to decry falling standards and opportunism. These trends need to be discussed,
Mining mafia silence the media
IN Media Freedom | 2014-08-05
The sand mafia has enforced 'no reporting zones' but the media must not ignore environmental destruction.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-08-04
First, Prithviraj Chavan and Ajit Pawar went "missing" from Maharashtra government's advertisements boosting their respective parties' electoral prospects in the October Assembly polls. Then they returned on all, print and television, with a Rs 50 cr to Rs 95 cr advertising budget. Understandably, there is media silence on misuse of public..
IN Media Practice | 2014-08-04
A comic take on the proposed ban on sex education in schools exposes the urban elite's self-obsession,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-08-03
The channel logo on the right corner of the TV screen said NDTV India, that on the left was of Doordarshan. What on earth was going on? It was a feature on the country’s earliest newscasters, Salma Sultan, Gitanjali Aiyar and..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-08-03
Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhara Rao is riled at the media again, less than two months after resolutions were passed in the new Assembly against a Seemandhra channel for allegedly offensive coverage. This time it is a Times of India story that..
IN Opinion | 2014-08-03
Compare TV coverage of the Saharanpur riot with print's efforts and for once, the former did a better job. But look carefully at riot coverage in general and you find a double standard emerging,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-08-02
Swapan Dasgupta says in The Telegraph, "Not only has the media policy (of Narendra Modi) been replaced by an information policy where the print and electronic media are treated on par with the social media, there is no one in the PMO..
'Unconstitutional and administratively burdensome'
IN Censorship | 2014-07-31
The Information Technology (Intermediaries Guidelines) Rules raise serious concerns about how they can impinge the right to freedom of speech and expression.
'Unconstitutional and administratively burdensome'
IN Media Freedom | 2014-07-31
The Information Technology (Intermediaries Guidelines) Rules raise serious concerns about how they can impinge the right to freedom of speech and expression.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-07-31
Reporter to Digvijaya Singh on alleged snooping on Gadfkari: "What have you to say?" Digvijaya, apparently somewhat lost: "Now that Minister himself has said there wasn't any snooping, there's no issue."Reporter: "Would you still insist on a probe?" Digvijaya Singh, after some thought:: "Yes, the duo from Gujarat..
A sting without public interest is a crime
IN Law and Policy | 2014-07-30
In a recent judgement the Supreme Court shed light on this grey area.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-07-29
P Sainath who broke Ashok Chavan's 'paid news' story had reported "they were not marked as advertisements" in the newspapers. Now Chavan's lawyer, Kapil Sibal has told the Delhi High Court "Chavan was not aware of these advertisements and the publishers have..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-07-28
The New York Times has suddenly seen fit to editorialise on the state of press freedom in India, cobbling together a variety of developments over the past twelve months and bunging in the question of transparency of media ownership as well. An edit based on Googling, if ever there was one...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-07-28
The Hindu carried a report on July 26 titled, 'Delhi government school denies admission to two Muslim girls.'The story goes into the problems a father is having admitting two daughters to the senior classes of any government school, but there is nothing in the account linking the problem to their..
Enough bad faith and weasel words
IN Media Practice | 2014-07-28
It's time for a fresh look at the pressing need for a regulator for the broadcast media. The government's fence-sitting and the media's delaying tactics have to stop,
Shiv Sena MPs and the roti fiasco
IN Media Practice | 2014-07-25
Was the communal aspect a belated discovery of the national media? Was there a broader context to the incident which explains the very different reporting by the Marathi press,
Tackling private censorship in media
IN Censorship | 2014-07-24
But is editorial discretion passing into the hands of the proprietor? Corporate owner or family owner, censorship is increasingly becoming the owner's prerogative,
Tackling private censorship in media
IN Opinion | 2014-07-24
But is editorial discretion passing into the hands of the proprietor? Corporate owner or family owner, censorship is increasingly becoming the owner's prerogative,
How digitisation impacts farm telecasts
IN Media Practice | 2014-07-23
Kisan shows are put out on terrestrial transmitters when many villages have switched to cable or DTH.
The bylines that refuse to go gently...
IN Media Practice | 2014-07-21
Some long time columnists have become predictable and stale after years of opinionating.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-07-21
This Firstpost article lists four reasons given by PM Modi himself to explain why he will not take a media contingent on foreign trips. One, it is a new age in which journalists' requirement of news and information can be met instantaneously wherever they are..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-07-19
Another weekly edition of India Today has come out with no change in the masthead since Shekhar Gupta joined a few weeks ago. Though he is designated vice chairman and editor in chief of the news properties of the group, he does not figure as yet on the magazine's masthead...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-07-19
The Election Commission of India now says that the paid news is not an illegal activity. “First of all paid news is not an illegal activity. Secondly, laws related to paid news are very weak and mostly importantly, there is no law to deal with political parties in..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-07-19
Makes sense if a joint interview indicates which of the interviewees responded to which question. Or else it confuses the reader for two persons cannot say everything in unison, word to word. But The Times of India doesn't think it mattered. The Q&A on its edit page with CS Krishna..
Is farm broadcasting going waste?
IN Books | 2014-07-18
When current farm telecasts miss their targets on account of power cuts and wrong scheduling, is a Rs 100 crore farm channel going to help,
Private censorship and the right to hear
IN Media Freedom | 2014-07-17
Very little recourse is available against publishers or intermediaries if these private parties censor an author's content unreasonably,
Private censorship and the right to hear
IN Media Freedom | 2014-07-17
Very little recourse is available against publishers or intermediaries if these private parties censor an author's content unreasonably,
No surprises in budget editorials
IN Opinion | 2014-07-16
With the odd exception, the commentaries on the budget in the Hindi daily newspapers conformed to their known partisan positions,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-07-16
Even by Times Nows' standards a new low had been breached. Sample this diatribe between anchor Arnab Goswami and Ved Pratap Vaidik, free-lance journalist, who met terrorist Hafiz Saeed in Lahore last month. Goswami, screeching: "YOU are not an active journalist. I AM an active journalist. YOU are not, I..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-07-16
Meanwhile on NDTV India, anchor Ravish Kumar points out to Ved Pratap Vaidik that he is using the more respectful 'unko' rather the more informal 'usko' when referring to the terrorist Hafiz Saeed. Vaidik replies that courtesy and respect are the hallmark of Indian journalism...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-07-16
Ved Pratap Vaidik who is hogging TV time after his meeting with Hafeez Saeed was seen being pulled off by the TV crew of another channel even as he was speaking on Karan Thapar's To The Point on Headlines Today. A bewildered Vaidik had his ear plug and mics replaced...
IN Opinion | 2014-07-15
What message is the appointment of Amit Shah as BJP president sending?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-07-15
Pune now has an English-language weekly, Rs 5 per copy, its main section a broadsheet, the leisure part tabloid, with an unlikely name of The Golden Sparrow, edited by Abhay Vaidya, former editor, DNA, Pune and once Times of India's Washington Correspondent. TGS also uses copy from New York Times,..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-07-15
A top anchor of CCTV, the state broadcaster, has been detained for allegedly being at the centre of a paid news scam. Rui Chenggang anchored a business show and also owned shares at a public relations company which sold slots on his show to high profile business personalities. Corporate leaders..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-07-14
Former Hindu resident editor (Delhi) Praveen Swami's farewell letter to his colleagues is being energetically forwarded. He says he decided to use his energies "doing journalism, not fighting battles that serve no purpose for anyone. I owe an apology to the fine young reporters as well as eminent senior colleagues,..
Softly, softly on Jaitley's Budget
IN Media Practice | 2014-07-12
The morning after what many people thought was an uninspiring Budget,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-07-11
Resident Edior Praveen Swami and Rural Affairs Editor P Sainath have both quit the Hindu. It is not known if their resignations have been accepted...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-07-11
DNA published a hard hitting opinion piece on Amit Shah by Rana Ayyub, formerly of Tehelka, earlier this week. It was titled 'A new low in Indian politics.' On July 11 it was pulled down. People in the paper cited "orders from the top"...
The odd case of India TV and Tanu Sharma
IN Media Business | 2014-07-11
Unanswered questions swirl around the former India TV anchor's allegations of harassment at work which sections of the media have chosen not to explore,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-07-11
Union Minister for Commerce Nirmala Sitharaman claims to have been conned into participating in a Budget Day TV discussion by Zee Business. In a series of angry tweets the Minister said, "Shocked to see me as a part of a ZBusiness panel. Was a one on one with anchor which has..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-07-10
Given the general hoopla over the Budget, Amit Shah's elevation as BJP president generated few editorials. You would have thought that some sober press comment was merited on the choice, and what it signals. But only two newspapers wrote, and the Hindustan Times amazingly said not a word about the..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-07-10
Anchors have it both ways. Aruna Roy, as yet unaware of budgetary details on MNREGA to comment, told Arnab Goswami on his #SuperBudget show that she had not been keen on participating, he shot back, "You are not obligated to". It would be interesting to know how many times his..
IN Opinion | 2014-07-10
Telescoping a multi-faceted railway budget into a visual of zooming bullet trains is a lot easier than trying to understand facts and figures and interpreting them for viewers,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-07-10
On July 9 Karan Thapar did what other anchors ought to so the TV debates are understood by the viewers. He turned down BJP's Rajiv Pratap Rudy's microphone volume on the To The Point show when he kept talking even when another panelist's turn came. It avoided the cacophony...
Do we really need a railway budget?
IN Opinion | 2014-07-09
The one that railway minister Sadananda Gowda delivered was so short of specifics that edit writers were forced to focus on such cosmic questions.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-07-09
Radha Kapoor, daughter of YES Bank promoter Rana Kapoor, has invested in acquiring 40 per cent stake in Business World magazine. Last year exchange4media promoter Anurag Batra and investment banker Vikram Jhunjhunwala bought the fortnightly magazine from the ABP group...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-07-08
Last week there was a video on YouTube of Rajdeep Sardesai making an informal farewell speech, standing in the CNN IBN newsroom surrounded by colleagues. He talks about what a good team he had, how terrible he feels about the sackings last year which he could not stop, what he..
Liberalisation, consumerism and Indian TV commercials
IN Books | 2014-07-05
India today is, thus, a wealthier nation, a more Hindu nation, and a nation that is more confident and proud of its past and present than it was in the nineteen eighties,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-07-05
In news writing, all numbers under ten are spelt out, but The Hindu quotes Omar Abdullah saying "2 Central projects, 1 rail, and 1 power". This was not any lift from a restrictive 140-character tweet but what he said in an exclusive interview to Suhasini Haider. Horror of horrors, it was in the..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-07-05
Firstpost, a property of Network 18, merely carried Rajdeep Sardesai's farewell letter to IBN network colleagues without comment. The was led by a blurb which included he "encouraged people to take up journalism"...
What Sandberg and Modi didn't talk about
IN Media Freedom | 2014-07-04
Facebook's violation of privacy and ethics in its 'emotional contagion' research is causing a furore yet does not seem to have figured in Narendra Modi's talks with Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-07-04
Rajdeep Sardesai and Sagarika Ghose have sent out separate letters to staff at CNN IBN and IBN 7 announcing their departures. Hers is a sunnier mail, saying she is quitting to try something more challenging. Sardesai says "editorial independence and integrity have been articles of faith in 26 years in..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-07-04
On July 4 afternoon all the news channels were chasing the Iraq nurses' release story, some via a correspondent in Iraq. But Doordarshan was chasing the prime minister in Kashmir as he inaugurated a rail link. More constructive, doubtless...
What Sandberg and Modi didn't talk about
IN Digital Media | 2014-07-04
Facebook's violation of privacy and ethics in its 'emotional contagion' research is causing a furore yet does not seem to have figured in Narendra Modi's talks with Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg.
Kerala students' question: Can happiness exist only in acceptance?
IN Censorship | 2014-07-03
Kerala's history of politicized campuses may soon be a thing of the past, as curbs on student activity increase.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-07-03
After over a dozen job cuts in Pune and Bangalore and creating a centralised desk in Mumbai, DNA is now targeting Mumbai staffers with pre-dated and pre-drafted letters which say that they prefer their company's wage structure, over getting the Majithia Wage Board's recommendations. The draft waiver (Hoot has a..
IN Regional Media | 2014-07-03
When the Jagannath Yatra is on, almost nothing else figures on Odisha's main channels.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-07-02
The Doordashan DG's term is over and contenders for his job include four IAS officers, an income tax commissioner, a professor, a scientist and a charge sheeted DD correspondent. And a bunch of internal candidates who are senior DD bureaucrats. Is a new government alive to the power of..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-07-02
The Hindu had a report (July 2) on how stamp vendors' licences were cancelled after a TV sting. Lots of details given about the misdemeanour and the action taken. Why not name the channel that did the public this service?..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-07-01
An interesting sidelight has emerged about the Mumbai Press Club discussion last week on the book Gas Wars, for which Reliance declined to send a representative. They did not want to take part, but asked to be able to record it, a request which the Press Club declined...
IN Opinion | 2014-06-30
Sometimes the press shows up in full strength at an event, asks lively questions --- and then nothing appears the next day.
Article 19(1)(a): A Medical Report
IN Media Practice | 2014-06-30
The right to free speech belongs to journalists and not to media owners.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-06-29
Watching BBC Panorama on the News of the World affair (June 29) tells one that a public broadcaster both free to and willing to do its job can take on the prime minister, police and press more effectively than a private channel will. The programme was unsparing of PM Cameron,..
IN Media Practice | 2014-06-29
The acquittal of former tabloid editor and Rupert Murdoch aide Rebekah Brooks in the phone hacking trial that has convulsed Britain, has caused an uproar.
IN Regional Media | 2014-06-28
There has been a furore in the newly created Telangana over allegedly biased reporting by two news channels, which have since been blockaded by cable operators in the state.
What is India up to in the UN?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-06-28
A resolution on Internet and Human Rights that people enjoy the same human rights online and offline was adopted by the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) but China's attempt to bring in a last-minute amendment on online censorship was voted down. India abstained from this crucial vote on the amendment...
How the media helped scuttle Gopal Subramaniam's appointment
IN Media Practice | 2014-06-28
The truly astonishing aspect of this episode is the fact that the Central Government achieved its goal without having a single one of its ministers or bureaucrats speak on the record.
'The negative media campaign just crushed us'
IN Media Practice | 2014-06-27
Yogendra Yadav tells PARANJOY GUHA THAKURTA and MOHAMMAD GHAZALI in the second part of their interview with him.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-06-27
A driver allegedly rapes a "minor". Who is he? A driver of a "reigning Bollywood superstar". Who is the minor? A "maid"of a "celebrity". Her employer? "The wife of a cricketer-turned-politician, a former Congress MP". That is the puzzle hidden in the Times of India news item. Hardly any..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-06-27
Very curious. The Mumbai Mirror story on the resignation of the CEO of SAP Lab Anirban Dey for allegedly spamming colleagues with another email account refers to the alleged lack of action over an assault between senior executives. But nowhere in the report do we learn who assaulted whom and why...
'Channels and editors were arm twisted'
IN Media Practice | 2014-06-26
Says Aam Aadmi Party leader and political analyst Yogendra Yadav while deconstructing Narendra Modi's"perefectly executed" election campaign
Batting for Mukesh, Nita and Modi on Twitter
IN Digital Media | 2014-06-24
Tweets from the Reliance crowd populate Twitter. Theirs is another take on the service this company and its owners do the nation.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-06-23
Newspapers continue to soft pedal on news concerning media houses. An IndiaTV anchor putting a suicide note on Facebook and then attempting suicide should be news by the yardstick of the current tabloidised media. But the Hindu reported it without mentioning the name of the TV channel, it named the..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-06-21
The Bangalore and Pune editions of DNA have seen job cuts as the result of a rationalisation exercise which has moved some operations of these editions to the headquarters in Mumbai. Some 13 people from the editorial and design teams including a couple of special correspondents were among those who..
Tehelka owner K D Singh raided
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-06-21
On Friday June 20 the income tax department began conducting raids of the home and office premises in different cities of the businessman and Trinamool Congress MP K D Singh. The raids were being conducted in Delhi, Chandigarh and Kolkata among other places. One of Singh's companies hold 65 per..
IN Opinion | 2014-06-21
Since everyone is expressing their views on Facebook and Twitter anyway - and often better ones than the biased views in edits?
63 civil society groups call for UN to protect online free speech
IN Media Freedom | 2014-06-20
Trust in the Internet is conditional on respect for the rights to freedom of expression and privacy online, regardless of users' nationality or location.
When media threatens democracy
IN Media Practice | 2014-06-20
Dominant media in Andhra Pradesh, with close links to the Telugu Desam Party, has for years showed contempt for all things Telangana.
Abusive media vs angry legislature
IN Regional Media | 2014-06-19
Telugu channel TV9's sarcastic and scathing coverage of events in the new Telangana legislature has set the stage for a legal confrontation.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-06-19
Anything goes these days in news reports, it seems. In this DNA piece on the BJP going silent after coming to power the writers say, Subramaniam Swamy, who tweeted endlessly with often bizzare allegations, seems to have developed arthritis of his thumb...
Respect Telangana, or go off the air
IN Regional Media | 2014-06-18
Early days yet, but already two Seemandhra TV channels have been blockaded for hurting the sentiments of Telangana's legislators and, apparently, its cable operators.
How to make dissent 'anti-national'
IN Media Freedom | 2014-06-17
Selective witch-hunting by those in power against those who challenge this power will result in the clamping down of all expression of dissent.
IN Media Freedom | 2014-06-17
First GEO TV's top anchor suffered an assassination attempt, now Pakistan's leading private channel fights for its survival against the military establishment.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-06-17
Did the Uttar Pradesh Director General of Police want his two constables who tried to molest a woman to continue getting the thrashing they got from infuriated locals? If you read this report in the ToI, that's the impression one gets. A officer who tried to save them was "sent..
Killing us softly : Soft censorship in the media
IN Censorship | 2014-06-16
Soft censorship promotes positive coverage ofâ€"and punishes media outlets that criticizeâ€"officials or their actions.
Preposterous IB report, plodding media response
IN Opinion | 2014-06-15
Newspapers responded slowly, and with insufficient outrage, to the absurd claim in an IB report that foreign funded NGOs like Greenpeace were a threat to the Indian economy.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-06-15
Akshay Kumar on Headlines Today, on Star Trek show, promoting his movie Holiday complained news TV channels ask the same questions and there aren't many ways to answer them. Producers ask actors to go out to studios to speak but it gets boring. No actor says acting in the movie being..
IN Opinion | 2014-06-14
After Modi's maiden speech in Parliament, the editorial writers were taken totally aback and only three of them recovered their wits quickly enough to write sensible edits.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-06-14
When Sardar Sarovar's holding capacity goes up from 1.25 acre feet to 4.75 acre feet, it means it goes up by 3.8 times, not a mere 74 per cent, as reported by The Indian Express. Either the paper or the Narmada Control Authority which cleared the dam height to 138.62..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-06-13
The Economic Times poured scorn today on the controversial 2013 Indian Readership Survey, which placed TOI's readership below rival HT's in the Delhi-NCR region. In a report bitingly titled, "All Down&Out, HT Up&Out -- Media Industry Foxed", it questioned the HT's figures in every category and had the Times Group's..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-06-13
The Maharashtra legislature may tighten the code of conduct for journalists covering their proceedings. This follows Assembly Speaker Dilip Walse Patil examining records of Home Minister RR Patil's speech in Council, with media reporting the latter as saying there would be rapes even if policemen were stationed in each home,..
IN Opinion | 2014-06-12
The past fortnight has underscored the triumph of media proprietors over media stars.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-06-11
A Pune court has ordered that Dr Anand Yadav's two novels, Santsurya Tukaram and Loksakha Gyaneshwar, be pulped and fined the author, and his publisher Mehta Publishig House, Rs 20,000 each. They will appeal to the Sessions Court. The order follows suits by Tukaram's descendants that the narratives were fictitious at..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-06-11
Three years after journalist J Dey was gunned down in Powai, chargesheets are being filed against 10 persons, including journalist Jigna Vora, Chhota Rajan and his aides Vinod Asrani alias Chembur and Paulson. TOI reports that the crime branch has filed two chargesheets before the special MCOCA court on June..
IN Books | 2014-06-10
The word"aspiration" acquires a termite-like quality in 'Anticipating India'. It keeps surfacing in every possible context over its 516 pages,
A defamation litigation update
IN Media Practice | 2014-06-09
What happens to the defamation cases instituted against media outlets? The Hoot attempts an update of the status of those filed in recent years.
Bangladesh media on the Indian elections
IN Media Practice | 2014-06-07
Dominant in every media piece is the underlying concern of what a Modi government might do to Bangladesh.
Tacit support to free speech attacks?
IN Media Freedom | 2014-06-06
The new government's silence on the spate of attacks on free speech is ominous.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-06-06
The Mumbai Press Club's annual Redink awards for journalism will be a star-studded affair. While the occasion will see a timely debate on whether the media stoked the NaMo wave, the chief guests are the state governor, and the new I & B minister. The list of sponsors is revealing:..
Tacit support to free speech attacks?
IN Media Freedom | 2014-06-06
The new government's silence on the spate of attacks on free speech is ominous.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-06-05
Both the Hindustan Times and Times of India have the story of Modi's meeting with Obama in September on page 1 marked as "Exclusive". Another "exclusive" on HT's front page is a story on Delhi officials learning the Gujarat model of governance, which figures in ToI as single column PTI..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-06-05
Media will debate this in Mumbai on June 7: 'Elections 2014: Were We Fair, Or Did We Stoke the NaMo Wave?' The key speakers will be Arnab Goswami, Rajdeep Sardesai and other senior journalists in discussion with Uday Shankar, CEO of Star India, and Piyush Pandey, chairman of Ogilvy and..
IN Media Practice | 2014-06-04
Did Narendra Modi really discard the traditional electoral ploys of caste and religion in his campaign, as the media claims?
IN Opinion | 2014-06-03
Every single editorial on the creation of Telangana in the major newspapers said exactly the same thing.
Give us more value than just press releases
IN Digital Media | 2014-06-03
A media organisation that wants to be more than a pin board for corporations seeking publicity ought to use the press release as the starting point for building a news story,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-06-03
The Hoot learns that employees of Dainik Bhaskar at their regional bureaux are being asked by their bosses to sign profomas saying that they not want to be paid salary scales according to the Majithia wage board. Some are signing, some are not...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-06-02
Shekhar Gupta could not have had a better run at the Indian Express if he had owned it, though he had a not insignificant stake in the company. While he made it the newspaper you would choose if you were allowed only..
Spare us over-the-top TV anchors
IN Media Practice | 2014-06-02
Does 'freedom of the press' give them the right to play judge, jury and executioner? The right to insult and scorn? Is that their role?
Raghav Bahl: felled by his own philosophy?
IN Media Business | 2014-05-31
That he did not expect Mukesh Ambani to formalise control is evident from the Think India Foundation set up last year and his plans for it.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-05-31
Here is a conspiracy theory about how the eBay founder Pierre Omidyar's Omidyar Networks had a role in pushing along the new PM's convictions on opening up E commerce in India. The politics of the writer is clear, but interesting nevertheless. ..
IN Media Business | 2014-05-30
One of the recent irritants in the run up to RIL's formal takeover of Network 18 and TV 18 has been the coverage of AAP by its news channels.
IN Media Practice | 2014-05-30
Shows such as these by their nature and their in-depth discussions should be the norm, yet they are exceptions in our 24X7 news world,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-05-30
The Times of India reported that Rajnath Singh, new Home Minister, wants to make NPR and Aadhar "'complementary'' so as to eliminate any duplicity" between the two. The largest circulated English language newspaper should know the difference between 'duplicity" and 'duplication"...
IN Opinion | 2014-05-29
If practical utility for low income families is one aspect of public broadcasting, quality programming is another. Being responsive to audience needs does not require more autonomy,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-05-28
Major changes will be announced at Network 18 in the next few days. Raghav Bahl who founded TV 18 is expected to quit even as some clauses in the agreement between Reliance and him are to become operational soon. Meanwhile the group..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-05-28
There is much consternation in the US press over Time magazine carrying a very small Verizon advertisement on its cover. The New York Times reports that the magazine publisher will run small ads on the covers of the Time and Sports Illustrated magazines from now on. The media focused press..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-05-28
Looks like the writers at the Economic Times lack a basic sense of geometry. In an article about Article 370 and in an attempt to write a clever headline they wrote "MoS Singh Turns 360° on Article 370". Somebody please inform them that if one turns 360° they will come..
IN Regional Media | 2014-05-28
So how did Hindi newspapers respond to the cabinet formation and what does it think of Team Modi?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-05-27
If there is one channel that Modi has not been charitably inclined towards it is NDTV. Its Hindi channel did not endear itself to him further when it goofed in describing his Monday visit to Rajghat thus: "Modi ki samadhi par Narendra Modi". Even as snapshots of it went viral,..
Is "Right-wing Hindu-nationalist" balanced and fair reporting?
IN Media Practice | 2014-05-26
When we allow this flavour of reporting to go unchallenged we unwittingly weaken India's ability to negotiate with the world on our own terms.
Reporting child sexual abuse in India
IN Books | 2014-05-26
In 10.5 % of all the cases either the victim, the abuser or both are identified through the reporting of the newspapers as they tend to report minute details,
IN Regional Media | 2014-05-26
In Kashmir it is killing and killing alone that make the five 'W's and one 'H' for journalists most of the times,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-05-26
The Press Information Bureau (PIB) is working overtime to accommodate the media keen to have a front row seat at today's swearing-in ceremony. While the PIB has been given limited passes, the BJP has given it the names of another 100 have-to-be-invited media persons. Then there is the issue of..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-05-26
Trying to beat deadlines without proofing can be risky. On Sunday (May 25) the Hindustan Times in a three-column graphic visualising the seating arrangements at Rashtrapati Bhavan for Prime Minister-designate Narendra Modi's swearing-in ceremony, had a big blooper. The central seating is labelled, 'Heads of States (sic) and their Outrage'...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-05-25
Anticipating Prime Minister-designate Narendra Modi ' s new cabinet Times Now's 'Breaking News ' ticker ran like this on Sunday prime time: Modi's new government? List to President to be sent? Rajnath and Jaitley to get top berths? Sushma Swaraj Karia Munda..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-05-25
Meanwhile on a panel discussion, 'Great Expectations' on NDTV, former Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari, the darling of the media until very recently, did not appear to get his fair share of talk time. Maybe that's why he looked so..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-05-24
Funds are being raised for a film being made on the missing MH370. Those who are determined to understand the disappearance of the plane are asking people to contribute for a film titled "Malaysia 370" which will be based on the actual events of the lost flight and the most popular..
The media's blackout continent
IN Media Practice | 2014-05-24
In the six weeks of super-charged election coverage, some of the big stories from Africa were ignored, brushed aside or given lip-service coverage.
The flutter over Modi's invite
IN Media Practice | 2014-05-24
It was such a cunning move that even the 'Hindu' was obliged to offer grudging praise, but read too much into it.
Filtering porn sites - a workable solution?
IN Censorship | 2014-05-23
In some countries, the installation of software and filters are seen as an answer to an outright ban of porn but the results have been mixed, censoring a range of content.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-05-22
In a slot called Rediff Labs, rediff.com compares the ethics and education of Prime Minister -designate Narendra Modi with other political candidates who fought the Varanasi Lok Sabha seat. While it pegs Arvind Kejriwal ethics as 'controversial'; both BJP's Modi and Congress' Ajai Rai get an 'excellent'. Rai is a..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-05-22
The Times Group is selective in its faith in industry numbers. On the one hand the Mumbai edition of the Times of India has gone off ABC, the print circulation figures put out by the Audit Bureau of Circulation. On the other, it relentlessly hammers away with industry figures which..
IN Media Practice | 2014-05-22
The complaint addressed by the Ministry of Defence against Geo TV to Pemra is as extreme and excessive as Geo's own live telecast of an unverified statement alleging the involvement of ISI and its DG in the attack on Hamid Mir.
Did the media manufacture consent in this election?
IN Media Practice | 2014-05-22
Is the press so powerful in India that it is able to manufacture consent?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-05-21
How was G Parthasarathy on the 9 pm bulletin both in Rajedeep Sardesai's and Barkha Dutt's programmes on Wednesday night? Amending our earlier brief which said both appeared to be 'Live' programmes. We did not look close enough: CNN IBN said live, and NDTV did not. They did not..
Legislating for Privacy - Part II
IN Privacy | 2014-05-20
Apart from the conflation of commercial data protection and privacy, the right to privacy bill has ill-informed and poorly drafted provisions to regulate surveillance.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-05-20
Along with the new government at the Centre, things are also changing in the virtual world. The tweets from the Twitter account of the PMO during Manmohan Singh's government can now be found under the @PMOIndiaArchive handle. Looks like it will be a fresh start for the @PMOIndia Twitter account..
The media does not care about issues that affect migrants
IN Media Practice | 2014-05-20
Instead of discussing the Indian migrants' expectations from Modi the TV channel suggested that the media and governments in the Gulf were worried about his victory.
Brand Modi: a political marketing revolution
IN Media Practice | 2014-05-20
The 2014 election campaign would go down in history as the first one where digital crowdsourcing played a key role in shaping speeches.
IN Digital Media | 2014-05-19
MPs, who spoke up against the draconian provisions of the IT Act, are now in government
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-05-19
Barely 24 hours after the Lok Sabha results were out, the art and culture cell of the BJP announced that they would make a wing exclusively devoted to promoting films themed on 'Indian' traditions and culture, like DDLJ, to counter the 'degradation' over the last few years!..
IN Media Practice | 2014-05-19
As early as mid-day on May 16, it became clear that India neither had an Opposition worth talking about, nor did it have an independent media.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-05-18
The Hindu carried a fairly damning piece on Rahul Gandhi’s method of functioning on May 18, on its editorial page. If such assessments had been offered earlier it might have jolted the Congress and the Gandhi family into facing up to his performance deficit. But until this rout, reporting on him in..
IN Opinion | 2014-05-18
The Pioneer said that far from being a divisive figure, Narendra Modi had actually united a very diverse set of voters. And the Hindu preached to the PM elect.
Explaining an amazing election
IN Media Practice | 2014-05-18
But is it indeed only one man's victory or a victory derived from the first past the post system that our parliamentary democracy follows?
IN Media Practice | 2014-05-17
Many, many opinions, and some facts too, on news channels as the results of a hotly contested election are announced.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-05-17
Narendra Modi performed pooja at Kashi Vishwanath temple but the single overhead camera kept him out of the frame. It occasionally showed the top of his head, mostly a part of his hand. They resorted to arrows, here's his hand, here's Modi! Looks like the feed was from the live..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-05-16
Arun Jaitley's defeat is proof, if any were needed that friendly media coverage and visits by journalists galore to your constituency cannot help you get elected...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-05-16
The exit poll which came closest to the mark turns out to be the News 24-Today's Chanakya one, on May 12. It predicted 340 seats for the NDA, plus minus 14. The Times Now-ORG poll was the most off the mark...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-05-16
The Indian Express reported in a page one anchor on May 16 the details of how the I and B ministry put DD, AIR and all other media under it to work to ensure a Congress re-election. With the party headed for its lowest tally ever, we know now for..
IN Opinion | 2014-05-15
Horse race coverage is fuelled by a growth in political polling. There are strong news industry compulsions for adopting this mode of election reporting.
Modi-Times Now interview and the issue of language
IN Media Practice | 2014-05-15
Will we continue to have interviews in which the head of a state will speak in Hindi while being asked questions in English?
Exit poll 2014: yet another manufactured media jamboree?
IN Media Practice | 2014-05-14
At 6.30 pm on May 12, the exit polls burst through on TV channels. The only problem was that the range was so wide that the numbers only indicated who was winning.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-05-14
Amit Shah, Narendra Modi's aide, stayed inscrutably silent whenever media chased him since 2002. Now, he is available, softly explaining a point of view on TV chat shows. When can, he takes a dig at the media with a smile. He even attended the Idea Exchange of The Indian Express...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-05-14
The Indian Express Newspapers Worker Union has decided to protest against the Indian Express Limited for not implementing the Majithia Wage board as directed by the Supremem Court. Since May 9, the employees have been wearing black badges in protest and one of them is on indefinite hunger strike. They..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-05-13
Of the total 3053 notices for paid news issued to candidates by the Election Commission during the campaigning for the 16th Lok Sabha polls, at least 694 cases of paid news were confirmed. Over 2000 notices were issued in Andhra Pradesh alone, the EC said...
A media role in Modi's success?
IN Media Practice | 2014-05-13
All those who are saying that TV has made difference are ignoring the scale of the ground campaign run by Modi, which was much larger than that of any other party.
Hate speech a 'winner' in LS polls?
IN Media Freedom | 2014-05-12
Almost every party indulged in the use of vitriol, which may not have directly exhorted violence but definitely lowered the tone and tenor of the debate.
Fooling viewers and advertisers?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-05-12
Directions issued by the Election Commission on exit polls say clearly that they can only be aired on May 12, from 6.30 pm onwards, that is, after the end of voting. So how come channels are promising exit polls from 5.00 pm? Explanation: they will give numbers only after 6.30..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-05-12
We thought campaigning for the last phase of elections officially stopped on May 10, 2014 but the media doesn't get it. On the final polling day when Modi is a candidate Headlines Today, Aaj Tak, NDTV and CNN IBN all aired his message. Draped in an orange-reddish shawl, despite searing..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-05-12
Taking a leaf out of Narendra Modi’s technological edge Times Now is also going 3D. On counting day, the channel will be transmitting its reporters out in the field back into its studios for a face-to-face virtual ‘visual experience’ with editor-in-chief, Arnab Goswami. Now isn't the idea of sending reporters..
Hate speech a 'winner' in LS polls?
IN Media Practice | 2014-05-12
Almost every party indulged in the use of vitriol, which may not have directly exhorted violence but definitely lowered the tone and tenor of the debate.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-05-12
Ajay Rai triggered a storm this morning, wearing his party symbol on his kurta when in queue to vote in Varanasi. Soon after, TVs screamed he had 'flashed' it and also 'talked' to reporters. Did he invite the reporters to talk to him there?..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-05-11
On the last campaign day in Varanasi at one of the several on-site TV discussions, Union Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said the fight was not between his party and BJP or AAP but "all of the media against Congress". ..
National Media: Eighth wonder of the world
IN Media Practice | 2014-05-10
Did you know that along with Parliamentary elections in Odisha, state assembly elections are also being held? If yes then we congratulate you for being well informed.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-05-09
The editor in chief of the Hindu has confirmed that Pakistan has asked the Hindu correspondent in Islamabad Meena Menon to leave in a week's time and no reason has been given. The PTI correspondent Snehesh Alex Philip has also been asked to leave on the same terms...
IN Media Practice | 2014-05-09
From the moment Mr Modi was anointed as the"prime ministerial candidate," the media has fallen over itself to be there at every turn, broadcasting his every phrase.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-05-09
Narendra Modi paid Times Now the compliment of staying on through an hour and a half long interview, taking all questions without losing his cool, even as he avoided directly answering some. Arnab Goswami to his credit, got more out of Modi than he had out of his handling of..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-05-08
On CNN IBN Bhupendra Chaubey found a man raising his Modi mask to show his face. After all, who doesn't like to be seen on TV. Chaubey repeatedly pulled it down, insisting, he speak with it on. When he handed it back to the studio, anchor Karma Paljor said, "You..
Look out chaps, the CBI is coming
IN Opinion | 2014-05-08
Leader writers who had till now been griping about the protection suddenly turned cautious. They warned, though not entirely without reason, against the CBI's proclivities.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-05-08
Headlines Today's Rahul Kanwal to BJP's Amit Shah at Lanka Gate, Varanasi around noon today: "You (BJP) are creating this media spectacle to get an advantage." Shah's riposte: "We didn't invite you here!" Later, Shah predicated a response to CNN IBN's Bhupendra Chaubey with "I do not know what understanding you..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-05-07
The All India Progressive Women's Association has initiated an email campaign to protest the victim-blaming culture in press reporting of rape. This move comes as protest against Ei Samay, a leading Bengali daily of the Times Group, for their 'malicious reporting' of the rape of a college student in Kolkata on..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-05-07
If you thought the Indian Express was done with its extended promotion of Shekhar Gupta's collection of columns, Anticipating India, it isn't. After a full page of extracts, a launch curtain raiser, and a post launch page one spread, the paper now seems to be beginning a fresh round of..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-05-06
On May 5 it was the turn of two of our seniormost journalists to interview Amit Shah. While NDTV's Prannoy Roy practically beseeched Shah to act on his "soft side" and clean up the Ganga (Shah wasn't willing to commit even on that!), Shekhar Gupta of the Indian Express asked..
IN Media Practice | 2014-05-06
Advertisers today are riding on a topical issue which has a mass appeal but what is striking is the way the ads are embedded with political promotion of a certain image.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-05-05
Narendra Modi tearing into the Gandhis at Amethi on Monday said let me tell you about the favour the media does them. Whenever they cover the Gandhi rallies here they keep their cameras focused on the faces of the family so that you cannot see that there are no more..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-05-05
"Is AAP boycotting Times Now? AAP's representatives are not seen on that channel? Yes. We are avoiding a few TV channels because we realised that they were maliciously and mischievously targetting the Aam Aadmi Party and promoting the BJP. .. We are very small, they are very big, very powerful…Times..
Juicy stories buried in election season
IN Opinion | 2014-05-04
The Prime Minister's brother joining the BJP rightly made page one news. What about the brother of Sohrabuddin, killed in a fake encounter investigated by the CBI, deciding to campaign for the BJP?
IN Media Freedom | 2014-05-03
World Press Freedom day on May 3 celebrates press freedom but also reminds us of the impunity with which journalists are killed, attacked or threatened. Besides, the chilling effects of curbs on media coverage, defamation notices and paid news,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-05-03
In its latest report, the US-based watchdog Freedom House claimed India slipped down the global press freedom list due to “increased interference in content by media owners in the run-up to the 2014 elections”. The Annual Index of Media Freedom-2014 lowered India’s press freedom score by a point to 39,..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-05-03
May 1 was cause for some celebration amongst newspaper employees as the Supreme Court's deadline for the implementation of the Majithia Wage Board came into force. While the Times group has given an instalment of arrears, PTI and Indian National Press have implemented it, Mid-Day (part of Jagran group) hasn't..
IN Books | 2014-05-02
At the end, though, the reader is entitled to ask who the book's real hero is. There is only one answer, loud and clear: It is Sanjaya Baru himself.
Women stay away from Indian politicians online
IN Media Practice | 2014-05-02
An analysis of some of the popular Twitter accounts of Indian politicians, political parties and journalists show that women voters do not follow them,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-05-01
Support for the BJP's Arun Jaitley in his bid for the Amritsar seat apparently cuts across political and editorial affiliations. Keeping him company as Jaitley filed his nomination was Shobhna Bharatiya Chairperson of the Hindustan Times Group. Other media friends pitched in with 'exclusive' interactions with him, duly broadcast on India TV's Aap..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-05-01
The US media is ignoring the Indian general elections and comedy show host John Oliver takes a dig at that on his show. He also measured how the Indian media is following the steps of the US media. While showing a clip of Arnab's Newshour debate in one window and..
Swadeshi, moral media on the cards?
IN Opinion | 2014-05-01
The party will reverse its own earlier policy initiatives on foreign investment, restrict media ownership and push for cross media restrictions.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-05-01
There has been a redesignation of Kalli Purie at the India Today Group. She becomes Creative Director for the TV Today Network and New Media. This implies that she will no longer have a role which straddles the print media business of the Group. Does that suggest that ground is being prepared..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-04-30
The Election Commission allegedly has found four Lok Sabha election candidates guilty of paid news. The accused are Congress' Milind Deora, Sanjay Nirupam, Vishwajeet Kadam and BJP's Anil Shirole and the the district media watch and monitoring committee, set up by EC, has apparaently sought an explanation from them...
IN Opinion | 2014-04-30
Nothing pleases leader writers more than a chance to cluck disapprovingly. And this general election has provided them many opportunities, the latest being the throwing of verbal sulphuric acid at each other by Priyanka Gandhi and Narendra Modi.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-04-28
Considering he has hardly addressed any rally this time, when Manmohan Singh does so (last we checked he was still the PM), shouldn't it make big news? His rally in Bhongir in Hyderabad on April 26, was reduced to a one-para item on page 9 by the Sunday TOI. the..
IN Media Practice | 2014-04-28
As the book 'Gas Wars: Crony Capitalism and the Ambanis' gets a third legal notice the message goes out that just doing a solid journalistic job is not enough protection.
IN Media Practice | 2014-04-28
The sacking of the media regulatory authority chairman last fortnight shows that the nexus between regulator and government has deepened, instead of being weakened over the past 12 years,
The Ambanis and the freedom of expression
IN Books | 2014-04-28
While the near ban on 'The Hindus' was widely reported, that on 'Gas Wars: Crony Capitalism and the Ambanis' by Paranjoy Guha Thakurta was barely covered by the media,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-04-26
Twitter is agog with the news of Indian Express editor in chief Shekhar Gupta sitting next to Modi on a dais in Bhatinda. It was not similarly agog when he was seen on Yogendra Yadav’s campaign truck. The days are apparently gone when a journalist could be seen with a..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-04-25
A reader writes: Mr. Rajdeep Sardesai while anchoring on election day (6th phase) was taking the high moral ground saying how during every election day Mr Modi was using distracting tactics and pulling all attention towards himself while it should be on voting. As a viewer I found this odd..
Modi, media and the theology of apology
IN Media Practice | 2014-04-25
The Indian media narrative has followed the Christian script of the West on the apology-redemption track while Modi is responding from an Indian cultural lens.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-04-24
ABP News' election programme 'Ghoshana Patra' underwent a format change on Tuesday, when it had Narendra Modi as the guest. The audience component, which also gets to ask questions, was dispensed with. Instead there was a panel of three ABP editors. Was it to shield Modi from unpredictable audience questions?..
The PM, journalists, and the nuclear deal
IN Books | 2014-04-23
'When Ram left, Dr Singh sat back in his chair looking completely satisï¬ed. He had crossed the rubicon, he thought.'
IN Opinion | 2014-04-23
You'd expect leader writers to be tugging at their leashes, frothing at their mouths, rearing to express their shock and outrage. No such luck. Only two major newspapers wrote edits on the subject.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-04-23
Journalists are becoming a casualty in the fight between the old and new BJP. First it was L K Advani, then Jaswant Singh and now, Murli Manohar Joshi has threatened a journalist from Zee TV for asking uncomfortable questions about his posters in Kanpur for a BJP sarkar, not ahem! a Modi..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-04-22
How strange. The column by celebrity author and columnist Shobhaa De in the Mumbai Mirror on "why most women would never marry Narendra Modi" was quickly circulated and shared on social networking sites. Oddly, while the column still remains in the newspaper, its been removed from the author's blog. ..
Rescuing unauthorised biographies
IN Defamation | 2014-04-21
Once the SC has created a right of privacy over all events not in the public record, it opens the door to censorship of any reporting on such events.
IN Opinion | 2014-04-19
The Election Commission has been active in tackling hate speech by politicians,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-04-19
Narendra Modi has gone from giving no interviews to giving two a day. The gratified interviewers ask what they have to but don't press. On CNBC Awaaz Sanjay Pugalia's treatment of him was in sharp contrast to his treatment of Arvind Kejriwal in an earlier interview with the latter. Most..
CNN-IBN-ADR's Rate your MPs survey raises questions
IN Media Practice | 2014-04-18
The survey hopes to influence the agenda of elections by highlighting voter priorities. But there are limits to the usefulness of the conclusions drawn from the survey.
Employee takes Zee News to court
IN Media Practice | 2014-04-18
A labour court in Mumbai has ordered the reinstatement of a woman reporter of Zee News Ltd whose services were terminated because she got pregnant.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-04-17
Some sixty well-known directors, actors, screenwriters, editors, producers, lyricists and others have put out an appeal to "vote secular". No party names mentioned, of course. The list includes Vishal Bhardwaj, Govind Nihalani, Saeed Mirza, Zoya Akhtar, Nandita Das, Anand Patwardhan, Rakesh Sharma, Hansal Mehta, Saket Chaudhary, Mahesh Bhatt, Shubha Mudgal,..
Not enough direct accountability
IN Opinion | 2014-04-17
As successive polls bring us closer to a"Modi Sarkar" we have to wonder about how publicly accountable Mr Modi will be if he does become prime minister,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-04-17
Loksatta today (April 18) reported EC serving notices to 146 Lok Sabha candidates in Maharashtra, including Praful Patel, for "paid news" use in the poll campaign but no media organisation receiving payments was identified...
IN Media Practice | 2014-04-16
If Ansari did not probe Rahul on the charges levelled against Robert Vadra, nor did Rajat Sharma grill Modi on Snoopgate or Kejriwal's charges regarding the Adani group.
Privacy Law in India: A Muddled Field â€"I
IN Privacy | 2014-04-15
The absence of a statute expressing the legislative will of a democracy to forge a common understanding of privacy is a matter of concern,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-04-15
A TV viewer writes: 'A BJP ad across TV channels, shows Narendra Modi telling viewers in India that all they have to do is press a particular button on the EVM, and the vote would go directly to him. This is false as the vote goes to the candidate in..
Increase in censorship in India
IN Media Freedom | 2014-04-14
Chilling effects of at least 52 instances of censorship in the first quarter of 2014 by the state, Hindu groups, publishers, student groups and others.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-04-14
Narendra Modi's celebratory interview on India TV which had an audience which chanted 'Modi, Modi' has claimed a resignation. Q W Naqvi, Editorial Director of India TV resigned the morning after the episode was aired obviously discomfited by the tone of the programme. See the Hoot blog...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-04-14
Channel after channel claimed that they had an 'exclusive' with Priyanka Gandhi on her plan to join or not to join politics. Every channel had exactly the same details from Ms Gandhi as the other and yet they all claimed it was an 'exclusive' ! TV journos should really be..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-04-13
Narendra Modi’s appearance on Aap ki Adalat confirmed his preference for sticking to manageable environments when dealing the press. The audience was cheering before he opened his mouth, they chanted Modi Modi intermittently, and Rajat Sharma presided like an indulgent parent. On Headlines Today, meanwhile, Rahul Gandhi was presenting a..
IN Media Business | 2014-04-13
K.D. Singh said that while he did not want the Tehelka brand to die, he was negotiating with different individuals to sell the 65.75 per cent stake in Anant Media held by Royal Building.
IN Media Freedom | 2014-04-12
As the country is in the throes of an election where communal violence and rhetoric have become the norm, the sane and rational voices of Sachin, Sagar and Ramesh must multiply,
Increase in censorship in India
IN Media Freedom | 2014-04-12
Chilling effects of at least 52 instances of censorship in the first quarter of 2014by the state, Hindu groups, publishers, student groups and others.
Censorship: how and where - Free Speech in India 2014
IN Media Freedom | 2014-04-12
Attacks on the media, threats, cyber media censorship, curbs on film, theatre performances, defamation notices and surveillance are amongst the categories of censorship for the first Quarter of 2014.
Who are the censors: Free Speech Transgressors 2014
IN Media Freedom | 2014-04-12
Actors as diverse as the courts, student organizations, state governments, publishing houses, the LokSabha Secretariat, the Central Board of Film Certification, a lawyers' association, Hindu groups including the Shiv Sena, the RSS, and the Hindu J
Covering the polls out of Columbia U
IN Digital Media | 2014-04-12
Inspired by Nate Silver's FiveThirtyEight news site, a group of Indian students in the US conceived the idea of the election-focused thefivefortyfive.com.
Pronouncing on the BJP manifesto
IN Opinion | 2014-04-11
The Hindu whose response to what the BJP says or does has always been one of disgust and contempt, actually wrote a fair editorial on its election manifesto.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-04-11
Even as everybody’s eyes are popping out at the sheer volume of the BJP’s advertising on the print medium, Business Standard carried a story on the top of page 1 (April 10) claiming that media spend by political parties would be at around Rs 2000 crore in these elections and radio and..
"People don't ask about issues that journalists are obsessed with"
IN Media Practice | 2014-04-10
As Delhi voted, the fortunes of three journalists who made their political debut in this general election as the candidates of the Aam Aadmi Party were also being decided.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-04-09
While political parties have gone all out to campaign for the LS polls, especially the BJP and the Congress, the media has raked it in. The Indian Express is going one better. Apart from taking the ads (and the fat rates they command), the media house is also sending out..
In Assam too, scribes take the plunge
IN Regional Media | 2014-04-08
The star attraction this election in Assam is prolific journalist and former Deputy Editor of the television news channel DY 365, Manorom Gogoi.
Media helps bring change in Afghanistan
IN Media Freedom | 2014-04-08
The free media covered the election in Afghanistan very well and did a wonderful job of awareness raising,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-04-08
Shekhar Gupta's Walk the Talk with Arun Shourie in the Indian Express (April 8) pretty much treats Modi's coming to power as a fait accompli. They talk about what he should do, whom he should appoint. There is the odd 'if' and 'might' somewhere in the full page interview but..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-04-08
The sheer volume of the BJP's advertising presence--three to four ads per day in the newspapers with the highest advertising rates--seems to confirm the general hunch that big business is contributing mightily to this campaign. The Congress can barely keep up with this barrage, and mostly fails to...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-04-07
Dainik Jagran's full page spread preceding page 1 on April 7 was refreshingly different. Though it looked like an ad, it listed the newspaper's findings on issues that matter most to people. DJ said it reached out to 1.25 lakh people in UP, Bihar, West Bengal, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand, J&K, Punjab,..
IN Regional Media | 2014-04-07
Was Arvind Kejriwal's visit to Varanasi, where he announced himself as Narendra Modi's challenger, a success or a failure?
IN Media Practice | 2014-04-05
Every journalist knows that some lines are best not crossed in Karachi, the commercial hub of Pakistan. After all it is better to be safe than sorry, or dead.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-04-05
The Election Commission says the BJP manifesto release on April 7 cannot be telecast till 6 pm of April 12, prior to the second round of polling. But the print medium can cover it. Section 126(i)(b) of The Representation of The People Act, 1951 bars telecasting election matters of parties..
Saffron censorship strikes again?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-04-05
Award-winning documentary film-maker Anand Patwardhan is no stranger to censorship but this was a unique experience for him. Invited by Zee News for a live debate on the Cobrapost story at 10p.m. on Friday, he waited patiently at the studio only to be told the programme was cancelled in favour..
Pre-poll surveys irk YSR CP and TDP in Andhra
IN Media Practice | 2014-04-04
Apprehensions are being expressed about the credibility and veracity of poll time surveys which predict dramatically opposing results,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-04-03
The head of the Zee empire Subhash Chandra joined Narendra Modi on the dais at his rally at Kurukshetra today. The city is in the constituency of Chandra's old foe, Congressman and coal tycoon Naveen Jindal. Jindal's company had filed a criminal case against Zee News last year..
IN Media Practice | 2014-04-03
We have enough material and research on health issues, but the journalists need to bring out stories that really matter,
FoE, Internet policy, and the elections
IN Digital Media | 2014-04-03
Is it reasonable to expect that modern, relatively youthful leaders seeking to lead the country into the future, should have a view on the future of the internet and free speech?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-04-03
While everyone piled onto Arvind Kejriwal for his alleged comment on wanting to 'jail' journos no one seems to object to the daily belligerence of the BJP spokespeople. When Karan Thapar was grilling Ravi Shankar Prasad on Varun Gandhi's comments, Prasad shot back saying the BJP was not bothered about..
Mehta and Bal on Open magazine's "regret"
IN Opinion | 2014-04-02
"Since neither of the three was contacted by Open before publishing this clarification, there is no way for Open to make the claims it does in the clarification."
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-04-02
Neville Maxwell who outed the Henderson Brooks report has another disclosure in The Times of India. A "couple of years ago I made the text available to several major Indian papers on condition they didn't disclose their source, but none of them would publish it, so by this time I..
Why candidates are opting for social media
IN Digital Media | 2014-04-01
The ways of commercial media are forcing political actors and voters into the social media space, thus reconstituting public space in India,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-03-31
An Indian Express report on army troop movements spooking the government drew some criticism when in was published on April 4, 2012. Vinod Mehta, editorial chairman, Outlook Group gave an interview to Open calling the story a "mistake of Himalayan proportion" and a "plant". IE sent legal notices to both..
IN Books | 2014-03-31
The 'innovative' ideas of Medianet and Private Treaties are discussed with some generosity and without examining what it did to journalists and their trade.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-03-31
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..
Journalism before TV and Twitter
IN Opinion | 2014-03-28
If journalists of a certain generation were stenographers, what label should be used to describe today's television journalists?
Using the media for social uplift
IN Regional Media | 2014-03-28
A social activist from Deoria has learned how to use the media in her work with downtrodden communities.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-03-28
India made 2513 user data requests in the last half of 2013, the ninth Google Transparency report disclosed. And with 4401 users or accounts specified, it remains the second largest country after USA to make these requests. Google has complied with 66 per cent of the requests...
IN Media Practice | 2014-03-27
It was vintage Rajdeep who grilled a rather uncomfortable M J Akbar, on what prompted him to join a party that most Indian Muslims fear,
IN Media Practice | 2014-03-27
It may be argued that the erotic and the pornographic are two separate identities and that the inclusion of Sunny Leone on newsprint is an allusion to the former and not to the latter.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-03-26
Will the Times of India be flattered, amused or worried? The Hindustan Times announces today a combo advertising plan through which advertisers can reach the language and English readers of the HT, Hindu and Ananda Bazar groups through a single ad. In other words, the competition is ganging up against..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-03-26
Mint has a strange innovation, an election-related news photo feature which claims to be powered by the Nokia Lumia 1020. Why they would do this is a mystery since they make such a point of announcing routinely that such and such section of the paper is a marketing initiative, and..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-03-25
Deepak Chaurasia of India News made the astounding assertion that the politics of throwing things on political opponents has started only after AAP came to power. He said AAP leaders do this to themselves--how else are their pictures immediately tweeted? He was referring to eggs and ink being hurled at..
Times Now's hashtag aggression
IN Digital Media | 2014-03-25
The channel used its official Twitter page @timesnow, which should primarily provide real-time info on major news breaks, to pass on its aggressive views to over six lakh followers,
Season of report cards and opinion polls
IN Media Practice | 2014-03-24
In the run up to the elections, both the media and politicians are under intense scrutiny and will need to do soul searching to restore trust in the institutions they represent,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-03-24
MJ Akbar explains today in the Economic Times why he is backing Narendra Modi's bid to lead the country after the current election. He also explains why he no longer holds him responsible for the Gujarat riots of 2002. But wags on the Internet have lost no time in..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-03-22
The Goenka family’s ties to the RSS go back to the days of Ramnath Goenka and Nanaji Deshmukh. So it is not surprising that an invitation to a ceremony in Delhi next week dedicating Panchajanya and Organiser to the people, to be performed by RSS supremo Mohan Bhagwat, has Express..
IN Regional Media | 2014-03-22
As the general elections draw near, new channels enter Odisha's mediascape, and unlike the past, hope to stay,
Khushwant Singh: bowled at 99 but declared not out
IN Opinion | 2014-03-22
Khushwant did not understand politics and somehow came under the spell of Indira Gandhi and her son, Sanjay. His assessment was naïve and faulty and he did not easily live that down.
IN Opinion | 2014-03-21
What was very surprising was that the Indian Express, never a slouch in such matters, should have kept quiet on LK Advani's tantrums,
BJP and Congress neck-and-neck in cyber race
IN Digital Media | 2014-03-20
In terms of exploiting the social media compared to other parties,BJP and its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi are ahead.
Photographers block Kejriwal from public
IN Opinion | 2014-03-20
The blame for Arvind Kejriwal's failed train ride in Mumbai must go both to the media and his Mumbai office which organised the ride,
Journalists look for solutions to Asia's problems
IN Media Freedom | 2014-03-19
"Challenges of a Free Press" was the topic of discussion at the 4th International Media Conference in Yangon.
CCTV monitors for journo safety
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-03-19
After repeated attacks on the media in Arunachal Pradesh, the state's Chief Minister Nabam Tuki has directed police to provide 24x7 security and have CCTV cameras installed in all newspaper offices in Itanagar, reports the South Asia Mail. Last month, journalists shut down publications in protest after a local students'..
Driving justice: the Tejpal-Telheka coverage
IN Special Reports | 2014-03-18
It was a case of sexual assault with no physical evidence, but plenty of verbal evidence. And the media went completely overboard. Over 12 days Times Now spent more than 50 per cent of its news time at 8-10 pm on this story.
Media, babus and overdemocratic times
IN Media Practice | 2014-03-18
How was a move with significant repercussions for the nature of Indian bureaucracy, not subjected to critical scrutiny by the media?
Open Mikes are insightful and irreverent
IN Media Practice | 2014-03-15
The Open Mike format is a welcome relief from the surfeit of studio panellists. It brings ordinary Indians to the forefront and their rooted realities and frank opinions determine the discourse,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-03-15
When Arvind Kejriwal made his jail-to-media-people comment at a fundraiser in Nagpur, the Rs 10,000-per-plate attendees applauded. This was caught on camera and shown first on news TV by ABP News but its import is largely being missed: why did they applaud?..
Hate speech regulations: stringent investigations only the first step
IN Opinion | 2014-03-14
Hate speech cases are highly politicised and undermine basic law enforcement principles,
Students show up mainstream media
IN Media Practice | 2014-03-13
The big newspapers gave one version of events when medical students went on strike recently in Kanpur, journalism students in Bangalore found another when they began to investigate.
What wrong did Punya Prasun Bajpai do?
IN Media Practice | 2014-03-13
There is nothing wrong if a politician is suggesting that certain issues should be highlighted or a helpful anchor is giving helpful suggestions for an interview as long as the basic thrust and thought of the interview is not diluted,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-03-13
Modern Ghana reports that Journalists' Forum Assam has urged all political parties to show their sincerity towards the implementation of various welfare schemes for media persons in northeast India...
Elections through the regional prism
IN Opinion | 2014-03-12
Thus it came about that the 'Telegraph' held forth on politics in the east, the 'Hindu' on politics in TN, the 'Pioneer' on Kerala and the TOI on the politics of the Thackerays,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-03-10
Jitendra Bhargava decided to beat pusillanimous print publishers and bring out an e-version of his book 'The descent of Air India' on Kindle. The book will be available for Rs 299 from today. ..
No space to screen, speak or paint
IN Media Practice | 2014-03-10
Women documentary film-makers, journalists, activists and artists in South Asia are experiencing a 'shrinking space' and their voices on the issue of censorship came through loud and clear,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-03-10
Senior journalists of his media group were in attendance when Haryana politician Venod Sharma, addressed his first rally at Kurukshetra (March 9) after quitting the Congress party. That included resident editors and bureau chiefs of his media properties: Sunday Guardian, India News Haryana, and the newspaper Aaj Samaj. For other..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-03-10
Both the ET and TOI claim they have an exclusive interview (on March 10) with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. While TOI claims that their's is the" first with any Indian newspaper or TV channel" since his appointment, ET says it is an email interview...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-03-08
Twitter on March 8 night was erupting with agitated tweets from BJP workers and followers after word got around of the tweet put out by NDTV about Sushma Swaraj, which it later withdrew. The channel tweeted about Swaraj saying 'if there is a Modi wave in India why is he..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-03-08
At the India Today conclave telecast on Headlines Today on Friday night Arvind Kejriwal did not have quite the easy passage he had on Facebook Talks Live on NDTV. There were aggressive questions he could not answer, or answered lamely, about Somnath Bharti's business interests and things he did not..
The Expulsion Of Kashmiri Students In Meerut: A Disgrace To Humanism
IN Media Freedom | 2014-03-07
An overflow of misplaced nationalism marked reactions to the reports of celebrations by some students,
Gulabi Gang: Truth tales re-told
IN Media Practice | 2014-03-07
While Bollywood appropriates the story and releases it as a feminist film for March 8, other film makers feel it does the original Gulabi Gang a disservice.
IN Media Practice | 2014-03-07
Can 'Gulaab Gang' makers say that it does not have any reference to the life of Sampat Pal?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-03-07
On March 1, several Mumbai dailies carried pieces praising Cong leader Gurudas Kamat, crediting him the day after the Maharashtra govt legalised slums that came up in Mumbai between 1995 and 2000. Though the articles read like a political ad they weren't marked so. Kamat has rubbished the allegations and told the Indian..
The Supreme Court and the IT Act
IN Law and Policy | 2014-03-06
A series of cases challenging various aspects of the IT Act are scheduled to be heard by the SC in April.
IN Opinion | 2014-03-06
Allegation news is having a field day as AAP's Lok Sabha campaign gets into stride. And unsettling the front runner campaigning across the country.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-03-05
As Sahara chief Subroto Roy was arrested on Tuesday, the flagship channel owned by Sahara Group, Sahara Samay, blacked out the coverage of the event. Five other regional channels owned by Sahara also did the same. When the Indian Express asked, a senior editor based in Delhi said: “Why are..
Possible to insulate editorial?
IN Law and Policy | 2014-03-04
TRAI is grappling with issues of media freedom and media ownership and wondering if a wall between boardroom and newsroom is possible. Meanwhile a trail of leaked emails from Goa illustrates the problem.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-03-04
The dates and scams are different, and the faces and middle names of the of the two Ketan Parekhs are different. Even so, while the Times of India explained the confusion, Mumbai Mirror, DNA and the Hindustan Times went ahead merrily and carried majorly mixed up reports on the latest..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-03-03
Newslaundry's Facebook Talks Live event called Candidates 2014 with Narendra Modi, scheduled to be held on March 3, will not take place. Modi decided to cancel, according to the website's press statement. Reason - Just 2 days before the event, he laid out some demands that Newslaundry could not fulfil...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-03-03
The Free Press Journal carries press releases on its website, and labels them as such. Most of these are of a commercial/promotional nature, and they are generously carried in full. Is this service for free?..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-03-01
NDTV’s high profile anchors must be sulking. As part of Facebook’s Talks Live initiative, Newslaundry’s Madhu Trehan will be interviewing in front of a live audience a clutch of prominent politicos contending for the 2014 elections—Narendra Modi, Arvind Kejriwal, Mamata Banerjee, Akhilesh Yadav and Lalu Prasad Yadav— all to be..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-03-01
The lines between marketing and editorial are getting so faint you can barely see them. Looking very much part of a news line-up was a feature on Speedstar 2 for promoting sports among the Indian youth on Times Now. Although the words ‘sponsored feature’ appeared briefly in a miniscule font..
IN Media Practice | 2014-02-28
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,
There's a hole in the bucket, dear Antony
IN Opinion | 2014-02-28
Ignoring the issue of moral responsibility, the 'Times of India' chose to defend the source of the problems: the defence ministry. But the 'Telegraph' and 'Pioneer' took the opposite view.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-02-28
HCL's founder and chairman Shiv Nadar has put his authorised biography on hold. To be published by Penguin, the biography was written by US-based writer Kevin Maney. After Tamal Bandopadhyay's problems with the Sahara group and Jitendra Bhargava's book on Air India, this is the third corporate story that cannot..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-02-27
On page one, the Hindustan Times has the story of the Supreme Court ordering the arrest of Subrato Roy of Sahara. On the back page it has a full page advertisement taken out by the Sahara India Parivar putting out the same facts in full. And urging readers to read..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-02-27
The Citizen, an independent online daily, writes that the BJP is now looking at Pakistan for donations. The party has been advertising in the country's leading newspaper Dawn asking people to donate for the "Modi for PM fund". The ad says Bharat ke Ujwal Bhavishye ke Liye Yogdaan De (Donate for..
IN Media Practice | 2014-02-27
The reason the media has been wary of the AAP or has rarely displayed imagination suitable to understand the empathy for it is that much of mainstream media is the media equivalent of the BJP or Congress.
Need to include texts that challenge caste
IN Censorship | 2014-02-26
To remove ostensibly casteist texts does not address the problem, for, how do we get students to think critically of caste,
What Shinde also seeks to 'crush'
IN Opinion | 2014-02-26
The Home Minister's gloating admission over surveillance is worrisome,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-02-26
When a personal exchange between Raghav Bahl and Rajdeep Sardesai gets leaked it points to serious tension between the top honchos of Network 18. In these emails dated February 10 Bahl tells Sardesai that he and Sagarika Ghose must counter Ram Guha's tweet about Network 18's proprietors allegedly currying favour..
The challenge of evolving vernacular lexicons
IN Regional Media | 2014-02-26
What is the equivalent of fly ash in Tamil? Or carbon sinks, or sustainable development? Whether reporting climate change or malnutrition a vocabulary is needed,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-02-25
The Editors Guild is pained at the allegations being made about the media and has appealed to political leaders and public figures "not to resort to vague, unsubstantiated charges of corrupt motives and abuses when refuting, questioning or criticising the media, and keep the public discourse civil and within reasonable..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-02-24
With the general elections around the corner as many as nine people have been granted VIP security, including senior journalist Anirudh Bahal of cobrapost.in, following the snoopgate expose. Bahal has been granted Y category security...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-02-24
During his rally in Haryana, Arvind Kejriwal claimed that "Mukesh Ambani has bought some TV channels & newspapers and has told them to give extensive coverage to Rahul Gandhi and Narendra Modi". He also said that one editor-in-chief of a TV channel told him that his bosses wanted him to..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-02-24
In an edit, the Indian Express hit back at the former army chief General VK Singh after he resorted to name-calling on Feb 21, the day the paper carried a story on DGMO Lt Gen A.K. Choudhary confirming the panic that seized the "highest seat of power" over the controversial troop movements in..
Regional national media dynamics
IN Regional Media | 2014-02-24
In the age of coalition national governments it is important to understand the role of regional media in constructing popular sentiments on ethnic issues,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-02-23
It took a flurry of emails, phone calls and tweets, apart from an internal inquiry, for the Free Press Journal to publish a front-page retraction on a Valentine's Day story entitled "Helpline flooded with desperate calls before V-Day". The helpline coordinators quoted in the story were aggrieved..
IN Special Reports | 2014-02-22
NDTV Tax Story - Part III. Within this media house they believe that there is a BJP link connecting the politicians and journalists who target them.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-02-22
Following the Supreme Court ruling in favour of implementation of the wage board award, the Delhi Union of Journalists has started an online petition asking the Indian Newspaper Society, the organisation of newspaper owners, to gracefully accept the Wage Award and advise its members to pay back wages and revise..
The mystery Rs 1 crore holiday
IN Media Business | 2014-02-22
NDTV Tax storyâ€"- Part II. Was there a case of conflict of interest in Sumana Sen handling the tax assessments of NDTV?
The writer and publisher: no holy marriage this!
IN Media Freedom | 2014-02-21
When a writer is attacked or hauled to court, who really stays on for the good fight?
Arvind resigns, Hindi press opines
IN Opinion | 2014-02-21
Editorial commentary in the Hindi press sought to read some of the subtexts and implications of Kejriwal's resignation â€" sometimes succinctly, sometimes not,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-02-21
The trial of 20 journalists, including nine working for Al Jazeera, has been adjourned to March 9, 2014, an Egyptian court said. The adjournment is to give defence lawyers time to examine the case documents, according to the court. The prosecution has accused the defendants, who include four foreigners, of..
NDTV -- Sham transactions or legit deals?
IN Media Business | 2014-02-21
How much merit is there in allegations of financial misdemeanour, money laundering and tax evasion against NDTV?
Media and the demand for statehood
IN Opinion | 2014-02-20
While much was justifiably made of the blackout, the real significance of the media in the formation of Telangana has been as a major and controversial player.
IN Opinion | 2014-02-20
'The Telegraph' called it an immoral act and made a solid point about the constitutionality of the Telangana vote,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-02-20
A Delhi-based Malayali journalist, B S Shiju, has been nominated to the Congress party's Kerala state executive committee by its chief V M Sudheeran on February 19, 2014. Party functionaries said this is perhaps for the first time that a full-time journalist is being nominated for the apex body of..
Controversial cop media darling
IN Opinion | 2014-02-19
When Rakesh Maria, took over as the Police Commissioner the media did not rake up any of the major controversies associated with him,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-02-19
An interview with questions in Hindi, answers in English was conducted for IBN7 with P Chidambaram. Not at all comfortable with Hindi, occasionally his response started with a Hindi word or two and switched to English, not so good for a Hindi channel. Probably an off-camera translator helped but we..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-02-18
The Economic Times is fond of doing indulgent front page stories on the senior Ambani parivar. If its not Nita Ambani's birthday splash in Jodhpur, it is Ambani Junior being blooded into the management of his father's empire (page one anchor, February 17, 2014). Next week, doubtless, the..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-02-18
On Times Now, on Monday night, when Arnab Goswami was discussing the Tarun Tejpal chargesheet, journalist Rahul Singh first referred to what Tejpal had done as "making a pass" and got duly chewed up by anchor and panel. Then he said, "If this is the way the case..
Penguin's options: fight or leave
IN Media Freedom | 2014-02-18
If we do not want matters to be resolved on the street, we can't claim free speech protections for critical scholarship and publication, and yet avoid defending the right when challenged in a court of law,
Shoddy parliamentary panel report on data privacy
IN Law and Policy | 2014-02-18
The committee's Report submitted to the Lok Sabha on February 12, 2014, examines several issues relating to the use and misuse of cyber space but does them no justice,
Undermining the SIT's 'clean chit'
IN Books | 2014-02-17
Why is the Indian media, including the group the author works for, not following up on some of the sensational disclosures made in this book,
Cracking the Ishrat Jahan encounter
IN Media Practice | 2014-02-17
Four days of extensive travelling, late night phone calls from 'safe numbers', persistence, and the fifth day was fruitful.
Of 'chicken' publishers and repressive laws
IN Media Freedom | 2014-02-16
Give up publisher's rights to publish to a general public and revise Sec 153 A and 295 A of the IPC to protect academic and artistic freedom
Kashmiris side-step narrative control
IN Censorship | 2014-02-15
Post 2004, Kashmiris have begun creatively engaging with technology to express their own narratives despite censorship,
Kashmiris side-step narrative control
IN Digital Media | 2014-02-15
Post 2004, Kashmiris have begun creatively engaging with technology to express their own narratives despite censorship,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-02-14
A Barista outlet opened at Press Club, Mumbai, now offers a 30% discount to journalists. To privilege them, we suppose, over the PR people and others who are also press club regulars. This press club keeps finding ways to get nice deals for journos, leveraging its location and membership...
Why did the Telegraph stay mum?
IN Opinion | 2014-02-13
Not just the Telegraph, even the Pioneer, which usually comes down with some heavy breathing on the side of the Hindus, has looked the other way.
IN Media Practice | 2014-02-13
Kutch's first FM radio channel, Saiyere Jo Radio, begun by a women's collective, costs Rs 25000 a month to run, transmission costs included.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-02-12
TV anchors seem to come up with novel methods to silence guests they invite to their studio. On Headlines Today on Wednesday night Rahul Kanwal started a slanging match with the AAP representative, Anjali Damania over the non-payment of electricity bills. And then what the producers did was most undemocratic,..
IN Media Freedom | 2014-02-12
The cloak-and-dagger approach to recalling Doniger's book left no scope for even galvanising public opinion against the bludgeoning of free speech.
BCCI, IPL and unsatiated greed
IN Opinion | 2014-02-12
In all their righteous indignation over the Mudgal Report on IPL, the leader writers forgot to ask the all-important question: if you create a platform that is tailor-made for betting, why blame the cats?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-02-12
The Times of India's carried an editorial on how the comma is, or can be, redundant, and you guessed it, without a single comma. It cited Columbia University's John McWhorters' view that the comma is way past its expiry date. However, it wasn't an easy task for the editorialist who..
And how will the books be destroyed?
IN Media Freedom | 2014-02-11
Touchy celebrities, professional objection-takers, vigilante groups and political parties have filed cases, vandalized book stores and burnt copies,
Time to force government to protect citizens' privacy
IN Media Freedom | 2014-02-11
Why are civil society organisations and people across the world observing February 11, 2014 as the "Day We Fight Back"
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-02-11
Can the Times of India stop writing about itself in the garb of news?? Five out of eight paras in this story are about the Times Now interview...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-02-11
Here's a new way to fund independent journalism. The Nation has set up a wine club which it hopes will help raise much-needed revenues and "support wines made with progressive values". Journalists everywhere will doubtless love the idea of supporting free and fair journalism with a tipple...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-02-11
Wendy Doniger's book 'The Hindus' will be withdrawn forthwith and all copies recalled within six months from India after a settlement between Penguin India and D Batra and others, plaintiffs in a civil suit. Criminal cases lodged will also be withdrawn, the settlement said...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-02-09
The Indian media loves the success story of Satya Nadella, so a TOI reporter lands up at senior Nadella's door in Hyderabad. While the father shrinks from dishing out anecdotes about the new Microsoft CEO's childhood ("How is that even important") the reporter informs us that they live in a..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-02-07
After the Caravan's latest issue published an interview in which serial bomb blasts accused Swami Aseemanand claimed RSS top leaders, including its chief Mohan Bhagwat, knew of the conspiracy, the magazine alleges that their Delhi and Mumbai offices have been getting threatening phone calls. Today a mob of Hindu Sena..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-02-07
The Supreme Court has ruled today that Majithia wage board award be implemented. Wages to be paid from Nov 11, 2011, the date the award was notified. Recommendation to be implemented from April and arrears paid in four instalments within the year...
IN Opinion | 2014-02-06
When a new government comes in this summer it will have to sooner or later decide how much good money it wants to continue wasting on Prasar Bharati,
Missing the Indian Muslim story
IN Books | 2014-02-06
The media has largely ignored the change that is sweeping India's Muslim community, and continues to play up the extreme voices because they make 'news'.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-02-06
The Hindu reports that while addressing a press conference in Faizabad, Union Steel Minister Beni Prasad Verma on Wednesday accepted that he had distributed gifts (around Rs 9,000 in cash, trolley bags and mobile each) to journalists. He defended himself and said he was only "investing money to get good..
Not just books, even book launches are banned!
IN Media Freedom | 2014-02-04
In the Kolkata book fair, the launch of a book on violence against women was considered potentially inflammatory,
Perils of reporting in Manipur
IN Media Practice | 2014-02-03
Journalists in Manipur say that it is the very growth of the media into a powerful platform that threatens press freedom now as both state and non-state actors try their best to control the flow of information.
1984 riots are centre stage again
IN Media Practice | 2014-02-03
It is unfortunate that when both Modi and the Congress were trying to bury the communal issues, the anchor of the most popular show has resurrected the ghosts of 1984 riots once again,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-02-01
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..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-02-01
"Mr Goswami, you are at your best tonight," AAP’s Prof Anand Kumar, at the receiving end of Times Now's inquisition, told Arnab on Friday (Jan 31) night, showing a patience rare on Arnab’s show. Not only did Goswami start the show by passing judgment on AAP..
IN Media Practice | 2014-01-31
If there was one time that the Bhasa press schooled elite journalists of English news channels on how to tackle a presidential speech, then this was it!
IN Books | 2014-01-30
Journalists themselves as victims and perpetrators of sexual violence is new territory for the media to handle, and balance has been difficult to maintain.
RG gave edit writers little to chew on
IN Opinion | 2014-01-29
The Telegraph said uncharitably that even those who are sympathetic towards him will be compelled to concede that he does not have it in him to be the prime minister or any kind of leader.
The big interview--wasted opportunity
IN Media Practice | 2014-01-29
Arnab Goswami's interview with Rahul Gandhi was a wasted opportunity for everyone -- the people of India, the news media and Rahul Gandhi,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-01-28
Against police advice, Chhattisgarh scribes have embarked on a three day ‘Media Swatantrata Padyatra’ to protest the killing of journalist Sai Reddy allegedly by Maoists last December. Police have advised them not to do so as the hilly forest area they will traverse has no administrative presence. ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-01-28
The biggest political interview of 2014 Times Now will have us believe just took place, never mind if it is only the first month of the year. The channel that likes to beat its own drum could not however provoke Rahul Gandhi to go beyond empowerment of women, inducting 'youngsters'..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-01-27
In a report titled 'Modi to address mega meet' Times Now used old file shots of large crowds thronging an unknown venue while the voice over said that more than one lakh people are expected to attend Modi's meeting in Mumbai. While predicting there would be large crowds at Modi's..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-01-27
A reader writes: TOI, in its front page report on Karl Slym's death, strikes a sanctimonious note and says "this paper has chosen not to report unconfirmed reports in the Thai media". Wow, now if only it would display such sagacity and restraint when reporting domestic scandals/scams/mysterious deaths etc etc...
Biting the bullet on Prasar Bharati
IN Media Practice | 2014-01-26
The Pitroda Committee report identifies clearly the outstanding blocks to Prasar Bharati's autonomous functioning and sets out the drastic changes required.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-01-25
The Delhi edition of the Times of India on Saturday called itself a bumper Issue offering 90 pages. 60 plus of those 90 were advertising or advertorial pages. They told us in a page one sermon just the other day that the only person who matters to the Times is the reader...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-01-25
Is Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal trying to divide and rule the media? At a meeting he alleged journalists are honest but the media owners were biased and crooked. He went onto describe how a reporter told him that his/her editor had told him to 'go out and get a negative..
Action on political ownership?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-01-24
Is the pressure to do something about political ownership of media growing? TRAI chairman Rahul Khullar said at the CII media roundtable today that political ownership and surrogate political ownership has to stop immediately. He added that TRAI was also not buying the notion that state..
IN Opinion | 2014-01-23
The Aam Aadmi Party is not about business as usual, that much should be clear by now. But why does this "anarchic" form of governance bother the press more than it does the people,
IN Opinion | 2014-01-21
There is merit in the media's allegations of anarchy and inconvenience caused by the AAP government's street protest.
Rahul, Namo debate sequentially
IN Opinion | 2014-01-21
The edit writers were delighted. Between now and the day campaigning ends, there will be many similar occasions for focus-less and lazy take-note edits,
IN Media Practice | 2014-01-20
Consumerist imperatives ensured that realism and experimentation took a back-seat to saccharine and neo-conservatism in the portrayal of women in Indian soaps.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-01-20
The Delhi metro corp (DMRC) has agreed to take off an advertisement mounted on billboards showing a woman covered only by duct tape after four journos who were travelling by the Metro spotted the advertisement and protested. IANS reports the Metro was approached by one of the journalists, complaining against..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-01-20
These days, a TV channel doesn't seem to need to send a TV crew to cover major events of Narendra Modi or Rahul Gandhi. Like for instance, Rahul Gandhi's interaction with women in Bhopal. It appears the two parties appear to be making arrangements to shoot and link up with..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-01-20
In the high voltage coverage that Sunanda Pushkar's death unleashed on TV channels, NEWS X which was doing a programme dramatically titled "Life, Marriage and Death" erroneously killed off the Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde. In a report on how Tharoor had writtent to Shinde, it put out this embarrassing blooper: "the..
Silencing whistleblowers and conscientious dissenters
IN Media Freedom | 2014-01-19
Those in authority use codes of conduct to silence dissenters,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-01-19
The second para of this story in Mumbai Mirror says “Sonia's visit to Tharoor's home is bound to act as a warning against any possible witch hunt that could be launched against him by the media, especially after the ugly spat on Twitter between his wife and Pakistani journalist Mehr Tarar…” Really?..
Koraput tribals listen to Dhimsa Radio
IN Media Practice | 2014-01-18
Koraput's community radio Dhimsa has become the voice of tribals to convey their messages to the administration,
Journalists protest Sun TV action against TV anchor
IN Media Freedom | 2014-01-17
Sun TV stopped a popular Tamil talk show anchored by political analyst Veerapandian for the last 17 years, allegedly due to pressure from the BJP.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-01-17
Sunanda Pushkar's death was live, as it were. On NDTV Barkha Dutt, talking to Shekhar Gupta about Rahul Gandhi, took note of the development (the hindi news channels got there first) and said she would return to the earlier discussion. Then she evidently remembered that she had stuff that..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-01-16
On January 15 the Mamata Government in West Bengal further endeared itself to journalists by issuing a cicular showing them their place, literally. There is now a designated press corner on the first floor in the new secretariat Nabanna, and straying from there to meet officials for their work on any..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-01-16
The Delhi Union of Journalists, has appealed to Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal and the Delhi labour minister, Girish Soni to help eradicate contract labour in the newspaper industry. It reminded them that implementation of the wage board award is also the responsibility of the states. It also submitted a memorandum..
IN Opinion | 2014-01-15
Sahara India gets a book stayed, Praful Patel gets another book withdrawn from circulation. How to keep the powerful accountable if they can thwart exposés on wrongdoing ?
IN Media Practice | 2014-01-15
To reform the media, start with the fact that people can live without it. Not for lack of time, but because people don't want you and your assumptions of what they are, what they ought to be,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-01-11
UP CM Akhilesh Yadav seems to think that a ride on his campaign plane was a favour to journalists which deserved a quid pro quo. At his Friday presser he said that an English TV channel dropped their interview with him on the plane because their marketing dept. didn't like..
Sahara group gets stay on book
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-01-10
In the midst of its bloody battles with the Supreme Court and Sebi, the Sahara group has got the Calcutta high court to issue a stay order on the publication of the book, Sahara: The Untold Story, by Tamal Bandyopadhyay, deputy managing editor of Mint. The group has also filed..
Cinema at the pleasure of Central govt
IN Law and Policy | 2014-01-10
The expert committee report on cinematograph law seeks to perpetuate the present outdated scheme of film censorship characterised by overwhelming State dominance and organised patronage,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-01-10
Ashutosh of IBN7 on his decision to join AAP: "These are historic moments, societal churning is on, everybody has to contribute to make the change robust and beautiful. Eight years back I changed my course, now there is another time, another call of destiny, have to swim."..
Is India ready for non-profit media?
IN Opinion | 2014-01-09
We can either spend another year discovering how much the old model is disintegrating or we can explore alternatives.
IN Law and Policy | 2014-01-08
Privacy violations and inaccurate reportage topped the latest complaints adjudicated by the News Broadcasting Standards Authority (NBSA),
Suspended for talking to media
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-01-08
Bombay University's suspension of a Department of Economic professor Neeraj Hatekar three days ago for addressing a press conference and providing 'false information to the media' has spiralled into a major protest by students supporting the professor for focusing on academic ills. Today, police were called into the university for..
IN Opinion | 2014-01-08
The Indian Express, as always first off the mark, pointed out that just like economic reform which is not an event, but a process"political communication should also be a process, not a rare event."
IN Special Reports | 2014-01-07
Women contestants in the recent Delhi polls were either totally absent from social media, or at best fringe actors.
IN Censorship | 2014-01-06
More censorship in the last fortnight of 2013,
Journos reporting to management
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-01-06
Time Inc., the magazine business of Time Warner, is being spun off into a separate company. A major change will be that the new company will abandon the traditional separation between its newsroom and business sides. Now, the newsroom staff at Time Inc.’s magazines will report to the business executives. Such..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-01-04
A tip from the newsroom for Rahul: Rajdeep Sardesai, Editor in chief, CNN-IBN had new year advice for Rahul Gandhi on a programme on CNBC: "Like all good editors ought to have been reporters at some time in their lives, Rahul Gandhi should be like a chief reporter...he should sit..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-01-03
One more journalist formally joins a political party. The news editor of Siasat daily Amer Ali Khan joined the YSR congress on January 2. He said he had done so much to help improve the condition of minorities in Andhra Pradesh. (TOI)..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-01-03
At the PM's press conference the minister of information and broadcasting was able to call upon almost every journalist by name and the name of the publication or TV channel except Doordarshan which comes under his ministry. Manish Tewari: 'person from public service broadcaster---person from DD please?'..
Edit writers and the Khaleda boycott
IN Opinion | 2014-01-02
As elections approach in Bangladesh, Khaleda Zia has chosen a strange strategy: a boycott of the general election if current PM Hasina Wajed does not resign.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2014-01-02
The New York Times reported on Dec 31, 2013, that a Chinese businessman had announced that he was leading a group of investors interested in acquiring a large stake in NYT. After saying the owners have no intention to sell, the story ended with this para: In 2014, it plans..
A unique judicial intervention
IN Law and Policy | 2014-01-01
A year that has seen a record number of working journalists lose their jobs ended with the Madras high court issuing an interim injunction restraining a management from asking employees to leave.
Murder and Maoist rationalisations
IN Media Freedom | 2013-12-29
One doesn't need to be a state apologist to find something extremely perturbing about just another murder of an unarmed man.
Murder and Maoist rationalisations
IN Media Freedom | 2013-12-29
One doesn't need to be a state apologist to find something extremely perturbing about just another murder of an unarmed man.
IN Opinion | 2013-12-26
It is difficult to recall another year when the news media itself has been such a consistent newsmaker.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-12-26
A press statement condemning the Sec 377 judgment was issued by Javed Anand of Muslims for Secular Democracy and Hasina Khan of Muslim Women's Rights Network in Mumbai last week. While it got published in the TOI and DNA, this was the response from Mumbai's Urdu Times: "Salaam! Sorry. Urdu..
IN Opinion | 2013-12-26
The Hindu, as is its wont, made large but mostly banal generalisations. And the Indian Express was politely snide and patronising.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-12-26
First ET got Tina Ambani married to her husband's brother in a photo caption. Now TOI has got Kate Middleton married to her husband's uncle! In the Curator section on TOI's op-ed page, the first item is about royal nicknames. It says "Kate Middeltone became 'Waity Katie' as a result..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-12-23
If one reads this Times of India report carefully, starting with the headline, it seems like the reporter's interpretation of what Prashant Bhushan said became a fact, rather than what Bhushan actually said. Did he say the AAP forming the Delhi government was undemocratic or that the BJP being left..
SRM channel disappears, journalists lose jobs
IN Media Business | 2013-12-22
Given the runaway success of Puthiya Thalaimurai, its owners became ambitious and dreamt of becoming a national player in the highly-competitive market for television news in English. But they seem to have bitten off more than what they could chew.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-12-20
Google's eighth Transparency Report for Jan-Jun 2013 reveals a 68% jump in government requests worldwide to remove content, most of it political. In India, Google complied with 38% of the 16 requests which were accompanied with a court order. It also complied with 18% of another 147 requests that were..
David, Goliath and the edit writers
IN Opinion | 2013-12-20
The Indian Foreign Service mafia closed ranks because one of theirs had been touched. But one expects leader writers to be sensible and present both sides to the reader,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-12-19
All India Bakchod (better known by its AIB acronym) decided to spoof Yashraj's Dhoom 3 trailer but the film company was not amused and refused to give them permission. Not to be outdone, the comedy troupe hit back in the only way they can, spoofing censorship in a 'Grumpy ole..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-12-19
"Nannygate" is what Al Jazeera's English portal has been calling the India-US spat over diplomat Devyani Khobragade's arrest in New York. The story topped the chart of most viewed stories on the news website for most of two days. Al Jazeera introduced an India micro site in the last week of..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-12-18
After the blow by blow reporting on Tarun Tejpal the media has gone back to being circumspect about its own tribe. The CBI as part of its investigations into the Radia tapes has sought information from three big names belonging to NDTV, Times Now and the Times Group. But you don't..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-12-18
A day after The Indian Express reported that Chhattisgarh state unit of the Congress had offered cash to Raipur-based journalists before the recent elections, the party said it had asked its state media cell head Ramesh Warlyani to resign...
IN Media Business | 2013-12-18
Who will help socially responsible media survive? Regulators have to find ways of providing a fair business environment, and subscribers have to support quality journalism.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-12-17
Twitter's halo of being a democratic platform for free speech seems to be dimming somewhat. Two cartoons from DNA cartoonist Manjul (@MANJULtoons) inexplicably went off Twitter, and 'reappeared' after a couple of days. Both parody the ruling Congress party's skullduggery and pussyfooting on the Lokpal Bill, and the first one features..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-12-17
Apparently getting the name of the same person right, mentioned twice in the same edition of the paper, is a challenge for The Economic Times. While an article on Page 16, Dec 17, mentions the PepsiCo India CEO's name as D Shivakumar, on the edit page a column by the same..
Spike in curbs on free speech in 2013
IN Media Freedom | 2013-12-16
From three in 2011 and five in 2012, there have been 8 deaths of journalists in 2013. The rise in the number of instances of censorship this year and increasing surveillance,
Spike in curbs on free speech in 2013
IN Media Freedom | 2013-12-16
From three in 2011 and five in 2012, there have been 8 deaths of journalists in 2013. The rise in the number of instances of censorship this year and increasing surveillance,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-12-16
The Hindu reports that about 200 journalists, mostly from the seven districts of Bastar in Chhattisgarh, have decided to boycott news related to Maoists. This step comes in response to the December 6 killing of journalist Sai Reddy. They convened a protest meeting on Saturday and unanimously decided to stop publishing and..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-12-16
The Times Group's second foray into the regional language newspaper segment will be Nav Gujarat Samay, when finally launches in January 2014. It was announced earlier this year but its launch has been postponed. It follows Ei Samay in West Bengal...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-12-14
It was tu-tu-main-main of the chief ministerial kind. Quizzed after a morning report on the selection of his relatives to the Haryana civil service, Haryana CM Bhupinder Hooda, lost his temper. "Tu batade..Tu batade konse mere ristedar hai. Ya to nam batde nahi to saval mat kar" (Tell the name..
IN Opinion | 2013-12-14
"We still address each other as enemies, not as neighbours. There is a lack of editorial control over our TV anchors."
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-12-13
It is learnt that three senior employees of the UNI news agency have been arrested and sent to judicial custody for allegedly making casteist comments against employees. The arrests have been made under the provisions of the Atrocities Act. No further details are available...
There's section 377, and there's media
IN Media Practice | 2013-12-13
Prejudiced media depictions add to the problems that communities with alternate sexuality already have. So they are organising themselves and reaching out to the media.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-12-13
Mail Today editor Sandeep Bamzai apologised on Twitter to Shanti Bhushan whose "purported article" was published on the paper's edit page on Friday. And at the time of publishing this brief, the article titled "Kejriwal on course to ruin 2014 for BJP" was still available on India Today's website...
Learning media strategy from AAP
IN Opinion | 2013-12-13
The Aam Aadmi Party has given the political class a working model of what media to use for different voters, and indeed, different purposes,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-12-10
In an op-ed piece titled "The Beast in India's Midst" Roger Cohen writes in The New York Times about India's "overheated media witch hunt" and the fact that " truth looks like a hostage to a new Indian political correctness and to old political scores; and an honorable, talented, crusading..
Too much TV is bad for edit writers
IN Opinion | 2013-12-10
The editorial writers were all in a rush to say pretty much the same thing about the BJP and the Congress. But does saying the same thing in four different ways leave the reader wiser,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-12-09
Of four exit polls and one post poll done for Delhi, the one that came closest to getting the numbers and order of winners right was Chanakya's poll. It predicted 29 seats (plus minus nine) for the BJP, AAP 31 (plus minus nine) seats and Congress 10 (plus minus five)..
Killing reflects erosion of Maoist ideology?
IN Regional Media | 2013-12-08
"He was the authentic voice of the area. He ... wrote consistently against corruption- - against the government, the Salwa Judum and against the Maoists."
Killing reflects erosion of Maoist ideology?
IN Media Freedom | 2013-12-08
"He was the authentic voice of the area. He ... wrote consistently against corruption- - against the government, the Salwa Judum and against the Maoists."
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-12-06
As freebies go this is not quite the allout freebie hacks prefer. But even so members of the Mumbai Press Club and their families are getting a day trip to the Adlabs Imagica theme park next Sunday, where the passes will be free, but food vouchers and the seats in..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-12-05
People in the Northeast can be forgiven for wondering if they belong to this country. Because Mizoram was not deemed important enough electorally to merit an exit poll (even as it recorded the highest voter turnout) it did not even get mentioned on TV on Dec 4 as a state..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-12-04
The voting in Delhi was extended upto 7.30 pm today, the extension being announced even as Arnab Goswami and Times Now were in full flow with their Delhi exit poll programme. Once it was announced neither this channel nor Aaj Tak, India TV, Zee News, and NDTV doing a poll of..
IN Media Practice | 2013-12-03
The drafting of the application should be such that it points towards the specific documents required in relation to the information sought.
Legal aspects of the Tejpal case
IN Media Practice | 2013-12-03
The Criminal Procedure Code does not mandate a potency test given the facts of the case. Putting Tejpal through this gives credence to his allegation of a political "witch-hunt".
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-12-03
The Delhi Election Commission has held five politicians guilty of paid news. They have been named, and presumably shamed. If elected, they could be disqualified. The Commission has however not named the publications involved. Why is the media treated with such restraint? (The Hindu)..
Editors beware of 'paramour preference'
IN Media Practice | 2013-12-02
Is it ethical for editors and senior journalists to have consensual sexual relationships with their subordinates? After the Tejpal incident, they would do well to revisit the IPC amendment made this year.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-12-02
The December issue of Caravan has a rather damaging cover story on Network 18, its complicated financials, and its post-Reliance tilt towards the BJP. Raghav Bahl's email to his staff says that it is "full of outright lies and insidious half truths, conveniently suppressing the other half" and that the..
What over-the-top coverage cannot achieve
IN Media Practice | 2013-11-29
The nature of media coverage does nothing to counter deep-seated values of patriarchy. Focusing intensely on punishment for sexual attacks and on workplace harassment is to take the easy way out,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-11-29
Cobrapost's sting Operation Blue Virus reveals that with the help of IT companies, that provide customised online reputation management services for a fee, politicians boost their popularity and malign their opponents. If the claims of the companies exposed are to be believed, among political parties, BJP is at the forefront in social..
Tehelka case: double standards on privacy?
IN Media Practice | 2013-11-28
The fact that a journalist's own parameters can decide what is private and what is public is really questionable, and needs to be introspected on in the Indian media,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-11-28
Known for his statements related to the social media usage, Minister of Communications and Information technology made his debut today (November 28) on the microblogging site Twitter. "Here I am. One of you. Lets talk." was his first tweet. It will be interesting to see how Sibal will handle the..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-11-28
The two line intro above today's TOI third edit is needlessly salacious. The Bachi Karkaria piece itself does not have this sentence, and while making an excellent point about the lynchmob the media became in the Tarun Tejpal case, she also points at the group's own channel, Times Now, which..
IN Opinion | 2013-11-28
From inception, conventional notions of media ethics are not something the folks at Tehelka cared to adhere to.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-11-28
On Monday night the English news channels were consumed by the fact that the media was being blamed for contributing to the subversion of justice in the Arushi murder case. Arnab Goswami would only allow people to continue speaking if he liked what they had to say. The Hindi channels meanwhile were into..
Outlawing the reporting of a 'bandh'
IN Opinion | 2013-11-27
The Assam government's move to penalize the media for covering a bandh is ill-advised and must be dropped forthwith,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-11-26
TOI reports that the Chhattisgarh Election Commission has rejected appeals filed by education minister, Brijmohan Agarwal, and Dhamtari's Congress candidate Gurmukh Singh Hora and upheld the district committee's order of adding Rs 96,350 and Rs 24,000 to their election expenditure on account of paid news. The minister and the Congress..
Edit writers and the Iran accord
IN Opinion | 2013-11-26
All of them, except the Hindu Business Line, which devoted half an edit to the India angle, dealt with the implications for India very briefly.
Delhi poll: social media potential high, readiness poor
IN Special Reports | 2013-11-25
As of now the question is not whether the social media will play an important role in the forthcoming Assembly election but whether parties are geared to use it?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-11-25
MediaSarkar.com, the website which did the sting on AAP candidates, has asked the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to prove the alleagtions that the website was paid Rs 12 crore for the sting operation that allegedly exposed the corruption in the party. The website also claims that AAP activists abused and..
Opportunism of pre-poll surveys
IN Media Practice | 2013-11-25
Survey methodology is good at explaining correlations between past and existing attitudes, but is poor at predicting future behaviour.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-11-23
When a victim's complaint is part of an FIR, it becomes public. But does that mean a newspaper should forsake its good sense and quote graphic sexual descriptions in a highlighted page one lead item, as the Indian Express did on November 23? Its coverage seems to be motivated by..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-11-22
After the sustained TV onslaught, Tarun Tejpal's version sent to friends, is now circulating. It says that the truth is that out of an attempt to preserve the girl's dignity and on "Shoma's adamantine feminist-principle insistence" that he keep correct form by apologising, he did so. But, he says, the girl's..
IN Media Practice | 2013-11-22
The incident reflects on the state of the Indian media as a whole and its attitude towards sexual harassment at the workplace and how it is to be handled,
IN Opinion | 2013-11-21
Alleged sexual harasment by a retired supreme court justice is news. Snooping on a woman by at the behest of state government ministers is news. But repeat sexual harassment (admitted to) of a staffer by the magazine's editor is not news. For either The Hindu, or The Times of India. It is,..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-11-20
Here's a new voluntary penalty for workplace sexual harassment. In what he calls "a penance" which "lacerates" him, Tarun Tejpal has said he is recusing from the editorship of Tehelka for six months for what he describes as "a bad lapse of judgement and an awful misreading of the situation" and what..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-11-20
Exchange for Media reports that the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has accepted the recommendations of the TRAI on guidelines for accreditation of TV rating agencies. TRAI has said that the minimum number of homes that a rating agency should measure should be 20,000 within 6 months of the implementation of the..
IN Opinion | 2013-11-19
That TV went gaga over Sachin Tendulkar last week was understandable. It was a pathetic example of print trying to keep up with the Joneses and yet trying to be different,
Turning India into a surveillance state I
IN Privacy | 2013-11-18
The Central Monitoring System project is being tested and put in place without the sanction of a specific Act of Parliament.
Turning India into a surveillance state II
IN Privacy | 2013-11-18
In India, the laws that allow communications interceptions are minimal, do not conform to global best practices or accord protections afforded by the laws in other liberal democracies.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-11-18
The carefully written readers' editor column in The Hindu does not mention that the Periscope feature page which used to appear several times a week on different topics has also been dropped with the change of guard at The Hindu...
Turning India into a surveillance state II
IN Digital Media | 2013-11-18
In India, the laws that allow communications interceptions are minimal, do not conform to global best practices or accord protections afforded by the laws in other liberal democracies.
Turning India into a surveillance state I
IN Digital Media | 2013-11-18
The Central Monitoring System project is being tested and put in place without the sanction of a specific Act of Parliament.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-11-16
The Cobrapost and Gulail expose on how Narendra Modi aide Amit Shah organised the tailing of a young woman in Ahmedabad at his 'saheb's' behest was sensational enough for the Indian Express, Times of India and Hindustan Times to feature it on their front pages. The Hindu, however, did not..
Visa refusal disappoints film maker
IN Censorship | 2013-11-15
While CHOGM is on in Sri Lanka amidst protests, why is 'No fire Zone' such a problem?
Bal, Open and the perils of political journalism
IN Media Freedom | 2013-11-15
"What Manu has verbally communicated to me is that Sanjiv Goenka told him that because of Hartosh, I am making a lot of enemies...political enemies."
Visa refusal disappoints film maker
IN Media Practice | 2013-11-15
While CHOGM is on in Sri Lanka amidst protests, why is 'No fire Zone' such a problem?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-11-15
TOI and ET fueled the pre-match hype on Friday morning with their 'Bharat Bandh' first leads. Rahul Gandhi and Aamir Khan were in the stands for the cameras to focus on. And technology ensured that when he got out less than two hours into today's play, the number of runs..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-11-15
Predictably, Google's eighth transparency report reveals that content requests by the Indian government has gone up by 90 percent from the preceding six months for the Jan-June 2013 period. But the surprise is that, post-PRISM revelations, Google has disclosed US government requests for breaking out emergency disclosures, wiretap orders, pen..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-11-14
Its getting to be quite a trend. After Hindu editor S Varadarajan announced his resignation with a tweet, the Political Editor of Open magazine Hartosh Singh Bal has tweeted that he quit despite a sweet Rs 15 lakhs to 'move on quietly'. While he doesn't ascribe reasons, he does mention..
IN Opinion | 2013-11-13
Just how much surrogate ownership is there in media? The intricacy with which this is done is fascinating in the latest case to come to light,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-11-13
While the international media has launched a massive coverage on the huge humanitarian tragedy in Phillipines following the superstorm, the Indian TV channels have virtually no coverage on the natural diaster that has affected millions and killed over 10,000 people in a country in East Asia. The news blank on..
IN Media Business | 2013-11-12
"Thus, it can be seen that the buyer and seller were one and the same group, that is, Reliance. The maze of companies and web of fund movement was created only to hide the identity of the group".
IN Opinion | 2013-11-12
Though they all talked about sacrificing foreign policy objectives to political expediency, not a single editorial examined the deeper issue of the role that the border states must play in foreign policy,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-11-12
Business Standard has a large op-ed article on November 12 on the business of employing foreign nationals, pegged to a query about Raghuram Rajan's nationality. The writer goes off into the profiles of foreigners employed over the years, an ends by saying that Rajan in any case has an Indian..
Ban opinion polls if it goes against you!
IN Media Freedom | 2013-11-11
The Congress is in favour of a ban and the BJP isn't, but what of the poor voter's free speech,
Bans, regulation, and political paranoia
IN Law and Policy | 2013-11-11
What does the voter need more: opinion polls, or more ground reporting on what a party's performance is? One would imagine the latter.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-11-10
When the public service broadcaster wins global rights to provide the feed for a world championship event, be prepared to see just half a chessboard on your TV screen. And when asked the reason for the “technical glitch” on DD Sports be prepared for a public sector answer: it was..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-11-10
The only news channels which saw fit on Nov 10 to carry a live broadcast of Haryana CM Bhupinder Hooda’s rally, were those with a Congress Party connection. NewsX and India News owned by the family of Haryana's Congress politician Venod Sharma, and News 24 owned by the family of Congress MP Rajeev..
'Serious fraud' and self-censorship
IN Special Reports | 2013-11-07
A government agency is investigating possible fraud in RIL's links with INX (9X) Media four years ago, and the role played by multinational private equity firm, New Silk Route.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-11-07
Tehelka has been getting a lot of flak for its Thinkfest, scheduled in Goa this month. The magazine is used to it as it was attacked last year too for organising the event amidst reports of its coverage of mining scams. But the flak this time is directed towards acclaimed..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-11-06
Sachin Tendulkar is playing his penultimate match at the Eden Gardens. Almost all newspapers today carried stories on Little Master but The Times of India decided to take it to another level. The paper made a page of the sports section with articles on Tendulkar (except one story on V..
The Talwars and presumed guilt
IN Media Practice | 2013-11-06
In the Aarushi Talwar murder case, the electronic media scaled new heights of irresponsibility by spreading canards and defamatory stories.
IN Opinion | 2013-11-04
Last week, all the big papers offered their wisdom on whether Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel's legacy 'belonged' to the Congress alone and whether the BJP had a right to"appropriate" it.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-11-04
What does it mean for a political party to "lease" a channel for the elections? We don't know for sure but the BJP is believed to have taken Raj News in Andhra Pradesh on lease in the run up to the elections. They have already recruited senior personnel...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-11-02
The Zee 24 Gantalu news channel is going to close. Zee has agreed to pay three months severance pay to employees. It was briefly leased by Botsa Satish, brother of the Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee chief, Botsa Satyanarayana. The sensational coverage given by the channel to the visit of the..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-10-31
Even as the media is in the eye of the storm in the UK with media trials starting on the phone hacking scandal, a landmark decision was taken after two years of deliberation in the Westminster. TV cameras will be allowed to film in the Court of Appeal with safe..
UK media: to regulate or not to regulate
IN Media Practice | 2013-10-31
All political parties in the UK are of the view that the press has failed to self regulate. The press, in turn, accuse the British politicians of wanting to curb press freedom through the new regulatory mechanism,
IN Opinion | 2013-10-31
Between Pierre Omidyar's Greenwald-fronted venture and the assertions relating to changes at The Hindu, older values of journalism are being tested,
IN Media Practice | 2013-10-31
As the trial of Rebekah Brooks begins the British media cannot resist the adjectives. But what's her flame hair got to do with her ethics as a journalist?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-10-29
How much place does the Congress Party give to Sardar Patel's legacy? If you use adspend in memorialising him as a criteria, the three Nehru-Gandhi prime ministers together got an annual adspend of Rs 50 crore and Sardar Patel less than Rs 9 crore. (NDTV)..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-10-29
Highlighting police excesses during the Ranji trophy match and exposing favouritism at the stadium entry gate at Rohtak by police personnel, proved costly for journalists. Three, including a cameraman, were thrashed on October 29 by the Haryana police for covering excesses by them on Sachin Tendulkar’s fans. A reporter of..
China's grand strategy for media
IN Media Practice | 2013-10-28
In an era when Voice of America and BBC World Service budgets are battered by funding cutbacks and partisan politics, China is playing the long game.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-10-27
On October 27 Rahul Gandhi became an inadvertent casualty of the blast in the Patna. In what was billed as a speech versus speech story by most news channels, one speech was conspicuous by its absence. The only channels that seemed to make an effort to replay it, and more..
Why you should invest in the Hoot!
IN Media Practice | 2013-10-26
We try to hold a mirror to media practitioners by casting a spotlight on their acts of omission and commission. Who ducked covering something important? Why?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-10-25
The removal of Siddharth Varadarajan from the editorship of The Hindu poses an interesting problem for the Editors Guild. It might normally be expected to take up this issue, but its current president N Ravi is one of the people who voted for the change in the board meeting of..
IN Media Practice | 2013-10-25
As the Archaeological Survey of India continues with its excavation work at Unnao for the hidden gold, international press is having a field day reporting the progress.
Reporting from China: Not an Easy Gig
IN Media Freedom | 2013-10-24
PART II -- Despite improved access since the 1970s, the treatment of foreign correspondents in China falls far below international standards.
The Long Shadow of Chinese Censorship
IN Media Freedom | 2013-10-24
PART I -- How the Communist Party's Media Restrictions Affect News Outlets Around the World - A special report of The Center for International Media Assistance (CIMA)
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-10-23
The gloves are off in the Hindu Chairman's war with his paper's former editors. N Ram tweeted on October 23: "Meet M K Venu, peerless professional journalist." He then cited the numbers of the Radia tapes in Outlook in which Venu figures. So how come the Hindu hired him at..
Decoding the 'deep-going' changes
IN Media Business | 2013-10-23
The Hindu may wish to reaffirm its position and send a message that family owned enterprises led by professionally qualified and inclined family members are acceptable,
IN Media Practice | 2013-10-23
Family Matter, a show on Odisha's Tarang channel, aims to solve disputes and get the family members together and happy.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-10-23
TOI is gleefully capitalising on the Hindu's troubles. Its Delhi edition had a news item seizing on N Murali's statement to a newspaper that his company's revenues were challenged and that the TOI was taking away advertisement revenue from them. Headine: 'TOI gains at Hindu's expense.'..
The Hindu returns to the family fold
IN Media Business | 2013-10-22
Siddharth Varadarajan said it now seems with the benefit of hindsight that the flirtation with professionalisation was the product of dysfunctional equations within the family, and with these being resolved, was no longer needed.
Should politicians grace media events?
IN Opinion | 2013-10-21
Overall, journalists pursue a close relationship with politicians which goes beyond professional requirements,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-10-20
The Press Club, Mumbai crossed a turnover of Rs 2 crore and generated a surplus of Rs 20 lakh during 2012-13 also wiping off carry-forward losses. It was not due to members' fees or bar sales but other revenues such as "funds received from our media partners for various events (conducted..
IN Opinion | 2013-10-19
TV news went delirious with delight. Programming for three days was assured. But a large part of the print media firmly stuffed a handkerchief into its mouth.
Communities are entitled to news
IN Community Media | 2013-10-19
Media diversity and pluralism are essential to democracy. Any unreasonable curbs on the media cast serious doubts on one's commitment to those key principles.
Sena ire on FB posts: Any new lessons here?
IN Digital Media | 2013-10-18
Guidelines on arrests for online content are no guarantee against the misuse of a bad law.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-10-18
Sameer Nair, former CEO of Star India and NDTV imagine, is to lend heft to the Aam Aadmi party’s communication strategy. He has joined AAP to support its Delhi election campaign. And promsies to rope in his friends. ..
Ownership, self censorship, etc
IN Opinion | 2013-10-18
Some media owners are people in public life and will be in the news, for good or bad. How should they be covered? How much self censorship should there be if the news is bad, how much publicity if it is good?
Lift the ban on news in private radio
IN Law and Policy | 2013-10-17
The Supreme Court of India has admitted a petition from civil society to lift the government monopoly on telecast of news over radio.
IN Media Business | 2013-10-17
Thanks to shrinking newspaper markets and the relentless march of tablets and mobiles, some things are set to change forever.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-10-16
Kumar Mangalam Birla does not own the Hindustan Times. But his loyal relatives there have ensured that the paper completely blacked out a story which everybody else had as a first lead--the filing of an FIR in the coal scam against Birla. Or was it some loyal senior staffer who..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-10-15
India Today's website carried a PTI story on the fact that the CBI filed an FIR on Tuesday naming Aditya Birla Group chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla in a criminal conspiracy regarding a coal block allocation. But on Headlines Today, despite double decker news headlines scrolling away, the news could not..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-10-15
Excessively media conscious state governments are getting flak for wasting public money. The CAG in Haryana has pulled up the state government for recruiting 15 media advisors and professionals "in a totally non transparent manner" and creating a loss of 1.89 crore to the exchequer. In addition, the state PR..
Films aren't billboards for anti-smoking campaigns
IN Censorship | 2013-10-14
Irked by the directive to insert anti-smoking messages, Woody Allen refused to release his latest film in India,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-10-14
Does BCCI censor cricket commentators? Their commentary and their tweets? this story on crickinfo.com suggests there is a reason why Sanjay Manjrekar is not a commentator for BCCI's world feed in the current India Australia series. It doesn't actually give the reason but refers to a complaining tweet which was..
Using RTI: Just 0.3 per cent of the population?
IN Media Practice | 2013-10-14
The total number of RTI applications received in Maharashtra outnumbered the total figures put out for the Central Government.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-10-13
London's West End theatre has done it again. In a modern adaptation of Shakespeare's Macbeth where Macbeth is the CEO of an equity firm in London's business district, the three witches have been cast as three journalists! The Leveson shadow spilling onto theatre ?..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-10-13
For all the initial hysterical soundbites by windblown reporters, within 24 hours the cyclone Phailin story on TV was turning around to be one with a positive side to it. Across channels--CNN IBN, NDTV 24x7 and Headlines Today--the chief minister, the Odisha administration, the Met Department and the NDRF were coming in..
IN Opinion | 2013-10-12
Edits-wise, did last week belong to Sachin Tendulkar or Jwala Gutta who faced a life ban? Or both?
Online comment moderation: emerging best practices
IN Digital Media | 2013-10-11
Readers' feedback and perspectives can broaden the publication's coverage from their vantage point, inspire new stories and provide possible sources or ways to address an issue.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-10-11
The media delegation currently accompanying the PM to Brunei and Indonesia received some interesting tips this time from the Ministry of External Affairs, in their list of dos and donts. They pertain to open displays of anger, the penchant for extensive bargaining, and the etiquette to be observed while interacting with..
Goa controversy over Godse play
IN Media Freedom | 2013-10-10
Should a play have dramatic license or is political propaganda - hate speech, even - being camouflaged as a stage production?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-10-10
The Ahmedabad-based Neesa group is launching six TV channels, including an English news channel. It is already running a Hindi news channel Jano Dunia. The group is headed by a former IAS officer of the Gujarat cadre turned entrepreneur, who owns hotels and resorts. It has appointed former Tribune journalist..
Goa controversy over Godse play
IN Media Freedom | 2013-10-10
Should a play have dramatic licence or is political propaganda - hate speech, even - being camouflaged as a stage production?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-10-10
Trouble continues to dog the Kerala newspaper Thejas - first its DAVP advertisements were stopped and now it has received a notice for cancellation of publication licence under the PRB Act for publishing content that 'seriously compromised the national interests and unity". In a swift response, a committee has been..
Resisting Censorship: Kolkata screening of 'Musalmaner Katha'
IN Media Freedom | 2013-10-08
The struggle to protect the right to show and speak about truths uncomfortable for the State is an ongoing one,
IN Books | 2013-10-07
There is not a single digital company among India's largest media companies, as yet. Only six percent of advertising last year went to digital.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-10-07
Arindam Chaudhuri of IIPM who has made it a practice to sue those writing about his educational empire, has however succeeded in getting a court reprieve when MP Naveen Jindal's company sued a magazine he publishes. A Delhi court dismissed on Friday a criminal defamation complaint against Planman Media Private..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-10-06
Times Now on a series called 'Political debutante' failed to get Nandan Nilekani to comment about his candidature from South Bangalore...and the Times Now correspondent ended up grilling the poor security guard instead...what level of journalism is this? The reporter did not get Anil Kumble either as he was reportedly..
IN Digital Media | 2013-10-05
As the mainstream parties rev up their social media strategy, the so-called social media created challengers are turning to more traditional forms of voter outreach.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-10-04
Former Star News anchor and India Against Corruption TV spokesperson Shazia Ilmi is making her political debut as a candidate from the South Delhi constituency of RK Puram in the Delhi State elections. Her electoral plank of free water, and other freebies outdoes the Congress candidate in populism...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-10-03
The U.S. government urged a secret court to reject a request by Google Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo! Inc. to let them publish the aggregate numbers and scope of user data they turn over to intelligence agencies. Revealing such data “on a company-by-company basis would cause serious harm to national..
IN Opinion | 2013-10-03
If there is a recession and it is belt tightening time, why are per episode costs in television entertainment now touching levels never reached before?
Investigating an honour killing
IN Books | 2013-10-02
We learn from this fast-paced account how a competitive, scandal-seeking and invasive media turns out, warts and all, to be a pretty good friend to those seeking justice for Babli and Manoj.
IN Opinion | 2013-10-02
In the Lalu conviction case only the Times of India made the proper connections between the Rahul rejection, Nitish Kumar's pressure and the conviction itself.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-10-02
On 30 September the management of the Prime News channel in Guwahati announced that it was ceasing operations from the next day. Around 170 employees suddenly find themselves jobless, according to a petition to the I and B minister seeking his intervention. The channel was taken over last year by..
Disaffection case against 'Hindu' editor: We are like that only!
IN Media Freedom | 2013-10-01
How does a news story about the private visit of a high-ranking police officer to a religious leader become a threat to media freedom,
Intelligence reporting or embedded journalism?
IN Media Practice | 2013-09-30
Why do spooks mostly feed us the apple-pie-cold-coffee stories instead of revealing information of the kind Gen Singh disclosed?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-09-30
Was there a reason why the National Security Advisor (NSA) Shiv Shankar Menon addressed the post Manmohan Singh-Nawaz Sharief's meeting press conference and not the Foreign Secretary, Sujata Singh? Menon was curt with journos, particularly the journos from Pakistan. His raised eyebrows at a Pakistani journalist who asked India to show..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-09-30
Right after Narendra Modi's big Delhi rally ended DD news had a couple of bulletins on air. Its news did not feature Modi in the headlines, and had the story a little way down in the bulletin. And no mention of course of any 'dehaati aurat'...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-09-30
For all of the thunder expended on the Pakistan PM's purported insult to the Indian PM, the dehaati aurat remark which Modi went to town wasn't really made according to the Indian Express. The distortion of what the Pak PM actually said apparently came from Geo TV's Hamid Mir who..
IN Media Freedom | 2013-09-28
Definitions apart, filters will result in the State wrapping a sterile blanket over the freedom of expression of individuals.
IN Digital Media | 2013-09-28
Definitions apart, filters will result in the State wrapping a sterile blanket over individuals' freedom of expression.
Rahul Gandhi's afternoon ambush
IN Opinion | 2013-09-28
Since this happened at around 2 pm I could hear the editors purring. By evening they had burst into full throated song, first on TV and the next day in print.
IN Regional Media | 2013-09-28
Who is the target reader of The Hindu in Tamil? The urban professional, the urban commoner or the rural reader?
Kerala's model of media regulation
IN Media Business | 2013-09-26
The issue of banning advertisements to 'Thejas' by the Kerala government is a serious issue pertaining to press freedom and pluralist media and should be discussed as such,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-09-26
On Wednesday evening Arnab Goswami on Times Now was grilling Lalit Modi on his expulsion from BCCI when Modi lobbed a grenade back at Goswami: "Just as you like to have an upper hand over Rajdeep Sardesai, your rival, on your channel- we all like to have the upper hand..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-09-25
RBI governors have not been fodder for page 3 before but trust Delhi Times (Sept 24) to find a way to feature RBI governor Raghuram Rajan. It carries a superimposed pix of him on a vestless dude and gushes about this is how he looks in their imagination. You even have Ritu Beri's views..
US dilemma: Who is a journalist?
IN Law and Policy | 2013-09-25
The Free Flow of Information Act of 2013, if passed by the US Senate, will be the first Federal Shield Law. Critics feel it divides journalists into two classes: traditional newsroom journalists, and freelancers, bloggers and citizen journalists.
IN Opinion | 2013-09-23
First everyone said the same thing: reduce interest rates by reducing the repo rate so that growth can return. Yet when Rajan did the opposite they praised his decision unreservedly,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-09-22
The Rajya Sabha Secretariat has advertised in newspapers inviting comments on the Right to Information (Amendment) Bill, which seeks to keep political parties out of the ambit of the RTI Act and also nullify the June 2013 decision of the CIC which declared six national political parties as public authorities...
Zero tolerance for violence and intolerance
IN Censorship | 2013-09-20
That is what we need, especially when people threaten violence against anything that offends them,
Hindutva's chronic hate speech
IN Opinion | 2013-09-20
Inflammatory speeches are made and content published but no action is taken. Is there nothing we as journalists can do about hate speech,
IN Opinion | 2013-09-20
Can the ability to turn a good phrase become a substitute to think a deeply analytical thought? Can earnest piety replace the exuberance of a new insight,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-09-19
Somebody is unhappy about the government’s approach to the nuclear deal with the US, and leaking to the media. Right after the Hindu’s major scoop today on the government seeking to neutralise the a key provision of the nuclear liability law, came the Times Now story on a secret note..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-09-19
ABP Private Ltd which runs The Telegraph and Ananda Bazar Patrika, has sold its business magazine, Businessworld, to Anurag Batra, owner of Exchange4media, and investor Vikram Jhunjhunwala for an undisclosed amount. (Business Standard)..
IN Opinion | 2013-09-19
It is no longer enough that Andhra Pradesh has far more news channels than any other state. What matters is whether the owner belongs to Andhra, or Rayalseema, or Telangana,
IN Digital Media | 2013-09-18
Gmail is the most widely used email service provider in the world. But once you log on, you can kiss your online privacy goodbye,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-09-17
TV entertainment is getting more big budget than ever before. Launched on Sunday on Colors, every episode of Bigg Boss will cost approx Rs 1.5 crore for the season which will last for 95 days. Similarly, each episode of Mahabharat – that began airing on Star Plus from Monday -..
We must decriminalise defamation
IN Media Freedom | 2013-09-17
Society must see decriminalising defamation law as a service to itself, not a concession to journalists,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-09-16
India and China today agreed to encourage exchange of visits by journalists so that they can act as a bridge for better cooperation between the countries. This was decided after a Chinese delegation led by Cai Ming Zhao, Minister of State Council Information Office, met Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish..
IN Media Practice | 2013-09-15
Channels had a field day playing archive footage, all of which was meant to lionise the leader.
IN Opinion | 2013-09-15
The Hindu's editorials are more often than not garnished with self-evident truths. Many are vapid and show which way the paper leans,
A DGP, two godmen and a TV channel
IN Media Freedom | 2013-09-15
The police became the prime actors all because a top police officer with a controversial background visited a godman, and was covered by TV channels.
IN Media Practice | 2013-09-13
It is high time people in responsible position reconcile to the role of watch-dog media and watch-dog civil society and not misuse the expression 'media trial' to save the guilty,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-09-13
Politicians get direct benefit from owning a news channel. The Congress MLA from Ambala Venod Sharma raised the question of reservation for people of weaker sections irrespective of their caste, in the state assembly on September 12. In no time his own news channel India News Haryana made it breaking..
IN Opinion | 2013-09-13
Letter to the Hoot: Nirbhaya's rape is played out time and again with painful details on the front pages of all leading newspapers. The conduct of the top four papers in the country in reporting this can only be called poor,
IN Media Business | 2013-09-12
The recommendations detailed ways to make audience sampling more representative, suggesting a minimum panel size of 20,000 to be implemented within 6 months of the guidelines coming into force.
Snuffing out voices from the margins
IN Media Freedom | 2013-09-11
Cumbersome licensing and arbitrary spectrum allocation add to self-censorship of community radio in India,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-09-11
In a bizarre mix-up for an organisation like the BBC, its business report on Sept 10 showed the story of a woman entrepreneur who was breaking the male monopoly in auto repair works. The story is obviously from Africa, possibly from Dakar, Senegal. The anchor however identified it as a..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-09-11
Under fire for its role in the compliance of national security requests by the US government, Google has filed an amended petition in the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance court that it be allowed to publish detailed statistics about the types of national security requests it received under the Foreign Intelligence..
Of film screenings and political muscle-flexing
IN Censorship | 2013-09-10
BJP leaders must distance themselves from the elements who disrupted film screenings in Pune and Hyderabad
Fake video and a riot, yet again!
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-09-09
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 | 2013-09-09
The Hindustan Times has revamped its content presentation without actually changing the paper's design much. Except for the edit page and the addition of a tear sheet along the front page with a glimpse of different sections. The business supplement has merged with the main paper ostensibly so that the..
IN Opinion | 2013-09-08
First the Telegraph went into pontificatory mode. Then it struck the handloom sari, big bindi, bleeding heart liberal note.
Intolerance leads to novelist's arrest
IN Media Practice | 2013-09-08
The media's silence in the case against Yogesh Master and the ban on his book 'Dhundhi' is an ominous sign against freedom of expression,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-09-07
Except for Thursday (Sept 5), there have been no newspapers in Manipur in the last one week after a threat from an underground militant organisation which was issued when the editors refused to publish their press release. The paper boys in the state have decided not to deliver newspapers after..
But I'm on the same page as you, Laxmi
IN Media Practice | 2013-09-06
I am disturbed that this critical issue is turning into a territorial conflict, a my-sensitivity-is-better-than-yours.
IN Regional Media | 2013-09-05
Four deaths and two attacks of journalists in 45 days! Yet, there is no action, no investigation, no arrests and impunity wins again,
Rape victim's identity: disclosure for whom?
IN Media Practice | 2013-09-04
When and how a sexual assault victim chooses to reveal her identity is a product of complex factors. It takes immense courage to stand up and fight, but the decision must remain hers, not the media's.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-09-03
A reader wants to know why the reporting on Asaram Bapu's potency test has to go into graphic detail in a daily newspaper which is presumably read by entire families. Does it have to be that prurient, he asks. Zee News too gets close but stops short of being explicit...
Way forward for the ad cap stand-off
IN Media Business | 2013-09-03
TRAI was not wrong to insist on a cap, but it couldn't have come at a worse time: the coincidence of the economic slowdown and digital distribution.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-09-01
A new English language daily has been launched from Hyderabad which made an unusual declaration on day one. Metro India is from the same stable as Namaste Telangana, a Telugu newspaper in which TRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao has an equity stake. The promoter CL Rajam is a businessman who figured..
Facebook's transparency report falls short of expectations
IN Media Freedom | 2013-08-31
but something's better than nothing,
Whither Communication teaching?
IN Media Monitoring | 2013-08-31
Has the discipline of Communication and Journalism in India failed to redefine itself as a relevant academic field in the context of media's changing political economy,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-08-31
Now it's the turn of Bloomberg TV India. On Friday more than 30 people were sacked by the business channel. Those who lost their jobs included directors, camera persons, editors, producers and an anchor. Each one was given three months' salary, in addition to the August salary. Anil Ambani is..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-08-31
The encounter between Army and militants in Kashmir's Ganderbal district occured in night, in absence of media crews. But 'on the spot' footage of the encounter by many Delhi-based news channels has come into question. A local news agency, CNS, reports that soon after the GOC Victor Force concluded his..
IN Media Business | 2013-08-31
You suddenly realise how vulnerable you are. There is no grievance redressal system. Journalists have no unions. In fact, your editor has constantly mocked unions - he says that's for those jholawalla leftists, that unions have no place in new age
Advertisers fear Mamata's wrath: refuse to run anti-rape campaign ads
IN Media Freedom | 2013-08-30
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has found a new target for her censorship drive: advertisers!
Redesigning media education in the Northeast
IN Regional Media | 2013-08-30
Recently, the under-reported Northeast India has witnessed a media boom. Time to review the media education imparted to make it more enabling,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-08-30
Do newspapers need to reproduce FIRs of rape survivors? What purpose does it serve? DNA chose to reproduce the FIR in the case of the Mumbai journalist, on August 27, and said it was holding back the more gruesome bits. See our blog comment...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-08-29
On Thursday it was announced internally at the Outlook Group that Outlook Money was becoming a monthly and ten staffers, mostly journalists, were asked to go. Today it has been announced that Outlook Business and Outlook Money are merging...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-08-29
On Monday, Indian Express carried an interview with Sharad Pawar covering 3/4ths of a page, wherein he as usual, pushed for GM crops. On Tuesday, the TOI carried a speculative report saying the government would push for GM crops in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday. On the same day, this..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-08-28
Social media network Facebook has come out with its first transparency report a la Google and the picture is as dismal. FB's Global Government Requests Report looks at requests for the first half of 2013 and India made 3,245 requests which involved accessing 4,144 individual accounts. And, in 50 per..
Can we stop feeding the beast?
IN Media Practice | 2013-08-27
In its desperate race to feed news-hungry 24/7 media channels and print media outlets fighting for circulation, the media is consuming itself.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-08-27
Shekhar Gupta, editor in chief of the Indian Express who was heading the business side as well, has mailed his colleagues to say that since the company is now in robust shape financially he will be reverting to focussing entirely on editorial-related management and is handing back a flourishing company..
IN Media Practice | 2013-08-26
With so many sexual assault and rape cases coming in to light every day and media coverage growing manifold, The Hoot has compiled the laws and guidelines for the journalists reporting such cases.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-08-26
Dr. Narendra Dabholkar, the rationalist who was murdered last week, was also an eminent journalist. He was the editor of the respected, intellectually robust Marathi language Sadhana Weekly, published from Pune, from 1998. It was founded by Sane Guruji (Pandurang Sadashiv Sae) in 1948 to 'destroy inequality and enmity' in..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-08-26
Narendra Modi's speech writers pick up a wrong fact from a Wikipedia article, he makes a speech saying the rupee was equal to the dollar in 1947, and the media can't seem to stop repeating his error. On August 25 it was the turn of the Hindustan Times to carry..
TOI's foot-in-mouth rape coverage
IN Media Practice | 2013-08-25
In its desire to give saturation coverage to such crimes, TOI led the way. But there were four oversights that ought to have been caught by alert editors.
Mumbai gangrape : reality check for the media...and society
IN Media Practice | 2013-08-25
Is the horrendous assault on a woman journalist in Mumbai last week only about the media and women journalists? Or is it symptomatic of the depths of violence in our society?
Attack on freedom of expression in ‘punyanagri'
IN Censorship | 2013-08-24
A hostile group of ABVP activists attack students at FTII, Pune.
Is India really the second deadliest country for journalists?
IN Media Freedom | 2013-08-24
Or do such sensationalist reports do a disservice to journalists laboring under impunity?
"Understand the sea you swim in"
IN Media Practice | 2013-08-24
If people don't think critically about techniques advertisers, politicians and others use to influence us, then they will be easily fooled and manipulated,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-08-23
The rupee fall has hiked The Times of India’s considerable newsprint import costs. It hiked its Friday edition cover price by a rupee in Mumbai from today to “partially offset increased cost” of paper production. TOI sources say that it has also decided not replace staff who have left. While..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-08-23
The TOI is increasing ways to make advertiser happy and pull in revenues. The wrap-around advertisement for a real estate company has its masthead printed vertically over the entire column one space. To read the advertisement in today's Mumbai edition, one has to turn the paper by 90 degrees...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-08-23
Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan turned into an angry old man on Twitter when a fake video surfaced on YouTube that purportedly endorsed Gujarat CM Narendra Modi as a prime ministerial candidate. He posted a screaming, all caps tweet crying out that the video was a fake one and he was..
IN Opinion | 2013-08-22
The endless hyperventilating on Modi on English news channels does not even begin to reflect what he stands for as 2014 draws closer.
Mouthshut case: the media got it all wrong
IN Censorship | 2013-08-21
Commentary on the case were not just superfluous but plain inaccurate,
Mouthshut case: the media got it all wrong
IN Digital Media | 2013-08-21
Commentary on the case were not just superfluous but plain inaccurate,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-08-20
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..
Prasar Bharati at the crossroads
IN Media Practice | 2013-08-20
The Prasar Bharati Act gives a lot of operational autonomy but Sections 32 or 33 of the Act take away most of these by insisting of the prior approval of Government on all critical issues. And funding for technology suffers from grossly inadequate al
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-08-19
I&B minister Manish Tewari on Aug 19 said the media industry should consider holding a common exam for journalists, on the lines of that conducted by the Bar Council, after which they could be given licence to pursue the profession. It would bring a certain amount of standardisation across the..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-08-19
A journalist asks, what is it about Hindutva demagogues and English journalists? First it was the Shiv Sena chief who was given the loving epithet "tiger", now its a tribute to another "tiger": Dilip Singh Judeo. A gushing obit in The Indian Express dated August 15 titled: "A tiger in..
What's stalling Thalaiva's release?
IN Media Practice | 2013-08-17
In a state known for its media-politics nexus, the struggles that Thalaiva is facing for release, points to yet another dimension,
IN Digital Media | 2013-08-17
The acerbic voices on social media are becoming the judge, jury and the executioner.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-08-17
Politicians will miss the retrenched journos. As Maken tweeted "Regular mtng with journos in my room at AICC.Sad not to see many regular faces.They were frm TV18. Good hardworking journos. Feel bad for them". ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-08-17
The 300 plus people who have been retrenched so far by Network 18 this week have officially resigned after receiving a severance package. Those employed for more than 3 years have been paid 15 days salary a year for every year served in addition to the three years. Those who..
Does media need self regulation 3.0?
IN Media Practice | 2013-08-16
Paid news is a deeply troubling phenomenon. But are there other distortions - potentially unpaid - that are equally disturbing? Inherent bias for one?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-08-16
The government is tightening the rules to stop any incidence of "paid news" in the election season. Media organisations found guilty of publishing news for a consideration will risk losing their registration according to amendments to the Press and Registration of Books (PRB) act proposed by the information and broadcasting..
IN Opinion | 2013-08-15
The story of stories that go unpublished is nothing new in the media. Some of them fall into the category of scoops deliberately ignored.
'I will stand by freedom of speech'
IN Censorship | 2013-08-14
A well-known dalit writer is arrested for a facebook post on the suspension of IAS officer Durga Nagpal and the demolition of a madrassa.
'I will stand by freedom of speech'
IN Digital Media | 2013-08-14
A well-known dalit writer is arrested for a facebook post on the suspension of IAS officer Durga Nagpal and the demolition of a madrassa.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-08-14
NDTV's Nidhi Razdan is making waves on Twitter for wrong reasons. On Aug 13, Razdan was mocked by British MP Barry Gardiner, during an interview on the invitation to Modi to visit UK, for "not respecting her country's Supremem Court". Razdan defended her questions to Gardiner by ending the interview with "We..
Filmdom's Friday 'take offence' game
IN Censorship | 2013-08-13
Come Friday and a big release and there will be another actor lurking in the shadows: the offence-taker. At least four films in the last two weeks have run into some trouble or the other, over dialogues or song lyrics.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-08-12
It is job losing time, and the place to watch even as retrenchment at the Outlook Group across the country is continuing, is Network 18. Creative announcements of departures not withstanding (somebody is leaving because of burnout, somebody else because he wants to be an entrepreneur) large scale paring of jobs is..
IN Media Practice | 2013-08-12
Untold story of Dalit journalists - Part III. Change the media has from Uniyal's days, but its pace mimics the Hindu rate of growth, which had dogged India's economic growth.
IN Media Practice | 2013-08-12
The Untold Story of Dalit Journalists-Part II. Most Dalit journalists insist that social network based on caste plays a crucial role in placement and, subsequently, in switching jobs.
The untold story of Dalit journalists
IN Media Practice | 2013-08-12
Many Dalits enter the media because they believe it can empower their community. But discrimination against them is rampant in the Hindi and other language media.
Perils of doing grassroots exposes
IN Media Freedom | 2013-08-11
Grain black marketers turn viciously upon a reporter who captured them in action, even as police and the news agency he represents soft pedal.
Perils of doing grassroots exposes
IN Media Freedom | 2013-08-11
Grain black marketers turn viciously upon a reporter who captured them in action, even as police and the news agency he represents soft pedal.
IN Opinion | 2013-08-11
I can't imagine the BBC or any British news channel being so unabashedly propagandist as the NDTV, CNN-IBN and Times Now have been on this issue.
IN Media Practice | 2013-08-10
Murdoch's newspapers go ballistic against PM Kevin Rudd ahead of the Australian elections,
Missing links in Durga Shakti story
IN Opinion | 2013-08-08
If the English media, specially the electronic media (but for CNN-IBN), presented a black-and-white picture of the incident, so did the English websites catering to Muslims,
Lessons from the Outlook Group closures
IN Opinion | 2013-08-08
Even after post-closure confabulations with management, editors of these magazines are no wiser as to what really sparked the decision.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-08-06
Seven days after filing a case under the Maharashtra recognition of trade union and prevention of unfair labour practices (MRTU PULP) Act, the People India team which went to court against abrupt closure of the magazine by Outlook Group, withdrew their case today. The editor Saira Menezes said they had..
Getting ugly: media politics in AP
IN Media Practice | 2013-08-06
Projections that suit their regional political and business interests are high on the agenda of these channels.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-08-06
Kuldip Nayar made libelous comments about Indian Express editor-in-chief Shekhar Gupta in his autobiography published a year ago. He thought it was disrespectful of Gupta to have dropped his column and called him abnormally affluent and arrogant. In the new edition of the book he has eaten his words, with..
IN Media Freedom | 2013-08-04
And most definitely not for textbook writers who wrongly omit Arunachal Pradesh from a map of India!
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-08-03
Tony Wang, the UK Boss of Twitter, said the company has updated its rules to make it clear that abuse will not be tolerated and has put extra staff in place to handle reports of abuse. He said the clarified rules make clear that Twitter will not tolerate abusive behaviour,..
Rendering statements provocative
IN Media Practice | 2013-08-03
The TRS chief has long been discovering the mischief that media can do and the coverage of his speech to government employees yesterday was a potent instance,
IN Media Business | 2013-08-03
The DCHL story began to unravel since the middle of 2012 when IFCI filed a petition in the Andhra Pradesh High Court seeking the liquidation of 'Deccan Chronicle'.
IN Media Practice | 2013-08-02
There are many complex biases that can be detected, but what is remarkably obvious is a serious lack of interest in the lives of the Indian poor, judging from the balance of news selection and political analyses in the Indian media,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-08-02
The Outlook Group has begun the process of settling the dues of the employees of the three franchise editions whose closure was recently announced--Marie Claire, People India and Geo. The process began yesterday with the employees of Marie Claire...
Shameful gag order on Islamic scholar
IN Media Freedom | 2013-07-31
The manner in which Madras University caved in and withdrew its invitation to Islamic and women's rights scholar Amina Wadud was shameful,
A deliberately twisted interpretation?
IN Media Practice | 2013-07-31
While Digvijaya Singh's "sou tanch khara maal" remark got sensational coverage in the media, there were no takers for his clarification on the same.
Outlook Group taken to labour court
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-07-31
IN Media Practice | 2013-07-29
Behind the launch is a tale of sorry programming, disappearing salience in the transmission landscape, and total invisibility in the country's most populous states.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-07-27
Whatever has happened to basic fact checking? TOI report on Arun Nehru's cremation quotes agency reports as saying that his pyre was lit by Sonia Gandhi's grandson Rehan as Nehru is survived by a wife and two daughters. Just before that I had read Indian Express which said his grandson..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-07-27
Nobel laureate and Bharat Ratna awardee Amartya Sen recently made a dig at the Indian media. At the launch of his latest book, An Uncertain Glory, co-authored with Jean Dreze, the economist said sweetly that he really loved the way the media was so articulate and could write so well..
Outlook group shuts down 3 mags
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-07-26
Outlook group has announced that it is discontinuing its licensing arrangements with People, Geo and Marie Claire magazines with effect from the forthcoming issues of these magazines. This would mean several staffers---journalists and those in advertising, marketing and circulation across the country losing their jobs. The announcement came today out of the..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-07-26
With Rs 27 and Rs 33 as the poverty line for rural and urban areas being debated once again, and a Congress spokesperson putting the price of a meal at Rs 5 in Delhi and Rs 12 in Mumbai, the media did an odd thing. Reporters rushed to restaurants and..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-07-25
On July 24 DNA reported the following item in its entertainment section: "News of Salman Khan being tried for culpable homicide creates a buzz on Twitter". Is that entertainment news?..
IN Opinion | 2013-07-25
When a general election looms, the competition among PR agencies hots up.
Andhra panchayat polls coverage 'confusing'
IN Regional Media | 2013-07-25
Results of first phase of panchayat elections held in Andhra Pradesh on Tuesday, as reported in various newspapers, have left the reader and viewer confused and amused.
IN Opinion | 2013-07-25
Rather than Twitter and its daily one-upmanship, You Tube has the potential for effective political use. But mastering it requires agility which party social media managers haven't acquired,
Former CJI's rejoinder to newspapers
IN Media Practice | 2013-07-24
"I certainly object to canards masquerading as news, being published in the newspapers to deliberately malign an individual."
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-07-24
An Indian Express diary item today (July 24) talks of Vice President Hamid Ansari being stuck in a traffic jam and not being able to make it to former governor Khurshid Alam Khan's cremation. He was buried, actually, at the Jamia Milia cemetry. Does no one in the Express know the..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-07-22
Years after the Southern editions of The Indian Express were hived off and given to Manoj Sonthalia as part of a family settlement, Viveck Goenka's Indian Express is all set to reclaim the South under the brand name of National Standard. It is currently recruiting for a Bangalore edition which..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-07-22
The telegraph is now dead in India, after 163 years of useful service. New technology did them in. But at least two newspapers have the 'telegraph' in their name - The Telegraph from Kolkata, and Daily Thanthi from Chennai, 'thanthi' is telegraph in Tamil. Will these newspapers change their names,..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-07-21
Samachar4media.com’s Media Maharathi event on July 20 was intended to honour 50 big names in Hindi journalism. The ranking is eyebrow-raising. Owner-editors figure at the top including a father and son duo, with the exception being Harivansh chief editor of Prabhat Khabar. At number 11 is one of the members..
Telugu prime time: violence abounds
IN Regional Media | 2013-07-19
During the 30-minute package of programmes in Telugu commercial TV, the 8 or 9 minutes of advertising are the only feel good part.
Delhi HC meets terrible teens...on FB!
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-07-19
The Delhi High Court wants Facebook to upload a disclaimer on its home page banning children below 13 years from opening an FB account. Spurred by a writ petition by BJP leader K Govindacharya, the court wanted the government to specify legal provisions for teenagers to use Facebook. Judicious parenting, anyone?..
IN Opinion | 2013-07-18
AIM is a book that would be of interest to those in the media since it not only gives an insider's view of how the IB functions but also explains how it manipulates the media.
IN Media Practice | 2013-07-18
Picking one word or remark from the entire speech of a leader and dissecting it endlessly on prime time leads to further polarisation than was intended.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-07-16
The Crest Edition of the Times of India is closing down this week, the company announced today. Crest specialised in in-depth stories, but the expectation that subscribers of the main paper would take it at an add on price was probably belied...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-07-16
The District administration in Ambala (Haryana) has banned the telecast of the Jodha Akbar serial through cable operators after the Rajput community jammed a busy overbridge in the city demanding banning of the serial. The community alleged that the serial portrayed them poorly by distorting history. "We took this decision..
Take down or keep on: Blogger dilemmas
IN Censorship | 2013-07-15
A blog taken down after pressure from Bollywood star Salman Khan - how does one withstand online intimidation?
Rice schemes and media cynicism
IN Regional Media | 2013-07-15
Why are any populist measures by the government, especially those benefitting the poor, always criticised by the media?
IN Opinion | 2013-07-15
Headlines can be damaging but can they be part of a conspiracy?
Even bullets cannot silence Tongam Rina
IN Media Freedom | 2013-07-14
A year since the dastardly shooting, the main accused is still absconding, but I'm not giving up,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-07-14
The Times of India has finally issued a clarification on its June 23 story "Modi in Rambo act, saves 15,000". The story had generated lot of controversy with observers questioning the feasibility of such a rescue operation. The clarification reads that the BJP spokesperson did not say that so many people had been "rescued"...
IN Books | 2013-07-14
Channels varied widely in air time given to same story, ranging from 5 minutes to 44 minutes, or 1 minute plus to 37 minutes plus for a single story.
IN Books | 2013-07-13
Some news channels instantly went to war. The news crawler on Aaj Tak said,"Declare Pakistan a terror state." Few aspired to objectivity.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-07-13
Movie star ministers are unlikely to consider any amount of publicity too much. Tourism minister Chiranjeevi's smiling face appears no less than eight times in a two-page tourism ministry newspaper advertisment for Incredible India...
Parsing the cyber security policy
IN Media Practice | 2013-07-13
An effective cyber-security policy must keep up with the rapid evolution of technology, and must never become obsolete.
IN Media Freedom | 2013-07-12
The national cyber security policy is ambiguous on paper, but with abuses of freedom of speech and the scope for privacy violations,
Privacy vs government vs media
IN Opinion | 2013-07-11
Should Indians be more outraged over government's central monitoring system or US National Security Agency's PRISM,
IN Opinion | 2013-07-11
Despite all the material success, once every five years, Swami Editoananda makes it a point to take time out to gaze into future trends in the media.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-07-11
Actor Salman Khan is having a tough time with cyber media and he reacted in the only way he could: threatened a Chulbul Pandey on blogger Soumyadipta Banerjee for his post on Khan's drunk driving case. Banerjee took down the post with an apology but the 'net has its own logic and..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-07-09
The Central Bureau of Investigation CBI today booked Deccan Chronicle Holdings Ltd (DCHL) chairman T. Venkatrami Reddy and two others for cheating and criminal conspiracy. The investigating agency registered the case under Sections 120-B read with Section 420, 468 and 471 of the Indian Penal Code with the "fraud" perpetrated..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-07-09
The Hindustan Times, Delhi carried a story on July 2 headlined 'Ishrat Jahan has links with Kashmir separatists', never mind that the contents were at variance with the headline or that the charge was unsubstantiated. On a complaint from Ishrat's mother Shamima Kausar, the paper withdrew the headline and printed a..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-07-09
The Hindustan Times had no mention of the events in Egypt, with at least 51 killed in the police firing on Morsi supporters, until you got to a 'must read' box right at the bottom of page one. The story was on page 15. Likewise in the..
IN Regional Media | 2013-07-08
There are more ways of managing news than paid news. Kerala recently showed the way.
Media helping to vilify Ishrat?
IN Media Practice | 2013-07-06
In the political blame game following the filing of the chargesheet in the Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case, the political class is bound to clutch at straws, but must the media follow suit,
IN Media Practice | 2013-07-06
Was he a whistleblower or simply a PRO who could not prevent a story that described management failures in the company from being published?
IN Digital Media | 2013-07-05
Your personal information, data that you may store in your email, cloud storage, video calls you make through Skype, Google, Yahoo or Apple are all accessible to spying programmes such as PRISM.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-07-04
BJP leader Sushma Swaraj went to Yamunanagar in Haryana on July 3 for a condolence visit. The media dogged her heels at every stop, though she kept saying she there was not there on a political visit and would not take questions. When tv channels went ahead..
IN Opinion | 2013-07-04
Following the recent elevation of Narendra Modi as the BJP's face for 2014, Division A2Z under Agent Moody Moody was asked to study the new PM-hopeful and his impact on the media.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-07-03
The Hindustan Times Delhi edition has a headline on top of page 8 which says "Ishrat had links with Kashmir separatists." The story intro however says that the CBI has said that two slain associates of the Mumbai girl Ishrat Jahan had links with Kashmir secessionist groups. The rest of the story is..
IN Media Practice | 2013-07-01
Welcome step in the reforms process, or a concession to benefit Reliance Industries? Major newspapers could not agree, or chose not to comment.
IN Opinion | 2013-06-30
Kabir Kala Manch activists sang and performed on issues of malnutrition, women, female infanticide, farmers' suicides and other such themes. But since when is this deemed to be unlawful?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-06-30
Now its Swapan Dasgupta's turn to explain how Modi's rescue act happened. Somebody sexed up a normal journalistic report and 'conveniently' changed the words "provided relief" to "rescued." He writes, "the casual substitution of one word changed the meaning of the ground report and made Modi seem boastful and prone..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-06-28
Kashmiri politician and Chairman Peoples Political Party, Hilal Ahmad War has registered an FIR against Times Now Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami, at a local police station in Srinagar. Hilal was one of the participants in a debate on Times Now discussing the issue: “Whether the government should authorize a full scale..
IN Media Practice | 2013-06-28
Instead of bringing a sense of proportion to the matter in hand, the media revels in creating needless controversies.
IN Opinion | 2013-06-27
Stories from Aapka Worldwild, a news agency that promises the Indian media the moon and beyond, hope to change the face of print and television news forever.
IN Opinion | 2013-06-27
The ecological cost of pilgrimage tourism whether in the UP hills or in Amarnath, either does not capture media imagination, or is something it chooses not to focus on,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-06-26
Having received flak for his piece to camera while sitting on the shoulders of a flood victim in Uttarakhand, News Express reporter Narayan Pargaien explained the circumstances to Newslaundry. The flood victim whom he had helped with food and money offered to help him cross the river, while doing so he thought..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-06-25
The crash of the IAF rescue chopper M1 17 this evening in Gaurikund was picked up immediately by the private news channels but guess who carried on as if nothing had happened-- the great public service broadcaster, Doordarshan. Even as the news was breaking on all channels- DD carried on..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-06-25
Narain Pargain, a reporter from the Noida-based News Express Channel, wants a dramatic shot for his piece to camera while covering Uttarakhand floods in Dehradun but he does not want to get his feet wet. So here is what you get instead, in our image on the left...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-06-24
A reader asks about the TOI story 'Narendra Modi lands in Uttarakhand, flies out with 15,000 Gujaratis': "Did the paper verify facts such as 80 Innovas? How is it possible to rescue 15,000 Gujaratis from flood affected Uttarkhand in less than two or three days? Or was Modi some new age..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-06-24
Ecuador is anxious to give asylum to Julian Assange and Edward Snowden, but its own free speech record is dubious. Its National Assembly approved a new 'Communications Law' on June 14 which bans dissemination of information that undermines the prestige of a person or a legal entity, and forbids deliberate omission of topics..
IN Digital Media | 2013-06-24
Since it was first launched the free speech scenario has evolved to be more multi-faceted than before, requiring a redesign of the hub as a resource site.
IN Media Freedom | 2013-06-22
Almost a year after the attack no arrests in the case of Tongam Rina.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-06-22
The Daink Bhaskar's long serving bureau chief in Kaithal, Haryana, Naresh Bhardwaj, wears his loyalty to his paper on his sleeve, or rather on his chest. He uploaded a picture of himself on Facebook dressed in a garment made from the pages of the Bhaskar. Social media is good for some kinds..
IN Regional Media | 2013-06-22
Almost a year after the attack no arrests in the case of Tongam Rina.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-06-21
The Times Group has chosen to editorialise through the Economic Times rather than its flagship paper in response to the TRAI chairman's idea of creating a buffer between a media entity and its ownership. "The basis of free speech is the right to start a publication to express one's views,..
This new malady called Owneritis
IN Opinion | 2013-06-20
Diagnosed after a survey among media owners. Check out the questions and answers Dr De (Press) passed on to Dr Khullar for his edification.
Misogyny, media and Australian elections
IN Media Practice | 2013-06-20
The debate on 'is Australia a racist country?' is yet to die down. The new debate ahead of the September elections is, 'is Australia a sexist country?'
Sardesai's take on Modi: fuzzy and dodgy
IN Opinion | 2013-06-18
It's not Modi who is the reason for bias and prejudice; it's the media that is making the ground rules for a confrontationist debate.
Surveillance without borders: grave new world
IN Privacy | 2013-06-17
As we protest the US intrusion into our lives, could we be more vigilant of the intrusions in our own backyard and speak up about them as well?
Apps An App is an abbreviation for the word ‘Application.’ An App runs with the help of internet (even otherwise) on your computer, laptop, mobile phones and tablets. You can find host of apps freely available on the internet for various purposes. Blog According to the IT Rules, a blog means a..
Campaigns for online freedom in India
The nascent internet freedom movement in India comprising internet researchers, journalists, media analysts, bloggers and lawyers, has spoken out against the draconian and arbitrary rules framed for the implementation of the IT Act, 2000. What is disturbing is anyone, anywhere, can be censor, judge and jury. There is total lack..
Censorship of online media â€" a timeline
There have been several instances of censorship of online media in India since 1999. Here’s a list : 1. 1999: In the wake of theKargil war in 1999, VSNL, then the main Internet service provider (ISP) in India, blocked the website of Pakistani newspaper Dawn, although there were no public or..
Implications of IT Act and rules for freedom of expression
Internet freedom activists have expressed concern over the potential to misuse provisions on fixing liabilities for intermediaries, the interception, monitoring and blocking of electronic communication, invasion of privacy by allowing access to sensitive personal data and the grant of sweeping powers without accountability to the Computer Emergency Response Team-India (CERT-In),..
Understanding the IT Act, 2000
Introduction Even as the Internet was at a nascent stagein India, its regulation became a major concern. As the country was transitioning to an electronic age, e-commerce was uppermost in the minds of policy makers, their eyes firmly fixed on the new economy. Drawing on the United Nations Commission on International..
Over the last couple of years, improved broadband speeds and rapidly growing mobile usage has resulted in higher internet penetration in India, with over 130 million active users [1] – the third largest in the world after China and the USA. The popularity of social media networking sites like Facebook..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-06-17
The media have widely reported the conviction of Babu Bokhariya, a Gujarat minister for illegal mining but played down similar sentence for two others, a former Congress MP, Bharat Odedara, as well as an alleged gangster. Bokhariya is in the headline and the intro but the others are relegated to..
Why RTI will not turn politics public
IN Media Practice | 2013-06-17
Political parties operate in a space starkly different from government-run agencies which can actually help them escape close scrutiny.
The heretic leak and the policy leak
IN Privacy | 2013-06-16
The secrecy with which fiendishly vast surveillance powers are being exercised flies thick in the face of all constitutional and legal principles.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-06-16
Vinod Dua who had a successful long-running partnership on NDTV with Prannoy Roy is now very angry with the latter. In recent days his comments talk of Roy destroying his political career on TV, and betraying his trust. The missives also talk of seeking revenge. Is it wise to issue threats in..
The heretic leak and the policy leak
IN Digital Media | 2013-06-16
The secrecy with which fiendishly vast surveillance powers are being exercised flies thick in the face of all constitutional and legal principles.
Surviving a year in wide web world
IN Regional Media | 2013-06-15
The Thumb Print, a portal on Northeastern states, has survived solely on readers' goodwill and the abundance of selfless contributors.
IN Opinion | 2013-06-15
Why did the press treat him with kid gloves after the Babri Masjid demolition, and has done so since, right till yesterday?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-06-14
The Karnataka State Government has dropped all charges against journalist Naveen Soorinje in connection with the Morning Mist home stay attack Recently The Visual Media Journalists Association of Dakshina Kannada district had submitted a memorandum to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah urging him to drop all charges against journalist Naveen Soorinje and..
Snowden needs more media support
IN Digital Media | 2013-06-13
There is a need for media to put it across to the administrations around the world that only a country that trusts its citizens and is receptive to constructive criticism can expect loyal and patriotic commitment in return,
IN Opinion | 2013-06-13
B&S share excerpts from Esop's fables, with their own interpretations, with The Hoot since it covered in detail Forbes (India) sacking its editor and three senior staffers.
IN Opinion | 2013-06-13
Behind the sporadic headlines on this long running fight between broadcasters and TAM, are a bunch of curious contradictions, even ironies,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-06-12
Earlier this month the Hoot published a brief picked up from Newslaundry which said that on Rajiv Gandhi’s death anniversary this year various newspapers got huge advertising and the Indian Express got more than anybody else at Rs 25 crore. The Express Group says the correct figure for all editions of..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-06-12
It pays to write on Tamil Nadu and CM Jayalalitha even if you are not being particularly flattering. The Economist (June 12) has a full page plus a column on the state in the Asia section of its latest issue. This includes a box headlined: 'Politics in Tamil Nadu Lights, camera,..
Exits over ESOPs attract attention
IN Media Business | 2013-06-10
The Forbes India departures highlight how vulnerable even senior journalists have become in a media environment that has become increasingly uncertain and volatile.
Thought-provoking weekend fare
IN Media Practice | 2013-06-10
Keya Acharya's Sunday cover story in The Hindu throws light on the use of renewable energy, a subject usually neglected by journalists.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-06-10
BJP leader Yashwant Sinha thinks that a) the BJP has let the media make personalities and not issues the agenda of the party, and b) that the media and the BJP “are allowing themselves to become a victim of a grand conspiracy.” A conspiracy by whom, Mr Sinha? (The Hindu)..
IN Censorship | 2013-06-07
The grounds in the Content Code under which actions are taken are not clearly defined. This inheres a lack of limitation in application of many of the grounds.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-06-07
Is it a new faith in the police which have not always managed to get convictions, or the belief that anybody with any opportunity will be corrupt or criminal? Most media outlets don't use 'alleged' or 'claimed' any more when dishing out unsourced information about the IPL scandal. Both the Delhi and..
IN Law and Policy | 2013-06-07
The grounds in the Content Code under which actions are taken are not clearly defined. This inheres a lack of limitation in application of many of the grounds.
IN Opinion | 2013-06-06
Close on the heels of FirstPost acquiring FakingNews.com, rumours have surfaced that a mega TV project may soon be launched which would provide 'genuine' fake news.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-06-06
In the 3 pm newscast on June 6, CNN-IBN scrolled that Suresh Kalmadi had "served" a year in jail for the CWG scam when he was actually "held" during the probe. Only a sentence is served, which is long way from now. He is out on bail at present. Television newsrooms..
IN Media Practice | 2013-06-06
As sections of the mainstream Indian media uncritically join the clamour for a security solution to Maoism, legitimate concerns expressed by advocates of human rights are ignored,
Media does not hide its colour
IN Media Practice | 2013-06-05
If we do accept, as all the papers say, that it is a war between the State and the rebels, ought the media to take sides?
Srini's battle with media far from over
IN Media Practice | 2013-06-05
Winning the match against his enemies in the cricket board may have come as a relief to Srinivasan, but the war of attrition against him by the media is far from over
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-06-05
Bhupendra Chaubey, anchoring Good Evening India (June 4), referred to some of the betting/IPL racket suspects being out on bail and asked, "Is this justice?". Media persons need to understand that suspects are detained for questioning, and arrested for custodial questioning, and then when charged, become accused. When courts feel..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-06-05
June 4: Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi appears live on NDTV 24/7 debating political parties under the RTI. Switch to Times Now and there he is, debating the Food Bill. Also live. Even God would find the miracles wrought by news channels a hard act to follow...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-06-05
Cross talk to the extent of a din, speaking long to deny a rival time on news TV chat shows, both are common. But on June 4 Times Now's Newshour saw Abhishek Manu Singhvi telling Arnab Goswami he was "fearful of interruptions" by him and again, of being "scared". Goswami's..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-06-04
A reader points out that a paper from the Times Group has again been taken in by a parody Twitter account. The lead story of The Economic Times today quotes the Australian great Ritchie Benaud commenting on Twitter. “Indians just don't get ‘Conflict of Interest’. Srinivasan is bad enough, but..
IN Digital Media | 2013-06-04
"As I type these lines, on June 3, 2013, Private First Class Bradley Edward Manning is being tried in a sequestered room at Fort Meade, Maryland, for the alleged crime of telling the truth."
IN Media Practice | 2013-06-04
The deafening silence in the mainstream press, even as blogs and HIV/AIDS alliance NGOs buzzed with obituaries, stood in stark contrast with the media frenzy a decade ago.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-06-03
Even as the the regulator TRAI is moving to suggest curbs on political ownership of the media, editor-politician Chandan Mitra argued in a speech reported in the Pioneer on June 2 that " to make India morally strong political parties and the media should go hand-in-hand.” According to Mitra "no..
UPA ads recall 'India shining'
IN Media Practice | 2013-06-01
The UPA government's Bharat Nirman ad campaign bears an uncanny resemblance to the NDA's 'India Shining'.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-06-01
Restructuring in the Network 18 media empire is leading to redundancies. Four senior journalists including a photo editor have exited Forbes India earlier this week. The editor was sacked and three others quit. The big question is whether they will be allowed to encash their ESOPs...
The Telegraph promotes questionable reviews
IN Media Practice | 2013-05-30
Conflict of interest and crude language in its T2 supplement raise questions about whether this section is outside editorial purview
IN Opinion | 2013-05-30
NGOs too want publicity for the good work they do, and the global ones certainly are flush with funds.
The digitization that nobody is pushing
IN Opinion | 2013-05-30
The most powerful broadcasting system available today is digital terrestrial.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-05-29
When gunning for BCCI Chief, N Srinivasan over the IPL scandal, the media forgot to ask Rajeev Shukla: "Sir, doesn't the scandal in IPL, when you are the IPL Commissioner, make you morally responsible too?" Unless, of course, being a minister (or a former journalist) gives him a certain immunity...
Trivialising the lingerie issue
IN Media Practice | 2013-05-29
A panel discussion on NDTV brushed aside a Mumbai corporator's concerns about lingerie displays.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-05-28
NDTV has landed in a PR crisis with launch of 'Improving Lives', a new series on its three channels, on development opportunities in India in partnership with Mahyco Monsanto Biotech India. The company is infamous for pushing its genetically modified seed varieties. NDTV's decision to associate with the company comes at a time when..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-05-28
First, an advertising limit rule which existed in law is not enforced. Then the broacasting industry goes and gets itself a phased implementation of it. It is becoming a pattern: phased rule-following for the private sector in broadcasting. A reader asks, "Do I have an option of saying I will..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-05-27
A curiosity of television news coverage of the IPL scandal has been the appearance of Lalit Modi on the nightly newscasts and being described by some panelists as a 'fugitive' since he now lives in London and has probes going into his affairs a la the IPL. He is unavailable..
Non-religious equals non-believer?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-05-27
TOI's website had a story 'More Indians have stopped believing in God: Survey' . In fact, the survey talked about a 6 per cent drop in number of religious people, not the believers. A person not following a religion can still be a believer. In fact there was a 1..
Not trial by media, Mr Srinivasan
IN Media Practice | 2013-05-27
The media boosted IPL's popularity with lavish coverage, giving BCCI a legitimacy which it turned out not to deserve.
IN Opinion | 2013-05-26
In a very unusual move to put it mildly the Times Group sent a legal notice to the journalist who wrote the piece but not the newspaper which published it.
IN Law and Policy | 2013-05-25
A simple shorthand for SLAPP suits will always be Deep Pockets v. Free Expression. And so it has been in India.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-05-25
Ashok Panvalkar, editor of the Maharashtra Times put a post on his Facebook page about an advertising innovation in his paper on May 25, called French Windows. The innovation appears in their Mumbai and Nashik editions and the picture he posted boasts of creating history. With this ad. The Times..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-05-24
A reader asks: "Newspapers and television are fussing about Gurunath Meiyappan being the son-in-law of BCCI chief N Srinivasan. Shouldn't the fact of his being a Principal (CEO) of Chennai Superkings, owned by Srinivasan, be more relevant to the case being investigated? Here the status of a son-in-law is relevant..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-05-23
Punjab Kesari on Thursday splashed gory pictures of the victims of a mass murder in Ghaziabad. The pictures of the family of seven that was brutally killed in their house are disturbing to say the least. Time for the Press Council and its otherwise vocal head Justice Katju to take..
IN Opinion | 2013-05-23
The hiring of Shri Dawes has set many minds thinking. New slots must be created by media houses to facilitate employment of true blood firangis.
Not sufficiently eyeball grabbing
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-05-23
The Indian media, print, television and social, seem to think nothing much of the Rs 1,400 cr scam of siphoning off public money in building statues and parks during the Mayavati regime, uncovered by the Lok Ayukt, Uttar Pradesh. IPL, with the ball-by-ball coverage of leaked information by police seems..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-05-21
A reader writes, "TV pe breaking news haaye re mera ghagra haaye," sings Madhuri Dixit (that's the latest item song). How aptly it captures the state of television news today, doesn't it?..
Reliance's pre-emptive legal notices
IN Media Freedom | 2013-05-20
Can legal notices be deployed to prevent a publication from coming out with an article?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-05-19
Three staffers of a newspaper in Tripura, Dainik Ganadoot, were killed on Sunday after armed men attacked the paper's office. According to police, the motorcycle-borne assailants barged into the office at the Palace Compound at about 3 pm and stabbed a proof reader and a driver on the ground floor..
Andhra FB case underscores 66A misuse
IN Censorship | 2013-05-18
Under Section 66A of the IT Act, critical comments on cyberspace are inviting penal action, even arrest.
IN Media Practice | 2013-05-18
Fawning media coverage of actor Sanjay Dutt's conviction gave the sense of a man wronged.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-05-18
At the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s consultation on cross media ownership (Delhi, May 18) representatives from Bennett, Coleman and Co. and the Zee Group were vocal in opposing cross media ownership restrictions of any kind. The Star India representative was muted by comparison, even as cable operator lobbies present..
Self publicity is irresistible
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-05-18
A reader points out that the Times of India had a nice story (May 15) on a Bangalore newspaper vendor who educated himself and got admission into IIM Kolkata, but spoilt it by getting the man to pose with spread out copies of the Times of India. Surely that is..
Andhra FB case underscores 66A misuse
IN Media Freedom | 2013-05-18
Under Section 66A of the IT Act, critical comments on cyberspace are inviting penal action, even arrest.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-05-18
The editor of the Mail and Guardian in South Africa Nic Dawes is joining the Hindustan Times as 'chief content and editorial officer'. Thats a new designation in the Indian print media universe and probably indicates a multimedia role. People are not going to be called editors any more?..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-05-17
Shortly after Times of India's Medianet initiative became known in 2004, Vir Sanghvi carried an editorial page debate in the Hindustan Times on this unfortunate trend to which several outside commentators contributed. Now HT has decided to go the same way with an initiative called brand promotions...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-05-17
A story in the Times of India on Delhi University's trendy new foundation courses quotes a college teacher on how some web references do not lend themselves to citations and spells the word cite 'site'. Granted the new generation of reporters is more familiar with the latter word than the..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-05-17
The Hindu carried this disclosure, 'This correspondent was in London at the invitation of the company' at the end of a London datelined report on Lumina 925 on May 15, 2013 in its business pages. But the following would have perhaps been more accurate:-- "The correspondent was on a trip sponsored by the company."..
IN Opinion | 2013-05-16
A Parliamentary panel has pronounced that media's self-regulation is not working.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-05-16
Hearing a writ petition challenging the arrest of PUCL leader Jaya Vindhyalaya for allegedly defamatory Facebook posts against Chirala Congress MLA Krishna Mohan and Tamil Nadu governor K Rosaiah, Justices BS Chauhan and Deepak Mishra of the vacation bench of the Supreme Court issued notice to the Andhra Pradesh government and..
IN Opinion | 2013-05-16
All it takes for regulation to take hold in a wayward sector, is a new dispensation not inclined to look the other way.
Demolitions and the English press
IN Opinion | 2013-05-16
Slum demolitions don't attract press coverage; building demolitions do. Because buildings, not slums, are where people like us live.
Indirect victory against paid news
IN Media Practice | 2013-05-13
The disqualified MLA challenged the constitutional validity of section 10A of the Representation of People's Act 1951 which the EC used against her.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-05-13
The Indian Express woke up today to an old story and made it a front page anchor. At least one other newspaper had the same story a year ago, and news magazines thereafter. The Express itself had much the same story back in February 2011...
In memoriam: Jai's untold stories
IN Media Practice | 2013-05-11
Jai Chandiram who passed away this morning after battling cancer, was one of the pioneers of television in India. She also trained many of today's professionals.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-05-10
This NDTV story is shocking....who decides that the parents are "monsters"? The story mentions that the parents were poor and yet, they go ahead and call them monsters for abandoning a child whose treatment they could probably not afford...
Blow by blow poll-time blockbuster
IN Media Practice | 2013-05-10
Media pulled out all the stops to cover the Karnataka Assembly elections, the first state poll in 2013.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-05-10
Now scams can be understood better. Amnesty International India, Greenpeace India and Mines, and Minerals and People have set up a Coal Scam repository which contains information related to allocation and functioning of over 200 coal blocks including company ownership, political links and environmental clearances. Affected people will be asked..
What role did media play in poll result?
IN Media Practice | 2013-05-09
Asked about the reason for the JD (S) defeat in Karnataka, HD Kumaraswamy angrily blamed the media.
IN Opinion | 2013-05-09
All the anchors on D-Day were labouring on a flat track with neither turn nor bounce. All the exit polls, like uninspired professional bowlers, were accurate.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-05-08
As they strategise to oppose TRAI's 12-minute per hour cap on advertising on TV, broadcasters are coming up with a variety of rationales. At a Delhi meet today Jawahar Goel of Zee said that advertising is content and since TRAI can regulate only carriage not content, it has no locus..
Village stories find a platform
IN Community Media | 2013-05-08
Gaon Connection, a newspaper about farming and other rural concerns, has struck a chord in Uttar Pradesh.
IN Media Practice | 2013-05-08
BBC withdraws regional correspondents totally, to focus on the digital medium.
IN Media Practice | 2013-05-07
It is so much easier to imagine in the dying virtues of courage. Yet we don't take note of undeniable proof of fearlessness around us. We in the middle class ignore the torment of the living.
IN Media Freedom | 2013-05-06
Shouldn't we focus more on how we understand rape and sexual violence itself, rather than seek justification for a crisis of masculinity and an epic failure of governance?
IN Law and Policy | 2013-05-06
Shouldn't we focus more on how we understand rape and sexual violence itself, rather than seek justification for a crisis of masculinity and an epic failure of governance?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-05-06
On May 3 a division bench of the High Court of Allahabad upheld the invalidation of the election of Umlesh Yadav, MLA, to Bisauli for inserting paid news in the Dainik Jagran and Amar Ujala newspapers and not declaring this in her election expenses. The election commission had disqualified her,..
IN Media Practice | 2013-05-04
TV channels jingoistically raised the pitch against Pakistan after Sarabjit Singh's death.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-05-04
The spat between Rahul Dravid vs Gautam Gambhir and Manvinder Bisla in last night’s IPL match between KKR and RR, is all over the social web. TOI put up a story in this regard quoting tweets from a @SirJadeja twitter account taking it for cricketer Ravindra Jadeja’s account. The..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-05-04
Is the public sentiment whipped up by TV channels in case after case driving government action? On the day after Sarabjit Singh's state funeral only one newspaper, the Indian Express, had the gumption to ask why the government provided a state funeral to a man convicted of involvement in bomb..
39 leaders, groups :Predators of Freedom of Information, 2013
IN Media Freedom | 2013-05-03
Powerful, dangerous and violent, these predators consider themselves above the law,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-05-03
The Delhi Press club has banned smoking in all its inside rooms, including the main hall where the bar is located. So expect a pall of gloom instead of smoke. Those who like to inflict nicotine on their lungs and do so outside in the lawns. So it will be..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-05-03
The intrusiveness of television media touched new lows at the Asian Development Bank annual meeting being held in Greater Noida. Camera persons positioned themselves outside the washroom when Chanda Kochar, ICICI Bank managing director was inside, and waited for her to step out...
IN Media Freedom | 2013-05-03
Since January, media has been under attack a number of times, with police failing to protect its rights.
IN Media Freedom | 2013-05-02
Since January, media has been under attack a number of times, with police failing to protect its rights.
IN Opinion | 2013-05-02
Journalists often seem to know better than the government how to run the country.
IN Opinion | 2013-05-02
It is difficult to get too sanctimonious about media ownership. Family owned media have also had proprietors who were occasionally up to no good.
IN Regional Media | 2013-05-01
A photograph of the Assam Cricket Association secretary with film actors was distributed at a press meet.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-05-01
Loksatta, an Express Group Marathi daily on Sunday (May 1, 2013) published a page-one item that its Dombivli reporter, Bhagwan Mandlik had bought his 340 sq ft flat from Hari Om Builders Developers with a loan from the State Bank of India in 2007, and detailed the registration details. The..
IN Media Practice | 2013-04-30
A study claims that digital media will play a decisive role in the 2014 elections.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-04-30
The Lower Suktel dam project in Odisha's Bolangir district turned into a battle-ground when villagers owing allegiance to the Budi Anchal Sangram Parishad (BASP) were caned and dragged away by police. Journalists were not spared as police mercilessly beat television reporter Amitabh Patra and arrested Nishan editor Lenin Ray. Patra..
90 per cent increase in content removal requests from India, says Google
IN Media Freedom | 2013-04-28
What does the seventh Google Transparency Report tell us that we don't already know?
IN Media Practice | 2013-04-27
The concept of online petitioning is riding high on the wave of social change sweeping the world.
Fuzzy thinking on Niyamgiri verdict
IN Media Practice | 2013-04-27
Reports and editorials on the Supreme Court verdict in the Vedanta case might have missed the mark.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-04-27
The other day, Mumbai Mirror was delivered in a plastic carry-bag with an optician's advertisements on its sides. On April 27, the Bombay Times, the advertorial, promotional pull-out of The Times of India came in an envelop big enough to fit the newspaper folded in half, with advertisements of a..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-04-26
Will social media impact the coming election? Here is a quotable quote from Ravi Shankar Prasad of the BJP: "It is still in its infancy. Eye contact remains most important tool of democratic engagement." (At a panel discussion on the subject in Delhi, April 26)..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-04-26
Which political party is the most effective on the Internet? Nilotpal Basu of the CPM claimed that his party's website was by far the best. (At the above discussion.) And the head of the IRIS Foundation whose study on Facebook and the elections recently made news, bolstered the claim by saying that the level..
IN Opinion | 2013-04-25
A lot has transpired since Robert Knight, first editor of ToI, put the stamp of his personality on the paper.
IN Regional Media | 2013-04-25
In its short lifespan of 18 months, the Seven Sisters Post owned by the Saradha Group made a mark in the North-east.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-04-24
The Times of India has this incredible story buried in the middle of page 14 claiming that Sudipta Sen is actually a former Naxalite, known to Charu Mazumdar, who went to jail and then turned landbroker using the network he developed in jail. If its true doesn't it deserve better..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-04-24
Breakfast news it seems is a smart way to advertise, just replace the anchors' coffee mugs with packed fruit juice cartons. On Thursday morning, two ladies on CNN IBN sat with a Real litchi juice carton between them. One almost waited to hear them break into the merits of drinking..
Justice Jagdish Sharan Verma: A memoir
IN Law and Policy | 2013-04-24
With the passing of Justice Verma we have lost one of the greatest of our jurists and a firm friend of responsible media.
Assam media upheld artistic freedom
IN Opinion | 2013-04-23
LETTER TO THE HOOT: When ULFA issued a diktat against Hindi songs at Bihu celebrations, the Assamese media sprang into action.
IN Regional Media | 2013-04-23
A huge media conglomerate was built up by a chit fund company which has now collapsed.
IN Media Business | 2013-04-23
But very early on it was clear that this organization was different from any other newspaper outfit any of us had worked for previously.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-04-22
Justice (Retd) J S Verma passed away late evening on April 22. A former Chief Justice of India, he headed private sector broadcasting's first formal attempt at self regulation as head of the News Broadcasting Standards Authority.During the last four years of his association with NBSA, he took proactive steps..
Coverage of the North East declines
IN Books | 2013-04-20
In 2012 the North East made more news than usual on the front pages of national dailies and on prime time news. But this was not sustained.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-04-20
A reader writes, when CNN was telecasting the video around 9.35 am today of the boat and its fluttering tarpaulin cover, it had a slug, 'Exclusive to CNN, Earlier" meaning others too had it by then. That was when the person who found the suspect of the Boston Marathon bombing..
IN Regional Media | 2013-04-20
Cosmopolitan sensibilities in premier institutions are often misunderstood by conservative elements in society.
DOCUMENTATION: TRAI consultation paper on TV audience measurement
IN Law and Policy | 2013-04-19
A robust methodology would ensure the reliability of the ratings provided by the rating agencies whereas a poor methodology would distort the measurement results, adversely affecting the sector as a whole.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-04-19
In her written reply tabled in the Goa Assembly on April 17, Minister for Environment Alina Saldanha said the Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority has issued show cause notices to 131 persons including Dr. Prannoy Roy, promoter of New Delhi Television, along with Anthony Fonseca. Notice has been issued to the..
IN Opinion | 2013-04-18
What if an Indian counterpart of Julian Assange turned the spotlight on the media itself?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-04-18
Three major international news TV channels - CNN, BBC, and Al Jazeera covering the fertiliser plant explosion in West, Texas,USA were notable for their sober presentation. The anchors' questions were brief but pointed, the responses informative because those doling out were allowed to speak, bringing out the enormity of the..
Media credibility high: survey
IN Books | 2013-04-18
A survey conducted by Australian institutes found that 86 per cent of Indians trust domestic media coverage.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-04-18
All through the day on April 17 BBC online had a live streaming of the Thatcher funeral, with no commentary. One heard even the shoes of the soldiers striking the road surface but at the service, everything said was caught. It transported the viewer to the place in real time, as if a participant in..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-04-16
BBC's Hindi radio service has transfered its remaining five state correspondents to Delhi, and served terminatiion notices to some who have not moved yet. A withdrawal of regional news bureaux which began in 2011 and earlier, is now set to be completed, following which the famed Hindi service will have..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-04-16
Sunday's accident on a Jaipur Road -- a hit and run involving a truck which killed a woman and her six-month son, leaving her husband and a 4-5 year-old boy screaming for help-- was gut-wrenching. Caught on CCTV camera it came alive on news TV on Monday afternoon with anchors..
Kolkata press twists students' voices
IN Media Practice | 2013-04-15
Violence in Presidency University provoked the Times of India and The Telegraph to denigrate campus politics.
Being coy about the latest Wiki leak
IN Media Practice | 2013-04-14
Where is the follow-up? Where are the reactions, the questions, the editorial comment?
IN Media Practice | 2013-04-14
Four Telugu channels spewed moral outrage about a group of students indulging in revelry.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-04-14
Heard on TV channels this weekend on the impact or non-impact of social media: Sam Pitroda in an interview on Doordarshan: “Social media is going to be the new mainstream media of the future..newspapers are a dying breed". A social media enthusiast on NDTV: "you don't have credibility if you..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-04-14
Citing a new CAG report, Times Now on April 12 did a story under the garb of an exclusive on how the discretionary quota has been misused to grab land in the state of Odisha. The story blamed and named politicians and bureaucrats. But strangely, it failed to mention that..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-04-14
In its Bangalore edition on April 11 on page 3 and in its property supplement called Habitat on April 13, the Hindu carried property ads offering plots for sale which specified that they were for Brahmins only. The last time this happened a reader’s letter of protest had been published..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-04-13
Should the Press Council not do its checks before it censures a newspaper for paid news? Or is that in keeping with Chairman Katyju's shoot-from-the-hip style? Now the PCI has rescinded its original censure after taking into consideration the facts presented by the paper. Apparently the paper's reply was "not taken on record"..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-04-12
Tongam Rina, associate editor of Arunachal Times who had been critically injured after being shot at point blank range by unidentified gunmen in July 2012, has been invited by a German NGO for a one-year stay in the country. Rina has been invited by 'Hamburger Stiftung', a German NGO that cares for journalists in..
Afghan media blazes new trails
IN Media Practice | 2013-04-12
It's a far cry from the days of the Taliban, when satellite dishes were banned.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-04-11
Question on Times Now screen during a debate on the 1984 riots and Jagdish Tytler’s role: “Why is Jagdish Tytler strutting about declaring his innocence?” Even as Tytler defends himself against Goswami’s barbs on the debate (April 11). Its amazing how politicians continue to come on this show however offensive..
The Maha TV Debate: Circa 1943
IN Opinion | 2013-04-11
TV anchors are going to boring lengths comparing Rahul Gandhi and Narendra Modi.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-04-10
Times Group’s Bengali daily, Ei Samay has slashed its cover price. The daily will now be on the news-stand for Rs 2.50, half the price of market leader Anandabazar Patrika, which sells at Rs 5. Ei Samay, too, had a cover price of Rs 5 when it was launched. The cover..
Katju persona non grata in Andhra
IN Media Practice | 2013-04-09
PCI Chairman M Katju has now pronounced judgement against division of states.
IN Law and Policy | 2013-04-09
Prasar Bharati has become an end in itself, though not all good things need to be done by a government-created vehicle.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-04-09
Amar Ujala has unintentionally ended up making the journalism profession more inclusive. It offers between Rs 2000 and 2500 for a starting reporter at its district editions in Haryana. The remuneration is so low that few journalists apply. Other workers from media establishments, such as computer operators and peons, use the opportunity to enter the..
Textbook case of media pressure
IN Media Practice | 2013-04-08
Revision of textbooks is always subjected to intense media scrutiny on the sub-continent.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-04-06
With the hanging of three convicts at Ambala Central Jail pending, the media is under pressure to produce exclusive stories about them. Dainik Bhaskar said former Haryana MLA Relu Ram's daughter Sonia wanted to donate her organs, and Amar Ujala reported that rope was not available for the hangings. The..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-04-06
The Sam Pitroda Committee on Prasar Bharati had some Bollywood brains engaged in the task of solving Prasar Bharati’s problems. While Shekhar Kapur has been a no show, at the concluding session of the first meeting of all the sub committees, Shabana Azmi and Pritish Nandy were heard trying to..
New platforms, new growth, consolidation
IN Opinion | 2013-04-04
At 6.47 per cent share of total viewership, programming targeted at children gets more eyeballs than regional movies, Hindi news, music and sports.
IN Opinion | 2013-04-04
Saving the nation daily on TV and doing sponsored stories require special skills that deserve recognition.
Media complicit in moral policing
IN Media Freedom | 2013-04-04
Mangalore journalist Naveen Soorinje, arrested while covering a moral police attack, spent 17 weeks in jail.
IN Books | 2013-04-03
A monitoring of advertisements appearing on news channels shows that adhering to the TRAI's 12 minutes per hour limit will be tough for the Hindi news channels.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-04-03
A reader writes: In Face The Nation (CNN-IBN) on April 2-"Should Cancer drugs be cheaply available?", Mr. Kewal Handa of Medybiz opposed the SC ruling. He suggested the Government subsidize these drugs instead of the pharma companies. His math: there are 30 lakh patients. If the cost per patient is 10 lakh..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-04-02
A heated discussion on Nidhi Razdan's Left, Right and Centre on NDTV 24x7 saw the usual suspects debating how many seats the BJP could hope to get in the next election. Earlier you had such debates when an election was round the corner. This one is more than a year away...
Don't subvert the legal system
IN Media Practice | 2013-04-01
Legal luminaries pleading for clemency for Sanjay Dutt can be dismissed as biased.
IN Media Practice | 2013-04-01
If a court reporter can summarise rambling judgements, there is nothing wrong with his education.
IN Media Practice | 2013-03-28
Make an unguarded comment to a journalist and here is what happens thereafter.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-03-28
The poor journos at DNA don't know what has hit them. They are at the receiving end of HR experiments designed to realise "the chairman's vision". First Subhash Chandra decided everybody had to gather in the morning and recount their good deeds. Now Bhaskar Das who came from TOI some time ago..
Here come the Har-Word experts
IN Opinion | 2013-03-28
As news channels multiply and studio discussions get lengthier, demand is growing for journalists to double up as experts.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-03-28
Was the Zee TV reporter doing a phono on Sanjay Dutt's short statement before the media, indulging in wishful thinking? The reporter said : "Sanjay Dutt said he loved the media". Sanjay Dutt never said he loved the media. What he said was that he loved India and his countrymen. He..
Mumbai cops trawl social spaces online
IN Media Freedom | 2013-03-27
The lab intends to 'watch' publicly visible content, not private information.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-03-27
The Chief Editor of Sun TV, V Raja, was arrested on March 19 following a sexual harassment complaint lodged by a colleague under section 4 of Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Harassment of Women Act. The journalist (name withheld) filed a complaint on March 19. ..
Mumbai cops trawl social spaces online
IN Digital Media | 2013-03-27
The lab intends to 'watch' publicly visible content, not private information.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-03-26
Editor of the Financial Express M K Venu is slated to join the Hindu soon in Delhi as executive editor. Praveen Swami quit as Delhi resident editor of the paper earlier this month...
IN Media Freedom | 2013-03-26
Legislators have the privilege of immunity against legal action for anything said in the Assembly.
It's media barons who don't qualify
IN Media Practice | 2013-03-26
Serious journalists have been sidelined in news channels and market forces often set the agenda.
IN Media Practice | 2013-03-24
The Tamil Nadu-based media exerted high decibel pressure on Indian foreign policy with regard to Sri Lanka.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-03-24
Bennett Coleman and Company Ltd which publishes the Times of India, has reported a 42 per cent reduction in profit in its latest Standalone Profit and Loss Statement for the year 2011-12. Its total profit declined from Rs 931 crore in the previous financial year to Rs 537 crore in 2011-12...
Backwardness the new branding?
IN Opinion | 2013-03-22
The backwardness plank for scoring political points and forging new electoral alliances has been met with guarded scepticism and criticism in the editorials in Hindi dailies,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-03-21
The Hindu carried a tart item on March 21 declaring as “illegal and unethical” the IIPM’s claim that the Hindu had said nice things about it. The paper said the quote was from a paid advertisement put out by IIPM, and placed in the Hindu, which did not make it..
IN Opinion | 2013-03-21
A more educated and responsible media would certainly make the world a better place.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-03-21
Delhi CM Sheila Dikshit has announced sops for journos ahead of the Assembly elections. Presenting the budget for 2012-13, she proposed Rs 5 crore towards the welfare of media personnel in the national capital...
IN Media Practice | 2013-03-20
Press Council chairman Justice Katju has stirred a debate by saying journalists should be better qualified.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-03-19
Subrata Roy Sahara's 'Enough is Enough' full page advertisement in Sunday newspapers (March 17, 2013) railing against the SEBI has a curious aspect. Challenging the regulator to a live debate on TV, he asks for "at least 10 days notice for organising the appropriate channel and necessary time slot of 60..
IN Law and Policy | 2013-03-19
Both self-regulation and the I and B ministry's Inter Ministerial Committee for broadcasting complaints have proved to be a farce.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-03-18
The 2012-13 Chameli Devi Jain Award for an Outstanding Woman Mediaperson has been given this year to Alka Dhupkar of IBN-Lokmat, Mumbai. The award is given by the Media Foundation which runs the Hoot...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-03-18
More than four months after he was arrested for having covered the homestay attacks, the Mangalore reporter Naveen Soorinje was granted bail this morning by Justice Shridhar Rao of the Karnataka High Court. An earlier bail application was rejected and though at the end of January the Karnataka state cabinet..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-03-17
Mumbai Police on Saturday inaugurated its Social Media Lab (SML), which has been formed with "a view to keeping tabs on social media to be better informed about current public opinion". The first of its kind in the country, the SML is aimed at better intelligence gathering as social media..
Let courts decide, not media and police
IN Media Practice | 2013-03-17
The media's power remains in its influential information-spreading function, while the police wield real power.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-03-15
The new pope is teaching us some new words. HT quotes him saying: " Journalists sometimes risk becoming ill from coprophilia and thus fomenting coprophagia, which is a sin that taints all men and women, that is, the tendency to focus on the negative rather than the positive aspects."..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-03-15
The Bangalore City police have detained two men over a tip- off on Facebook. The two men have been charged of making lewd comments at two girls. The image of the two men was uploaded on a Facebook page called Bangalore City Police by a friend of the two girls..
IN Media Freedom | 2013-03-14
A journalist and his family have acid thrown on them because of his reports on gutka smuggling. He was threatened twice before the actual attack.
IN Media Freedom | 2013-03-14
A journalist and his family have acid thrown on them because of his reports on gutka smuggling. He was threatened twice before the actual attack.
IN Opinion | 2013-03-14
Journalists must gear up to meet Press Council of India Chairperson Justice Katju's exacting standards.
IN Opinion | 2013-03-13
Journalists will be competent and incompetent, rascals and angels, regardless of which institutions they come out of.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-03-13
The Hindu has new, status-conscious travel entitlement rules. The CFO, Editors, Senior Associate Editor, Managing Editor and Vice President get actuals, and can use a Corolla or Honda City as local transport. The rest get a thrifty per diem, hotel bill ceilings and a prescription of cars by brands per designation. An Associate Editor..
IN Media Practice | 2013-03-12
Undaunted by criticism of his visit to the Taj Hotel, Ram Gopal Verma went ahead and recreated the attack.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-03-12
The poor are not entitled to privacy. Ram Singh's mother had to tell photographers to leave them alone, the papers reported on Tuesday. The pictures of his grieving parents and their home got printed anyway. Difficult to recall any pictures printed of the accused's families inside their homes in cases of middle..
Biased police, embedded media?
IN Opinion | 2013-03-11
In the past, cops manufactured evidence while arresting terror suspects.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-03-11
The Economic Times has rechristened itself the Economic and Political Times, with 'and political' as an insert. To underscore the change its first lead on March 11 is two political stories. The paper has made page 2 a page on political news, called Pure Politics...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-03-11
A story in Indian Express cited a recent Lancet study which said that probability of death due to cancer in Punjab is much less than the national average. However, the reporter failed to notice that the data used for the study dated back to 2001–03. Instead, the story goes on comparing these results with..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-03-10
From a reader: On March 8 morning when Rajdeep Sardesai's article 'BJP’s dilemma: ‘Polarising’ Modi or an ‘acceptable’ other?' was posted on Firstpost, the comments section started flooding with posts. But the moderators at Firstpost were working furiously deleting comments one after the other, including those of regular, 'sober', commentators. At one..
Modi vs Wharton: is it about Free Speech at all ?
IN Media Freedom | 2013-03-08
True, the event was being organized by Wharton students, but to attribute it to the University of Pennsylvania and then use this to decry the assault on"academic freedom" is specious.
Modi vs Wharton: Is it about Free Speech at all ?
IN Media Practice | 2013-03-08
True, the event was being organized by Wharton students, but to attribute it to the University of Pennsylvania and then use this to decry the assault on"academic freedom" is specious.
Victory in sexual harassment case
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-03-08
A former journalist of The Statesman, Kolkata, has been awarded reinstatement in service and full back wages after her plaints of sexual and professional harassment were upheld by an industrial tribunal. Rina Mukherjee, employed with the paper in 2002, had claimed that she was sacked because of her verbal complaints of..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-03-08
Sony TV is sticking to its plans to telecast the Haryana's teacher recruitment scam in which former CM O.P. Chautala and his son were convicted by a CBI court. They have moved the Supreme Court seeking stay on depiction of the recruitment scam in the show, 'Crime Patrol Dastak', claiming this..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-03-08
An advertisement by Delhi police in newspapers, reads, “In the year 2012, with only 1866 fatal road accidents in your city, we managed the lowest figure in road accidents ever.” Does Delhi Police deserve a pat for lowering fatal incidents to ONLY 1866 in the Capital city?..
IN Opinion | 2013-03-07
What explains overhyped reports and delusions of grandeur among journalists?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-03-07
Varun Gandhi has been acquitted in two cases of hate speech because witnesses either turned hostile or failed to testify against him. But those speeches were extensively captured on TV in March 2009. Does that footage not count as evidence?..
How not to cover a major strike
IN Media Practice | 2013-03-06
The magnitude and purpose of the protest was trivialised, especially by pink papers.
Young bloggers catalyse Dhaka protests
IN Media Practice | 2013-03-05
Bangladeshis all over the world were able to mount a flash campaign against a war tribunal verdict.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-03-04
A movement of Telugu TV artistes and technicians against dubbed serials is gathering momentum in Andhra Pradesh. A joint action committee formed has demanded that the airing of some 60 serials dubbed from other languages be stipped as they deny opportunity to local channel. The Ugadi festval has been set..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-03-03
The Hoot item on Subhash Chandra asking staff to recount their good deed for the day has prompted a former employee to ask about Chandra's good deed for the day. Not all employees who were asked to leave in recent months have received their promised compensation. More than seven staffers..
Market logic erodes genuine connect
IN Opinion | 2013-03-02
The Hindi media used to have its ears to the ground, but has now lost its connect with the milieu and realities of the heartland,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-03-02
Praveen Swami,resident editor of The Hindu in Delhi has quit. In a mail sent to his colleagues this morning he has said that March 2 "will be his last day in office." He added that he had "completed 20 years in the organisation yesterday and for personal and professional reasons"..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-03-02
Proprietor Subhash Chandra met the entire staff of DNA in Mumbai on March 2 to discuss their goals. The staff have now been told to be in office at 11am daily to share their good deed of the day. The newsdesk is not enthused: they will not get much shut-eye..
Chilling Effect:the IIPM block
IN Media Freedom | 2013-03-02
So why did this issue not generate more discussion in the print media? Could it be linked to the fact that IIPM is a generous advertiser,
IN Opinion | 2013-02-28
What if a New York consultancy were to be entrusted with a makeover of the public broadcaster?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-02-28
Why do the media ask experts for their wishlist for the Budget even from 8 am on budget day when it is known that the proposals were sealed days ago and even printed? What purpose do they serve if not articulated during the months preceding the formulations so the Finance Minister could have chewed..
Flawed portrayals demean women
IN Media Practice | 2013-02-27
Soap operas are becoming slicker, but too many story lines still have women characters disrupting domestic harmony.
News can't 'break' a week later
IN Media Practice | 2013-02-27
A lathi-charge by Sikkim police gets coverage on TV channels after seven days.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-02-25
The Express Tribune of Pakistan reported on February 24 that an Indian news channel on Sunday mistakenly used an image of the late Manzar Imam ( an MQM Member of the Provincial Assembly) for an alleged suspect involved in the Hyderabad blasts. Imam was killed in a targeted attack on January 17, which the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan..
IN Media Practice | 2013-02-24
It is a minor leap of faith after that to throw around names, photos and police sketches from the morgues to beef up the stories and ramp up jingoism.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-02-24
The Special National Investigation Agency (NIA) Court has ordered release of Deccan Herald journalist Muthiur Siddiqui, who was branded a terrorist and had to spend six months in prison. This was in the Bangalore terror module case against 12 suspects. NIA found no evidence against him, or his roommate. ..
IN Media Freedom | 2013-02-22
Siddiqui is, of course, not the first journalist to be implicated in terrorism-related cases, though he is certainly among those whose predicament has not attracted due attention from media colleagues or civil society,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-02-22
Journalist Shahina K K was granted bail by magistrate Jitendra Nath in Somwarpet in Kodagu district amidst protests by Hindu fundamentalists. The case is postponed to March 30. ..
Scribes targeted in Ambala violence
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-02-22
Journalists in Ambala were severely beaten up during the two-day strike against economic reforms when they were recording police lathi-charges of protestors and relatives of senior trade union leader, Narendra Singh, who was run over by a bus. Kapil Agarwal (Aaj Samaj) was hospitalised while Ujjwal Sharma and Suman Bhatnagar..
IN Opinion | 2013-02-22
Siddiqui is, of course, not the first journalist to be implicated in terrorism-related cases, though he is certainly among those whose predicament has not attracted due attention from media colleagues or civil society,
IN Opinion | 2013-02-21
Tourism in Rome, Milan and Sicily will get a boost as Indian investigators shop for insights into the chopper deal.
IN Media Freedom | 2013-02-20
A week after the death of Nemichand Jain, the questions pile up casting a shadow over journalism in this conflict zone,
IN Regional Media | 2013-02-20
A week after the death of Nemichand Jain, the questions pile up casting a shadow over journalism in this conflict zone,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-02-18
On an NDTV exclusive Indian Express editor Shekhar Gupta asks British prime minister David Cameron: ' Will you give Manmohan Singh some lessons in running a coalition? Cameron: ' He's more senior and experienced than I am..he's also got more parties in his coalition'. Gupta persists: 'He also has thicker..
IN Media Business | 2013-02-18
The regulator is not giving up in its efforts to push regulation of cross media holdings.
IN Media Practice | 2013-02-17
TV debates are designed with an eye on TRPs, not reasoned discourse.
African victims don't move Indian media
IN Media Practice | 2013-02-16
Violence against Africans in India is not reported as intensively as attacks on Indians in Australia.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-02-15
At around 08:00PM, Feb 15, Internet services were resumed in Kashmir after being suspended on Feb 09, the day Afzal Guru was hanged. For the whole week, the valley had no online contact with the outside world except those who own the government run BSNL-broadband. Cable services were also cut..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-02-15
India's Department of Telecommunications has issued instructions to Internet Service Licensees to block access to 78 URLs from India. 73 of these are related to the educational institution IIPM. The blocks follow from an interim court order. It covers the University Grants Commission, wherein a notice from the UGC pointing towards..
IN Books | 2013-02-15
Saturation coverage of the Delhi gangrape case allowed the public to mourn and women's safety to get adequate airing.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-02-15
The I and B ministry held a Community Radio Sammelan recently in New Delhi. Union minister Manish Tewari held forth on how television news channels in the country have become "views channels" and disconnected from discourses amongst people. Hoping for backing for community radio, two not-for-profit CR bodies gave a joint petition to the..
The hanging as prime time fodder
IN Media Practice | 2013-02-14
Television channels led the charge, some wearing their bias on their sleeve.
IN Opinion | 2013-02-14
If all the purveyors of paid news formed a cartel, misinformation would flow more freely and devastatingly.
Constructing truth for the street
IN Media Practice | 2013-02-14
This difference between limited facts of a particular event, and a set of facts that reveal context, also marks the difference between sensationalism and news,
No news on community radio: An unjustified ban!
IN Media Business | 2013-02-13
That's the worst of the three roadblocks to free speech on community radio,
IN Censorship | 2013-02-13
A take-down notice was sent to website Bodhicommons at the best of the Mathrubhumi management.
IN Media Freedom | 2013-02-13
A take-down notice was sent to website Bodhicommons at the behest of the Mathrubhumi management.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-02-12
On Tuesday the Supreme Court sought responses to two separate petitions filed by Zee Television, but you would not guess that from the way some papers reported it. The Economic Times said that apart from the petition seeking to quash three FIRs registered at the behest of Naveen Jindal's company..
Media struck a discordant note
IN Media Freedom | 2013-02-12
The fatwa against girl band Pragaash was used to air stereotypes about Kashmiri society.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-02-12
NDTV has reported a profit after 10 quarters. It reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 14.87 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, 2012 (Q3) due to lower selling and administration cost. The company had a net loss of Rs 6.05 crore during the corresponding quarter last fiscal. NDTV said..
Tit for tat: Hindi press snubs JLF
IN Opinion | 2013-02-11
The Jaipur literary fest canvas confines itself to books in English. No wonder it cannot get more than a passing mention in the Hindi press,
Create forums, not battlegrounds
IN Media Practice | 2013-02-11
The present situation demands that national media cover the Gorkhaland movement as comprehensively as the Telengana movement is covered.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-02-10
DNA now has a new editor, Ravi Joshi, who had joined earlier as Mumbai resident editor. He takes over as the paper is tightening staff policy. Around forty staff positions have been axed, not all of them in editorial, and staff contracts are being reworked to make things tougher for those working there. ..
Fresh nightmare for Iftikhar Gilani
IN Media Freedom | 2013-02-09
"I have no idea, what should I do to prove myself a peace loving and a law abiding citizen".
Fresh nightmare for Iftikhar Gilani
IN Media Freedom | 2013-02-09
"I have no idea, what should I do to prove myself a peace loving and a law abiding citizen".
Mobile cameras as game changer
IN Opinion | 2013-02-09
When Indian Express printed links to YouTube videos of police action in Dhule, it broke new ground for the media.
IN Censorship | 2013-02-08
Media coverage of the fracas over the Kashmiri girl band has eclipsed other serious violations of freedom of expression in the Valley,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-02-08
Economic Times carried a story 'Hero MotoCorp's workers seek Rs 1 lakh per month salary' on Feb 7, 2013. Though anonymous sources, company management and industry experts were quoted extensively to give an impression that the demand is excessive, the reporter failed to talk to any of..
IN Media Freedom | 2013-02-08
Media coverage of the fracas over the Kashmiri girl band has eclipsed other serious violations of freedom of expression in the Valley,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-02-07
Recognising the need to sensitise channels about issues related to depiction of women in TV programmes, the Broadcasting Content Complaints Council (BCCC) has decided to conduct interactive sessions with creative and programming teams of channels. BCCC member Shabana Azmi has agreed to be a part of such..
IN Opinion | 2013-02-07
Startling statistics make a story better, even if the sum total is trivia or a damn lie.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-02-07
Narendra Modi's speech at a Delhi college January 6 was all over the newspapers and TV channels except for the Hindu. Apart from a page three story on the police handling of the protests outside the college gates, the paper chose to ignore his speech during his..
Public order is the only valid ground
IN Judgements | 2013-02-05
What breaches"law and order" would not necessarily affect society or a particular community as a whole.
Public order is the only valid ground
IN Law and Policy | 2013-02-05
What breaches"law and order" would not necessarily affect society or a particular community as a whole.
IN Media Practice | 2013-02-03
The former South Asia bureau chief of Der Spiegel accuses the magazine of discrimination in employment matters.
Lost at the mela: real stories
IN Media Practice | 2013-02-02
Sadhus driving SUVs and complaints about mismanagement deserved more follow up.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-02-02
On Friday, a CNN-IBN reporter asked the MoS soon after the Cabinet cleared an anti-rape ordinance: would it come into effect immediately? An ordinance recommended by a Cabinet has to be signed by the President and becomes law only after it is gazetted. This and other networks should conduct workshops for their reporters..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-02-02
The Supreme Court remarked on journalists unauthorisedly occupying government accommodation in the national capital."Very interestingly we are finding in the list that the longest unauthorised occupants are journalists. These are some of the people who are looked as great and learned people in public perception and in the list they..
IN Media Practice | 2013-02-02
Just a look at the extensive coverage makes it clear what TOI's priorities, even on such an occasion are. The visuals and quotes were entirely dominated by the power elite.
IN Media Practice | 2013-02-01
The similarity between the media and the masses in resisting divergent views is uncanny.
Can we express ourselves freely?No!
IN Media Freedom | 2013-01-31
That was the overwhelming response at a debate in the Jaipur Literature Festival,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-01-31
A Karnataka state cabinet meeting Thursday decided to revoke all cases against Naveen Soorinje, the Mangalore journalist arrested in the home stay attack case. He had been arrested for recording the July 28, 2012 home stay attack on video for his channel and broadcasting it. He was booked on the..
Newsrooms need a dose of diversity
IN Opinion | 2013-01-31
News channels were quick to brand Ashis Nandy as casteist, but newsrooms themselves are staffed overwhelmingly by upper castes,
Huddle in the paid news bubble
IN Opinion | 2013-01-31
If stock experts were to venture into the media business, they would surely capitalise on the vast potential of 'positive' news.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-01-30
The IBN Live website had a news item on the BJP on January 29 saying that the government crisis was deepening in Karnataka with the resignations of 13 Yedurappa loyalists. Just above the headline was a BJP ad banner which said the darkness would dispel, the sun..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-01-28
On a programme on CNN-IBN titled "Agenda for Change" : Citizen Journalist , that tries to keep a focus on cases of women victims, a reporter called Meghna in a bid to find out the views of 'Boyz" in her city played songs by Honey Singh and the Dabbang item..
IN Media Practice | 2013-01-28
The media welcomed the UID's promise of giving an identity to those outside the system, but has failed to track its failure to do so.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-01-25
The Jaipur Literary Festival is in full swing. Editors of all shades appear on discussions. But alas literary festivals do not make editors more gentle beings. Appearing on a panel on writing with humour, when asked what make him laugh in his dreams, Manu Joseph, editor of Open magazine, replied,..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-01-25
The Jagran group’s Urdu daily, Inquilab, carried a column on January 24 pointing out that when it comes to the BJP or RSS’s alleged terror links the media stresses that terrorism has no religion. But before this news channels did not hesitate to label every terrorist act as Islamic terror,..
IN Opinion | 2013-01-25
The limited scale on which the Hindi press engaged with the Jaipur event reflects the diminishing pull that 'national' political parties have for the political discourse of Hindi heartland states,
Substance abuse, Indian anchor-editor style
IN Opinion | 2013-01-24
Lance Armstrong is not the only one who crossed the line to get his 15 minutes of fame. Indian editors do too, an Insider tells Oprah-ji.
Media must shun rabble-rousing
IN Media Practice | 2013-01-24
The jingoism of TV channels in response to incidents on the Pakistan border was unwarranted and irresponsible.
IN Opinion | 2013-01-24
If someone is telling Mr Gandhi that being on social media will help his party win an election, maybe he should do a reality check,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-01-22
On January 21, on the city page of the Delhi Times of India, there is a news item with graphics which you would be hard put to classify. Is it news? Is it an advertorial? It is on transplanting body hair to the head as a cure for balding. It..
TV regulation and the Pakistan Constitution
IN Media Practice | 2013-01-22
The Supreme Court of Pakistan is currently hearing petitions filed by media houses on the way the Pakistani regulator PEMRA functions.
How to throw a successful party
IN Media Practice | 2013-01-19
Tejas Padia directed, wrote and shot his first feature film when Bollywood producers gave him short shrift.
Mangalore police defend action against TV reporters
IN Media Freedom | 2013-01-19
The arrest of yet another journalist in the homestay party raid case and the rejection of Naveen Soorinje's bail application
No arrests yet in Tongam Rina case
IN Media Freedom | 2013-01-18
Seven months after she was shot, journalist Tongam Rina is still waiting for the culprits to be nabbed.
IN Opinion | 2013-01-17
Reporters hate being told to pull up their socks when editors show no sign of doing so themselves.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-01-17
Can anchors , journalists and guests just say anything they want on air without any qualms about maintaining basic civility ? On Wednesday night on the Times Now programme the channel's defence analyst ,Maroof Raza, told a Pakistani guest to "SHUT UP" on air. The anchor Arnab Goswami did not reprimand him or apologise for the..
A CJ is impeached, media outraged
IN Media Practice | 2013-01-16
The latest attempt to curb the independence of the judiciary has been fearlessly criticised by a media itself under attack.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-01-16
If you watched the Times Now 'exclusive' interview with the Lt. General heading the Northern Command (January 15) you would have thought the army had handpicked this channel to communicate to the nation through. But Lt. Gen. Parnaik had done a general media briefing on the same day, carried by..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-01-15
It was an office move that was shown live. On Jan 14 BBC TV moved to its new premises at IST 5.30 pm as Nic Gowing handed over from the Television Centre in White City to George Alagiah in the new central London office. Earlier BBC radio had moved from the..
IN Books | 2013-01-14
TV news channels devoted 252 hours of prime time to rape coverage in December.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-01-14
Guess who is claiming to be the front runner in Delhi homes post-digitisation? NewsX, with NDTV second, and CNN IBN third. Every channel is claiming striking post digitisation gains--you have to read the very fine print in the ad to see which segment of audience they are claiming leadership in...
IN Books | 2013-01-13
Those researching news media in India need to study the impact that social media networks and their use by citizens have on journalism.
Hindi press scorches RSS, BJP on rape
IN Opinion | 2013-01-12
The monopoly of the English press over the tag 'national' is being challenged by Hindi papers.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-01-10
Activist Shabnam Hashmi has alleged on her Facebook page that Times Now reporters are harrassing her ever since she has discontinued going to panel discussions on the channel in protest against their "highly aggressive" attitude to her on the show. She says they have been asking questions about the office..
IN Opinion | 2013-01-10
If TV is shrill and jingoistic, newspapers are competing by putting out more comment than news.
IN Opinion | 2013-01-10
The newly galvanised Indian protester on the street needs to recognise that the media amplifies best when it has half its work done for it.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-01-09
Hundred of journalists at the Southern Weekly paper, a state-owned newspaper based in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, are on a rare protest against the Communist Party interfering in editorial independence. The protest in the southern city came after censors on Thursday blocked a New Year article in the..
Gender-sensitive or TRP-oriented?
IN Law and Policy | 2013-01-08
TV channels had a field day attacking conservative comments on rape, women's dress and behaviour.
IN Law and Policy | 2013-01-08
The regulator wants to keep government out of the business of TV broadcasting and distribution.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-01-07
Sudhir Chaudhury, the Zee News editor who has been implicated in a case of extortion by Naveen Jindal, has issued a long statement about the interview with the gang rape victim's friend which his channel telecast. He says they could have recorded the entire blow by blow account the man gave but..
IN Media Practice | 2013-01-06
Mustafa's mostly vibrates with the drama of righteous opinion; Singh's tone is more decadent, even frivolous. Mustafa you read for profit, Singh you read for pleasure.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-01-06
On Saturday night (Jan 5) CNN IBN was scrolling, "Why are Indian women vulnerable to rape and acid attacks?" A viewer asks, should they not be asking instead, why are Indian men violent rapists? ..
Mumbai press swept aside demolition debris
IN Opinion | 2013-01-05
In the city that suffered the most ghettoisation after the Babri Masjid riots, newspapers gave its 20th anniversary only token coverage.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-01-05
The Hindu has implemented a whistleblower policy this month designed to encourage employees to report “ wrongdoing or malfeasance” by an employee related to editorial or business or the laws of the land. It goes on to list a variety of irregular practices which employees are encouraged to report without..
Has Indian news media come of age?
IN Media Practice | 2013-01-04
For once it seemed like Indian news media fulfilled its role as it called attention to the safety for women.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-01-03
Zee News has filed a complaint with the CBI against Congress MP Naveen Jindal . The 13- page letter alludes to the call from Naveen Jindal to the Chairman of the News Broadcasting Standards Authority (NBSA) before a hearing of the Jindal- Zee case. According to Zee, the call was..
IN Opinion | 2013-01-03
Don't call Outlook and ask for Vinod Mehra when you want to speak to Vinod Mehta. And it doesn't help to get Rajdeep Sardesai's personal number and ask for arch rival Arnab Goswami.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-01-03
The Home Ministry has issued an order on banning journalistic activities by foreigners visiting India on tourist visa. The action came after the government found that a geophysicist, Roger Bilham had been visiting India multiple times since 1967 and was engaged in journalistic activities. (PTI)..
IN Media Freedom | 2013-01-02
Death. Attacks. Arrests. Censorship. Curbs on online media.
IN Media Practice | 2013-01-02
The opening paragraph itself exposes the ideology of discrimination that is structural to the TOI. Clearly the paper's concern with regard to rape is limited to the cityscape and women who constitute immediate kin.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2013-01-02
The West Bengal government is hiring a private agency to keep a tab on the media. It will have to send daily reports to the CM on what is written about her government. The government and the party have been receiving a bad press so Mamata Banerjee’s government is keen..
IN Media Freedom | 2013-01-02
Death. Attacks. Arrests. Censorship. Curbs on online media.
Women, popular culture and violence: joining the dots
IN Media Practice | 2013-01-01
Music videos have become one of the most insidious offenders, shaping sexist attitudes towards women.
Fettering the Fourth Estate: Free Speech in 2012
IN Media Freedom | 2012-12-31
From the dastardly killing of an entire family of a journalist in Madhya Pradesh earlier this year, the shooting of a television journalist covering a protest in Manipur in December, the hasty arrest of two young women from Palghar, Mumbai for their
Fettering the Fourth Estate: Free Speech in 2012
IN Media Freedom | 2012-12-31
From killings to jailing to arrests for Facebook posts, 2012 saw a whole gamut of free speech violations run their course in the country.
IN Media Freedom | 2012-12-30
Apathy and rank ignorance marked the brutal killing of Nanao Singh by trigger-happy police while he covered a protest in Manipur on December 23,
IN Media Freedom | 2012-12-30
Apathy and rank ignorance marked the brutal killing of Nanao Singh by trigger-happy police while he covered a protest in Manipur on December 23,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-12-29
The Broadcasting Content Complaint Council (BCCC) has asked entertainment channels to not carry "crass, abusive, vulgar and double-meaning language with sexual overtones in the name of humour." The Council had received many complaints against double-meaning dialogues used in 'comedy shows' telecast on various general entertainment channels...
Creating an environment against rape
IN Media Practice | 2012-12-29
There is an important role for media advocacy in building a powerful response to this national shame and walking that critical distance between data and decision as the nation's conscience keepers.
IN Opinion | 2012-12-27
We have to question the media's thirst for every detail about this woman's condition, their invasion of privacy.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-12-27
The government has for the first time received an application from a Pakistani television channel for down-linking in India. The Lahore-based channel's application is amongst the 165 proposals that are under various stages of inter-ministerial clearances, I&B Ministry sources told Indiantelevision.com. They declined to name the channel. ..
Self correcting, but not on ethics
IN Opinion | 2012-12-27
The industry is set to self correct where its financial viability is concerned. On cleaning up its ethics, it is going to need a lot more prodding.
IN Opinion | 2012-12-27
Conversely Brinda Karat, Digvijay Singh, Swapan Dasgupta and others could be drafted as cricket commentators to complete the politicisation of the game.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-12-26
Undeterred by the losses it has suffered since it launched in Mumbai, DNA is now planning to launch a glitzy business paper for the upper end of the market in the first half of 2013, a premium product with limited circulation. The grapevine says the search for a high profile editor..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-12-25
The brother of the Delhi gang rape victim told the Indian Express what it is like to experience the media frenzy surrounding his sister. They reported that she had begun to walk at a time when she was vomiting and had abdominal pain. They said she was talking when she wasn’t...
Victimized by the Karnataka police
IN Media Freedom | 2012-12-25
In jail for the past 50 days for covering the Mangalore homestay raid, Naveen Soorinje's bail application was rejected yet again, today.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-12-24
To its coverage of the protests at India Gate, Zee News added its proactive bit. It put out a news item saying Zee News was appealing to protesters to return home, and added: “As situation may get out of hand, we urge all to recall their relatives from India Gate”...
IN Media Practice | 2012-12-24
The Delhi gang rape and the public protests not only triggered a storm of coverage in the Indian media but was also was covered widely in the foreign media.
IN Media Practice | 2012-12-23
Does journalistic balance demand construction of a false equivalence between proponents of a violent religious nationalism and those of a secular worldview,
IN Media Practice | 2012-12-23
What came across on Saturday was the desperate attempt by TV news channels to milk the protests for whatever TRPs they were worth.
IN Opinion | 2012-12-23
Letter to the Hoot: They did not comprehend the trauma of a rape victim until the Delhi incident.
Positive reporting of Delhi rape
IN Media Practice | 2012-12-23
The continuous coverage by print and electronic media without exception, compelled the authorities to focus on catching the culprits,
Blatant copyright violation by TOI
IN Opinion | 2012-12-21
LETTER TO THE HOOT: I checked with the editor and publisher, and I have emails from them that inform me that no permissions were taken from them .
IN Media Practice | 2012-12-21
The Congress bought more than three times the advertising time on the public broadcaster than the BJP did. It did not help.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-12-20
Anchors working for Bloomberg TV India had been asked to cut their hair short, failing which they will be taken off air or fired. While it is not clear if the firingwarning was serious, everyone has followed the diktat. Three anchors and one reporter have cut their hair, while other..
Da times de AAC (are a-changin')!
IN Opinion | 2012-12-20
"You reach out to more people and consume less newsprint. Imagine an entire paper in a txt msg format!"," 'A' said all excited as he downed a glass of that unique creative juice.
IN Special Reports | 2012-12-18
The Tamil media was clearly negating a powerful people's movement with its inexplicable prejudices which were fully exploited by the security forces.
Reporting Kashmir's summer of discontent
IN Special Reports | 2012-12-18
MAINSTREAM AMNESIA--- A three-part series on conflict and media on The Hoot. Part 1, Kashmir. Overall it is clear from the coverage that the media was donning it's familiar ambulance chaser hat while covering J&K, post Shopian,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-12-18
“While 444 suspected cases of paid news were reported in Gujarat, notices were sent to 224 of them. In Himachal Pradesh polls, the Commission came across 211 suspected cases of paid news and notices were sent in 190 cases and 91 confirmed cases were reported,” chief election commissioner VS Sampath..
The powerful world of Bangla bloggers
IN Digital Media | 2012-12-17
Over a lakh bloggers? The extraordinary world of the Bangladeshi blogging community reflects a mini nation.
IN Media Practice | 2012-12-15
Why does criminal activity with the involvement of prominent people never figure as news till it culminates in a crime?
IN Opinion | 2012-12-15
LETTER TO THE HOOT: Do you think a magazine like the New Yorker, Newsweek or Time would waste ten pages on an innocuous anchor who doesn't reach even a quarter of the Indian population?
IN Media Practice | 2012-12-15
Media coverage of non resident Indian controversies opts for nationalism over legality and logic,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-12-14
The indefatigable Kerala MP P Rajeeve, who moved an annulment motion earlier against provisions on intermediaries under the IT Act, 2000, is moving a motion in the Rajya Sabha today on Sec 66(a) of the IT Act, 2000. The motion, which states that the language of the section goes far..
Rival candidates in paid news cases
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-12-13
The Election Commission has issued notices to two candidates from Junagadh constituency — the BJP’s sitting MLA Mahendra Mashru and the Congress’s Bikhabhai Joshi — for allegedly paying for coverage in a number of local newspapers. In the notice to Mashru, the Election Commission has asked him why Rs 76,220..
IN Opinion | 2012-12-13
Thus came into existence a file at the CIA headquarters marked the Goswami Dossier. To be fair, it must be noted here that no stone or Google search was left unturned by the CIA to divine information.
Record high in number of jailed journalists
IN Media Freedom | 2012-12-12
Terrorism and anti-state charges against dissenting journalists are increasingly used to imprison journalists worldwide,
Are advertisers the key to regulation?
IN Media Practice | 2012-12-11
In earlier episodes too when media had crossed the line, public outrage was considerable. But it was the pulling out of advertising support that seemed to have a sobering effect on the stations and their presenters.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-12-10
Politicians and activists are continuing to put pressure on Apple to publish a controversial app which monitors drone strike locations - after the company blocked it. The app is also the subject of a growing US petition, launched last week on Roots Action, calling on company to reconsider. The App..
Leveson and the spotlight on regulation
IN Law and Policy | 2012-12-10
Recent instances of impropriety in the Indian press make it useful to study how the British inquiry into the ethics and practices of the fourth estate can apply to the Indian scenario,
Sec 66 (a) strikes again...and again!
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-12-10
Despite a nation-wide protest and the anguish of no less an authority than the Chief Justice of India, Sec 66 (a) of the IT Act, 2000, continues to be used indis- criminately against unsuspecting users of the internet: three youth in Kashmir for a video and a youth in Rourkela..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-12-08
Aditya Sinha, editor of Daily News and Analysis, owned by the Zee group, has quit his job after two years. Just a few days before he quit he wrote a column titled Trial by rival media, suggesting that a rivalry between two Haryana business families, that of Naveen Jindal and..
IN Media Practice | 2012-12-08
The lid is off the can of worms, they've climbed out, and things are unlikely to be the same again. Which can only do the Indian media a world of good.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-12-07
Asianet News Network has announced that it is doing its bit to restore media credibility in a season of media-related scandals. Its three news brands Asianet News (Malayalam), Suvarna News 24x7 and Kannada Prabha will disclose ad sales and revenues during the months leading up to and during Elections, and all ad..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-12-07
Before the group has lived down the Naveen Jindal sting for which its chairman and managing director took anticipatory bail, another Zee channel, Z24 finds itself implicated in a paid news report front-paged by the Indian Express. Chhattisgarh's PR department apparently regularly pays news TV channels in the state to highlight..
IN Opinion | 2012-12-06
Several names for the prospective publication were suggested- Filmfair, Star-Durst (dare), Asli Pitcher, Hum Critic Se Kum Nahin, Movie aur Seedhi Baat, Filmy Log (ka) Pal, Hum Hain Cannes and Parde ke Peeche,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-12-06
Zee Group Chairman Subhash Chandra on Wednesday moved an anticipatory bail plea before a local court, a day after Delhi Police asked him to join investigations in connection with the alleged Rs 100 crore extortion bid by two editors of his channel. The Zee Group had sought anticipatory bail for..
IN Opinion | 2012-12-06
Letter to the Hoot: Links are given to articles from a writer who regularly copies himself,
IN Digital Media | 2012-12-05
What we are presenting is a quick overview, also sourced from the Internet, of the way the media in different parts of the world is framing the issue.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-12-03
A rural newspaper 'Gaon Connection', has been launched. The 14-page weekly broadsheet was launched by Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav in Itaunja, a village near Lucknow, on Sunday. While the editor-in-chief is S.B. Misra, the paper is supposed to be the brain child of his son Neelesh Misra who was earlier with the..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-12-01
Vinod Mehta seems to love his tipple. On Karan Thapar's The Last Word, (CNN-IBN, 8.30 pm, Friday, Nov 30, 2012) he was seen sipping from a glass - the colour of the content, the manner of sipping showing it was perhaps his that evening's sun-downer. Of course, his left hand..
IN Law and Policy | 2012-12-01
The problem cannot be resolved by a review of S 66A by Judiciary or guidelines against 'misuse' issued by the Executive.
IN Media Freedom | 2012-12-01
As it stands, section 66(A) of the IT Act has no inherent space for a different approach. One that would allow for counselling or review.
IN Opinion | 2012-12-01
Thackeray regularly abused journalists who opposed him. His journalism was intrinsic to his growth as a mass leader.
Clarification on 'Decoding BCCL'
IN Opinion | 2012-12-01
It is common for companies to have employee retention schemes in some form or another. My actual annual recurring remuneration is significantly lower than the amount stated.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-12-01
Though an earlier brief on the Hoot had indicated a decline in paid news in the recent elections in Himachal, it now transpires that there were 104 cases of paid news as confirmed by the Election Commission. In only 14 of these 104 cases, however, the candidates have accepted that..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-12-01
Rajdeep Sardesai's constant suggestion to Shweta Bhatt, wife of suspended IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt who has filed her nomination against the Gujarat CM Narendra Modi on a Congress ticket, that she was a 'proxy candidate' for her husband, clearly offended Ms Bhatt. She finally unmiked herself and walked out of..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-11-30
Editorial in The Telegraph: Misdirected police action has been undone in Maharashtra with speed. But the West Bengal government has yet to make amends to the Jadavpur professor arrested under section 66 (A) of the IT Act. ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-11-29
The government has issued an advisory to states on how to implement the controversial Section 66(A) of the IT Act. Government sources say that a prior approval from the Deputy Commissioner or IGP level officers is needed before the Station House Officer can register such complaints. Government sources also say that..
IN Opinion | 2012-11-29
Will spycam footage now be used to extort money from a reporter who spoke ill of his seniors or covered a major news event from home sipping coffee and watching TV?
IN Opinion | 2012-11-29
Some narratives of free speech violation the media buys into, others is it considerably more skeptical about.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-11-28
The incredible popularity of a Facebook post on protecting one's photos, status updates and reports turned out to be a hoax! The post, that was shared by a number of people, reads: In response to the new Facebook guidelines, I hereby declare that my copyright is attached to all of..
What the Press Council could have been
IN Law and Policy | 2012-11-27
National Press Day in November reminds us of the purposes the Press Council should serve, but does not.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-11-27
Isanpur resident Atul Niranjan Dave has filed a complaint with the chief electoral officer (CEO) Gujarat alleging that the cameraman of NaMo channel and two BJP workers were rude when he chose to speak his mind and not praise chief minister Narendra Modi as wished by the channel crew. Dave..
Online media comes to defense of citizens
IN Digital Media | 2012-11-25
The web can be a powerful instrument not just in gathering evidence, support and funds for the undertrials but also in defending the 'innocent, until proven guilty'.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-11-24
Union IT minister Kapil Sibal made the right noises in favour of free speech after the arrests of Shaheen Dhada and Renu Srinivasan for their facebook posts. And then comes this classic comment from the minister defending Sec 66 (a) as it is handy in governing internet content: "You can't define..
Kasab's hanging: facts missed, misreported
IN Media Practice | 2012-11-24
The media have failed to either question or to create a debate on why the entire operation was a closely guarded secret.
Impunity rules: Chilling data from India
IN Media Freedom | 2012-11-23
At least 24 attacks and ten threats till date
Where does India stand in an Impunity index?
IN Media Freedom | 2012-11-23
Woefully low. Ten deaths since 2010, 24 attacks and ten threats in 2012 alone!
IN Opinion | 2012-11-23
The"know-all" swami's prediction for the media: only headlines, no story;"intellectual" page 3;"exposes" on arranged marriages.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-11-21
If you are still unclear about the draconian nature of Sec 66 (a) of the IT Act, here’s something that’ll help: Palghar police charged ten people with rioting, unlawful assembly, endangering life or personal safety of others, mischief and house-trespass (Secs 143, 147, 336, 427, 451 of the Indian Penal..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-11-21
When Press Council Chairman Markendeya Katju questioned the intellectual calibre of media persons, it gave the Indian Newspaper Society (INS) the perfect excuse to boycott his meetings. Oddly, the normally combative Press Council chairman expressed regrets in a letter dated 21.09.2012. Now, the INS has magnanimously accepted the regrets, a press..
IN Opinion | 2012-11-20
The coverage given to Thackeray's death by some television channels was overwhelmingly disproportionate to his contribution to people's well-being.
Intolerant or plain mischief-hunters?
IN Media Freedom | 2012-11-19
Two young women are arrested for expressing their opinion on Facebook about the city's shutdown after Sena leader Bal Thackeray's death.
Intolerant or plain mischief-hunters?
IN Media Practice | 2012-11-19
Two young women are arrested for expressing their opinion on Facebook about the city's shutdown after Sena leader Bal Thackeray's death.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-11-19
Ladies and gentlemen of the media please note: laid to rest means being buried, not cremated. Balasaheb would not have approved of that usage for him at all. The equivalent of being laid to rest for cremation would be consigned to flames...
Current costs and future prospects. Decoding BCCL, Part IV
IN Media Business | 2012-11-18
"We were a content company that used technology. Now we are a technology company that uses content."
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-11-18
Balasaheb Thackery gave the maximum number of posts to journalists in his organisation. This is one of media nuggets that emerged in the pre-cremation analyses of the Shiv Sena chief. Kumar Ketkar, editor of Divya Bhaskar said: "Balasaheb loved the media, loved to have private dialogues with them which were not about the..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-11-18
As one of India's most controversial politicians made his last journey, on most channels, as is expected in Indian custom, the tone remained reverential."It is a historic moment" said Arnab Goswami on Times Now, and added,"We must pray for Balasaheb's soul". But Bhupen Chaubey on CNN IBN broke from the..
Seeking controversial revenue routes-Decoding BCCL, Part III
IN Media Business | 2012-11-17
Even as the private treaties scheme was apparently aimed at undermining competition to the TOI, a number of competing newspapers as well as television channels started similar schemes.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-11-16
Mint reports that the I & B ministry is considering a change in the policy which has allowed states to own cable TV networks. The best known instance is Tamilnadu's Arasu. A TRAI recommendation to this effect made in 2008 may now be implemented, and licenses to state governments for..
Is your salary giving you the slip?
IN Opinion | 2012-11-15
If you can't pay salaries in time, lift the spirits of the cash-strapped journalists with a spirited Diwali bash.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-11-14
Google's latest Transparency report, tells us that India follows USA in removal requests. At least 7969 of the 20,938 requests between Jan-June 2012 came from USA, followed by India (2319) and Brazil (1566). The trend of seeking to curb political speech is alarming and visible even in Western democracies, says..
More profitable than most-- Decoding BCCL, Part II
IN Media Business | 2012-11-14
The company's pre-tax profit margin in 2010-11 was 31.89 per cent. Its financial clout gives it a huge advantage over its rivals, and enables the ToI to establish a strong base in new markets,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-11-12
It seems that the influence of Dr Bhaskar Das who quit the Times group to join the Zee group is becoming clearly discernable in the recent editions of the Daily News and Analysis. Instructions have been given to limit all stories to 300 words. The turns on the front page of..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-11-12
The Times of India, which prefers not to use a brand name in its news copy except in the business pages, had a story on Starbucks in its Sunday edition with as many as 13 mentions for the coffee chain. There was no disclaimer if BCCL had a private treaty..
The Times, the Jains, and BCCL
IN Media Business | 2012-11-11
Decoding BCCL, Part I. If BCCL's shares are publicly listed it will make the company's operations far more transparent than they are now,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-11-09
Dainik Bhaskar is offering foreign trips as incentives to its bureau chiefs in Haryana if their stringers can meet festival season advertising targets. Letters have gone out from executive editors, with a copy marked to the Haryana resident editor. “ Management has offered you a foreign trip as mentioned below...so get..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-11-09
Two TV reporters are accused of blackmail and extortion, in one case a reporter is suspended pending investigation (India TV), in the other case the reporter's contract is discontinued pending an inquiry (ABP News.) But when the offender is the boss the company files a court case against the accusing..
Propaganda, new media and racism
IN Media Practice | 2012-11-09
In the matter of the exodus of the north-east people, as important as safeguarding the cogency of the idea of free flow of information, is recognising and discreetly annihilating racial ideology from Indian society,
IN Opinion | 2012-11-09
When India banishes corruption scam-busting journalists will have to look for a new area of specialisation.
Victory formula: social media to social production
IN Opinion | 2012-11-07
The frenzy of tweets on election day have capped an intense campaign on social media this US election.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-11-05
Gujarat is seeing a burst of TV channels as the elections draw near. Apart from recent entrants V News and the Sandesh news channel from the Sandesh group, Gujarat Samachar is getting ready to launch a channel. And the answer to Narendra Modi's cable channel Na Mo is the web TV channel from the Gujarat..
IN Media Practice | 2012-11-05
The American media have publicly analysed charges of bias against themselves in the coverage of the 2012 Presidential election.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-11-03
As Himachal goes to the polls tomorrow the good news this time from those keeping an eye on the local coverage, is that paid news was not very visible. Poll advertising was amply evident, but in the advertising columns...
IN Media Business | 2012-11-03
The arrival of Ei Samay has stirred the Ananda Bazar Patrika group out of its complacency.
Pay for work, don't work for pay
IN Opinion | 2012-11-02
Under the"payback formula", television reporters soon will compensate their employers on a monthly basis
Criminalizing tweeting is unconstitutional
IN Law and Policy | 2012-11-02
No other enactment like Penal Code or Criminal Procedure Code gave so much discretionary power to the investigating officers in any country.
Does copyright equal censorship?
IN Media Freedom | 2012-10-31
The Indian music industry seems to believe it does,
IN Media Practice | 2012-10-31
If the brightest child of Manipur feels neglected like this, the press there should wake up and make amends.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-10-30
While Ravi Dhariwal, CEO of BCCL, was busy praising his newspapers (TOI & ET) at a CII seminar in Delhi, Amit Khanna, chairman of Anil Ambani’s Big Reliance Entertainment told Dhariwal that he had once approached one of his newspapers to cover a film festival but was asked to contact BCCL’s Medianet team, which..
Letter to the Hoot: Unfair charge
IN Opinion | 2012-10-30
For a site dedicated to media criticism, the least we expect is that you do some sort of fact checking. The Hindu -- under Mr. N. Ram's editorship -- extensively highlighted the allegations against RIL over KG basin gas.
Flagrant violation of media ethics
IN Media Freedom | 2012-10-29
The gang-rape of a law student in Bangalore recently has raised disturbing questions about sensationalized and irresponsible media coverage,
Flagrant violation of media ethics
IN Media Practice | 2012-10-29
The gang-rape of a law student in Bangalore recently has raised disturbing questions about sensationalized and irresponsible media coverage,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-10-29
MJ Akbar is leaving India Today at the end of this month. He was editorial director of the magazine and of the English news channel Headlines Today. He told BestMediaInfo that he was leaving on amicable terms and that he had enjoyed working with Aroon Purie for whom he had..
IN Opinion | 2012-10-29
The Delhi Special Cell's dubious claims on terror continue to be gospel truth for the English press.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-10-29
The Times of India has found a way to have its social issues concerns sponsored. Its environment and empowerment page now plugs the paper's social impact awards, in partnership with JP Morgan. The page scatters little boxes about the awards amid the stories on environment, education and other social issues. ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-10-28
Several papers and a TV channel have reported that Petroleum minister Jaipal Reddy losing his portfolio had a lot to do with his refusal to give in to pressure from Reliance Industries on gas pricing and other issues. But The Hindu’s prominent front page story on the issue is interesting for another reason...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-10-27
TV scoops where Times Now is concerned are for just that evening: something to holler about and claim credit for. Nitin Gadkari has offered to resign! Remember, you heard it here first. We did, we did. But now we have to match it with what the actual news turns out to..
IN Media Practice | 2012-10-27
The BBC, which suppressed its own findings on criminal acts of one of its late celebrity anchors, is under severe criticism.
IN Media Practice | 2012-10-26
Here was one of India's top journalists being taken to the cleaners by a politician and being unable to do much about it.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-10-26
The government is planning to broadcast radio jingles on a bigger scale on All India Radio, featuring themes of countering Maoism. AIR has already been airing these jingles for the past one month in four naxal affected states Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, Bihar and Orissa. The jingles are meant to lure villagers and tribals..
IN Media Practice | 2012-10-26
A significant agitation against land acquisition and the bail and re-arrest of its leader were barely noticed by mainstream media.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-10-26
Dainik Jagran and the Pioneer may be both right wing pro-BJP newspapers, but they have behaved differently in reporting the Nitin Gadkari episode. Whereas the Pioneer has been playing down the story, and its chief editor goes on television to deflect blame from Mr Gadkari, Jagran has been reporting the revelations with..
IN Media Practice | 2012-10-26
No fancy broadcasting laws are needed to penalise bad ethics if there is proof of a criminal offence.
IN Opinion | 2012-10-25
The media appear to have taken a lesson from Bollywood where plagiarism is simply"a source of inspiration".
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-10-24
While Times Now and TOI are busy taking credit for breaking the story about Nitin Gadkari's shell companies where his personal staff including his driver were directors, the story was actually broken by NDTV on Srinivasan Jain's Truth vs Hype, a couple of days ago. Only fair to point that out..
IN Digital Media | 2012-10-24
Incidents of trolling involving new technologies have turned the spotlight yet again on the debate on freedom of expression vs. regulation.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-10-24
There is no love lost between the Indian Express and General V K Singh, the former army chief, that much a reading of earlier coverage in this newspaper of Singh's actions will tell you. Now there is an internal audit report of the defence ministry which among others holds two army..
IN Media Practice | 2012-10-23
The Broadcast Editors Association has acted with alacrity in the Zee Jindal episode. But its silence on ethical lapses of TV editors in the past is noteworthy,
Umesh Rajput: an impunity story
IN Media Freedom | 2012-10-21
More than a year and a half later, why are police investigations still on despite all the damning evidence,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-10-21
When the Tata Starbucks venture gets a longish special on NDTV and the enormous backdrop not only has the logos of both companies but a big band going across saying Tata Starbucks Limited, you wonder at the nature of the programme. The panelists--Ratan Tata and Howard Schulz, chairman and CEO of Starbucks. The..
No association with a political party
IN Opinion | 2012-10-21
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).
Umesh Rajput: an impunity story
IN Media Freedom | 2012-10-21
More than a year and a half later, why are police investigations still on despite all the damning evidence,
Journalists report the police version of crime
IN Media Freedom | 2012-10-20
Do journalists question enough, asks Seema Azad, 'Dastak' editor who was charged under the UAPA
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-10-20
When Rajdeep Sardesai tweeted “Behind every successful neta is a real estate co, sugar mill, mining co, education baron”, there was a responding tweet from Congress MP Milind Deora asking “Not newspaper/news channel?” A comeback that was extensively retweeted...
IN Media Practice | 2012-10-19
Even as there is a horrific increase in reported cases of rape, the media is demonstrating that it needs to learn sensitivity in reporting this crime,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-10-19
The Broadcast Editor’s Association (BEA), a body of editors from leading TV news channels has removed Zee News editor and business head Sudhir Chaudhary from the post of treasurer and primary membership of the body. It has also set up a three-member committee to investigate the allegations of extortion against..
IN Opinion | 2012-10-18
Arvind Kejriwal is doing to the Indian media what Julian Assange did for those in UK and USA.
IN Opinion | 2012-10-18
Mr New Politics needs to move beyond personalities and lead journalists to other pastures to graze at,
IN Media Practice | 2012-10-18
In an"inquisition" against a godman a TV channel played the role of judge, jury, and executioner.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-10-18
Journalists of the allegedly pro-Telangana TV channels T News, HMTV, Janata News, Munsiff TV, V-6 TV and Namaste Telangana newspaper were denied entry into the venue of the global biodiversity convention to cover Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s address to delegates on Oct 16. Fresh passes were given to those covering..
IN Media Practice | 2012-10-17
A significant movement seeking land reforms has been ignored on TV. NDTV, which is generally into saving tigers, hills, coasts, and such other things, had nothing much to say about Mr Rajagopal's march to Delhi,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-10-17
According to the draft minutes of its July AGM, the Press Club, Mumbai, made a profit of Rs 3.39 lakh from its annual journalism awards which went in for sponsorship and advertising. “Members in the AGM expressed appreciation at the herculean effort of the Managing Committee, and the AGM thereafter..
IN Media Practice | 2012-10-16
The Tamil media was clearly negating a powerful people's movement with its inexplicable prejudices which were fully exploited by the security forces.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-10-15
The head of Hindustan Unilever writes an edit page article in the Economic Times on handwashing initiatives undertaken by the private sector and the government of India. His company ofcourse makes soap. Elsewhere in the same issue of the paper there is a full-page paid feature on Handwashing Day with..
IN Opinion | 2012-10-13
Letter to the Hoot: He eventually sent me a bogus"apology" in which he claimed not to have known that I was the photographer.
Shoddy investigation goes unquestioned
IN Opinion | 2012-10-13
The media have failed to expose the false claims and the methodology of the investigating agencies.
IN Media Practice | 2012-10-13
The media response to the story has been illuminating. Competing for the top slot in the play-it-down competition were the Indian Express and the Hindustan Times.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-10-12
Jindal Steel and Power Ltd, who had registered an FIR against Zee News is said to have handed over audio and video recordings of phone conversations and meetings held between Zee and JSPL officials. While JSPL accused the Zee News editor and the Zee Business editor of demanding Rs 100 crore worth advertising to..
IN Resources | 2012-10-12
Introduction In today's digital age, there is an abundance of technology that journalists can use to help them with news gathering and reporting. But how often do you, as a journalist, think about how secure your technological tools are? The section provides easy to follow instructions on how to secure your data on hard drives, how..
The greatest editor since Gandhi
IN Opinion | 2012-10-11
To make matters worse, of the editors who made the grade none were willing to appear on TV for the final countdown because they felt it was a "cheap gimmick."
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-10-10
Facebook and Google may be served summons soon for “promoting class enmity and undermining national integrity” in India. A complaint filed by one Vinay Rai accuses these and many other US-based sites of “committing offences of selling obscene materials to youth and conspiracy.” A Home Ministry official who appeared in the..
Depending on others to investigate
IN Media Practice | 2012-10-10
The Indian media in recent times has relied on whistleblower sources to detect most scams.
IN Media Practice | 2012-10-09
When was the last time we saw the word 'claim' being used when a paper speaks about how a power project will bring reprieve and development to a region?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-10-09
Banks that have lent loans to Deccan Chronicle Holdings Ltd are caught in a fix as they might have to write-off the loans lent due to meager collateral, slow progress in the investigation into a possible fraud and depleting value of the main business of the company. The total loan..
IN Media Freedom | 2012-10-08
Felled by a parcel bomb, her death focuses, yet again, on the dangers faced by the activist-journalist.
IN Media Freedom | 2012-10-08
Felled by a parcel bomb, her death focuses, yet again, on the dangers faced by the activist-journalist.
Is the media part of the problem?
IN Media Practice | 2012-10-08
What provokes the media to pounce upon itself, however, points to an omerta, least expected in this profession.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-10-08
Hindustan Times says that an FIR has been filed by a representative of Congress MP Naveen Jindhal, against Sudhir Chudhary, editor of Zee News and a top executive of Zee Business. The FIR contains a complaint of extortion against the two Zee News journalists for not running the news on coal blocks allocation. According to..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-10-08
The Hindu on October 8 showed up the business press with a lead story that took a detailed look at the balance sheets of Robert Vadra's companies and provided an even-toned account of what they showed. Three days after Arvind Kejriwal and Prashant Bhushan levelled charges against Vadra of unexplained..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-10-08
Even as MP and YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) president Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy has been denied bail by the apex court, his wife Bharati, a shrewd businesswoman, has embarked on a new venture. The media house which publishes Sakshi has launched a website in English, sakshipost.com. It began its..
Can Indian media do a fact check?
IN Media Practice | 2012-10-07
Soundbite journalism allows those making the charges to get onto a soapbox and have their say without any accountability.
IN Media Freedom | 2012-10-07
In a swift and amazing operation, several Telugu news channels were blacked out on government orders for 20 minutes during the September 30 Telangana rally.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-10-06
NaMo Gujarat, the TV channel that went on air on Thursday and aired Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s speeches live, has turned blank since Friday. The name of the TV channel resonates with the initials of the Chief Minister. The congress leaders had complained to the EC and requested them..
Curbs on freedom of expression
IN Media Freedom | 2012-10-05
Two years after SMS service was blocked in Kashmir, the government has now jammed Facebook, YouTube, and GPRS services.
Curbs on freedom of expression
IN Media Freedom | 2012-10-05
Two years after SMS service was blocked in Kashmir, the government has now jammed Facebook, YouTube, and GPRS services.
IN Opinion | 2012-10-04
Imagine a newspaper with news on front page and paid news or the"advertorial" stretching across the following 23 pages?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-10-03
The Election Commission while announcing the dates for Gujarat and Himachal elections on Wednesday made a special mention of paid news. "So far paid news has been a learning process for us -but this time we will be monitoring paid news very strictly at the district levels and as soon..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-10-02
The Indian Readership Survey's quarterly results are news depending on what they show. So the quarter 2 figures for 2012 are front page second lead in the Hindu which boasts of its own "impressive" growth. The story is totally missing from the Times of India which has tom-tomed IRS figures in..
IN Media Practice | 2012-10-01
A HOOT ANALYSIS- Looking back, its resounding success was because it borrowed the format of family soap to discuss social malaises. The victim was the veritable script-writer of the show.
No spectrum fee hike for community radio
IN Media Business | 2012-09-30
After a sustained campaign, the steep fee hike for community radio was waived,
Between laughter and revolution
IN Media Practice | 2012-09-30
Poets of Protest focuses on the lives and works of poets at the centre of resistance in the Arab world.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-09-29
On september 27 the Dainik Bhaskar and Aaj Samaj reported that the Duranto and a mail train had just stopped short of crashing into each other. “Duranto aur malgadi aame saamne, hadsa tala” said the Bhaskar headline. Railway officials summoned reporters and showed them CCTV footage. The next day Bhaskar..
IN Media Business | 2012-09-29
The Times of india is set to enter this city offering its newspaper for less than Rs 1 a day.
RTI--politics may get more public
IN Media Practice | 2012-09-29
All political parties, except the CPI have refused to provide names of their donors saying they don't come under the purview of the RTI Act.
Journalist death unsolved mystery
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-09-28
Little information is available about the gruesome death of Chaitali Santra, the journalist who was killed in a parcel bomb in Kolkata on September 26. Police said she worked with a Hindi newspaper Julm se Jung but its editor Rajeev Dhingra told The Hoot that she was a freelancer and had..
A ‘lift' here and a ‘lift' there
IN Media Practice | 2012-09-28
Hindi films have"progressed" from seeking"inspiration" to a scene-by-scene plagiarism from Hollywood hits.
The art of fixing opinion polls
IN Opinion | 2012-09-27
Data can be fudged, and one opinion poll can differ from another although the respondent base is the same.
Media Mergers and Acquisitions
IN Statistics | 2012-09-27
MEDIA MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS (MARCH 2011- JULY 2012) S/N ..
Proactive manipulation of web content
IN Media Freedom | 2012-09-26
Large swathes of online content are disappearing, and the losses are far more difficult to reverse than the mere blocking of a website,
Proactive manipulation of web content
IN Digital Media | 2012-09-26
Large swathes of online content are disappearing, and the losses are far more difficult to reverse than the mere blocking of a website,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-09-26
Business Standard Books publishes a book on the 2G spectrum scam written by one of the paper's editors. And guess who releases it? Fashion designer Shaina NC. Who then posed prettily for a picture on the back page.. The caption tells you she is a BJP member, as if to..
When anchors don't cross question
IN Media Practice | 2012-09-26
Can Ilaiah back his startling claim with data? Are upper caste men really raping only Dalit women? Are they not raping upper caste women?
IN Digital Media | 2012-09-26
Sam Pitroda's first press conference on Twitter had the Twitterati remarking about his inexperience with the medium.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-09-26
Some companies have strongly disapproved of a song from Prakash Jha’s film Chakravyuh, to be released soon. The song called 'Mahangai' takes a dig at big corporate houses like the Aditya Birla Group, Batas, Tatas and the Reliance group by saying that these groups have “exploited the nation for their own..
IN Archive | 2012-09-25
A HOOT SPECIAL REPORT-close to two years after the Radia tapes emerged, media management remains a hardy industry.
IN Resources | 2012-09-25
Apart from keeping you in touch with the people that you know, mobile phones have completely changed the whole process of our communication. A report in The Hindu said that even if half of all Indians didn’t have a toilet at home, well over half owned a telephone. According to..
IN Resources | 2012-09-25
A mobile phone today, is not just a device that is used to make calls. Plenty of services like browsing the internet, video calling, listening to music and watching videos, GPS (only in GPS enabled phones) and many more value added services are accessible on a mobile phone. High end..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-09-25
The government is showing a lot of willingness lately to use social media to disseminate information. In its latest move, Sam Pitroda, adviser to the PM on public information, infrastructure and innovation held a “first ever press conference on Twitter” on Tuesday. He responded to queries from journalists between 3:30pm and 4:15pm..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-09-25
The PTI News report on a possible roll-back of the CR spectrum fee hike is illustrated with the image of soldiers displaying captured arms and ammunition and, what looks like an insurgent. Is that meant as a warning to CR broadcasters who refuse to pay up, or is there a deeper symbolism at play..
Urdu press: Exaggerated and sensational
IN Media Monitoring | 2012-09-24
The reportage in Urdu newspapers was substantially responsible for the after-effects of Assam violence.
IN Media Practice | 2012-09-24
The reportage in Urdu newspapers was substantially responsible for the after-effects of Assam violence.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-09-24
In a bid to tackle “the control of internet by one or two countries”, Iran is said to be in the process of creating a domestic internet system by March 2013. Official announcements of blocking Google and Gmail have already been made. Most Iranians believe that the ban was related..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-09-24
On the NDTV programme Big Fight on September 22 Press Council Chairman Markandey Katju said that police officers arresting cartoonists in West Bengal and Mumbai were following illegal orders and should therefore be prosecuted. He added for good measure that Mamata Bannerjee should also face action for issuing illegal orders...
Reporters as police stenographers
IN Media Practice | 2012-09-22
As 16 terror cases end in acquittal the English press is guilty of giving in to the dubious claims of the infamous Special Cell.
Annoying messages can send you to jail!
IN Censorship | 2012-09-21
There's so much online content that can cause inconvenience and annoyance,
IN Opinion | 2012-09-21
A correspondent, however lowly, could call him up at home. Preferably before 9 am.
IN Digital Media | 2012-09-21
A video leak of US presidential candidate Mitt Romney's sweeping remarks on the American people sends his campaign into a tailspin.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-09-21
After Facebook and Twitter, the Government of India is thinking of turning to YouTube for propagating government policies and programmes online. It is said that the government officials have been “holding meetings to discuss how this medium can be used to spread awareness about government initiatives.” No matter how much..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-09-21
G Kasturi, who died on Sept 21st was the longest serving editor of the Hindu. He was credited with technological acumen in addition to “being an old-world Editor who preferred not to be seen or heard in the public sphere, but only be read and felt through the columns of the..
IN Opinion | 2012-09-20
"All recent major investigative stories have been courtesy CAG or telephone taps."
IN Opinion | 2012-09-20
The core of the problem with Prasar Bharati is that employees are prioritized over the institution, and the institution is prioritized over the objective for which it was created.
IN Law and Policy | 2012-09-20
The creation of such a special remedy without a clear legislative mandate is fraught with dangers of abuse.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-09-19
In the midst of the chaos caused by the anti-Islamic film “Innocence of Muslims”, Charlie Hebdo, a French weekly, has added more fuel to the fire by publishing naked cartoons of Prophet Mohammad. The cartoons have been published on many pages of the weekly which is known for criticizing politicians..
IN Law and Policy | 2012-09-19
Last week's FDI decision raises the cap on foreign investment in broadcasting hardware, but not in news and FM radio.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-09-18
Possibly soon, the IT Act may not be the only law used to censor the Internet. The Women and Child Ministry has proposed amendments to the Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act, which seek to bring Internet and MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) under its purview. Even the fine for such..
IN Resources | 2012-09-18
i. Facebook Based on the data from Quancast, Compete and Alexa, Facebook is most popular social networking website. It is followed by Twitter, LinkedIn, MySpace and then Google+. A lot of journalists and activists use Facebook for reaching out to their contacts and also sharing news and updates. Therefore the Facebook’s platform..
IN Resources | 2012-09-18
Cloud storage is a modern technology marvel that gives users an option to store their data on a network storage that can be accessed online. The users can easily access their data anywhere and anytime; provided they are connected to the network on which the data is stored. The advantages..
IN Resources | 2012-09-18
Over time, computers or storage devices that you use get flooded with data files. These could be on computers that you use at home or at the office. Usually the data stored on personal laptops is obviously ‘personal’ and therefore not to be shared easily. The computer that you use..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-09-17
The goverment has decided that the definition of sedition in the 142 year old law has to change. The Group of Ministers on media has decided to approach the Home Ministry to change the law because law enforcement agencies need to differentiate between anti-government protesters and..
Criminal Procedure (Bail / Arrest / Summons)
IN Press Laws Guide | 2012-09-17
XIIA – BAIL 1. What is bail? Answer: Bail means an order of release of a person from prison and forms an integral part of our criminal justice system which assumes every man innocent until (conclusively) proven guilty. Bail is granted during the pendency of the trial or an appeal. Before..
IN Press Laws Guide | 2012-09-17
1. Are sting operations legal? Is there any law that allows for sting operations? Answer: Yes, Sting Operations are legal. In Aniruddha Bahal v. State ( 2010 172 DLT 269) theDelhi High Court held that “it is built-in duties that every citizen must strive for a corruption free society and must..
IN Press Laws Guide | 2012-09-17
1. Is there any law that gives me a right to refuse to divulge my sources? Answer: No, there is no law which gives a right to refuse to divulge my sources. Though the courts generally do not compel a journalist to reveal his sources, but then again the journalist cannot..
IN Press Laws Guide | 2012-09-17
1. What is a person’s right to privacy? Answer: A person’s right to privacy is the right to be left alone. A citizen has the right to safeguard the privacy of himself and his family. This right can extend to all aspects of an individual’s personal life (as opposed to things..
How effective is the Press Council?
IN Books | 2012-09-17
As it clamours to add oversight of television and Internet to its portfolio, we need to see what it did to regulate the print media last year.
IN Press Laws Guide | 2012-09-17
1. What is contempt of court? Answer: Any act which hinders or impairs the judicial proceedings and interferes in the administration of justice constitutes Contempt of Court. Such act or conduct is dealt with under the Contempt of Court Act, 1971. Reasoning: In order to keep faith of the public in..
IN Press Laws Guide | 2012-09-17
1. What are the guidelines in place for reporting on issues relating to communal violence? Answer: The guidelines for reporting on issues relating to communal violence are contained in the, “Norms for Journalistic Conduct, 2010” (edition) which was published by the Press Council of India. Reasoning: Journalists are under a duty to..
IN Press Laws Guide | 2012-09-17
1. Are freelancers treated at par with employed journalists in terms of the privileges they enjoy? Answer: In so far as employment conditions and issues (such as remuneration, work conditions, credits, etc) are concerned, the law does not require freelancers to be treated at par with employed journalists in terms of..
IN Press Laws Guide | 2012-09-17
What is a copyright? What sort of content can be copyrighted? Answer: Copyright is a branch of intellectual property rights that protects original works of authorship. A copyright over some material generally implies that the copyright owner has the exclusive right: To reproduce the work ..
IN Press Laws Guide | 2012-09-17
1. When is a case sub-judice? Answer: A case is sub-judice from the time, (a) in criminal cases: a charge-sheet or challan has been filed by the Police in Court or if summons or warrant is not issued by Court; and (b) in civil cases: a notice is issued by a..
IN Press Laws Guide | 2012-09-17
1. What constitutes a fair trial? Answer: There are various aspects of the right to a fair trial. These include an adversarial trial system, presumption of innocence, independent judges, and knowledge of the accusation, trail and evidence in the presence of the accused, adequate legal representation to respond to the charges...
IN Press Laws Guide | 2012-09-17
1.Who can sue me for defamation? Answer: Section 499 of the IPC provides that any person whose reputation has been damaged (or was intended to be damaged) by the material in question can sue for defamation. ‘Any person’ refers to a single individual, an association or collection of persons or a..
IN Press Laws Guide | 2012-09-17
1. Who can sue me for defamation? Answer: If a person proves that the defamatory content was referring to her/him then he/she can sue for defamation. This includes a class of persons, companies, corporations, etc. (same rules as in criminal defamation insofar as these entities are concerned). Reasoning: Generally, the right..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-09-17
In the wake of the recent ‘North East exodus’ related violence, the Government has asked the Home Ministry to set up a dedicated cyber surveillance agency. This agency is supposed to monitor and forewarn the Government of any malicious content that could lead to possible law and order situations. The..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-09-17
A two-day India property show in Singapore, organised by the Hindu in collaboration with the Hindustan Times is served up as top-of-the-page national news in the Hindu, on September 16. Across all eight columns on page 9. The next day the paper has a vertical front page ad taking up half..
Myanmar media still under siege
IN Media Freedom | 2012-09-16
Although Myanmar's quasi-civilian government has ended"direct press censorship", it's not yet time for celebration.
IN Resources | 2012-09-14
1) Which laws regulate content on the internet in India? Online content, whether on the Internet or in mobile media, is regulated through the Information Technology Act 2000 (amended in 2008) and the rules formulated under the act. Besides, other laws governing content in all media include provisions (including those for..
IN Resources | 2012-09-14
1) What are blogs, blog-posts, bloggers? Usually a blog is a shared online journal where users can post diary entries about their personal experiences and hobbies. According to the IT Rules, a blog means a type of website, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or..
IN Resources | 2012-09-14
1) Who is an online journalist? Journalists are people who gather information that is relevant to the public and communicate this over various media. An online journalist would collect, write or edit news-reports, articles, features, interviews, opinion pieces, photographs or even podcasts and videos on news and events on an online..
IN Resources | 2012-09-14
1) Are your chats private on Facebook? Your chats are not entirely private. Facebook recently announced that they have a scanning software that scans across users’ chats for words or phrases that might signify criminal activity. If the software notices exchange of some suspicious words, then it notifies Facebook immediately. 2) Are your..
IN Resources | 2012-09-14
We take freedom of expression on the Internet for granted, but restrictions on Internet freedom are on the rise. There are government regulations and blocked websites, take down notices, abuse reports on social networking sites, privacy violations and copyright issues. Censorship on the Internet affects all of us - general users,..
A selective notion of corruption
IN Media Freedom | 2012-09-14
Aseem Trivedi's picture of contemporary India reflects only political and bureaucratic corruption, bribery in particular.
Of Fundamental Rights and Others' Noses
IN Press Laws Guide | 2012-09-14
1. Do we have an express fundamental right that guarantees freedom of the press, in India? Answer: No, there is no explicit fundamental right which guarantees freedom of press in India, however the Indian Supreme Court has through a series of decisions held that the freedom of the press is a..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-09-14
The J&K government has requested the Home Ministry to block all webpages which may contain any videos of the controversial anti-Islam film “Innocence of Muslims”. According to a Home Ministry official, there is very high probability that such “webpages will be blocked soon”. In the wake of attacks on US..
IN Opinion | 2012-09-14
The show has been â€Å"inspired by Prof. Linguajia unpublished work found at Bodleian Apartments library.
Dissecting social media blocks II
IN Media Freedom | 2012-09-14
Should the government provide the list of blocked sites and links? How should we deal with online hate speech?
Dissecting the social media blocks
IN Media Freedom | 2012-09-14
Could the government have been more transparent? How can websites defend themselves against a govt ban?
The rumour mills on social media
IN Media Practice | 2012-09-14
Internet and mobile media inflamed the situation while traditional media failed to counter the damage done.
IN Media Practice | 2012-09-14
1) Can content on Twitter be taken down? Under what circumstances? Yes. According to Twitter’s country-specific censorship policy[1], tweets can be taken down if it violates the law of the land. However, tweets blocked in India, for instance, can be visible in other parts of the world. As per Twitter’s terms and conditions[2],..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-09-14
1) Which laws regulate content on the internet in India? Online content, whether on the Internet or in mobile media, is regulated through the Information Technology Act 2000 (amended in 2008) and the rules formulated under the act. Besides, other laws governing content in all media include provisions (including those for..
IN Digital Media | 2012-09-14
1) What are blogs, blog-posts, bloggers? Usually a blog is a shared online journal where users can post diary entries about their personal experiences and hobbies. According to the IT Rules, a blog means a type of website, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or..
IN Media Freedom | 2012-09-14
1) Who is an online journalist? Journalists are people who gather information that is relevant to the public and communicate this over various media. An online journalist would collect, write or edit news-reports, articles, features, interviews, opinion pieces, photographs or even podcasts and videos on news and events..
IN Opinion | 2012-09-13
If reporters and reportage make way for"robotage", no story can be countered, much less denied.
IN Media Freedom | 2012-09-12
The cartoons by Aseem Trivedi may be starkly repulsive and indulge in exaggerated satire, but they cannot be termed seditious.
IN Media Freedom | 2012-09-12
The arrest of cartoonist Aseem Trivedi has served to focus attention on the issue of holding a modernizing democracy hostage to colonial laws.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-09-12
While Canara bank started the audit of accounts of the debt-ridden Deccan Chronicle Holding Limited (DHCL) on Sep 11, DHCL has mortgaged the trademarks of all of its four publications: Deccan Chronicle, The Asian Age, Andhra Bhoomi and Financial Chronicle. According to the report in TOI, DHCL promoters T. Venkatram Reddy and T. Vinayak..
IN Law and Policy | 2012-09-12
The arrest of cartoonist Aseem Trivedi has served to focus attention on the issue of holding a modernizing democracy hostage to colonial laws.
IN Media Freedom | 2012-09-12
The cartoons by Aseem Trivedi may be starkly repulsive and indulge in exaggerated satire, but they cannot be termed seditious.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-09-12
Editor in Chief and news anchor of Times Now, Arnab Goswami got his fact wrong while in a heated debate about protests over Koodankulam nuclear plant. He told Prashant Bhushan, who was supporting the protesters (who want the plant to be shut down) that the Japanese nuclear plant Fukushima had begun operations..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-09-11
Google has at last heard the pleas of RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) by adding the world’s biggest free file-sharing site Pirate Bay to its censorship list. The search giant has already blocked it from its instant and Autocomplete search features even though the file-sharing site is still indexed..
IN Media Practice | 2012-09-11
Even after 65 years of Independence the national media has been consistently lukewarm towards north-east India.
IN Media Business | 2012-09-11
In Andhra Pradesh the ownership of TV news space is essentially a part of one's political agenda.
Reporting India's diplomatic agenda
IN Opinion | 2012-09-10
Why can't the largest selling newspaper in the country have reports on an important international summit from its own staffer?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-09-09
Financial Express managing editor M.K. Venu has withdrawn his criminal defamation case against Outlook after a settlement that included an apology from the magazine for putting his photo and name on its cover dealing with the 2G scam and the Niira Radia tapes. The cover image carried a caption that..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-09-09
The Supreme Court judgement confirming the death sentence to Kasab notes the courage of two Times Group photographers Sebastian D'Souza and Shriram Vernekar whose pictures provided sufficient evidence to identify Kasab and Abu Ismail as the killers at CST. The TOI’s response: besides a story in the paper, Sebastian received a letter..
IN Regional Media | 2012-09-09
More is read into the recent face-off between Puthiya Thalaimurai and Sumangali Cable Vision in Tamil Nadu, as the former is emerging as a channel to reckon with,
Politically neutral, sparing none
IN Regional Media | 2012-09-09
Owned by education entrepreneurs, Puthiya Thalaimurai wants to show that there is a clear space for an unbiased news channel in Tamil Nadu,
IN Media Practice | 2012-09-08
Some in the media still seem to believe that being homosexual is in itself an act of crime.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-09-08
The TOI keeps the Hoot on its toes. Sept 8 saw a new innovation. Not private treaties, not paid news, but a ‘welfare initiative’ from the Times Group. It got an eight column top spread on a news page. A treatment for chronic pain called functional manual therapy, the venture’s..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-09-06
Deep in financial trouble, Deccan Chronicle Holdings Limited has put its IPL team Deccan Chargers up for auction. The only media company to own an IPL team, it put ads in newspapers inviting bids. Last day for the bid has been set as Sep 13. Bottom line: forced to choose between his..
IN Opinion | 2012-09-06
If the department of telecom blocked sites on government orders, should it change the way it does things? Set a time limit on the life of blocks imposed without due process?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-09-06
The Mumbai Police Crime Branch has learnt that 150 people participating in the Azad Maidan protests on Aug 11 had a “sole purpose” of attacking the media. According to the Joint Commissioner of Police, these people “were told that the media were not showing atrocities which were being committed against..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-09-06
Congress MP Vijay Darda, whose family owns Lokmat, is not the only newspaper owner in the list of those allocated coal blocks. The CAG report also lists for Chhattisgarh the company called DB Power whose owners are also proprietors of Dainik Bhaskar and other publications. Media reporting has centred on the political links..
Media exposure triggers historic agitation
IN Media Practice | 2012-09-05
The sale of Lata Mangeshkar's"Jayprabha Studio" has been prevented by the film fraternity and the citizens of Kolhapur, after the Maharashtra Times broke the story.
IN Media Freedom | 2012-09-04
The balance of power in the PCI is deeply skewed with 20 of its 28 members being representatives of journalism.
Censorship, only way to deal with hate?
IN Media Freedom | 2012-09-04
Hate speech lies on the faultlines of free speech, but while dissenting voices are legitimate, purveyors of hate are not.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-09-04
History was created in Egypt on Sunday when Fatma Nabil became the first ever female news presenter to ever appear on state television wearing a veil. This marked the end of a ban on presenters wearing the Muslim head covering. This move by authorities came after Islamist-dominated upper house of..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-09-04
The office of Registrar of Newspapers for India (RNI) is suffering from shortage of staff. This has affected the work related to circulation verification of newspapers and periodicals. Since October 2010, RNI has conducted verification of 58 newspapers till July 2012. This was conveyed to Rajya Sabha by Minister of State..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-09-03
On Aug 29, NDTV reported that Arjun, a ‘Kannada actor was arrested for harassing his wife’. But the report contained a picture of Tamil star, Arjun Sarja, who is known to be a gentleman. Even though they have deleted the main link to the old report they seem to have forgotten that it still..
Playing politics with malnutrition
IN Media Practice | 2012-09-03
The media have ignored poverty-driven malnutrition among the women of Gujarat while dealing with Narendra Modi's"beauty" statement.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-09-03
Senior journalist and Op-Ed Editor of The News, Zainul Abedin was attacked by a group of extremists in Karachi for “watching TV” and “listening to Qawwalis”. Even though the attackers were identified no action has been taken by the police so far. The group who have been known to terrorize..
Why the Mandal catalyst did not figure
IN Opinion | 2012-09-02
It is bewildering that the name of VP Singh did not tug at the memory of as erudite an analyst as Guha or the CNN-IBN team for the long-list of a 100 greats after Gandhi.
MPs' report refutes TOI's BT Cotton stories
IN Media Practice | 2012-08-31
Buried in a parliamentary committee report is a refutation by villagers of TOI's controversial stories on BT cotton's virtues, published in 2008 and reprinted in the paper as paid news in 2011.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-08-31
What TV9 Gujarat aired as file footage for IAF helicopter crash in Jamnagar on Thursday was mistaken as live footage by mainstream TV channels like Times Now, Headlines Today, Aaj Tak, India News and ran for almost 20 minutes. This footage was actually a mid-air crash between two choppers in..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-08-31
On Thursday, the media fraternity in Bangalore was agog with the news that a reporter of a leading English daily was among 11 arrested on suspicion of planning terror attacks in the State. The charges, when they were revealed, raised many an eyebrow. Reporters on the beat in other newspapers were..
IN Digital Media | 2012-08-31
The increasing addiction to online social networking has created a Catch-22 situation in newspapers across the country.
'Give Press Council Ministry status'
IN Opinion | 2012-08-30
"PCI chief" or his lookalike believes censorship is essential in"national interest" although it is bound to hurt some.
Government of India: Quiet all the way!
IN Media Freedom | 2012-08-30
By blocking websites, the incalculable cost to the Indian economy, to free speech, and a tarnished international image of the world's largest democracy will be hard to ignore.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-08-30
The Bhubaneshwar edition of the TOI reports that the State Government has woken up to the menace of a growing population of stray dogs after the chief minister found his press conference in the state secretariat interrupted by the constant barking of dogs outside. An irritated Naveen Patnaik told..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-08-30
The supreme court judgement on Kasab on August 29 not only made extended observations on the irresponsible role of the media during the 26/11 attack, it also observed that the way TV news channels competed to show the gory details of the mayhem harmed their case for self regulation rather..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-08-30
To the list of innovations to draw attention a product and secure revenues, especially on the front page, DNA has added new one. When it ends a copy on its Page One and tags it with “Turn to p4”, it uses some three sq cm space with the following: “Hate incomplete stories? Complete..
Wanted, quality media education
IN Media Practice | 2012-08-29
The standards of the products of communication institutes and university departments do not match the needs of the industry.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-08-28
On August 27, The Press Council of India resolved to ask the GOI to give it powers to regulate electronic and social media. It reiterated a demand made by PCI chief Markandey Katju soon after he took over for redesignating the body as the Media Council. Clearly Mr. Katju and..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-08-28
Three years ago, Facebook was hit by a controversy; all the embarrassing photos deleted by its users were not actually deleted from the Facebook server. These pictures were still accessible if a user had the direct link of the photos. After keeping these photos against users’ wishes for all these..
When media ignored brutal repression
IN Media Practice | 2012-08-28
Television news almost censored the heroic action of 4,000 students from 18 States whose agenda too was anti-corruption.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-08-27
Has Tata Docomo's photon broadband service blocked the popular blog Wordpress.com? The first reports about this came from a tweet and now, a complaint has been loaded by blogger Kamayani Bali Mahabal who is unable to access her blogs Kracktivism, fassmumbai, kashmirsolidaritymumbai, kabirkalamanch . All her efforts to contact the..
Democratic nations can be brutal too
IN Media Practice | 2012-08-27
In the hounding of Julian Assange, the spirit of dissent is the biggest casualty.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-08-27
The Indian government has come up with a list of sites/pages it plans to block. The list includes four pages of the Aljazeera English website, which is baffling as the stories are routine. One is a commissioned piece, another a picture gallery, the third a story by news agencies and the fourth..
Dissecting social media blocks II
IN Censorship | 2012-08-26
Should the government provide the list of blocked sites and links? How should we deal with online hate speech?
Hindi, English press concur on need for restraint
IN Opinion | 2012-08-26
The Hindi print media's chronicling and commentary on the obvious tensions in the rights-regulation equations of the information society, augurs well for the vibrancy of contemporary discourse in the Hindi press,
The content Facebook takes down with alacrity!
IN Media Practice | 2012-08-24
While the social networking site was unable to do anything to control rumour mongering and doctoring of photos on its pages, why is it so eager to censor art,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-08-24
Freedom of press in Manipur is under threat again. An armed terrorist group in Manipur, KYKL-MDF, has threatened editors of several local newspapers after they refused to publish a statement regarding the group. Now the president of All Manipur Working Journalists Union (AMWJU) has appealed to all the militant groups to..
Mumbai riots exposed both English and Urdu press
IN Opinion | 2012-08-24
Arup Patnaik's exemplary restraint while controlling a manic mob was not worthy of praise for the English press.
Dissecting the social media blocks
IN Censorship | 2012-08-23
Could the government have been more transparent? How can websites defend themselves against a govt ban?
IN Opinion | 2012-08-23
The Rs 10.7-trillion loss shown by the CAG in the coal scam is cited as a classic example of creating hype.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-08-23
The Indian Express reports that the Raipur administration has slapped notices on major newspapers in Chhattisgarh for violating the deed under which they were given government land at a concession. The Dainik Bhaskar, Navbharat, Samvet Shikhar, Dainik Chhatisgarh, MP Chronicle and Tarun Chhattisgarh are among those named as having made..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-08-23
The GOI told the Supreme Court on August 23 that they don’t know who leaked the Radia tapes. They have not been able to find the source, says a report filed by the government. Given that most Delhi journos think they pretty much know just where those leaks came from, ..
IN Opinion | 2012-08-23
So we now have not only paid news, but also paid ratings, paid carriage and paid placement.
IN Media Practice | 2012-08-23
People have been discriminated based on looks, caste, or language. Now add one more to it: body size.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-08-22
The CNN-IBN show " Should social media be subjected to restrictions?" on Monday evening angered a small group of Twitterati. A Twitter user @Twilightfairy was angered at her profile being shown on a loop while the show discussed hate speech on Twitter. She tweeted that the programme made it seem as..
Notion of corruption deeply politicised
IN Books | 2012-08-21
The author of"Annanama" assumes the role of an advocate to defend his subject with bizarre logic.
IN Media Practice | 2012-08-20
The national media's idea of the north-east is limited to qualifiers such as exotic, remote, unexplored, unknown.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-08-18
The Centre has imposed a fortnight long SMS ban to tackle the exodus of people belonging to north eastern states from Bangalore. The circular clearly states that bulk smses (more than five) and bulk MMSes (more than five with attachment more than 25 kb) will be blocked throughout the country. However, telecom operators..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-08-18
The former home minister of Haryana, Gopal Goyal Kanda, is absconding after his name figured in the suicide note of a former employee. Amidst the incessant coverage one channel is sympathetic: Haryana News repeatedly scrolls the fact that his family is being harrassed. But another channel called India News Haryana owned by Congress politician Venod..
IN Media Practice | 2012-08-18
By harping on rumours, the media's coverage of the recent exodus of people of North East Indian origin showed that it had little intention of seeking the truth.
IN Opinion | 2012-08-17
The apparent ability of the media to make or break movements has generated unreal expectations among the public.
Line between boardroom, newsroom blurred
IN Media Business | 2012-08-17
CONVERGENCE AND CONSOLIDATION PART III Fall in advertisement revenue coupled with higher borrowings has led to the current phase of media consolidation.
Memory, imagination, and the camera
IN Media Practice | 2012-08-17
Amir Bashir's Harud questions the process of image-making and serves as a counter-point to popular thinking on Kashmir.
IN Media Practice | 2012-08-17
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.
Curing plagiarism and other maladies
IN Opinion | 2012-08-16
From"klepto-editomania" to"indexitis", journalists seem to be suffering from an entirely new range of ailments.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-08-16
As many as six documentaries on Babu Jagjivan Ram have been produced by Lok Sabha TV since Meira Kumar became Speaker of the Lok Sabha in 2009, the results of an RTI have revealed. (Hindu)..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-08-16
A YouTube video shows Mumbai Police Commissioner Arup Patnaik berating a junior official for nabbing a person suspected to be involved in Saturday's riots. The purported record of this conversation also has the commissioner threatening the officer with suspension. The story says the rioter was subsequently let off. (Mail Today)..
Convergence implicit in consolidation
IN Media Business | 2012-08-15
CONVERGENCE AND CONSOLIDATION - PART II. The three latest corporate investors in the media industry signal the entry of non-media players, two of them with telecom interests.
Dissenting Bengal activists ‘lose' their cell connections
IN Media Practice | 2012-08-14
Activists demand the deletion of section 66A from the IT Act and warn that the Mamata government's action is a pointer of things to come for the country.
Dissenting activists disconnected
IN Media Freedom | 2012-08-14
Activists demand the deletion of section 66A from the IT Act and warn that the Mamata government's action is a pointer of things to come for the country.
Good for business, bad for freedom
IN Media Business | 2012-08-14
CONVERGENCE AND CONSOLIDATION-PART I. The domination of media markets by the big forces is reducing choices for readers, viewers and listeners in India,
IN Media Freedom | 2012-08-13
The attacks on journalists on Saturday in Mumbai left media persons shaken, not so much because of its unexpectedness or its brutality but because of the naked hostility towards the media,
IN Media Practice | 2012-08-13
The attacks on journalists on Saturday in Mumbai left media persons shaken, not so much because of its unexpectedness or its brutality but because of the naked hostility towards the media,
Unfair, inaccurate, disparaging
IN Opinion | 2012-08-11
"A lowly eighth?" Why does the Indian media's Olympic coverage frequently embrace derision of our athletes?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-08-11
At a time when news channels are making losses, the Lok Sabha TV has registered a growth of 15 times in advertisement sales in the first quarter of 2012-13 and has set a target of Rs 20 crore for the current fiscal. The public broadcaster has also registered a growth..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-08-10
Two Belarus journalists have been arrested and fined for posing for pictures with teddy bears, after hundreds of stuffed animals were dropped from the sky into the country as part of a pro-democracy stunt. Irina Kozlik, 27, a journalist for Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper, and Yulia Doroshkevish, 31, a press photographer,..
Soni's story: propaganda and prejudice
IN Media Practice | 2012-08-10
The writer has failed to study the factors that are central to understanding how the Maoist conflict affects individuals.
IN Opinion | 2012-08-09
Indian journalists are suffering from"Anna-rexia" which has forced them to discard their convictions and perceptions.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-08-09
The media henceforth must strictly take care to hide the identity of minors while reporting on criminal cases. The Delhi High Court has cleared guidelines for reporting on children which state that their identity not be revealed come what may when covering cases of sexual offences, drug abuse etc. ..
No focus on development issues
IN Books | 2012-08-08
COVERING THE STATES- PART IV: Prioritizing politics, crime and sports, major English dailies have shown little concern for other big areas.
The business of 'creating' news
IN Media Practice | 2012-08-08
Publicity stunts have been drawing media attention in Andhra Pradesh, thanks to the increasing lure of"breaking news".
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-08-07
A reader asks: “Free product placement for Louis Vuitton in The Hindu pretending to be be a lifestyle feature? Would be surprised if a LV promotional brochure read very differently from this.” ..
Personalities drive political coverage
IN Books | 2012-08-07
COVERING THE STATES- PART III: Political personalities drive political stories with Mamata Banerjee receiving 33.7 percent of all political coverage in all five newspapers.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-08-07
The role of a Panchkula-based journalist is being investigated in the case of Fiza Mohammad alias Anuradha Bali, who was found dead at her Mohali residence on Monday morning, says a report in Deccan Herald. Fiza was the "divorced" second wife of former Haryana deputy chief minister Chander Mohan. ..
Hindi readers are poor cousins
IN Opinion | 2012-08-06
Even the largest-selling newspapers have failed to send their reporters to London to cover the Olympics.
A journalist who dared to experiment
IN Regional Media | 2012-08-06
T. Venugopalan rewrote the rules of the craft and brought them in tune with changing times.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-08-06
Almost three weeks after she was shot in Itanagar, Tongan Rina, an associate editor with the Arunachal Times, is suffering from severe post-traumatic stress disorder while her assailants have not been arrested. All journalists associations need to urge the state government to bring those who shot her to book...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-08-05
After NDTV suing Nielsen, enter Prasar Bharati suing TAM. CEO Jawahar Sircar has said that he is keen on taking legal action against TAM on the suppression of data by TAM when it comes to viewership of DD. PB has pointed out that 62 million of 112 million TV homes..
The Deccan Chronicle saga turns murkier
IN Regional Media | 2012-08-05
Will Deccan Chronicle survive the acute financial crisis and the criminal cases staring in the face of its promoters?
How can a government muzzle peoples' voices? Part II
IN Media Freedom | 2012-08-04
In case after case, the pattern is clear: arrest the journalist and let him languish in prison, effectively silencing him,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-08-03
In the wake of the recent attack on a birthday party in Mangalore by a Hindu Jagaran Vedike mob and the role of the media in reporting it, the Karnataka High Court in response to a petition has asked TV channels not to cover a “pre-meditated incident”, of which they..
Media ‘tripped' on power outage
IN Media Practice | 2012-08-03
The reportage on the massive power outage in 20 States failed to provide answers to people's most fundamental questions.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-08-03
The Indian Express is India's leading news daily. So says the Rashtrapati Bhavan. Forget ABC and others, a communique issued by the President's Office on Venu Rajamony joining as the new Press Secretary, says...."Rajamony joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1986 following a two-year stint as Staff Correspondent of the..
Laws that render media defenseless in Kashmir:Part I
IN Media Freedom | 2012-08-02
Security-related laws like the Public Safety Act actually work against the media,
Gauging Satyamev Jayate's impact
IN Opinion | 2012-08-02
So as Satyamev Jayate bowed out basking in the glow of media approbation, how much did it do, and for whom?
IN Opinion | 2012-08-02
In television, as in politics, today's friends can quickly turn into tomorrow's foes.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-08-01
Deccan Chronicle’s woes are piling up. Just days after Deccan Chronicle Holdings Ltd. announced last week that its promoters have pledged the majority of their shareholding to Future Capital, the financial services player Karvy Group has filed a police complaint against the promoters of DCHL levelling allegations of forgery and misrepresentation...
IN Media Practice | 2012-08-01
Aamir Bashir's Harud is a landmark film for it lets the Kashmiris tell their own story.
Spectrum fee hike detrimental to community radio â€"Part II
IN Media Business | 2012-07-31
Add this to already restrictive provisions and eligibility criteria,
IN Media Freedom | 2012-07-31
Police in Mangalore have filed cases against the journalists who reported and filmed an attack on young people by a Hindu Jagarana Vedike mob.
NDTV sues Nielsen for USD 1.3 bn
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-07-31
New Delhi Television Limited has filed a 194-page lawsuit in a New York court. NDTV is accusing Nielsen of violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act by manipulating viewership data in favour of channels that are willing to provide bribes to its officials.The suit was filed on July 26, 2012. NDTV is demanding..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-07-31
On Monday when the Northern Grid collapsed, a Headlines Today anchor mocked Power Minister Shinde's statement that power supply was being restored for emergency services. He wanted to know about the "aam admi services". The reporter, a young boy, was quick to add his two bits. He said emergency services is the new..
IN Media Practice | 2012-07-31
The media's handling of sex workers and other marginalised communities has been patently insensitive.
Rage well timed, but misdirected?
IN Media Practice | 2012-07-31
Concern over Sehrawat's death is turning into an editor-versus-reporter debate.
‘Unconstitutional' ban on news in community radio â€"Part I
IN Media Business | 2012-07-30
The policy on community radio is less about the right to freedom of expression and more about prescriptions for development,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-07-30
Kajori Sen of NDTV talking to a passenger on Tamil Nadu Express, that caught fire, slipped into language that sounded particularly bad considering the enormity of the tragedy which killed at least 30 people in Nellore. She kept asking a passenger : "Were you guys taken care of well ?..
IN Media Practice | 2012-07-30
So what should we conclude in the wake of Satyamev Jayate about the power of television?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-07-30
Nai Duniya editor Shahid Siddiqui's case underlines the dangers of wearing two hats, one of a journalist and the other of politician. As the first, he interviewed the Narendra Modi and the latter, he got into political hot water with the Samajwadi Party. Vijay Darda, Rajya Sabha MP, CMD of..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-07-29
IBNLive’s tech news section reports that HomeShop18 is selling the Google Nexus 7 tablet for Rs 15,884 and goes on to tell you what a great bargain that is. Slight problem here: is this news, or a newsy ad for a product from a company that belongs to IBNLive’s own..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-07-28
Desptie having a dozen satellite sports channels on offer, those who wanted to catch the repeat telecast of the opening ceremony of the Olympics on July 28 morning had to turn to DD Sports. It was only later that ESPN also began a repeat of the telecast...
IN Media Practice | 2012-07-28
The goons and the media both knew that Mayawati's statue was to be beheaded!
Vora gets bail, questions remain
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-07-28
After eight months, Jigna Vora got bail in the murder case of Mid-Day editor J Dey, after a report from a forensic science laboratory that her call records could not be accessed. Curiously, BJP leader Vinod Tawde said Dey was working on..
IN Opinion | 2012-07-27
With unpaid information space likely to shrink,"brokering news" is a reality one must live with.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-07-27
All India Radio is the only audio station to have broadcasting rights in India for live commentary of the games and events at the Olympics. It will also air live the opening and closing ceremonies of the games. Besides, it has been allowed to broadcast live football and hockey games. ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-07-27
The Olympics is about to begin and with it the breathlessness and hype of Indian TV. Describing Amitabh Bachchan carrying the flame in London, Boria Mazumdar of Times Now fished out the choicest hyperboles –“-- how wonderful, great, an honour....” And on the phone line he was at his oozy..
IN Media Practice | 2012-07-26
The existing television set need not be changed to switch over to digital addressable cable TV.
IN Media Business | 2012-07-26
The existing television set need not be changed to switch over to digital addressable cable TV.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-07-26
N. Krishnan, managing director of the media group Deccan Chronicle Holdings Ltd, has resigned from his post and as director on the board. He will be relieved of his responsibilities with effect from July 29 (says The Economic Times)..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-07-26
Sportstar, Hindu's sports magazine has undergone a second makeover. The mag that has been making no profits for the company, has been relaunched with the hope of reviving the fortunes of what used to be the country's best sports mag...
Mystery of ‘anonymous' hospital
IN Media Practice | 2012-07-25
Leading Kolkata newspapers fight shy of mentioning the name of a well-known hospital found guilty by consumer court.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-07-25
The Karnataka Assembly has summoned Kiran Dhondopant Thakur, editor of Belgaum-based Marathi daily "Tarun Bharat" for breach of privilege. The Assembly also resolved to ask the Press Council of India to derecognise the daily. The breach of privilege follows complaints by two legislators who alleged that the daily had been..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-07-25
Two directors of a regional Bhojpuri TV channel were arrested by the CBI on July 23 for allegedly using forged documents to procure loans of nearly Rs 100 crore from three nationalised banks. The announcement was made in New Delhi. ..
IN Media Practice | 2012-07-24
Imagine not having documents that can establish that the house you live in is yours, or having an address that belongs to three other people.
Skewed sports coverage in top dailies
IN Books | 2012-07-23
COVERING THE STATES- Part II: Two months of monitoring national newspapers shows that 76 per cent of the total sports coverage was on IPL stories.
IN Media Practice | 2012-07-21
Is NDTV trading its role as an independent media organization by plugging into the state's own agenda for legitimacy?
IN Opinion | 2012-07-21
Most television channels took their viewers for granted while presenting their lopsided eulogy of Rajesh Khanna.
IN Media Practice | 2012-07-21
Photographers who have gloriously captured the reality of human existence have been called the"vultures" on the scene.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-07-21
A reader writes, "Most pieces on Rajesh Khanna kept a decorous silence on his relationship with a certain Tina Munim. Khanna and Munim were in a live-in relationship for several years. But did many of the media reminiscences say this? Some coyly referred to her as his heroine, some said they..
IN Media Practice | 2012-07-20
The Mint Lounge cover story on English as the driver of a 'revolution' is fraught with deep-seated dogmas
Documentary on Khanna in bad taste
IN Media Practice | 2012-07-20
The BBC film made in 1973 was the last thing that should have appeared on television the day he died.
Indian ISPs block entertainment sites for Oman users
IN Media Freedom | 2012-07-19
Indian ISPs are filtering content for Oman 'net users, extending 'national'-level filtering to upstream' filtering of content,
'Underachievers' scramble for negative coverage
IN Opinion | 2012-07-19
The trio emerged after 48 hours of brain-purring with a strategy that they hope will shake (7.8 on the Richter) the Paid News business.
IN Media Business | 2012-07-19
With remarkable changes in the media business, editors have turned managers and journalists paper tigers.
IN Opinion | 2012-07-19
Raw footage has immediacy. It can ignite revolutions, but it can also violate persons in savage ways. And it is aiding a coarsening of what passes for news,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-07-17
Posted by Jarpum Gamlin, Editor of Eastern Sentinel published from Arunachal Pradesh on Facebook : Need reporter(s). Preference would be given to candidate(s) with teaching background. Females may avoid applying lest they think they are hard-working and mature enough to give due importance to job. ..
Outrageous scripts for a ghastly incident
IN Media Practice | 2012-07-17
Popular Hindi television channels chose patently disgusting phrases to present the heart-rending assault in Guwahati.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-07-17
YouTube, the Google-owned video sharing website, has become a major platform around the world for news, posing challenges to media organisations. Citing the Pew Research Center report, it said that news related events were the most searched items on YouTube in five months of a 15-month period in 2011 and..
IPL, politics and crime dominate
IN Books | 2012-07-16
COVERING THE STATES- Part I: A two month scan of states coverage in 5 newspapers shows that The Hindu does a better job than the others.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-07-15
A reader writes: watching NDTV news at 3 pm. one segment was on the molestation of the woman in Guwahati and some video clip that RTI activist Akhil Gogoi had aired about the complicity of the television channel reporter. Towards the end, Akhil Gogoi starts to say something about Times Now...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-07-14
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..
Firm fiat to three TV channels
IN Law and Policy | 2012-07-14
Broadcasters of children's talent shows are told to amend their audition contracts in line with NCPCR guidelines.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-07-14
A puzzled Chennai reader wants to know if demand for office space is rising or falling in Chennai. On July 7 the Times of India, Chennai said office space absorption in the city was falling. Three days later on July 10 the paper claimed that there was a rise in..
Let's pause before shrieking out
IN Media Practice | 2012-07-14
The television anchor's shock at a ward boy administering minor treatment was more shocking than the incident.
Televised assault, molestation
IN Media Practice | 2012-07-13
Television channels in Guwahati seem to be consciously hunting for scenes of crime, sex, and sleaze.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-07-13
Why did Kuldip Nayar apologise to Shekhar Gupta at his book launch? The book in question makes uncomplimentary references to Gupta at more than once place and is artless enough to also say that Gupta dropped Nayar's Indian Express column, thereby suggesting one reason for the pique. Because some of the comments can..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-07-12
A chief of bureau appointee at Mail Today joined earlier this week on Tuesday, from the Hindustan Times, and exited the next day! On Wednesday Rajesh Ramachandran stormed out of a meeting taken by the editor which did not go well, and did not return. Now he is no longer with the paper. He had..
IN Opinion | 2012-07-12
A sting operation has thrown up the startling revelation that black money finances Bollywood films
Privacy is a privilege of the few
IN Media Practice | 2012-07-12
What would be considered"bad taste" if the relevant personality was influential is routine in Ms Pramanik's case.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-07-12
A reader points out that Economic Times Wealth, the weekly personal finance newspaper from ET just recycled an article which was first carried last October in the same publication. Same case study, same expert view. Is The Leader cheating the reader?..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-07-12
The news on the sacking of Director-General of Civil Aviation chief Bharat Bhushan in the 9pm news bulletin on CNN-IBN on July 11 had the picture of former Mail Today editor Bharat Bhushan. Probably jerked from their somnolence by an alert viewer, the mistake was rectified soon after. But one wonders whether..
IN Opinion | 2012-07-11
The media are guilty of blindly reporting the motivated leaks by the police about Pinki Pramanik's sex.
Religious intolerance behind attack on popular Maldivian blogger
The brutal attack on 'Hilath' was not unexpected,
IN Law and Policy | 2012-07-10
Several media houses have been dragged to court over the coverage given to T.P. Chandrasekharan murder case.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-07-09
An Ambala newspaper attacks the District Commissioner for the death of 2 children in a nala, a result of water logging after a downpour. It uses language a newspaper does not usually use against an influential officer: "Kuch to sharm karo DC sahib." The deaths have taken place in an MLA's constituency,..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-07-09
The Hoot is tracking job layoffs. We confirmed six laid off at the Economic Times recently (there may be more) and another 10 at least at ET Now after it dropped some shows...
Corporate media, reforms, and reality
IN Media Practice | 2012-07-08
Shireen Bhan of CNBC led the charge, pouting, and asking Montek Singh Ahluwalia - you met the Vodaphone top brass today..what did you assure them ?
Urban press glosses over rural protests
IN Books | 2012-07-07
Major English newspapers are disinclined to present rural protests to urban readers.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-07-06
“We come in as props to anchors so that they can say their piece to the nation. It would look a bit odd if they were saying it without us there.” Law Minister Salman Khurshid on TV debates, at the Editors Guild seminar on July 6. ..
IN Opinion | 2012-07-05
He was immediately miffed that an Executive Editor of a paper had trumped him, the Chairman of the Press Council, with so unique a code of ethics.
IN Media Practice | 2012-07-05
With political leaders running their own media houses, journalistic neutrality is in short supply.
IN Opinion | 2012-07-05
Reviewers in the Hindi press have exposed the lack of reality in the"realistic" Gangs of Wasseypur.
IN Opinion | 2012-07-05
When newsrooms trim, they may become more viable, but when they trade senior professionals for cheaper newsroom labour surely they lose something?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-07-05
The Indian Women’s Press Corp is co-hosting (with the Editor’s Guild) a seminar titled “Challenges before the Indian Media”. The biggest challenge is obvious just from the programme list. For although the IWPC is associated with the seminar there are only two women figure in it. The first is the director..
IN Media Practice | 2012-07-04
In recent times, the corporate media have ignored some of the most striking events world over.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-07-03
Yashwant, owner of the portal Bhadas4Media was arrested on June 30 on complaints filed by India TV managing editor, Vinod Kapri and his wife Sakshi Joshi Kahpri. He has been charged under sections IPC 386 (to demand ransom), 341 (Wrongful restraint), 506 (threat to life), and 292 (For writing obscene,..
IE 'code of conduct' needs clarity
IN Privacy | 2012-07-02
The newspaper's guidelines to its journalists violate the individual's right to association.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-07-02
The recession is taking its toll in the world of media. The country's highest read Hindi papers are taking drastic measures to downsize. Dainik Bhaskar transfered six senior people prompting most of them to resign, and transfered six others from the local bureau. Three others resigned when given an ultimatum. An editor in..
IE 'code of conduct' needs clarity
IN Media Practice | 2012-07-02
The newspaper's guidelines to its journalists violate the individual's right to association.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-07-01
The president of India commuted the death sentences of 35 prisoners to life imprisonment. Without parole. These were not pardons. Barkha Dutt and NDTV on 'We the People' seemed not to know the difference on Sunday night...
Media Ownership in India-An Overview
IN Media Ownership | 2012-06-30
Media Ownership in India-An Overview Paranjoy Guha Thakurta Who owns the mass media in India? That is a rather difficult question to answer. There are many media organisations in the country that are owned and controlled by a wide variety of entities including corporate bodies, societies and trusts, and individuals. Information..
IN Media Business | 2012-06-29
Politically affiliated or owned publications have a significant place in today's media scene.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-06-28
Was the Sarabjit/Surjeet Singh name mix-up all the media's fault? The Pakistani president's media adviser Farhatullah Babar can be clearly heard in his interviews to Indian TV channels referring to Surjeet Singh as the prisoner to be released, but then a Pakistani news channel referred to the person as Sarabjit--and..
IN Opinion | 2012-06-28
Poor"Pagal Bijli of Electricity Land" is blamed for most accidents, particularly fires.
Politics, sports, and headlines
IN Media Practice | 2012-06-27
While cricket terminology is often used in writing political headlines, other sports are yet to have that privilege.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-06-27
Bangalore Mayor D Venkateshmurthy has a neat plan to quell controversies about a gym he is planning to build for corporators. He told Bangalore Mirror: "I was aware that such an objection could be raised by journalists, so I have decided that not only corporators, but journalists too will be allowed to use the..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-06-27
Why does Mr Markandey Katju, chairman of the Press Council, copy every communication sent by him to a variety of people, all to do with his pet projects, to every journalist on his mailing list? We are still waiting for the day when his communications will be about the substantive..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-06-27
There is an accident at Salman Khan's Dabangg 2 sets. Three people are injured. But the website carrying the report (oneindia news) can't resist putting a Waku Doki ad into the copy. Wonder if the injured feel as Waku-Doki as Toyota. ..
IN Media Practice | 2012-06-27
In the mad race for"breaking news" the man on the field is the news leader's chosen victim.
IN Media Practice | 2012-06-27
Incisive and comprehensive sports reportage is still a far cry in India.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-06-25
Find stories that bring in the money--that's the latest advice from the director of BBC World News to his staff. In an email to employees which include those working at The World Service, BBC World News and BBC.com, Peter Horrocks told staff they need to consider income and exploit commercial..
IN Statistics | 2012-06-25
This list includes IRS figures (the Indian Readership Survey is conducted every year for four quarters by the Media Research User's Council), circulation figures from Registrar for Newspapers of India, breakup of circulation figures from Audit Bureau
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-06-24
And now Sunil Sethi points out that he wrote about the problems and queues at the new Passport Seva Kendra at ITO, Delhi, in his Business Standard column on March 31, long before Mail Today did! ..
CBI official in media cross-fire
IN Regional Media | 2012-06-24
In Andhra Pradesh the CBI is under the scanner for alleged selective leaking to anti-Jagan media houses.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-06-22
On June 17 Mail Today frontpaged an investigative story 'virtual passport for touts' on problems being faced in the new online passport seva started by MEA (outsourced to TCS). On June 19 the Times of India followed up, with a similar story. No problems with that, except that the new passport..
'Most investigative stories have turned out to be plants'
IN Media Practice | 2012-06-22
"Whenever our movement has been at its peak, media coverage has been extremely good."
IN Opinion | 2012-06-21
Who is the biggest of them all? Well, where"the client is the king", every paper has an edge.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-06-21
Front pages of newspapers have long been forfeited to advertisements. But one paper always leads the way in the concessions it is willing to make to the advertiser -- The Times of India. On June 21, readers were greeted with "WAKUDOKI INDIA" on the masthead instead of "THE TIMES OF INDIA"...
Putting one's life on the line
IN Opinion | 2012-06-21
Last weekend's tragic death of a gifted young photographer has helped to focus attention on risks and responsibilities.
Tough cop portrayed as villain
IN Opinion | 2012-06-20
Mumbai's Vasant Dhoble has earned the wrath of the English press for his overzealous following of rules.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-06-20
Privacy concerns are mounting as Apple and Google race to create the best 3D mapping services. Both companies are allegedly using “military-grade spy planes” that are equipped with filming technology capable of “imaging objects as small as 4 inches." Google (already criticized for its Street View mapping project) said the..
'Let's go to the crushing zone!'
IN Media Practice | 2012-06-19
Tehelka journalist Tarun Sehrawat's death has not just opened a can of worms but also exposed the callous attitude of media organisations,
'If the Press Council is handicapped so is the Election Commission'
IN Media Practice | 2012-06-19
"Not all thieves can be made to mend their ways. Self-regulation may be the ideal solution to the problem of paid news, but it is not the most realistic one."
IN Media Practice | 2012-06-19
Response to"Satyamev Jayate: the 'villains' protest". The Hoot carried this article on June 10, 2012. Pankaj Rai sent his rejoinder on June 18, 2012. We are carrying it here
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-06-19
A reader writes: quite a few headlines are saying that former President APJ Abdul Kalam "snubbed" Mamata Banerjee on her (plus Mulayam Singh) proposal to put him up as next Presidential candidate. Let some fairness prevail in headlining. A person doesnt "snub" if he spends days (in consultation with confidants) mulling over..
IN Opinion | 2012-06-18
It took more than two weeks for a rising toll of encephalitis deaths in Bihar to reach the headlines of the self-styled national press.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-06-18
Google removed 640 YouTube videos in the second half of 2011 on the request of UK’s police, according to its latest revelations in its transparency report. While Google tries to make itself look as defiant as possible vis-a-vis requests for removals from government authorities, it has in fact actually removed hundreds..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-06-18
Police have arrested a journalist for allegedly procuring weapons and ammunition for Naxals in Chattisgarh. Sheikh Anwar was arrested along with an alleged Naxal, and his wife was arrested earlier as well. According to police, Anwar works as a journalist in the Naxal region of Kota, and he along with..
When Downing Street came to the Leveson Inquiry
IN Media Practice | 2012-06-17
Into its 23rd week, the inquiry has been unfolding like a gripping TV soap opera. The process of getting to the bottom of just how cosy British politicians had become with journalists has been path breaking.
Realm of 'private' up for sale
IN Media Practice | 2012-06-14
The media's obsession with an individual's shocking personal details has become their marketing strategy.
IN Opinion | 2012-06-14
Journalists thinking like an MBA and not like Woodward or Bernstein are more relevant today!
IN Digital Media | 2012-06-14
Kids from poor neighbourhoods are getting hooked on gaming software in cyber cafes,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-06-13
Google has started revealing documents related to the federal investigation of its Street View mapping project. The company is alleged to have gathered unencrypted Internet data from wireless networks as its Street View cars passed the neighborhoods when it was supposed to only photograph the world streets. The documents revealed..
IN Books | 2012-06-12
The book is a graphic portrayal of the 50-year journey of the Amul billboard.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-06-11
Google has finally agreed to reveal details of journalist Jigna Vora’s two Gmail accounts on the eve of the first death anniversary of Journalist J Dey. This became possible only after a magistrate court (Mumbai) issued a Letter Rogatory (a form of judicial assistance from other countries) to a US court. Google had earlier refused to..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-06-11
If you need recorded proof of Muhammad Ali Jinnah's historic 1947 speech--you might need to find alternatives. All India Radio has reportedly stated that it does not have any recordings of the speech in which Jinnah had said people were free to follow any religion without state interference. According to..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-06-10
Why is the ministry of information and broadcasting asking TRAI to look at cross media holdings again when it has shown no inclination to act on a report on the subject submitted in 2009? ASCI was asked to examine the issue and submitted a draft report. No final report seems to..
India needs cross media restrictions
IN Media Business | 2012-06-10
The ASCI report says there is ample evidence of "market dominance" in specific media markets, but the government has ignored the report for three years.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-06-09
After cartoons and newspapers, now panel discussions on television channels have come under the scanner of Mamata Banerjee's government in West Bengal. Debashish Sarkar, assistant professor, Jhargram Raj college, has been issued a show cause notice by the state higher education department asking him to explain his "anti-government views on..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-06-08
The Hindu on June 8 says an RTI has revealed that the Delhi press club built toilets with a Rs 1.5 lakh grant from the Maharshtra Chief Minister's Relief Fund in 1998. Asked about it the president of the club told the paper that the amount is modest compared to what other state..
IN Opinion | 2012-06-07
There is a difference between two toilets and two toilet blocks. There is a difference between the budget for sanitary repairs in a government office building and the sanitation budget of the government of India.
IN Opinion | 2012-06-07
Now that we are into a different season of need, the corporate acquisition of media is growing again.
Reporting in the times of Ramdev
IN Opinion | 2012-06-07
Just like the government sets up GoMs (mostly headed by Pranab Mukherjee), recently a bunch of neither-here-nor -there journos got together to form a Group of Correspondents (GoC).
IN Books | 2012-06-06
Public Relations in India: New Tasks and Responsibilities By J.V. Vilanilam Sage Publications, 2011, Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, and Singapore Pages 291(paperback), Rs. 395 J. V. Vilanilam, former Vice Chancellor of the University of Kerala, in his book, Public Relations in India: New Tasks And Responsibilities, reviews the history of..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-06-06
“Flame” the “nasty and complex malware program” currently in the news is said to be the most complex malware program ever created. According to Kaspersky Lab, Flame is intended is to collect information from operations of certain nation states, including but not limited to Iran, Israel, Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia..
IN Regional Media | 2012-06-05
Newspaper marketing departments are becoming ceaselessly inventive. Here's a new one.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-06-05
The science and technology page of The Hindu on May 30 had two big stories on the top. one discusses if “Probiotics can reduce occurrence of diarrhea” and the other asks “Is curd a probiotic?” The tone and tenor of the both the pieces is to project claimed benefits of probiotics (Yakult)..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-06-05
Wi-Fi for iPads is coming soon to the Lok Sabha. A parliamentary panel has cleared the way for Wi-Fi connectivity in the lower house of Parliament. The Wi-Fi facility is expected to help "over 300 of the 543 Lok Sabha MPs who have purchased iPads under a scheme." This move is..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-06-04
Special to HT says a front page box on the Hindustan Times. Except that what is special to HT is also considered special enough by the Hindu to get prominent op-ed space the same day. Aamir Khan is smart, and HT was a sucker for lapping up what he evidently told..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-06-03
On May 28 the TOI Chandigarh did a story on the daughter of Lalu Prasad Yadav headlining the assertion that she will fight against female foeticide. TOI talked to Bhannu, daughter of Lalu, during her first visit to Chandigarh after marriage to Chiranjeev, son of Haryana politician Captain Ajay Yadav. The..
Satyamev Jayate: the 'villains' protest
IN Media Practice | 2012-06-03
Is non fiction TV programming supposed to follow the tenets of journalism? After the fourth episode on medical malpractices doctors are up in arms against the sweeping generalisations made.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-05-31
You might want to make sure you have a 'clean' track record if you are seeking freelance work at Doordarshan. DD has started profiling its casual news employees by requiring them to fill out a 5-page police verification form and give details about their Pakistani connections, criminal background, religion, caste (SC or..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-05-31
Move over .org, here comes .ngo. It's getting a bit crowded in the virtual world, and by next year, non profilt organisations and others could have an exclusive Internet domain. The Public Interest Registry (PIR)-the non-profit that manages and operates the .org domain, has formally submitted its applications to the..
IN Opinion | 2012-05-31
And to ensure that no sod with his ears to the ground would get a drift of the grand plans, an unique venue for the exchange of ideas was selected.
IN Regional Media | 2012-05-30
The issue of Mr.Jagan Mohan Reddy's arrest is definitely important. But there were other equally important issues that affected people.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-05-30
The Indian Broadcasting Foundation’s broadcasting content complaints council has issued notices to three TV channels - Zee TV (Lil Champs) , Sony Entertainment (Indian Idol) and Colors (India's Got Talent) – following the two-part story on the Hoot on children’s talent show auditions. The first hearing is scheduled for July..
Will Nepal's political crisis push back media freedom yet again?
IN Censorship | 2012-05-29
The failure of the constitution drafting process and the resultant political crisis is a setback for media reforms
Need SC guidelines or SC press office?
IN Law and Policy | 2012-05-29
Such an office could hold seminars, workshops, and training programmes for legal correspondents to familiarise them with the complexities of court proceedings.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-05-28
A Regional PF Commissioner in Kochi has ordered that the journalists and non-journalist employees working on contract basis in the Kochi unit of the New Indian Express are eligible for Provident Fund benefits. He rejected the NIE management's claim that the journalist and non-journalist's of the NIE, Kochi are not..
Media feeds pre-results anxiety
IN Media Practice | 2012-05-28
Despite the stakeholders stressing the need to reduce tension among students when exam results are expected, most media reports do the opposite.
IN Media Business | 2012-05-26
The Mail Today was structured and designed keeping in focus the concerns of the pan-Indian middle class.
IN Regional Media | 2012-05-26
The front-page tapestry of Mizoram dailies is so overwhelmingly regional that national news does not find place in it unless it is remarkably significant.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-05-26
The Pioneer on May 25 carried a picture of two girls beating the heat with cool drinks and ice lollies. Funnily while the temperature is a scalding 43 degrees C, both the ladies are wearing sweaters. Did the photographer decide to beat the heat, by just digging into his old..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-05-26
We're happy that Justice Markandey Katju is now quoting from the Hoot. Credit the website next time please...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-05-25
The Times of India website puts up a slideshow of what is supposed to be Jaganmohan Reddy’s home. Aided by Twitter beavers Newslaundry.com then puts out the sources of photos from which this web hoax was assembled. Shown up, the TOI site promptly takes it off claiming adherence to the highest principles of responsible..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-05-24
The editor of a popular Marathi newspaper has been exposed in a case involving misappropriation of public funds. A Goa court has said that the editor of Lokmat, Raju Nayak, in addition to "powerful and politically connected people" used coercive measures in order to misappopriate Rs 21 lakh of public..
IN Opinion | 2012-05-24
Communication shapes image. A poker faced, mostly silent prime minister is not great for conveying that the government is in dynamic mode.
Govt poll: how is the media doing?
IN Opinion | 2012-05-24
The I&B ministry commissioned the mother of all surveys on the media. It covered humans, whales and loan sharks.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-05-23
In a major relief to the Sakshi media group, the Andhra Pradesh High Court, on Wednesday, ordered the accounts of publishers of Sakshi daily and broadcaster of Sakshi TV be de-frozen with immediate effect. However the court has directed the companies to ensure that there is no transaction of assets and all the payments..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-05-22
As many as 51 newspapers have stopped publication in the country since April 2009, the I&B Ministry claims. 15 shut shop in fiscal year 2009-10, 14 (2010-11), 17 (2011-2012) and five (up to April 30 this year). ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-05-22
Indian and Pakistani media organizations are coming together and asking for a change in the divisive language used in South Asian media. At a conclave hosted by The Press Club of Mumbai, Pakistani media delegates pointed out that journalists covering cricket matches between the two countries always describe them as..
IN Media Practice | 2012-05-22
The insignificant differences between preliminary and closure reports on the Gujarat violence have been highlighted as major discrepancies.
IN Opinion | 2012-05-21
With questionable assumptions, the nation's largest-selling English newspaper has given a curious turn to the implementation of the RTE Act.
With Arnab is there hope for Aman Ki Asha?
IN Media Practice | 2012-05-21
You begin to doubt the mission of Aman Ki Asha and wonder about the sincerity of its two media partners as you watch Arnab Goswami conduct TV debates on issues over which India and Pakistan regularly squabble,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-05-21
The Hindu’s front page report on the death of the Karnataka Administrative Service officer Mahantesh has an unusual touch. The paper acknowledges him as the source of some of the stories it did recently on irregularities in housing societies, and also says that he helped them access an audit report..
Media oppression in APâ€"a perspective
IN Regional Media | 2012-05-20
I have to recall these stories in the wake of onslaught launched by the State government on the Sakshi daily and Sakshi TV,
IN Regional Media | 2012-05-20
PCI Chairman Justice Katju sees a"concerted move" from Delhi to Kolkata behind the media criticism against the West Bengal Chief Minister.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-05-19
The indefatigable Press Council Chairman Markandey Katju, believes in going where his predecessors have not gone before. That includes Facebook. Be warned, if you are on his mailing list, you are likely to get a friend invite from the doughty former judge. Meanwhile his more conventional email outreach tells us that he..
Pushing the limits of precociousness
IN Media Practice | 2012-05-18
Talent shows Part II-- Although children often face danger, trauma, and ridicule on television shows, ambition-blinded parents have been using them as their status symbol.
IN Opinion | 2012-05-17
A grand series of entertainment from"Seedi Bakwas" to"God's Own Religion" is on the anvil.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-05-17
180 nurses, 80% of them from Kerala, have been on strike at the B M Birla Heart Research Center, Kolkata, since May 7th demanding better wages, overtime and eight-hour duty schedules. There has been hardly any media coverage on this.Local Bengali newspapers, English dailies with Kolkata editions and local Bengali 24x7..
IN Media Practice | 2012-05-17
Parents compromise on the safety of their children by blindly signing audition contracts for talent shows that are overwhelmingly in favour of the broadcasters.
A coincidence or a copied idea?
IN Media Practice | 2012-05-17
Aamir Khan's Satyamev Jayate has striking similarities with IBN7's Zindagi Live in content, production, and presentation.
List of organisations that can receive complaints against the media:
IN Helpline | 2012-05-16
The Press Council of India: This is a statutory, quasi judicial body which acts as a watchdog of the press. It adjudicates the complaints against and by the press for violation of ethics and for violation of the freedom of the press respectively. Complaints may be filed in a prescribed format which..
IN Helpline | 2012-05-16
This state-wise directory comprises lawyers and legal aid organisations, human rights activists and human rights organisations, journalists and journalists’ organisations. The Hoot has contacted them about the helpline and sought their assistance and involvement. If any area or state is as yet unrepresented and if you or anyone you know would..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-05-16
'Attention authorised arms license holders!!!' screams an ad on page 7 of Hindustan Time's Delhi edition today. The ad, by the public sector Field Gun Factory, announced that the waiting period for the .32 mark III revolver has been reduced to 30 days. It went a step further, urging people with an..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-05-16
Rs 100 crore defamation notices are now par for the course. After Justice Sawant's suit against Arnab Goswami, and Times Now's legal notice for the same damages to The Hoot, we now have Shekhar Gupta and other authors of the Indian Express page one story on April 4 asking Vinod Mehta and..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-05-16
Minister of State in the Ministry of Corporate Affairs Shri R.P.N. Singh’s reply in the Rajya Sabha to a written question on May 15: “Shareholding of RIL in Media Companies--As per the Investments Schedule of Balance Sheet of M/s. Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), as on 31/3/2011, there is no direct..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-05-15
Tehelka journalist Mathew Samuel, who was presented in court to give testimony in the arms deal against Defence Ministry officials refused to testify. He says the CBI had promised him to reimburse him but “had not even paid him the Rs. 200 daily allowance”. Now, Samuel has demanded Rs. 10,000..
Journalists who happen to be women
IN Media Practice | 2012-05-15
These essays are a brilliant mapping of the range of issues that have been tackled and publicised by women journalists over three decades.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-05-15
DNA has an amazing report on May 15 about Sonia Gandhi's conduct in the Lok Sabha during the debate on the NCERT book cartoon row. Apparently she shouted at her party men and ministers insisting that the whole book should be banned,not just the cartoon, saying "not just the cartoon, no...
IN Media Practice | 2012-05-15
"Cartoons cultivate students' ability to relate the book to their own lives and develop critical thinking".
State and Sakshi part ll: A Constitutional lapse
IN Media Freedom | 2012-05-14
The Andhra Pradesh government has told all its departments, agencies, and corporations to withhold their advertisements to the Sakshi group.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-05-14
The CBFC has come under a lot of criticism since Sony TV was not allowed to telecast The Dirty Picture on a Sunday morning. Its CEO Leela Samson said producer Balaji Telefilms is supported by a "lobby" which is "very strong". While Balaji Telefilms CEO Tanuj Garg denied any existence of..
IN Media Freedom | 2012-05-13
Can the CBI be used as subordinate tool to wreck vengeance against a hostile opposition party and its media?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-05-11
Ending the 34 year old Communist government’s rule made her feature on the list of Time Magazine’s hundred most influential people. Now, her recent meeting with Hillary Clinton has stirred up a frenzy of interview requests of her by foreign media. The Trinamool Congress leaders and the chief minister's office..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-05-11
The Hindu had a wonderful picture in its Delhi edition of April 11 of a number of splendid Greater Adjutant Storks on a garbage dump in Guwahati, with a garbage picker going about his business among them. An eloquent statement on vanishing habitats for wildlife...
The Sakshi storm in Andhra Pradesh
IN Regional Media | 2012-05-11
Accounts frozen, advertising suspended, the future of Sakshi is at risk as CBI investigations affect its multi-edition operations.
IN Opinion | 2012-05-10
Communities that run these radio stations have learnt to create their own radio programmes.Do they now need to become a source of revenue for the government of India?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-05-10
All the accounts of Sakshi TV and the Sakshi daily were ordered frozen by the CBI which is investigating into the alleged disproportionate assets case against Kadapa MP and YSR Congress Party president Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy. But the publication of the daily or the broadcasting of the TV programmes continue uninterrupted. ..
Did Aamir Khan go where angels fear to tread ?
IN Media Practice | 2012-05-10
Missing the story of"India's missing girls": Khan had to do this because our prolific media never took this issue head-on as a never-say-die campaign,
Content regulation does equal media control
IN Media Freedom | 2012-05-10
More regulation is not a way to address corruption, breach of ethical norms and the declining quality of journalism in India.
IN Opinion | 2012-05-10
In fact, vexed by a question quantum physicists have thrown up several times, on whether a person can be at two places at the same time (since an electron can), some viewers wished to know how the channels achieved this incredible feat.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-05-09
Is this a publicity stunt? Rakhi Sawant has called Satyamev Jayate a “complete copy” of her show Rakhi ka Insaaf and has accused Aamir Khan’s production company of “stealing her concept”. She says her show was indeed the original one that dealt with core social issues. What saddens Rakhi more is that Aamir’s show..
IN Community Media | 2012-05-08
As on, November 2011, there are 121 functional community radio stations in India of which the north-east operates only two.
IN Media Practice | 2012-05-07
The"national" media have been consistently lukewarm to the concerns of north-eastern India, but now it appears the neglect of south-west has begun.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-05-06
Ninety minutes of female foeticide and sex determination on Sunday mornings? Is India ready for it? The advertisers are assuming it is. The ads came thick and fast during the last half hour of the show, much as they would for a Hindi movie. Aamir Change-the-World Khan is betting on his own..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-05-05
As the world observed world press freedom day on May 03, India showed decline in press freedom according to a report by Freedom House. The Free Speech Hub took a closer look and recorded four assaults, 25 restrictions, three threats, 10 attacks, four restrictions via IT Act, one death of a..
IN Media Practice | 2012-05-05
Speculating on the suitability of the Presidential candidates and arriving at their own"shortlist", the media have crossed limits of ethical journalism.
IN Media Freedom | 2012-05-04
As we observed World Press Freedom Day on May 03,
'Prove that you are a journalist'
IN Media Freedom | 2012-05-03
Attacked for exposing tree felling by politicians, asked by the police to prove that he is a journalist, jettisoned by the newspaper he works for, Kamal Shukla typifies the plight of journalists in Chattisgarh.
Mamata gags the Dodhichi newsletter
IN Media Practice | 2012-05-03
Now, it is the turn of the alternative media in West Bengal to be at the receiving end of governmental intolerance.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-05-03
Does the reading public have the same reaction to Meenakshi Natarajan's bill on media regulation as members of the media? The letters to the editor carried by the Hindu are illuminating. Of several letters published on May 3 none thought the bill was as outrageous as TV and print coverage of it..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-05-03
A new report by Freedom House highlights poor performance in South Asian media. The report states that for the first time in eight years, global media freedom did not experience an overall decline. However, it says that "due to downgrades in some previously free countries, the percentage of the world's..
IN Opinion | 2012-05-03
To put it crudely there is nothing sexy about the kisan. Montek Singh Ahluwalia will vouch for this.
'Prove that you are a journalist'
IN Media Freedom | 2012-05-03
Attacked for exposing tree felling by politicians, asked by the police to prove that he is a journalist, jettisoned by the newspaper he works for, Kamal Shukla typifies the plight of journalists in Chattisgarh.
But who will bell our big guys?
IN Media Practice | 2012-05-01
In the"paid news" affair some of Indian media's market leaders have been named as the major violators, but remain largely unscathed.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-05-01
It is interesting to compare the one- column sanitised report that the Hindustan Times carried on May 1 of Rahul Gandhi's return to UP after the Assembly election results came in, with the account in Mail Today. The latter had a colourful version of the flak the MP for Amethi got from party workers...
IN Law and Policy | 2012-04-30
With paid news, private treaties, advertorials, and selective leaks becoming the order of the day, the Leveson inquiry is relevant here.
IN Law and Policy | 2012-04-30
"Press freedom does not extend to either misreporting or affecting the rights of accused and victims under Article 21 of the constitution."
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-04-30
Aamir Khan likes to sound wholesome and patriotic. He told the Express on Sunday that the upcoming show "Satyamev Jayate" was his love letter to India. "The show is all about my love for my country", Doordarshan is a beneficiary of this love because Khan wanted the show to air on DD to..
IN Opinion | 2012-04-27
So across the country, and across the different estatesâ€"government, legislature, judiciary, media-- we have a charming state of affairs in which there is no due process any more, it seems.
En masse sedition in Koodankulam
IN Censorship | 2012-04-26
How can a peaceful agitation of villagers against a nuclear power plant in their backyard be a seditious activity? Yet an unprecedented 3500 protestors have been charged with sedition,
What will digitization achieve?
IN Media Business | 2012-04-26
The battle of MSOs and their monopoly over television viewers have seriously undermined the latter's right to access the channels of their choice.
En masse sedition in Koodankulam
IN Media Practice | 2012-04-26
How can a peaceful agitation of villagers against a nuclear power plant in their backyard be a seditious activity? Yet an unprecedented 3500 protestors have been charged with sedition,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-04-26
Former editor in chief of the Hindu N Ram has responded to Sten Lindstrom’s assertion that the Hindu published the Bofors documents including Martin Arbo’s notes and diary months after they had them. He says the former Swedish police chief was not willing to give all the documents in one..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-04-26
Of Sten Lindstrom’s assertion that his identity became known in Delhi N. Ram says, "I can’t answer to purported rumours that “did the rounds in Delhi’s political circles” a quarter of a century ago. I never heard them at the time but if the rumours indeed went around, they didn’t..
A new J school for the new journalism!
IN Opinion | 2012-04-26
Details of the journalism programme drawn up for the School For Sensationalism are truly mindboggling. Here prospective journalists get familiar with the creature called Sources…
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-04-24
On April 24 the Hindu in Chennai carried a front page statement from the editor, Siddharth Varadarajan, disassociating the editorial side of the paper from a ‘jacket’ in the Tamilnadu editions on Monday which had an in-house ad addressing readers on the occasion of Akshaya Tritiya. The ad said, “The..
The Bofors story, 25 years after
IN Media Practice | 2012-04-24
"I knew what I was doing when I leaked the documents to you. I could not count on my government or Bofors or the government of India to get to the bottom of this."
IN Media Freedom | 2012-04-23
Aseem Trivedi is determined to bring the fight for freedom in the virtual media into the 'real' world â€" on the street, in full view of the public.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-04-23
The Economist (April 21-27) says this about Mamata and the media: "Aveek Sarkar, a tycoon whose media group is critical, expects her to order his arrest: he has lodged 'anticipatory bail' in eight as yet imaginary cases". Then ends it with a comment about her: "...she may be seen as..
IN Media Practice | 2012-04-23
Aseem Trivedi is determined to bring the fight for freedom in the virtual media into the 'real' world - on the street, in full view of the public.
IN Regional Media | 2012-04-23
Twenty-eight journalists from four television channels and seven newspapers come together to portray the realities of their professional life.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-04-22
"We all want to work. But we also want recognition... Hence the thought of a government-run channel and newspaper," says West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. The name of the newspaper would be 'Dainik Paschimbanga' and the channel would be named 'Paschimbanga'. Didi’s political ally is not convinced. State Congress chief Pradip Bhattacharya criticised..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-04-22
While Abhishek Singhvi’s alleged tryst with a lawyer in his chamber has got very restrained coverage thanks to an injunction, the redoubtable Press Council chairperson has also come to his rescue. Mr Katju has written to minister Ambika Soni asking for curbs on the social media which uploaded the video...
Free speech utopia in economic dystopia
IN Media Freedom | 2012-04-20
What of the liberals' responsibility to a nation of sick and hungry
IN Media Practice | 2012-04-20
The magazine has included Mamata Banerjee among the 100 most influential people, but the basis of its assessment is incorrect.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-04-20
The staid accounts that have come out of Press Council Chairperson Markandey Katju's visit to the Indian Womens Press Corp in Delhi don't do justice to his performance there. He brought up his old statements about 90 per cent of Indians being of low intellectual calibre, and referred to his own earlier judgement..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-04-20
The best analysis of the glory reporting the TV channels did of the Agni missile testing and its distance from sober reality, was by Manoj Joshi in Mail Today on April 20. A fitting counter to the breathless and jingoistic 'China rattled!' panel discussions on Times Now and Headlines Today, it made the pertinent..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-04-20
India's top wire service PTI, will shut down from 02:00 am on April 20 to 08:00 pm on April 21. According to a press release, Federation general secretary M.S.Yadav said that all members will be observing the daylong strike. The strike called by the PTI trade union, is to protest..
India among the dirty dozen in CPJ's impunity index!
IN Media Freedom | 2012-04-19
India is among the 12 nations which figure in an index that charts the failure to solve crimes against the media.
IN Opinion | 2012-04-19
Thanks to such extensive coverage, Kesavan in Kayankulam, Kerala, knew what the trends were in Daryaganj at 10.42 am. So, are we in for an info revolution on TV when every civic /panchayat poll gets analysed nationally by experts,
SC Guidelines and media conduct
IN Opinion | 2012-04-19
The Supreme Court's ongoing attempt to work out guidelines for legal reporting has left the media worried. But there is ample basis for the court's concern.
IN Media Business | 2012-04-18
"While we cannot pin what went wrong to any single event or department, what we lacked was consistency of performance, or a big hit."
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-04-17
The Arunachal Times office in Itanagar came under attack reportedly by a "group of unidentified people". The Associate Editor for the paper states that more than ten people carried out the attack inside the ofifce, "while a few more waited outside." Several computers were damaged in the incident. However no..
IN Censorship | 2012-04-16
One tweet that had many cracking up was:"Dear Mamata, normally the cartoonist tries to capture the subject. Not vice versa."
IN Digital Media | 2012-04-16
One tweet that had many cracking up was:"Dear Mamata, normally the cartoonist tries to capture the subject. Not vice versa."
Underplaying Kalpakkam safety concerns
IN Books | 2012-04-15
Did The Hindu adequately report safety and health concerns regarding the Kalpakkam nuclear facility?
IN Media Business | 2012-04-13
"We don't have much other business interests, our business is media."
IN Opinion | 2012-04-13
Tears are being shed for NaiDunia and its exasperated new owner is wondering why.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-04-13
The HRD ministry has formed an inter-ministerial 'task force' to check the growth of unregulated media studies institutes that provide substandard education despite high fees. Prominent senior journalists like Shekhar Gupta (Editor-in- Chief, The Indian Express), Siddharth Varadharajan (Editor, The Hindu), Sanjay Baru, Alok Mehta (Editor, National Dunia) and..
Kashmir's government-dominated news culture
IN Regional Media | 2012-04-13
As long as sub-editors cum government servants continue to rule Kashmir journalism, we will continue to lose promising journalists to the government.
IN Media Freedom | 2012-04-10
Intellectuals in West Bengal oppose the government's absurd decision to rank and segregate newspapers.
Mamata's mantra: divide and rule
IN Regional Media | 2012-04-09
The West Bengal Chief Minister has made it clear that any public voice of dissent would be curbed by whatever means required.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-04-08
A reader writes: The Times of India does not mention the names of the teams playing in the current IPL series but calls them Team Chennai, Team Kolkata, Team Pune, Team Delhi, so on and so forth. Is it because using the right nomenclature would amount to brand promotion, and..
Missing from television's public sphere
IN Media Practice | 2012-04-07
The inclusion-exclusion bias does not extend to the presence of women as anchors or reporters; it is limited to the selection of specialists, spokespersons, and public persons.
Bangalore mayhem: fourth estate as third party
IN Media Practice | 2012-04-06
The Hindu and Bangalore Mirror were the only papers to promptly record the questionable role of sections of the media in the events of the day.
Defenders of the national interest?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-04-05
While major papers wrote about the Indian Express scoop taking a view, Mail Today went off on a strident national interest binge. Both its editor and its national security specialist took the view that a newspaper is not supposed to do anything which does disservice to the national interest. It..
Motion to annul IT Act rules in Parliament
IN Media Freedom | 2012-04-04
The campaign against the draconian rules of the IT Act, 2000 , is picking up,
Humongous scoop or a chota story?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-04-04
How big a story can be made to sound depends on the angle you give it. If the ed in chief ‘s byline leads three others it makes the story sound suitably important. Then a whole page devoted to it, with a three line banner. Then the angle: govt spooked..
IN Statistics | 2012-04-04
This list includes a report on The Indian Telecom Services Performance Indicators for July - September 2011, trends in internet/ broadband subscription in India, the top 10 internet service providers with their internet subscriber base released by Te
Media Statistics: A Ready Reckoner
IN Statistics | 2012-04-04
This section has some publicly available statistics on Indian media. We are not able to update the latest Indian Readership Survey data as it's not available yet; TAM or Television Audience Measurement on the other hand has stopped making its audienc
IN Statistics | 2012-04-04
This list includes TAM figures from TAM Media Research, list of TV channels from the website of Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, data on cable operators released by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, the television industry figures from
IN Statistics | 2012-04-04
This list includes TAM figures from TAM Media Research, list of FM channels from the website of Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, radio industry figures from FICCI- KPMG reports and list of AIR stations from the websites of All India Radio an
Kerala's news agents strike: some issues
IN Media Practice | 2012-04-03
Internal divisions within the newspaper agents' association, the uncompromising attitude of major newspaper groups, as well as public resentment brought the strike to an ignominious conclusion,
IN Books | 2012-04-03
The role of Central Information Commission (CIC) since 2005 has been exemplary. It has dealt successfully with various serious issues like disclosure of information related to mercy petitions, phone tapping and bank details,
Kashmir media: caught between 'rebels' and state
IN Media Freedom | 2012-04-02
Even as militant groups have been dictating terms to journalists on what to write, the State is not far behind in telling them what not to write.
Digital Revolution : The battle for Arab freedom
IN Digital Media | 2012-04-02
As the Arab world continues to transform, millions of Arabs are going online to socialize, discuss, protest and spread news about social and political issues.
Kashmir media: caught between 'rebels' and state
IN Media Practice | 2012-04-02
Even as militant groups have been dictating terms to journalists on what to write, the State is not far behind in telling them what not to write.
IN Books | 2012-03-31
Public officers have been wrongly invoking exemptions under national interest to deny information under the RTI Act.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-03-31
The Press Council is sending a fact finding team to Bihar to enquire into charges of government pressure on the media in Bihar. The Council has invited all stakeholders including readers to bring their complaints to the Hotel Pataliputra Ashok in Patna on Aptril 1 when the team will start..
IN Regional Media | 2012-03-30
Likened to the ubiquitous Indian black bird, the Opposition MLAs in the Assam Assembly boycott the House for two days in a row.
'Put disability on the front page'
IN Media Practice | 2012-03-29
Will producers admit that they have never even considered casting a disabled anchor, looking out for a disabled"expert" or panelist or consciously widening the composition of a studio audience?
IN Media Practice | 2012-03-29
Even as Holi crimes are increasing year after year, the media is lukewarm in its response to them.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-03-28
Al-Jazeera has decided not to air the footage which shows Mohammad Merah's deadly Toulouse shootings. The decision came after requests from the families of the victims, the French president and other French officials. The channel said that the video does not add any information that is not already in the public..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-03-27
On March 25, SUN News misrepresented people protesting against a nuclear plant being set up in Kudankulam. Throughout the day, the channel alleged that three of the arrested protesters were "all Maoists." SUN News also stated it had information on a "Naxalite plot" that is "all set to take over..
IN Media Practice | 2012-03-26
The video has become a witness to our modern times, encompassing the good, the bad, and the ugly.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-03-26
The Hindu interview with the army chief which dominated the airwaves on Monday night was done a week before it appeared, not used for a mundane reason--Vidya Subramaniam did not have time to write it earlier. And the ETV interview which all the channels had on the 26th night was in fact..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-03-24
Itanagar got its sixth daily earlier this week, called Independent Review. This is in addition to The Arunachal Times, Echo of Arunachal, The Dawnlit Post, Eastern Sentinel and Arunachal Front. ..
IN Books | 2012-03-24
A Pew Research Center report says the internet is over three times more important as a news-learning platform for young adults than traditional media.
IN Media Business | 2012-03-23
"The enormous clout of a Bombay Times or a Delhi Times gives us an opportunity to create strong monetisable media properties that may be anchored in print but go beyond, to straddle television, radio, events and the Internet."
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-03-23
A South Indian newspaper has become the second paper in India to implement recommendations by the Majithia Wage Board. Madhyamam is the second paper (after Assam Tribune) to implement the recommendations, and is the first newspaper in Kerala to do so. The paper's journalist and non-journalist staff will now receive..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-03-23
After 2G & CWG scams, another scam that is presently making the current UPA govt 'popular' on social media is the 10.7 lakh crore coal scam. "Coalgate" is the top trend on Twitter in India right now. The present top 10 trends on Twitter are "#coalgate", "CAG" and "Rs. 10.7"...
IN Media Practice | 2012-03-22
His strong words which found their mark unfailingly did not follow the diktat that Rushdie himself held up at the outset -"Be savage to ideas but polite to people."
When The Hindu chose to remain silent
IN Media Practice | 2012-03-21
A significant news item that appeared in two major newspapers was found missing in Southern India's most read paper.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-03-21
Of the four Trinamul Congress candidates filing their nominations for the Rajya Sabha - three are journalists (extension of Mamata's carrots to the media?) Kunal Ghosh (CEO, Channel 10), Vivek Gupta, Group Editor, Sanmarg and Md. Nadimul Haque , Head of 'Akhbar E Mashrique' Kolkata Edition. He is also the son..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-03-21
While concluding a press conference on Monday, Mulayamsingh Yadav, with his Chief Minister-son Akhilesh next to him, told the media to tell them if things went wrong in their rule. Then instead of walking out like Mayawati was prone to - regal, abrupt - he lingered and told them, "If..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-03-20
Congress MLA Founder Strong Cajee flew into a vengeful rage when he assaulted senior photojournalist Warton Lytan in the State Assembly corridor. The reason: Lytan had taken a picture of him sleeping inside the Assembly which was published in the vernacular dailies. The Shillong Press Club (SPC) has condemned the..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-03-20
Mamata Banerjee has learnt the art of pleasing the journos. To earn brownie points, the Bengal CM has announced that she will support the demand of media persons for the implementation of Majithia Wage Boards and will join the nationwide agitation on March 20 in this regard. ..
Godhra's victims: not remembered enough?
IN Opinion | 2012-03-19
The year 2012 marks 10 years of suffering for another group of victims too - the Hindus whose families were burnt alive in Coach S 6. Ten years on, the English press has shown little concern for the victims of Sabarmati holocaust.
IN Media Practice | 2012-03-19
Do elections do more for media to fill airtime and garner advertisements than the media does for candidates or would-be voters?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-03-18
Headlines Today did a live telecast of Salman Rushdie speaking on free speech issues in India at the India Today Conclave. The last question was on what he thought of the Danish cartoons incident. Rushdie said there were two aspects to the issue, described one, and then whoosh, the next programme..
IN Media Business | 2012-03-17
Media-sensitive politicians and their bureaucratic cronies have tremendous influence on the structure and complexion of news in today's papers, what with the government being the country's biggest advertiser.
IN Regional Media | 2012-03-17
Rising Kashmir has shown that mixing professionalism with a strong marketing strategy can lead to success even under abnormal circumstances.
IN Media Practice | 2012-03-17
"Kony 2012" has snowballed into a video watched by millions across the globe, in a short amount of time.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-03-16
Kashmir's English daily Kashmir Monitor has become the first from the valley to go ahead and advertise itself in a big way. The daily's ad campaign is running on Neo Sports, which is also the host broadcaster of Asia Cup cricket being played in Bangladesh. "Well, that is what competition..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-03-15
Dainik Jagran conducted an online test for its reporters on March 13 at the regional level. All reporters in line for a promotion appeared for the test. It was an online test consisting of 23 questions, related to national and international issues. Reporters took the test in every state from..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-03-15
Following the public release of the 1st phase census results of 2011, the following day (14th March 2012) newspapers like The Hindu & Indian Express carried headlines about how half the nation is deprived of basic amenities like access to toilets. But the ToI headline reads "200m Indians don’t own..
Saving Face: Filming injustice and hope
IN Media Practice | 2012-03-14
Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy became the first Oscar winner from Pakistan for her documentary "Saving Face."
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-03-13
Russian media employees who are sick and tired of the incessant pro- and anti-government protests in Moscow have set up a Facebook group "Journalists Against Demonstrations" and are planning their own counter-event. The group's motto is: "Let Journalists Return to Their Families!" It includes correspondents from news outlets like Vedomosti..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-03-12
Journalists who reported on the Karnataka Assembly porn scandal are now receiving support from the Press Council Chairman. In a letter to the Karnataka Assembly Speaker, Justice Markandey Katju defended the journalists, and urged that proceedings against the mediapersons involved should be dropped. He said he felt such proceedings "jeopardise the..
Journalist deaths: more questions than answers
IN Defamation | 2012-03-10
Were they killed for their work? Were they involved in other, personal interests, which spilled over into their professional lives? Did their professional and personal enemies conspire to kill them?
Journalist deaths: more questions than answers
IN Media Freedom | 2012-03-10
Were they killed for their work? Were they involved in other matters? Did their professional and personal enemies conspire to kill them?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-03-09
Notices were issued to the Centre, state government and the ministry of information and broadcasting by the Bangalore High Court after listening to the PIL which argued that the electronic media did not show clips of policemen beating up lawyers at the City Civil Court on March 02. The PIL..
IRS 2011: What four quarters show
IN Media Business | 2012-03-08
The IRS 2011 Q4 figures as always record both gains and losses. The Times of India maintains the top spot among English dailies.
Wanted: more regionalization of national media
IN Media Practice | 2012-03-07
An obliging media lent a helping hand by mounting a high-decibel television campaign, that made it seem as if a Rahul wave would blow everyone away.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-03-06
Even as Samajwadi party leader Akhilesh Yadav was promising that goondagiri would not be allowed a 100 journalists were reportedly held hostage in Jhansi by his party's workers. The only channel to pursue the story initially was NDTV 24x7, which asked Yadav what he was going to do about the..
IN Media Practice | 2012-03-06
One of the largest-selling newspapers of West Bengal has shown utter disregard for decency and journalistic ethics while covering an incident of rape.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-03-05
Working beyond 60 is not the norm at The Hindu; nor is it an exception. MC Sampat worked for 51 years, retiring as Senior Associated Editor at the age of 75 on Feb 28. Others too had long tenures: K Narayanan, Associate Editor - for 55 years. M Pattabiram, BS..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-03-03
Whatever the actual results turn out to be, News 24 got lucky with its exit polls where its own family politics is concerned. With a brother in the BJP and husband in the Congress, the channel's proprietor-boss Anuradha Prasad was able to placate both with its prediction: 55 seats each for the BJP and the..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-03-03
In keeping with the high decibel, low cost tradition of its news shows, Times Now skipped doing exit polls itself and focused on analysing everybody else's exit polls. It spent its money instead on animated graphics and biggger panel line-ups than the others. Two major English news channel skipped doing exit polls, NDTV said they..
IN Digital Media | 2012-03-01
What does Google's new privacy policy mean for you?
IN Media Practice | 2012-03-01
The Indian media are often guilty of representing the Muslim extremist view as the general stance of the community, thereby branding it as irrational and rabidly non-secular.
IN Opinion | 2012-03-01
Image rebuilding may be a legitimate exercise for governments and their heads to undertake, but there is always the possibility of a trip-up when there is a lot of media around.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-03-01
Sanjay Kakade, a Pune-based builder has sponsored Rs 5 lakh in prizes to be given away by Mumbai Marathi Patrakar Sangh to journalists correctly estimating the number of seats to be won by political parties in recent municipal elections in Mumbai. Now, according to the Times of India, he will..
Politicians and press in Bihar
IN Regional Media | 2012-02-29
What upsets the Nitish government most is the Press Council of India chief, Markandey Katju's remarks that there was no Press censorship during the Lalu regime.
Governor Narasimhan sets an example
IN Media Practice | 2012-02-28
The selection of candidates for the posts of Information Commissioner is a classic case of political collusion that has been exposed by a vigilant civil society and responsible media in Andhra Pradesh.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-02-28
On Monday (Feb 27), journalists in Jammu boycotted the assembly and protested against the J&K Assembly Speaker Mohammad Akbar Lone's assertion that the media was answerable to the legislature. According to reports, the speaker said, “Everybody is answerable to this house” and later repeated " they (media) are under my control”..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-02-28
Why does the 8-page relatively serious Sunday Magazine of The Hindu invariably go without any advertisements in it while the Cinema Plus pull out the same day has almost three pages of advertising? Do advertisers thinks that less cerebral has more readers? ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-02-26
The Times of India is indefatigable. On Sunday Feb 26 its wrap around ad did its best to look like a news page, with news items chosen to support the theme of the ad. There was happy news in honour of a toothbrush that protects your smile. On a front page..
IN Media Practice | 2012-02-26
Large industrial houses which have taken the land of millions of tribal people, living on the fringes of civilization, are now projecting themselves as the saviour of the long oppressed.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-02-24
The ghost of paid news has struck for real in the run-up to the Punjab elections. First, 523 cases of alleged paid were registered against candidates. Out of these 339 were issued notices. Now, in 201 cases candidates have acknowledged that they did pay for news. These candidates have agreed..
Should judges explain judgements?
IN Media Practice | 2012-02-23
The Indian Express has objected to the comments of Justice A K Ganguly on the 2G spectrum judgment in a television interview, saying 'only the verdict should speak for itself'.
'Online' for opinion, TV/newspaper for information
IN Books | 2012-02-22
This study entailed mapping the accessibility and influence of various news sources on the study group with particular reference to the ten days of the Anna Hazare movement
To the critics of the middle-class
IN Media Practice | 2012-02-22
In the aftermath of the anti-corruption movement led by Team Anna, the media criticism has closed in thick and fast and is now seen lashing out at the group with criticism that range from scathing attacks to outright ridicule.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-02-22
A reader writes: Last Sunday morning, Times of India readers experienced a strong odor emitted by the newspaper. It was supposed to be the coffee smell, perhaps a requirement from Bru, which had paid for the front bottom half page advertisement. However, far from smelling anything like coffee, it smelt like..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-02-22
The GOI thinks its media management, rather than the quality of its governance, is the problem. A team of eleven officials from the Information and Broadcasting Ministry are in the UK for a two-week course on media management. The government sent the group to sharpen their skills at the Thomson..
IN Media Practice | 2012-02-22
One paper suggests carrying anti-venom, another says carry guns. Should newspapers be dishing out ill- thought- out advice when they report?
IN Media Practice | 2012-02-20
If the past few years have shown how highly spectrum is valued, does the terrestrial spectrum that Doordarshan and All India Radio have a complete monopoly over not require better stewardship and more accountability?
Indian press buries truth at the border
IN Media Practice | 2012-02-18
Then there are the Chinese "incursions" stories - the most potent, and the fountainhead, of all Sinoscare media motifs in India. These stories, liberally peppered with alarmist words like "aggression", "transgression", "encroachment", and the like, f
RSF questions Google's new 'country-redirect' service on Blogger
IN Digital Media | 2012-02-17
Is a new service on the Internet search giant's blogging platform conducive to censorship?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-02-17
The committees set up by Election Commission at district levels in the poll-going states to detect paid news have reported 42 cases of suspected paid news. Notices to 38 candidates have already been served among which 37 are yet to reply and one candidate has denied the allegation. No notices have been..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-02-16
News X and Nai Dunia are up for grabs. A "leading broadcast network" is interested in buying NewsX. This is the second time the English news channel is on the market. Jagran Prakashan is a prospective buyer for Nai Dunia, which is also on sale. Both deals are reportedly in..
IN Opinion | 2012-02-15
India's English language papers, which readily found space for the opinions of orthodox maulvis and progressive Muslims on the Rushdie episode, ignored the feelings of the average Muslim.
IN Media Practice | 2012-02-15
A little self-study about cancer by media professionals will go a long way in giving the public the true picture when celebrities as well as mere mortals contract cancer.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-02-15
The Economist has done it again, for the third time within a year: this week's edition carried a map "showing the disputed territories" between India and Pakistan which India objects to. An email to subscribers said that the Indian Customs had seized the copies. There was no word about obscuring..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-02-14
The Securities and Exchange Board of India is hiring specialist IT officers, whose role would include keeping track of social media platforms like Twitter and blogs for all market-related information, comments and discussions. TOI reports that this is to snoop on discussions at these platforms as part of its investigation..
IN Media Business | 2012-02-12
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 Practice | 2012-02-12
The media opinion on what the three Karnataka Ministers watched on their cellphones in the Assembly has travelled at great speed, while the information available to the public on the episode is scrappy.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-02-12
Two Bangladeshi journalists -- a husband-wife duo -- were found murdered at their home in Dhaka on February 10. Meherun Runi was a reporter for ATN Bangla while her husband Sagor Sarwar worked for the Maasranga TV channel as a news editor, and was also correspondent for the Bangla service of..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-02-11
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. ..
IN Books | 2012-02-10
How is self regulation of television in India working? Does it have the capacity to rein in wayward channels? Do the self regulatory mechanisms set up by the industry have bite? Or do they merely rap offenders on the knuckles?
Kid gloves regulationâ€"Part II
IN Books | 2012-02-10
Reprimanding news channels in the form of censures and asking them to air apologies are not enough to put a noose around erring channels.
The ‘Dirty Picture' running on TV, print, Twitter and inside the House
IN Media Practice | 2012-02-09
An excited media forgot the ABC of ethical journalism while questioning the lack of moral and ethical behaviour of the ministers.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-02-09
While the News Broadcasters Association may be smugly patting itself for initiating a self-regulatory framework, that includes the prohibiting obscenities and explicit language, a little TV news watching may prove useful. On Rajdeep Sardesai's primetime India@Nine the topic being discussed on Wednesday night was watching porn in the Karnataka Assembly. Panellist,..
Profitability is the only strategy
IN Media Practice | 2012-02-09
Book publishing is no longer an intellectual exercise as salability has gained precedence over new and controversial ideas.
Going beyond celebrity illness
IN Media Practice | 2012-02-09
The mainstream media, which have shown unabashed obsession with celebrity illness in the recent past, fight shy of portraying the larger picture of health care of the Indian people.
Community Radio: Eliminating Voice Poverty
IN Media Business | 2012-02-08
Free speech and freedom of expression are the raison d'être of CR anywhere in the world and they are going well beyond their mandates to do so in India,
Community Radio: eliminating voice poverty
IN Community Media | 2012-02-08
Free speech and freedom of expression are the raison d'être of CR anywhere in the world and they are going well beyond their mandates to do so in India,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-02-08
Facebook ads were only seen on computers but now Facebook will start showing ads to users on their mobile phones as well. They are supposed to begin next month. So far Facebook has done a good job of displaying ads on computers without annoying users but mobile advertising could prove be tough...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-02-06
The PMO is delighted with its Twitter debut. It found that the PM was trending, after Anupam Kher and Ritesh Deshmukh. A taciturn PM now has his words being tweeted as he speaks at public events, to cut the time lag ievitable if the PMO were to rely on the government's..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-02-06
Last week Vinod Mehta stepped down as editor in chief of Outlook. Today a deputy editor and two senior editors quit. Seeing that fair numbers of people are to be eased out soon at Mail Today, the journalists' community will welcome any vacancies. ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-02-06
A media watcher asks--Why should a criminal case involving politicians be treated as politics? And why should the media, especially news TV channels invite politicians from rival parties to comment when the matter is essentially legal? Is it possible that everything has to have a political contour to sustain audience interest..
IN Media Practice | 2012-02-06
The media turned the verdict into an event and the way it was covered throughout the day by news TV was a shocking exhibition of hype, sensation and overblown hectoring,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-02-05
Who is the chief editor of Outlook? The February 13 issue of the magazine which came out after announcments about Mehta calling it a day, lists Vinod Mehta as chief editor on its masthead. But a back page diary by Krishna Prasad describes him as chief editor of the magazine. They need to..
Wanted: an in-depth approach to environment
IN Books | 2012-02-05
Coastal Karnataka's first website has successfully drawn attention to environmental issues, but most of its stories tend to be mere reports.
L'affaire Rushdie and free speech - Part III
IN Censorship | 2012-02-02
While the dust has settled over 'the Ghost who (didn't) walk' in Jaipur, the debate over whether the entire episode destroyed or protected freedom of expression rages on.
L'affaire Rushdie and free speech - Part II
IN Media Freedom | 2012-02-02
While the dust has settled over 'the Ghost who (didn't) walk' in Jaipur, the debate over whether the entire episode destroyed or protected freedom of expression rages on.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-02-02
The 24x7 channels have turned on the election tap in full force. But some of them take the cake. Star News had Deepak Chaurasia doing a live debate programme with politicians and an assembled audience somewhere in Uttar Pradesh with cameras mounted on cranes. The amazing audience was all male,..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-02-02
Funny how the media becomes a champion of free speech when it wants to and wants to curtail free speech when it suits its ideology. While Times Now did extensive coverage on the unfair ban on Rushdie to visit JLF, on another programme the channel's editor, Arnab Goswami moderated a debate about..
IN Media Practice | 2012-02-02
Free speech reports don't upset anyone in the professionâ€"they only underscore the journalists' sense of being brave, vulnerable and important to society. But how many annual reports on media ethics have you come across?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-02-01
On Sunday, The Hindu announced that it has launched it Kozhikode edition. The announcement said that ‘it will facilitate smoother and more efficient distribution in the region. Two days later, the TOI announced the launch of its Kerala edition and simultaneously launched the daily in 10 cities including Kozhikode. After..
L'affaire Rushdie and free speech â€" Part I
IN Censorship | 2012-01-31
While the dust has settled over 'the Ghost who (didn't) walk' in Jaipur, the debate over whether the entire episode destroyed or protected freedom of expression rages on.
L'affaire Rushdie and free speech
IN Media Freedom | 2012-01-31
While the dust has settled over 'the Ghost who (didn't) walk' in Jaipur, the debate over whether the entire episode destroyed or protected freedom of expression rages on.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-01-30
Facebook plans to go 'public' on Wednesday (finally), which will result in the social networking giant being valued at between $75bn and $100bn. Reports suggest that the flotation will raise around $10bn later this year which would dwarf the $1.9bn raised by Google when it went public in 2004. So..
Negotiate, strategise, campaign
IN Opinion | 2012-01-29
Google is trying to be this weird thing: an unassailable behemoth with a conscience. But what if you don't want the 'beautiful, intuitive experience' being promised?
IN Media Practice | 2012-01-28
A parody twitter account of the PM says he has appointed Rajinikanth to look into the brand war issues between the Hindu and TOI.
IN Media Practice | 2012-01-28
Student research on the Hoot: With their dismal coverage of child development issues, Odisha editions of major English newspapers fail to sensitise in the state with the highest infant mortality rate.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-01-28
Vinod Mehta publishes a long, unflattering anecdote about Shobhaa De in his book Lucknow Boy. India Today gives the book to De to review and she trashes it without mentioning the personal angle upfront. IT giving the book to De to review was the act of a rival magazine being..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-01-27
Recent figures show Indians are increasingly putting their trust--in the media. The 2012 Edelman Trust Barometer findings say that people's trust in the media has grown the fastest in India, from 50% to 70% so far this year. It was an online survey with more than 30,000 respondents which included..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-01-27
In the Hindu-TOI TV ad war in Chennai the Hindu has finally hit back. TOI had Hindu readers falling asleep in the middle of all sorts of action because they were reading a paper which sent them to sleep. The Hindu ad pokes fun at the GK quotient of the TOI..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-01-27
Two journalists of Pakistan's Geo News channel were assaulted when they went to cover the story of a girl who had slit her throat during a rape attempt. A reporter and his cameraman were attacked at the Benazir Bhutto Hospital in Rawalpindi, Geo News reported Thursday. The media group alleged..
IN Media Practice | 2012-01-26
Congress MLA Venod Sharma has the advantage of being the proprietor of a newspaper his family has started, Aaj Samaj. He gets generous coverage in his own newspaper. And his paper is now campaigning against paid news.
Dichotomy in the use of a fundamental right
IN Media Freedom | 2012-01-25
The Salman Rushdie controversy at the Jaipur Literature Festival 2012 has stirred the hornet's nest.
IN Media Monitoring | 2012-01-25
A Pakistani morning show turns to moral policing on couples, stirring major outcry against media's "vigil-aunties" in the country,
Reconsider ban on Satanic Verses
IN Media Freedom | 2012-01-24
There are already 1000 signatories to an online petition to lift the ban on Salman Rushdie's book,
Censorship exposes the fragility of the intelligensia and the state
IN Resources | 2012-01-23
While Rushdie's shadow was cast over the Jaipur Literary Festival, other writers grappled with questions of censorship, dissent and freedom of expression.
IN Privacy | 2012-01-23
Even as journalists are busy getting the inside story, there are others who are keeping a close watch on their every move.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-01-23
Though authors are in the news, what with the Salman Rushdie and the Jaipur Lit Fest controversy refusing to die down, the visit of Arundhati Roy to Mumbai went largely unnoticed. She delivered the fourth Anuradha Gandhy Memorial Lecture in Mumbai on January 20 to a packed college audience. The title was “Capitalism: A..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-01-23
Matheran has stoutly protected its status as the only truly car-free hill station in India, where ambulances and police vehicles are the only motorised vehicles permitted. Till Nita Ambani's driver decided to drive his madam right up...but how many readers got to know of this breach of environmental law? Take..
IN Law and Policy | 2012-01-23
Even as journalists are busy getting the inside story, there are others who are keeping a close watch on their every move.
Oh, Mr Rushdie! Just get in the queue!
IN Censorship | 2012-01-21
The protests against Salman Rushdie's presence at the Jaipur Literary Festival by fundamentalist groups is undemocratic no doubt, but he wasn't the only one targeted.
Oh, Mr Rushdie! Just get in the queue!
IN Media Freedom | 2012-01-21
The protests against Salman Rushdie's presence at the Jaipur Literary Festival by fundamentalist groups is undemocratic no doubt, but he wasn't the only one targeted.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-01-21
Showing skin to sell books? There is a video ad which says Chetan Bhagat’s books are better than sex. A boy in the advertisement, lying on bed, is reading a CB book. A girl comes and bares all her clothes, and goes to him. Despite her sexual appeal the boy ignores her and..
Odisha journalists not a part of ‘Twitterville' yet
IN Books | 2012-01-21
The use of Twitter has seen a significant rise among the journalists in India since 2007 as they find it helpful to assimilate, disseminate, and spread news to the people. But in Odisha the trend is yet to catch up among the media persons.
Censoring online content â€" Urgent need for debate
IN Censorship | 2012-01-20
The unseemly rush to initiate punitive action against Google, Facebook and other sites illustrates our systemic inability to deal with 'problematic' content,
Censoring online content - Urgent need for debate
IN Media Freedom | 2012-01-20
The unseemly rush to initiate punitive action against Google, Facebook and other sites illustrates our systemic inability to deal with 'problematic' content,
IN Censorship | 2012-01-19
On January 18th, thousands of websites went dark to protest against two US bills that threaten online security and freedom of expression.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-01-19
In a historic step at the Hindu the last of the family member editors, N Ram, stepped down as editor in chief of four publications and was replaced by four professionals as editors at the Hindu, Sportstar, Frontline and Business Line. There will presumably be no editor in chief. Ram..
IN Media Freedom | 2012-01-18
On January 18th, thousands of websites went dark to protest against two US bills that threaten online security and freedom of expression.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-01-18
The Delhi Union of Journalists has shot off a letter to the PCI Chairman criticising the Arushi Talwar murder coverage in the TOI on January 7, 2012. It has asked the Press Council of India to initiate suo moto action on the basis of the coverage, which it says "is against journalistic ethics". The DUJ has..
Indian media lukewarm to Clarkson insults
IN Media Practice | 2012-01-18
Even as journalists and others in Britain have condemned the racism exhibited by BBC in an India Special edition of Top Gear, the Indian newspapers have by and large neglected the issue.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-01-17
TOI's online photo gallery specialises in undressed women. Here is a reader's comment on a Sunny Leone photo: "Can anyone tell me what is the difference between a regular porn site and Times of India? Porn sites provide only Porn whereas TOI provides Porn added with News."..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-01-17
The next time you read an article in the newspaper, how sure are you that it's news--and not an advertisement? The line between news and ads was blurred--almost erased, in fact---by TOI (dated 15-01-2012) and ET (16-01-2012). Both papers recently frontpaged an article on Functional Manual Therapy (FMT), which was..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-01-16
A popular Hindi daily from Indore is reluctantly saying goodbye to its Sunday edition. Nai Dunia's last official Sunday edition came out on January 15. Financial losses have led to the closing down of all editions of Sunday Nai Dunia including those in Delhi, Lucknow, Patna, Mumbai, Chandigarh and Ranchi editions. (MediaNewsLine.com) ..
Playing safe with Justice Katju?
IN Media Practice | 2012-01-15
The large media houses have been giving full play to every opinion of the Chairman of the Press Council of India even on issues that are beyond the purview of the council.
IN Opinion | 2012-01-15
A newspaper has a right to campaign on issues it believes in. It also has the right to pick any sponsors it chooses.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-01-14
Granted Manipur cannot compare with Uttar Pradesh and Punjab in news value given its small number of Lok Sabha seats., but even so does coverage of its elections have to be quite as negligible as we have seen this year? It is going to the polls in two weeks time, but..
IN Books | 2012-01-14
The work, a collection of well-researched case-studies, analyses the contemporary values in Indian society.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-01-13
The buzz is that Ram Gopal Verma’s sequel to Ab Tak Chappan is based on the murder case of the Mid-Day reporter J.Dey. Nana Patekar is said to be returning as the oddball encounter cop. Earlier this week, it was announced that Nana would direct the movie as well. Gul Panag..
What's the English press aiming at?
IN Opinion | 2012-01-12
The English language newspapers' biased prioritizing of events pertaining to Muslims on one hand and Hindu extremists on the other, has given rise to the feeling that they have been demonizing the former.
IN Regional Media | 2012-01-09
A comparative study of how three newspapers and a website covered the Supreme Court's verdict on the Zakia Jafri case and Narendra Modi's"sadbhavna mission" reveals how they allowed him to set the agenda.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-01-09
Amitabh Bachchan on his blog: "Why, just the other day I had a message from Rajdeep Sardesai of CNN IBN asking me if I could mention one of his programmes on my site on twitter !!! So . yes .. my numbers are large on Twitter . 1.88 million followers..
IN Books | 2012-01-09
The proprietors/editors of small papers are in a comfort zone once their publications come onto the advertisement panel. Most of them print fewer copies than the regulated number and still get their quota of government advertisements.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-01-08
Karan Thapar’s show The Last Word says it is the first of its kind weekly show on Indian television which debates issues related to the media. It is on CNN IBN, which is part of the Network 18 Group. Last week the big media story of the week was the..
IN Media Practice | 2012-01-08
The interest in the video is only likely to increase and the report did a fine job of promoting the video and demeaning the girl,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-01-08
Did the Hindustan Times in Kolkata need to carry a page one, seven column first lead story (on January 7) on an MMS clip posted by a student of herself having sex? With the girl identified, and interviews with people on what they thought of it? Amazing. ..
IN Law and Policy | 2012-01-06
In Prasar Bharati, while the engineering division has overwhelming numbers and power, the creative staff have taken the back seat.
IN Media Practice | 2012-01-04
The West Bengal government's attempt to"restructure" the process of giving accreditation to media persons/houses has stirred the hornet's nest.
Protest coverage in Chennai newspapers
IN Books | 2012-01-04
In The Hindu, the editorial and op ed pages emerged as important spaces of discussion around Kudankulam. In contrast, the Times of India did not engage with the debates around the plant as much.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-01-04
Pune is to have yet another English newspaper, to be brought out by Aaj ka Anand Pvt Limited which already has a four-decade old Hindi daily, Aaj ka Anand and a Marathi eveninger, Sandyanand. Vinita Deshmukh is the editor and Anand Agashe the Editorial Director. The launch date is yet..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-01-03
After protests by mediapersons for nearly a week, a medical officer has finally been arrested on charges of thrashing a Dainik Bhaskar Ambala journalist. Journalists allege that police had been "tight lipped" and slow to take action against Dr. Arun Dalal after he threatened a journalist on Dec 25. Protesting..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2012-01-03
After initial denials Network18 & TV18 have confirmed acquisition of ETV Group assets & that the RIL Trust will be funding the deal. The proceeds will be used for debt repayment, and allow the group’s expansion into regional space, reports exchange4media. In September the Hoot had reported on the soft pedalling..
IN Opinion | 2011-12-31
Consolidation has begun. One by one, India's original TV entrepreneurs who grew at an impressive pace, are being bailed out by big business.
Free Speech in 2011: A Hoot Report
IN Media Freedom | 2011-12-30
For the media, 2011 was marked by the killings of journalists, major censorship and surveillance issues, far-reaching legislation, limits on online media freedom and more.
Free Speech in 2011: A Hoot Report
IN Media Practice | 2011-12-30
For the media, 2011 was marked by the killings of journalists, major censorship and surveillance issues, far-reaching legislation, limits on online media freedom and more.
IN Media Practice | 2011-12-30
Instances of deception and trespass while practising investigative journalism are common in India.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-12-30
DNA has launched a fresh battle for the Mumbai market soon after the announcement of IRS Q3 2011. It released advertisements announcing that it sells 6 lakh copies in Mumbai daily. It claims that through these 6 lakh copies, advertisers actually get over 13 lakh readers through DNA alone in Mumbai,..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-12-29
Who’s to blame for the low turnout for supporting Team Anna? Kiran Bedi points the finger at the media. She’s one of the core committee members for the Team, and said, “I don’t see any changes in the headlines which appear in the newspapers. They are maintaining their silence on..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-12-28
PTI protest
Victims of the media's terror investigation
IN Media Practice | 2011-12-27
Investigators are yet to identify the real perpetrators of the Delhi High Court blasts but the media have revealed almost everything including the entire game plan and identities.
IN Regional Media | 2011-12-26
Marathi daily Loksatta has revealed the likely link between a huge donation received by a Minister's trust and the governmental sanctions accorded to the donor.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-12-26
Veteran journalist and author Madhu Trehan has announced the launch of a new mediawatch website in January, called newslaundry.com. It promises to take corrupt media houses and media practitioners to the cleaners. ..
Readership: more gains than losses
IN Media Business | 2011-12-26
Seven out of the top ten English newspapers have registered a growth in readership over the year 2011 with the exception of the Mumbai Mirror. Five out of ten Hindi newspapers have shown a steady increase over the year.
IN Opinion | 2011-12-26
You read his articles on something as prosaic as taxation because they were so exquisitely crafted. Language is all that we have, he once said to me, we should not be casual about it.
IN Media Practice | 2011-12-22
Media are increasingly relying on surveys commissioned by corporate houses without taking note of the conflict of interest involved. What's worse, they drop the name of the company which commissioned it.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-12-21
Oommen Chandy, Kerala CM, has issued a half-page Ad to daily newspapers appealing to the people of both Kerala and Tamil Nadu to maintain peace and restraint over the Mullaperiyar dam issue. This was followed by a full page Ad by Tamil Nadu chief minister, J Jayalalithaa, setting out facts of..
Jagan gets pricey, blames it on yellow brigade
IN Regional Media | 2011-12-20
In Andhra Pradesh, where political battles are fought through"friendly" media, even an increase in the price of a paper can lead to a war of words.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-12-18
Who deserves a title and who doesn't? NDTV apparently has its own criteria. In an article on NDTV's website, a nurse and her husband are referred to simply by their names--Bhanwari Devi and Amarchand respectively. But in the same article, a disgraced minister, Mahipal Maderna, and an MLA, Malkhan Singh, are..
Free Speech: look beyond content
IN Media Freedom | 2011-12-18
An analysis of the raging Free Speech debate in India points to a flaw: while all eyes are on the content, there is little focus on the media ownership pattern.
Making WAVEs with video-blogging
IN Media Practice | 2011-12-16
A unique project has transformed the lives of a group of women who were trained and encouraged to voice their perspective on issues that matter to them.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-12-15
It is a high stake battle for The Weekend Leader against a media giant, and now the stakes just got higher. The Times of India has issued a second legal notice to TWL, demanding Rs.100 crore as compensation instead of the original demand of Rs. one crore. This comes after an..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-12-15
“Media sensitivity” lately has a different meaning for some politicians. Maharashtra’s industries minister Narayan Rane has spoken harshly against the media for reportedly turning his “minor” defeat in the municipal council elections into a “major” news event. “I lost five seats in Vengurla, but the way the media portrayed it..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-12-13
Journalist Jigna Vora, arrested in connection with the murder of senior scribe Jyotirmoy Dey, filed an application in the Mumbai special court Tuesday seeking restriction on media coverage. Vora's lawyer has submitted a prayer stating that media should be restrained from writing about this case or publishing what has been..
More media regulation not the answer, media education is
IN Law and Policy | 2011-12-12
I agree self-regulation has failed. But more regulation by the government might only stifle public debate and harm Indian democracy in the long run.
IN Media Practice | 2011-12-12
Justice Katju slammed the media again, this time for giving so much space to actor Dev Anand's passing. We have a moral responsibility to readers and not a moral obligation,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-12-12
What’s the best way to make a mockery of human rights? Well, according to the APDP in Kashmir, it’s by slapping them with the ‘Indian of the Year 2011’ award. The Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons has rejected CNN-IBN’s nomination for the award. In a strongly-worded press release, senior..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-12-10
So you need to get your telephone bills paid, dry cleaning picked up, find a substitute for that absconding maid? Never fear NDTV's Concierge Service is here. The network is providing all these facilities through a recently announced perk available for all senior editorial staff. The thinking is that this..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-12-09
The Press Information Bureau put out a release on December 7 which said there was no shortage of forces for anti Naxal operations, referring to a statement in Parliament. Its headline said: 'No shortage of Parliamentary troops for anti Naxal operations'. We wonder if the honourable members were amused...
IN Media Freedom | 2011-12-09
Instead of ensuring the safety of media personnel, who have been at the receiving end of police highhandedness, some governments have been harping on a code of conduct for the former.
Media fighting shy over FDI in retail
IN Media Practice | 2011-12-09
Even as political parties and others concerned have failed to take a definite stand on FDI in retail, journalists have done little more than play safe.
In Kashmir, journalists are easy targets
IN Media Freedom | 2011-12-08
So who is protecting journalists here? No one! They report from the world's most militarized zone and in return the conditions are made miserable for them.
Sibal's sabre-rattling against online freedom!
IN Censorship | 2011-12-07
In May this year, the Union government was forced to issue a press release that it would not be heavy-handed in censoring intermediaries nor would it acquire regulatory jurisdiction over content.
IN Media Practice | 2011-12-07
These remarkable women have transcended all barriers of established norms, traditional restrictions, and societal conditions to reach their destination.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-12-07
CNN IBN in a very serious, we-mean-business tone announced that they would show their viewers how Dev Anand spent his last day in London. The anchor spoke, the London correspondent spoke and just as you got ready to catch the visual, the screen sprang a surprise that was almost like an April Fool's joke...
Sibal's sabre-rattling against online freedom!
IN Media Freedom | 2011-12-07
In May this year, the Union government was forced to issue a press release that it would not be heavy-handed in censoring intermediaries nor would it acquire regulatory jurisdiction over content.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-12-06
Vir Sanghvi has been slowly making a comeback, and one year after the damage of the Radia Tapes he has announced that he is ready to resume his column Counterpoint in the Hindustan Times, Sanghvi has also recently tried to reassert his innocence in an opinion piece in Outlook, followed..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-12-06
The Chairman of the Press Council of India, Markandey Katju said on Dec 5 that he has written to all the members of the Council seeking suggestions on guidelines for journalists so that their safety may be ensured in a situation of conflict. This follows an exchange with J&K CM Omar Abdullah..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-12-06
HT Media plans to enter the for-profit education sector with US-based (private education provider) firm Apollo Global. It will offer programmes targeting the corporate space. The company that owns Hindustan Times, Mint and four other radio stations is already running tuition centres through another venture...
Mid-Day shuts down two editions
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-12-05
Mid-Day owned by Jagran Prakashan has decided to shut shop in Delhi and Bangalore. December 6 will be the last edition of the paper. Employees learned of it through an internal mail just before the closure...
IN Media Practice | 2011-12-05
Is the media taking sides when reporting on nuclear debates? In some cases, the disproportionate reportage is as explosive as the nuclear controversies themselves,
Media yet to learn their lessons
IN Opinion | 2011-12-04
The Indian media's thoughtless handling of the dubious claims of terror investigators has once again exposed their lack of sensitivity, accountability, and discipline.
Media slaps Pawar over and again
IN Media Practice | 2011-12-03
In repeatedly reporting the action of an angry and unhappy man, the media is forgetting that it could be at the receiving end unless it takes care of how it reports news,
IN Books | 2011-12-03
'Lucknow Boy', Vinod Mehta's autobiography, goes to the heart of the matter. He dispassionately dissects the profession and his association with it.
Reporting the Jigna Vora arrest
IN Media Freedom | 2011-12-02
Incredibly, news reports quote crime branch police sources (unidentified, of course) who state that the case against Vora became stronger when the gangster himself called up several journalists and businessmen, telling them that Vora passed on inform
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-12-02
Omar Abdullah has sent a sharp reply to Press Council chairman Markandey Katju on the issue of the J&K police attacks on mediamen. He said India had no code of conduct for the media while covering such situations. He writes, “As a starting point may I suggest that journalists who..
Reporting the Jigna Vora arrest
IN Media Practice | 2011-12-02
Incredibly, news reports quote crime branch police sources (unidentified, of course) who state that the case against Vora became stronger when the gangster himself called up several journalists and businessmen, telling them that Vora passed on infor
IN Digital Media | 2011-11-29
How does your news organization's website rank nationally? Globally?
Why does the J and K police assault journalists repeatedly?
IN Media Freedom | 2011-11-28
And why does Chief Minister Omar Abdullah refrain from condemning this assault on the freedom of the press?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-11-28
Justice Katju, attending a World News Summit in Hongkong, rose to tell a panel that he was a former supreme court justice from India, now Chairman of the Press Council, and in India, a country with 80 per cent of the people living in horrible poverty, 90 per cent of the..
Tech savvy EC to catch them young
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-11-28
The Election Commission of India will soon turn to social media for catching the young generation's attention. The Commission organized a workshop in New Delhi to discuss the logistics of using sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube in order to get youth to participate in the electoral process. Chief Election Commissioner..
IN Opinion | 2011-11-26
Media makes personalities. It also breaks them. These last two weeks have been an illustration of how this happens and the 'personality' is Anna Hazare.
IN Media Practice | 2011-11-24
Monitoring 1700 objectionable words? The Pakistan Telecom Authority's ill-advised decision to ban certain words from mobile text messages highlights the predicament of the would-be censor,
The West and the Rest --Part 2
IN Books | 2011-11-24
In this concluding part of the research review,
The West and the Restâ€"Part I
IN Books | 2011-11-24
De-Westernising media education and research in India.
When impunity kills journalists
IN Media Freedom | 2011-11-23
More than 500 journalists have died in the line of duty since 1992 and killers roam scot-free,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-11-23
The Mahavishnu of Mount Road has woken up and reacted to the TOI's ad campaign that poked fun at the paper for putting the readers to sleep. The Hindu has got back with an eye catching print ad, which claims that it is has the highest readership among young readers. The basis..
When impunity kills journalists
IN Media Freedom | 2011-11-23
More than 500 journalists have died in the line of duty since 1992 and killers roam scot-free,
IN Law and Policy | 2011-11-22
The reasons technical and otherwise which prompted the Bombay High Court to ask the company which owns Times Now to deposit Rs 20 crore and provide a bank guarantee of Rs 80 crore. The Supreme Court earlier this month said it saw no reason to interf
Self regulation or serving self interest?
IN Law and Policy | 2011-11-22
The role of the Broadcast Editors' Association demands attention. The Times Now case is a stark example of how it selectively overlooked relevant facts and targeted the judiciary without disclosing the factual position,
Chinese media still shackled by the government
IN Media Practice | 2011-11-21
The internet has had some influence on the official media in China which finds itself in competition with this web-based social forum.
IN Media Practice | 2011-11-20
Wednesday's episode of Face The Nation: India's Best Presented News Show on CNN-IBN was epochal.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-11-20
The Economist has done it again: printed an India map 'showing disputed territories' and 'effective borders' in a brief on South Asia's 'looming' water wars. An email to subscribers said therefore the November 19 issue would be delayed because now the map has to 'obscured'. ..
Is unintentional defamation a lesser offence?
IN Law and Policy | 2011-11-20
Justice Sawant's defamation suit against Times Now has shaken up the media and reactions opposing the punitive court order have been an inevitable corollary.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-11-19
To give the advertiser a bang for the buck, DNA (at least its Mumbai edition) circled every 'H' in its page 1 headlines on Nov 18 marked it with health related H-words - hygiene, habit, hands, healthy. The advertiser was Dettol Handwash. The colour of the circles was, well, Dettol's green...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-11-18
The accredited journalists under the Directorate of Information and Publicity, Delhi Government will now get additional health care facilities. They will be treated a par with group A officers of the City Government. Journos will now be allowed to directly approach empanelled private hospitals for treatment in emergencies...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-11-18
Government is considering setting up an inter-ministerial committee to check ‘false and misleading advertisements’ which especially target vulnerable sections of society- children, women and senior citizens. At a conference organized by Advertising Standards Council of India, Prof. K.V Thomas, Union Minister of State for Food, Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution..
Baby Bachchan is delivered. Whew!
IN Media Practice | 2011-11-17
Why not introduce better guidelines for general reporting? After all everyone's dignity and privacy needs to be protected - be it the Bachchan bahu or India's symbolic seven billionth child Nargis or a rape victim.
Thank you for (just) the music!
IN Media Practice | 2011-11-17
RJ Malishka is routinely found making such cold calls to several other bureaucrats and Government administrators.
Facebook says 'spam attack was global'
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-11-15
Facebook has termed the media reports about 200,000 user accounts being spammed as “inaccurate”. The social networking giant's statement comes after media reports complaining of user profile pictures being replaced by vulgar images. Facebook admitted that there was a reported spam attack that took advantage of a vulnerability in web browsers globally. (The..
IN Media Practice | 2011-11-15
TV channels erupted to news that the seven billionth-human being was imminent, but the subject faded as quickly as it arrived.
Letter to the Hoot: Katju is right
IN Opinion | 2011-11-15
In such a scenario, the angst of Justice Katju is not at all surprising. His views are 100% correct, in fact his language is mild compared to the seriousness or venality of the problem.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-11-14
When a former apex court judge takes on a TV channel the latter ends up paying dearly for its offence. First the High Court ordered the Times Now channel to deposit Rs 20 crore in cash and a bank guarantee of Rs 80 crore before it would hear its appeal. The channel..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-11-13
The Deccan Herald has a story datelined November 12 from Panaji which says that the Tehelka publisher met the chief minister of Goa ahead of their November Thinkfest to ask the state government to ‘associate with the event’ (the CM’s language.) The state government thereafter came up with a commitment of..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-11-13
News channels P7 and Sahara Samay have been issued notices by the government for telecasting a CD purportedly showing nurse Bhanwari Devi and former Rajasthan minister Mahipal Maderna in a compromising position. The government has asked the two channels, why action should not be taken against them. They have also been..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-11-12
Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor has filed a Rs.10 crore defamation suit against The Sunday Indian magazine for publishing an article insinuating that he has black money stashed away in Swiss banks. Tharoor, a former minister of state for external affairs, has appointed the Kochi-based legal firm of Sherrif Associates to..
Clean up the print media first
IN Media Freedom | 2011-11-12
The new PCI chairman Justice Katju, has been asking for more powers to regulate both print and electronic media.
IN Media Practice | 2011-11-12
By general consensus, the PCI is toothless. So, why have the justices' comments on aspects of media earlier and now evoked such a scabrous response from the industry? Is it a strategy to silence any debate that can lead to genuine accountability?
Arbitrary Blocking of websites by Sri Lankan government
The government's directive that"any content relating to Sri Lanka or its people must be registered for accreditation and the blocking of websites is an unacceptable incursion into online freedom of expression,
Attempt to disrupt performing arts event on Kashmir
IN Censorship | 2011-11-10
Malicious threats and misinformation sought to disrupt a creative dialogue to discuss the Kashmir issue in Bangalore,
Bhupenda's funeral: non stop coverage
IN Media Practice | 2011-11-10
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,
Would Ra.One have got G.One without the media?
IN Media Practice | 2011-11-08
Since its release Ra.One has been taken to the cleaners by almost every film critic who had urged the viewers to wait for a revolution in film making.
Merits and demerits of Katju offensive
IN Media Freedom | 2011-11-08
In proposing imposition of fines and cancellation of licences of corrupt media organisations, the PCI chairman seems to have gone over the top.
Criminal law is being used as a chilling effect
IN Media Freedom | 2011-11-07
'Everywhere, there is a growing criminalisation of freedom of expression. Defamation must be decriminalised but instead, it is being used to control any news or information or even seen increasingly as the defamation of religion'.
IN Media Freedom | 2011-11-07
Now that we have a self-regulating council for broadcasters can we at least have a few minutes weekly slot wherein we come to know the nature of complaints and what has been done about them and who has been held accountable?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-11-05
A Meghalaya tribal institution has decided to confer an award on Aroon Purie, Rajdeep Sardesai and Arnab Goswami for their “unbiased, ethical and investigative reporting,”..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-11-05
On Nov 3 the Chinese ambassador told an Indian reporter to shut up. The next day several papers headlined the story, Chinese envoy tells scribe to shut up, or words to that effect. Only the Hindu said, “Journalist’s bid to disrupt function.”..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-11-05
TOI’s Chennai edition has an ad which shows a man who has fallen asleep while reading a newspaper, against the backdrop of a mythological scene. Its tagline says, “boring coverage of dull old fashioned entertainment, long drawn out articles on the unchanging water situation..,” etc and asks ‘why start your..
IN Media Freedom | 2011-11-04
So what's new in what Justice Katju said? And in what way do his criticisms of the way the press conducts itself, depart from the Press Council's aims? He is telling us that we are accountable to the people. Can we disagree?
The good judge could have exercised restraint
IN Media Freedom | 2011-11-04
If Mr Katju has his way, he will convert all TV channels into Doordarshan, forcing them to give unlimited coverage of poverty, agriculture and the like; sports and movies will have to wait till India completes its 'transition from a feudal, agricu
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-11-04
After dropping the prices of liquor to help members consume more, the Press Club, Mumbai has now installed an Automated External Defribrillator (AED), an intelligent portable devise to defibrilate the heart, designed for use by laypersons until medical help arrived. Survival chances go up by 12 times. Club staff have..
Emergence of the bad guy as hero in Tamil films
IN Media Practice | 2011-11-03
Ajith Kumar's proclamation that `everyone is bad, I am very bad' in his latest film, Mankatha, marks the peak of a trend that began with acceptance of non-heroic characteristics in the lead player in movies.
‘They are of poor intellectual level'
IN Media Practice | 2011-11-01
I want powers to stop government advertisements, I want powers to suspend the license of that media for a certain period if it behaves in a very obnoxious manner. I want powers to impose fines, all this in extreme situations.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-10-30
The Press Council Chairman wants to bring news channels under his purview and he wants the Council to be given more teeth. He has written to the PM, he says. (CNN IBN). Mr Katju is determined to be different from his silent predecessor. We are waiting with bated breath to see..
Action demanded in Goa paid news case
IN Regional Media | 2011-10-30
Entrapped by a sting operation earlier this month, the Herald and its editor are protesting their innocence. The local journalist who conducted the sting has complained to the Press Council, and the Goa Union of journalists is calling for action aga
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-10-28
Mr Chidambaram seems to have some high-powered support from the media in countering the allegations Subramaniam Swamy and Arun Jaitley have been throwing at him. First there was the India Today cover story whose headline made a statement. It was called Fall Guy. It used confidential documents and notes to let..
IN Opinion | 2011-10-26
The health of the Indian media is supposedly robust but the state of healthcare coverage in the Indian media is almost comatose. It snaps out of that coma only when 'health' and 'wealth' meet.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-10-23
The session on the Planning Commission at the Economic Editors’ Conference saw deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia being quite sharp with the press. When asked about differences between the Planning Commission and the UIAI (whose head Nandan Nilekani was sitting next to him) Ahluwalia said there were no differences. And..
IN Media Practice | 2011-10-23
"China already has experience of running community radios. They can play the role of an early warning system. China lies in the upstream amd if they can forsee any disaster they can inform us. We can do this as we have one thing in common - the r
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-10-19
A letter praising The Hindu's coverage of news and presentation of views by the often acerbic veteran Kushwant Singh has been proudly displayed in the section, Letters to the Editor, in a special box. Singh says it is the most readable paper in the world. ..
Afghans take to SMS journalism
IN Media Practice | 2011-10-19
Radio Azadi is facilitating citizen journalism in strife torn Afghanistan. Because the service is anonymous and discrete, women are also able to correspond actively with Radio Azadi. They wanted to know why the Taliban burnt down schools.
IN Media Practice | 2011-10-19
Why have political spokespersons and other talking heads become so indispensable for prime time television despite the fact that the same faces spout similar view on many issues?
The Bhushan attack, Times Now and The Hoot
IN Media Practice | 2011-10-17
There was no malicious intent. Nor did the writer Nupur Basu or the website intend to draw any nexus between Times Now and the attack through the article.
The RTI petition which forced the Press Council's hand
IN Media Practice | 2011-10-16
The fact that PCI was clueless about the grounds on which it rejected the application can be gauged from the divergent stances the information officer took.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-10-15
The Hindu reported how in Tamil Nadu's local body elections underway, 'paid news' was happening, quoting some tariffs for coverage by papers. It says it is widespread but despite its significance, carried the item only in the Tamil Nadu Friday editions when it is a national issue. The paper curiously..
BlackBerry gives way to pressure from governments
IN Privacy | 2011-10-14
Is Research in Motion (RIM) making too many concessions to governments over access to encrypted data on Blackberrys,
`The police are a feudal force that hates the common man'
IN Media Practice | 2011-10-14
Former journalist Prashant Rahi who took up the struggle against Tehri Dam after Sunderlal Bahuguna had called it a day was arrested and jailed for four years on the charge of being a Maoist.
IN Media Practice | 2011-10-13
The Delhi University academic council's decision to drop A.K. Ramanujan's essay, 'Three Hundred Ramayanas', from the prescribed readings for BA students,
IN Media Practice | 2011-10-13
Driven by its own agenda, television news has been reduced to a hollow fourth pillar and has abandoned its role as a bulwark of democracy,
IN Law and Policy | 2011-10-12
The government is self serving, so are TV broadcasters, who have reacted only selectively to the recasting of the uplinking /downlinking guidelines. Between the excesses of both, the quality of news and information suffers,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-10-11
India Today is on a roll, strong cover stories two weeks running. The latest one on P Chidambaram, titled ‘Fall Guy’ uses confidential documents and records of high level meetings to point straight at the PM’s role in quashing the decision to auction spectrum. More intriguing than the story itself..
Barsamian's Deportation: against free exchange of ideas
IN Media Freedom | 2011-10-10
The power to send people back from the airport is slowly becoming a weapon, used to discipline and silence people who draw any kind of attention to uncomfortable truths about India,
No more censorship in the Press Council
IN Censorship | 2011-10-10
An RTI application to demand that the Press Council of India make public its report on paid news yielded an encouraging result,
iNane : The media hysteria over Steve Jobs
IN Media Practice | 2011-10-09
Jobs and his gadgets commanded more worship than understanding. The English media in India gave a pun-filled send off to Steve Jobs, but did not provide the reader with a single line of new insight or information.
Assamese newspapersâ€"losing out to local news channels?
IN Regional Media | 2011-10-08
Two recent IRS quarterly surveys have shown that readership of newspapers is declining in Assam.
Media makes a meal out of IIT food poisoning case
IN Opinion | 2011-10-08
When food poisoning hit IIT Mumbai, city newspapers turned the glare of their spotlight on the incident for a whole week. The coverage of this incident best illustrates the relationship between most of the media and the IITs.
IN Media Practice | 2011-10-06
What is on offer on the tube on a pre-holiday evening? Same weighty people discussing weighty matters on NDTV, Anna teetering on the edge of another uposhan, KBC lending a reluctant tear to victims of Naxals, and an Indian origin Nasdaq specialist p
Defamation verdict bites Times Now
IN Law and Policy | 2011-10-04
While there is a case for decriminalizing defamation and codifying the civil law relating to it, it is imperative to strike the right balance between ensuring freedom of speech and offering sufficient, meaningful protection to the likely victims of d
TV5 expose raises questions of intent
IN Media Practice | 2011-09-30
In exposing AP cabinet minister Shankar Rao accepting a bribe, is TV5 trying to hit back at him for uncovering the misdeeds of former CM the late YSR and his son Jaganmohan Reddy?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-09-30
When prices of everything are going up everywhere, the Press Club, Mumbai has slashed liquor by ten to 16 per cent following members' "justified" complaints of high prices. It hopes this will raise consumption and add to the bottomline. Half the revenue is from liquor consumed by members and guests. Relative to..
IN Opinion | 2011-09-27
There are varying degrees of ethical deficit in media organisations. But neither the government nor civil society will do anything about it because they all need each other,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-09-27
The TOI’s Manoj Mitta says on Facebook that Rajya Sabha MP N K Singh has written to Vineet Jain of the Times of India complaining that Mitta’s Legal View column looks like “Teesta’s views.” He calls Mitta Mitta “a notorious journalist who has always taken side of wrong persons.” Such as, “Binayak Sen..
A short tweet to save the story
IN Media Practice | 2011-09-27
Many people rely on the short stories on BBC's-40-year-old Radio4 to provide the cultural focus that many other stations have wholly abandoned.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-09-26
The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has told the National Broadcasters Association that TV news and non news channels have been airing promos of a film called Dirty Picture, certified “A”, and that they have no business doing so. It has reminded them that the Cable TV Regulation Act of..
Arasu heats up the media control war in TN
IN Regional Media | 2011-09-24
As Jayalalitha moves to re-launch Arasu, the government controlled cable network to counter the control of the Karunanidhi family on broadcasting, some issues regarding licensing remain unresolved.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-09-23
The Hindu's Nirupama Subramanian writes on "The omerta on Sonia Gandhi's illness" (edit page, Sept 22, 2011), about the media's submission to secrecy on an issue of public concern. The point is that The Hindu itself has not broken the story about what the sickness was, where she was treated..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-09-23
The Indian Express and the Hindustan Times in Delhi carried the same photograph of a young Pataudi standing on a balcony overlooking a sea. Express said he was at Brighton (UK). HT said he was in Mumbai and the sea was the Arabian Sea. Can Getty Images (from whom the..
Sikkim quake - Where is the story?
IN Media Practice | 2011-09-22
After more than 36 hours a few national TV channels managed to reach Sikkim. Their news capsules were buried between Modi's fast and Ranbir Kapoor's new release. The satellite channels aired from Guwahati were quicker and more pro-active in their res
IN Opinion | 2011-09-22
Anubha Bhosle of CNN-IBN actually managed to interview Sharmila in her hospital room, something few journalists have done. On NDTV Jain looked at electric power generation in Jammu and Kashmir and unemployment and new entrepreneurship.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-09-22
The Press Club, Mumbai has raised Rs 12 lakh and handed it over to the family of the slain journalist J Dey. According to its email to members, the Club's contribution was Rs 50,000 and Star India, its corporate member chipped in with Rs 10 lakh. It said, "A full..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-09-22
The full report of the Press Council of India on paid news will now be available on the PCI website thanks to an RTI appeal by journalist Manu Moudgil who pursued his petition up to the CIC. On September 19 information commissioner Shailesh Gandhi ordered the PCI to put up the report on..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-09-22
The Opinion Editor of Financial Express ,Sunil Jain, made some jaw-dropping statements on CNN-IBN on the Planning Commission's submission before the Supreme Court that those who have the spending capacity of Rs 34 per day ,will not qualify for BPL subsidies. He said: "We don't have blinding poverty-we have people who..
Brand leader thinks inside the box
IN Media Practice | 2011-09-20
Should media houses lend their brand name to activities which they cannot influence?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-09-20
Anna mania on television has been followed by Modi mania. There were endless "exclusive" interviews with Narendra Modi on ALL channels, with .everyone asking him about his "vision", his desire to be PM etc etc… Headlines Today took the cake, following the earthquake on Sunday. Instead of talking to the..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-09-20
Time Out Mumbai's seventh anniversary cover last fortnight had a story titled Game Changers. And guess what, India Today's cover the following week had the same title for its cover story…Game Changers...
IN Media Practice | 2011-09-18
In the current news ecology the channels have created for themselves, it really does not matter whether the TAM reports are given out every minute or every six months.
Flood on Delhi rain, drought on Orissa floods
IN Media Practice | 2011-09-17
No one is disputing the media coverage of such a downpour in Delhi but watching this thousands of miles away in Orissa, I wonder how those affected by floods must have felt.
IN Opinion | 2011-09-17
There is no public interest involved in the state of his marriage or love life. Whether or not he remains married, or remarries will have no impact on the way Jammu and Kashmir is governed.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-09-16
Times Now's Newshour on petrol prices had its lighter moments on 17th September night. Miffed at not being allowed to speak Lord Meghnad Desai turned his back to the camera in protest. While the anchor and the rest of the guests laughed, it was a much more innovative way to..
`Divisive' media report sparks row
IN Media Practice | 2011-09-15
"Come One, Come All" was the slogan at the Nyishi Dignity Rally on September 13. A report in the Times of India which was critical of the Nyishi tribe has brought the community together in a concerted effort to get to the root of the story.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-09-15
J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has reacted to the Delhi Times Story, speculating on his second marriage. In a statement issued by his office, the Abdullah scion has admitted that he has separated from his wife, but the rumours of a second one coming along are "unfounded, untrue and deeply..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-09-15
This was refreshing: On NDTV's nightly Left, Right and Centre show four journalists, including host Nidhi Razdan, Swapan Dasgupta, Praveen Swamy, and Padma Rao could barely suppress their laughter when Indira Gandhi's secretary RK Dhawan shot off his mouth. Jacqueline Kennedy's recently released views of Indira Gandhi were "disparaging", he..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-09-15
One after the other, television channels, in English and in Indian languages interviewed Anna Hazare in his village after the Core Committee meeting and virtually each claimed it was "the first interview" by the man. Sans serif says there were 17 such interviews...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-09-13
The Supreme Court asked the trial to commence in a local court in Gujarat. The media knew some details of the SIT report but none is the wiser on the amicus curiae's in the Modi case. And yet why did it let the arguments that Modi had got a clean..
Breaking News: We killed him first
IN Media Practice | 2011-09-12
The competition among news channels to declare the son of cricketer Azharuddin dead after an accident highlighted the depths to which `breaking news' journalism has sunk.
IN Media Practice | 2011-09-09
On prime time news on Sept. 8 NDTV, CNN IBN and Times Now all chose in their synchronised wisdom to go after Mr Praful Patel. But lost steam when it came to the second CAG report on the Petroleum ministry and Reliance.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-09-09
Some groups in Manipur and elements in its media have taken a dim view of the Telegraph's feature on Irom Sharmila being in love. The paper has been indefinitely banned in that state...
RSF temporarily suspends Wikileaks site: Unredacted cables
IN Media Freedom | 2011-09-08
The repercussions on informants and whistleblowers cannot be ignored,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-09-08
Each blast challenges newspapers to publish pictures which underline its heniousness without being insensitive to the dead. The Hindu crossed the line on Thursday morning by carrying on page 1 a large, gruesome picture of the Delhi High Court blast which showed the gory remains of the victims. It violated the..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-09-07
Times Now once again breaking every decency norm that has been agreed upon by the self regulatory authorities. They started beaming raw mobile footage on the Delhi High Court blast with a warning slug on top :"Viewer discretion advised" . On show were dismembered limbs, burning bodies..absolutely horrific pictures that..
Got a plant, will republish for a fee
IN Media Practice | 2011-09-06
The Times of India reruns a three-year-old story on Bt Cotton without any updates as paid news. It is described as a consumer connect initiative. Why did Mahyco Monsanto Biotech get this extolling story republished?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-09-06
"Game Changer" and "Grandstanding" are much used TV terms ever since the Anna agitation.With Rahul Gandhi describing his idea of a Constitutional body in the form of Lok Pal as a 'game changer", it has become a seized upon phrase. A reporter on one of the channels was standing in..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-09-06
At an awards function held by CNN-IBN to honour real heroes in the community, Rajdeep Sardesai owned up to the biases in the media. In response to an activist from Manipur about why the media does not cover the agitations of civil society against AFPSA as it did the Anna..
Problematic interception clauses in Jan Lokpal Bill
IN Media Freedom | 2011-09-05
The Jan Lokpal Bill gives the Lokpal the authority to tap phones and intercept emails. Aruna Roy and Nikhil Dey say it amounts to excessive powers.
Problematic interception clauses in Jan Lokpal Bill
IN Media Freedom | 2011-09-05
The Jan Lokpal Bill gives the Lokpal the authority to tap phones and intercept emails. Aruna Roy and Nikhil Dey say it amounts to excessive powers.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-09-05
Minutes past 5 pm, Sept. 4, 2011, Times Now screamed 'Narayanan tells Times Now' his reaction to the WikiLeaks disclosure on India not being keen on Headly's extradition. Only thing was, the visual showed several other TV crew's microphones thrust in the man's face. Actually, he was telling everyone that,..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-09-05
A reader has written in to protest about a new Tata DoKoMo advertisement which shows a maid stealing her employer’s mobile phone, and the latter immediately zeroing in suspiciously on her. Equating people in certain occupations with a criminal bent of minds throws us back to the days of Criminal..
Anna sets the tone for the media
IN Opinion | 2011-09-05
Normally, anyone who questions the democratic credentials of the Indian State is made short shrift of by TV anchors It was refreshing to watch Arnab Goswami, who loves to brand a variety of human rights activists `terrorists’, harp on the need for th
All is fair when covering Anna?
IN Opinion | 2011-09-03
Letter to the Hoot: If the cardinal principles of good broadcasting and good editorial practices had been kept in mind, much of the drama in the heat of the moment may not have happened,
Codify Parliamentary Privileges to protect free speech
IN Media Freedom | 2011-09-02
If privileges of our elected representatives are not codified, they can be misused,
IN Regional Media | 2011-09-02
The rejection of the clemency petition of those involved in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination and the debate over capital punishment has provided the opportunity for some Tamil publications to wave the ethnic card again,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-09-01
On September 1 Tripura’s Bengali daily 'Dainik Sambad' published an opinion piece on its editorial page on the Lokpal movement and black money. The article cited as evidence a list of Swiss bank account holders of Indians (with names like Lalu Prasad Yadav, Sharad Pawar, Niira Radia, Chidambaram, Rajiv Gandhi, Karunanidhi,..
IN Media Practice | 2011-08-30
Marathi daily Loksatta asked its readers to disclose their experiences about paying bribes. The letters show the pervasive nature of bribe-taking in government and semi-government offices in Mumbai.
The unmaking of a CM in waiting
IN Regional Media | 2011-08-29
The relentless and thorough investigations launched by Eenadu and Andhra Jyoti into the corrupt regimes of YSR and the laundering of money by his son Jagan, despite their attempts to gag the media houses, is worth lauding.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-08-29
Sharad Yadav's reference to Arnab Goswami during the debate in Parliament on the Lok Pal bill was unmistakable. Taking on the anchor known for admonishing his guests, Mr. Yadav did not even spare the "young brigade" of the Congress party from appearing on his show. Wonder what the "bengali moshai" as..
IN Opinion | 2011-08-29
When they stop to think about their role will any of our television notables be embarrassed at the fulsome praise Arvind Kejriwal had for "the media" in his long thank you list?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-08-27
News TV is no longer about news, but about atmospherics. In the continuing gush after the Lok Sabha and Raja Sabha resolutions were passed not a a single English channel had the gumption to point out what was news: that Parliament had in fact kept the PM. The Judiciary and..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-08-26
The Rajya Sabha TV channel has gone on air at a time when parliament and law making are the focus of debates. It has the public sector stamp of other Indian public service channels, but like the Lok Sabha channel its debates are lucid, unhurried, and not shouting matches. ..
Anna agitation - a non-stop reality show
IN Media Practice | 2011-08-26
The frenzied coverage of Anna Hazare’s fast by the media surely gives it epic proportions. This is apart from the significance of the movement against corruption itself.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-08-26
A reader writes: The Asian Age can barely hide its disdain for Anna and his protest. The paper has been running stories with such an obvious slant that there is no mistaking its stand. Worse still, while the PM himself was forced to speak up and extend an olive branch to..
Gaga over Anna, mute over Irom Sharmila
IN Media Practice | 2011-08-25
While the national media has remained apathetic to the plight of Irom Sharmila in Manipur who has been fasting for ten years and has been force fed by the government, the same media is lapping up every bit of development from Anna’s week-long fast.
Sexist rage against reality show anchor
IN Media Practice | 2011-08-25
The ridiculing of a reality show anchor by a well known Malayalam film comedian has set the net world abuzz.
IN Books | 2011-08-25
Prof Thomas’s years of engagement with the CR movement imbues the book with an unwavering focus on the benefit to the people as the measure of success of a movement.
For Anna or against him? Do I have a choice?
IN Media Practice | 2011-08-23
In recent times it has become fashionable for the English media to take sides on an issue. For once, they should let go of this fixation to shape public opinion and focus on what they are supposed to do – Report facts.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-08-21
Shankar Sharma of First Global, once persecuted for being a financial backer of Tehelka, offered a frank summing up on ET Now of the Anna movement, highly unusual for a businessman. He said it was dadagiri not Gandhigiri, and that those seriously affected by corruption in India were the really poor and..
IN Media Practice | 2011-08-21
With more open discussions and deliberations online, will new communication technologies evolve into the much-needed discursive space in India? The question assumes significance as the commercial media takes firm stand on significant issues allowing
The commentariat in July Part II: DD ducks corruption issue
IN Books | 2011-08-21
Student research on the Hoot: Journalists dominate the commentariat, politicians come next, but regional parties missing from the discourse,
IN Media Practice | 2011-08-20
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
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-08-20
Huge, big and palatial is how MP YS Jagan Mohan Reddy's house was described in the media so far, but only DNA said it was 'jaw-dropping'. A 75-room palace on 'a 320-acre spread' in posh Banjara Hills, Hyderabad, costing about Rs 350 crore. Why did it need a CBI source to..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-08-19
A reader writes: It was amusing to watch the total divergence views on television on Thursday night of two former Infosys top guns. Infosys co-founder and former CEO Nandan Nilekani,now in the UPA government, completely rubbished the Anna agitation in a sit down one-to-one interview with Sagarika Ghosh in CNN-IBN..
Why TV channels love Anna Hazare
IN Media Business | 2011-08-18
He makes money for them, as a monitoring of news clips and their advertising value in April this year, show. This document highlights the number of news clips carried and their equivalent ad value on various television Channels.
IN Media Practice | 2011-08-18
While a dictatorial government grapples with dissent, the aam aadmi has reasons to scoff at the "second freedom movement",
IN Books | 2011-08-18
Student research on the Hoot: Corruption dominated TV discourse in July, 2011. In addition to 8 shows on the Lokpal Bill, there were six on corruption in Karnataka, four on corruption in general, and 9 on Dayanidhi Maran and the 2G accused.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-08-17
A Headlines Today commentary on what happened in the Rajya Sabha on August 17 described the fierce BJP attack as taking place "while Prime Minister Manmohan Singh sat silently licking his wounds." Hullo? Lost all sense of decorum in language, have we?..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-08-16
While every channel lived off the fast which wasn't, and the arrest, Times Now adopted Anna's cause. It scrolled, "Raise your voice, India for Anna, maximum coverage on Times Now". Then it went further: "If you want to show your support raise your voice in your city at 7 pm." This was..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-08-16
On August 16 night NDTV said Anna Hazare's release was at Rahul Gandhi's intervention, and that he had intervened with the PM. It seemed to be a scoop nobody else was saying that, nor was any other channel able to explain why he was being released. Then NDTV had doubts,..
IN Books | 2011-08-16
Student research on the Hoot: With politics and crime taking primacy, a survey of prime time coverage aired by IBN Lokmat, reveals mixed feelings about the show among viewers.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-08-16
After saying how media can change perceptions, filmmaker Ashutosh Gowarikar (Pardes, Jodha Akbar et al) asked an 600-odd strong audience in Thane "how many of you think media is good?". Not a single hand went up triggering a ripple of laughter. Several journalists present, including writer-historian Ramchandra Guha, journalist Kumar..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-08-16
The Shiv Sena party mouthpiece ‘Saamna’ in its Sunday edition carried a 'missing people' advertisement taking a sarcastic dig at Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi, stating he was missing from Maharashtra where the farmers really need him. The ad described Gandhi's appearance, the kind of clothes he wears and his..
IN Media Practice | 2011-08-15
The problem with Arakshan is not that it is needlessly provocative,but that it is such a disappointing film. .Free speech battles should be fought over more deserving material.
The Times’ take on India’s first Independence Day
IN Books | 2011-08-14
Journalism practice had a fixed aim - promoting the empire’s image in the West.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-08-14
With reference to Kalpana Sharma’s column on the Hoot on giving credit, that IE editor Shekhar Gupta has not made amends either. He praises his correspondent’s story in his Saturday column but again fails to give credit to Beena Sarwar for the original story. She tweeted, "Great follow up by Indian..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-08-14
On august 14 TOI carried a self serving DTH provider survey, which said, "The biggest launch of last year, MOVIES NOW, which showcases the biggest Hollywood blockbusters in HD, is not carried by Tata Sky, but is carried by all the other operators.” Not a word about who owns MOVIES..
IN Opinion | 2011-08-13
Manu Pubby, however, made no mention in his story that this letter had first appeared in a story by Sarwar in The News as part of Aman Ki Asha. Not just that, but his story ran with a misleading headline.
Media discourse hits rock bottom
IN Media Practice | 2011-08-12
Instead of being vigilant, the media is lapping up `explosive’ information leaked to them by senior government functionaries without asking why this is being done.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-08-12
Anil Shastri, the editor of Congress mouthpiece 'Sandesh', has been replaced by senior party leader Girja Vyas. Shastri had courted controversy recently over an editorial in 'Sandesh' in which he attacked the government for sending four senior ministers to receive yoga guru Ramdev at the airport...
IN Censorship | 2011-08-09
The issues involved in the ‘Aarakshan’ controversy are fundamental to the functioning of a free, democratic and pluralistic society that accords a high place to tolerance,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-08-09
The BJP is entitled to be sharp in its demand for accountability when the CWG-related CAG report is being debated in Parliament. How come the NewsX reporter thinks it amounts to “political scoring of brownie points?” The channel gave it a revenge-for-Yedurappa spin. (August 9) ..
IN Media Practice | 2011-08-08
Ad campaigns of Idea Cellular try dealing with social issues but fall flat on logic,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-08-08
A company called Chrome Data Analytics & Media has launched Chrome NE for North East India, which will provide viewership data for the 8 states of this region. Media planners may now actually discover that there is a living breathing population out there with normal consumer behavior. (Media Mughals) ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-08-07
In a strange move, External Affairs Minister S M Krishna has served a legal notice on Press Trust of India (PTI) for reporting that he appeared to be absent minded when called upon to make a statement by the Lok Sabha Speaker. PTI had reported that when Speaker Meira Kumar..
IN Media Practice | 2011-08-07
For the Telugu film industry which has been unable to generate a cultural space for its viewers, vulgarity and violence have been the only ways out.
UID: Nothing to hide, nothing to fear?
IN Books | 2011-08-05
As the UID virus has the nation in its grip, there is talk of greater accountability and transparency.
IN Media Practice | 2011-08-03
Letter to the Hoot: Is this the ethics in journalism ? Just because you are a powerful newspaper, can you lift stuff off any blogs , when I even have a Creative Commons Licence,
Media houses stall Wage Board recommendations
IN Media Business | 2011-08-03
Using the Indian Newspaper Society as a tool, media barons have launched a campaign to stall the Wage Board recommendations.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-08-02
This surely is without precedent. An union minister has to meet a chief minister in her state in a TV channel's premises because she is busy giving her first television interview. Last week Jairam Ramesh flew into Kolkata to meet CM Mamata Banerjee to discuss the new draft of the National..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-08-01
A reader writes: It is weird to see that the blasts that happened today in Manipur got less than half an hour coverage, unlike what happened in Mumbai, which got more than 24X7 attention. While I am not belittling anyone or any city, I do find it weird as to..
The curious case of the missing worker
IN Media Practice | 2011-08-01
But ironically what does not find place anywhere in the reports is the core issue itself – the workers' protest! What was the march about?
IN Media Practice | 2011-08-01
The Ghulam Nabi Fai controversy died an early death in the print media, leaving a crucial question unanswered – should journalists accept the hospitality of obviously partisan groups?
IN Media Practice | 2011-07-29
"Perception" is another tool which is frequently used by the media to denigrate a person or an idea and also as a force multiplier in furthering the negative aspects of a situation,
Tata ad obscures tribal plight
IN Media Practice | 2011-07-29
An ad campaign launched by the Tatas has to be seen in light of the faceoff between corporates who have been attempting to exploit the mineral wealth of the hinterland, and those opposed to them.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-07-29
The National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights has issued a press release to say that it constituted a team in Madhya Pradesh to investigate the Hindustan Times story on sex change in infants in Indore. It says the team met with the Hindustan Times reporter who was not able to..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-07-28
The media in India is finding it difficult to focus on Pak foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar in her professional capacity. Some of the coverage is postively sexist, dwelling on her handbag, and jewellery item by item. News 24's camera looked her up and down slowly. Not once, but twice, ..
Promoting Pak-Afghan Media Collaboration
IN Opinion | 2011-07-26
The attempt to promote and facilitate collaboration was aimed at improving coverage and understanding of Afghanistan and issues of common interest in Pakistan through bringing on board the mainstream media.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-07-24
Mint Lounge on 23 July had a feature on riding through Delhi in the wee hours. The writer was supposedly checking out police commissioner B K Gupta’s statement that women shouldn’t travel alone at 2 am. A Meru cab is used for the sojourn, we are told, with the writer..
Why none of this would happen here
IN Media Practice | 2011-07-22
Our media as an institution is in the business of raking in money rather than handing it out for stories. And our politicians do not hold the media to account here. They accept that it is always supposed to be the other way around.
Why corporatization can be good
IN Media Practice | 2011-07-21
The recent phone tapping scandal involving the Rupert Murdoch owned News of the World tabloid, signals a case for the corporatization of news media which, without the fear of prosecution, often runs amok.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-07-21
News you can use sections are a gift to the PR community.Though the newspaper is yet to announce it the PR circuit is agog with the Hindustan Times' plans of starting a new section on technology and gadgets which will feature reviews, trend stories, news etc on the tech world...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-07-20
A board meeting of the Hindu appointed Siddharth Varadarajan editor of the paper today. Of the dissenting family members three tendered their resignations from the editorial management of the paper: N Ravi the editor, Malini Parthasarathy the executive editor, and Nirmala Lakshman who was joint editor. The case filed by..
Alarming spike in legal actions against the media
IN Media Freedom | 2011-07-19
In the recent past, a number of legal restraints on free speech have been initiated against journalists and the media in India, including charges of sedition, defamation, contempt of court, official secrets and hate speech,
IN Media Practice | 2011-07-19
The trigger happy Indian media has always shot off volleys at a series of Islamic organistions (real and imagined) every time there have been bomb blasts.
IN Media Practice | 2011-07-19
The Times of India and Deccan Chronicle have hit the TN hinterland. The entry of these city-based newspapers will change equations between them and the existing dispensation led by The New Indian Express and The Hindu.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-07-17
DNA has published an article by Subramaniam Swamy titled “How to wipe out Islamic terror” on July 16. Apart from assuming that only Hindus are victims of terrorism it urges Hindus to respond as Hindus and lists a five point strategy to counter Islamic terrorism including..
IN Media Practice | 2011-07-17
The Indian Murdochs will not apologise. Nor will the Indian Rebekah Brooks resign. Mr Smith has spread rapidly in Indian media. There are no Neos here to challenge him.
IN Opinion | 2011-07-15
Letter to the Hoot: By splashing gore on their front pages newspapers have shown a penchant for sensationalizing.
IN Opinion | 2011-07-15
When television voyeurs enter hospitals, people stomping around emergency wards obstructs the work of doctors and nurses. Surely it is not too much to expect from responsible mediapersons that they recognize this.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-07-14
The Hindu in Delhi has carried far more gory pictures of blast victims than any other daily, including the tabloid Mail Today. Both on its front and back pages, from the badly injured to the deceased, pictures have been splashed for all to see, and this is not for the first time. It..
IN Media Practice | 2011-07-13
Reporters in the field experience a ‘low-level’ sexual abuse that they often ignore, not wishing to jeopardise a good assignment or be treated differently from their male colleagues.
IN Media Practice | 2011-07-12
Over the last year the state government has given Rs 28.47 crore as advertising to newspapers and television channels. The figure is much higher than in preceding years, but then an election was imminent.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-07-11
A major accident on a train from their region will make newspapers look for local victims. And invent them if necessary. Punjab papers reporting on the Kalka mail accident wrote their own script on Sunday night when the number of Ambala victims was not confirmed. The Punjab Kesari reported that seven..
IN Books | 2011-07-09
In an era of globalised communication technologies, research is focussing on the potential of media as a means of ‘soft power’, to persuade people and wield influence. The issue of credibility also complicates the study of media as a means of soft po
IN Media Practice | 2011-07-08
The good things the News of the World does, however, have been sullied by behaviour that was wrong. Indeed, if recent allegations are true, it was inhuman and has no place in our Company. The News of the World is in the business of holding others to
IN Media Practice | 2011-07-06
As far as I can tell, the judge simply did his job. He went by the (largely circumstantial) evidence, completely disregarding the media hype. But every news item was spun so that it confirmed and reiterated the popular "gut-feeling" theory about the
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-07-05
The AIADMK has fielded journalist and television anchor A William Rabi Bernard as its candidate for the July 22 by-elections to fill up the vacant Rajya Sabha seat from Tamil Nadu. Bernard had worked with various TV channels before he joined Jaya TV for which he has anchored several programmes...
Response to Journalism in Mamata land
IN Media Practice | 2011-07-04
If Bengal media is now singing paeans to Mamata, it’s a replay of what happened after Bhattacharjee had taken over from Jyoti Basu.
Media ironies in Pakistan administered Kashmir
IN Media Practice | 2011-07-04
Pak administered Kashmir has newspapers but they lack coverage of the region. And when the mainstream Pak press covers Kashmir they are focused on the Indian side.
IN Media Practice | 2011-07-04
The HT story on sex change created a sensation but is full of misleading information. It does not distinguish between sex change and corrective surgery for genital ambiguity.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-07-03
On June 30 TV channels started creating panic by airing that in next two days the water level of the Yamuna river in Delhi was going to increase, as water was being released from the Hathni Kund barrage in Haryana. The water level of Yamuna had increased from 50 thousand..
Cybercensorship: GOI's take down requests increase
IN Censorship | 2011-07-02
Defamation and national security are top of the list of reasons for government requests to take down content on the search engine,
IN Opinion | 2011-07-02
Some kinds of student reservation bother the media. Others don’t. A city like Mumbai has colleges with reservations for linguistic and religious minorities which gobble up as much as 65 per cent of seats.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-06-30
The PM’s media advisor Harish Khare's house has been burgled. Thieves made off with his laptop and car. A wag suggests that it must have been the handiwork of disgruntled editors who were not invited for a tete a tete with the PM. Police say his laptop must contain some..
IN Media Practice | 2011-06-30
In the past too, the PM’s media interactions have been a subject matter of scrutiny and the fact that he does not adopt a more robust and charismatic spin to his interactions has been noted.
Rural scribes: maligned and vulnerable
IN Media Freedom | 2011-06-29
In rural areas journalists have absolutely no protection. The anti-socials they write about know where the journalist lives, the cell phone number and the journalist’s movements. So where can the journalist hide?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-06-29
Delhi Times is supposed to be a pure marketing driven venture, the TOI supposedly not. So maybe they explore different angles of the same story. But even that does not explain why the main paper says actress Anushka Sharma had been let off by the customs authorities after 10 hours of questioning..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-06-29
The PM’s media advisor seems to ensure that each time there is a press interaction the manner of choosing people for the briefing makes more news than anything the PM says. Last time he left out the I and B minister, this time he did the same but invited the National..
Rural scribes: maligned and vulnerable
IN Media Freedom | 2011-06-29
In rural areas journalists have no protection. The anti-socials they write about know where the journalist lives, the cell phone number and the journalist’s movements.
Making Pakistani journalism safer
IN Opinion | 2011-06-28
An independent Pakistan Journalist Safety Fund has been established to offer a broad range of technical, material and/or financial support to journalists in distress anywhere in Pakistan.
IN Media Practice | 2011-06-28
What are the folks who run NewsX thinking when they flash the image of a 13-year-old rape victim at least ten times in the course of a news item? (June 27) Yes her face is covered with a cloth except for her eyes but is that good enough? Just those eyes..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-06-27
Last week Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said his government would not allow local cable channels to resume broadcasting news. “We are not going to allow local channels to broadcast news, not in the immediate future,” When asked about minister Taj Mohi-ud-Din’s reported remarks that he would resign if the channels..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-06-26
When an interview on CNBC-TV18 with the MD of Research in Motion (RIM) India-- the makers of Blackberry phones-- has a backdrop advertising a Blackberry PlayBook (june 25) what is one supposed to deduce? That it is a sponsored interview? Or that the backdrop is being paid for by the..
IN Media Practice | 2011-06-24
Live TV is a test by fire to graduate to the big league of politics. For now, Live TV tells us that Ramdev has failed. And by not having had to take the test in his lifetime, Satya Sai Baba’s legacy is in jeopardy with no unified defence in place to
IN Opinion | 2011-06-24
Letter to the Hoot: The Deccan Chronicle’s insensitive coverage of the gay surrogacy issue shows up the newspaper in poor light.
IN Opinion | 2011-06-24
Letter to the Hoot: The basis on which the editor of Indian Express brushed aside the Devas-Antrix issue as imaginary is unsubstantial.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-06-22
Arindam Chaudhuri of IIPM has surpassed his own previous record of lawsuits against those who write about his institute by suing The Caravan magazine for Rs 500 million for “grave harassment and injury”. Like a similar case against Careers 360 this one too has been filed in Assam. The magazine wrote..
Media as guide and rabble rouser
IN Media Practice | 2011-06-21
The media has discarded tenets of professional journalism and taken on the task of pitching this ‘civil society’ against the government.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-06-19
Even as new theories are surfacing about who might be behind J Dey’s killing it is worth reiterating that the murders of two Chhattisgarh journalists Sushil Pathak and Umesh Rajput, in December 2010 and January 2011 remain unsolved. Investigation in the former case has now been transferred to the CBI. ..
Putting Balochistan on the national media map
IN Opinion | 2011-06-18
As the rest of Balochistan waits to plug into the vibrant media scene, Quetta has become the provincial hub of media activity.
Draft protection law double edged
IN Opinion | 2011-06-17
There was stiff opposition from within the Maharashtra cabinet that journalists should not be accorded any ‘special’ status and that malpractices of journalists must also be included in any proposed legislation.
Draft protection law double edged
IN Law and Policy | 2011-06-17
There was stiff opposition from within the Maharashtra cabinet that journalists should not be accorded any ‘special’ status and that malpractices of journalists must also be included in any proposed legislation.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-06-16
After the J Dey murder, the law promised by Maharashtra CM Prthiviraj Chavan to protect journalists has no support in his cabinet. Some want a 'journalist' to be defined, others a platform to deal with the fraternity's "objectionable activities". Ministers confide that most journalists are into stuff unrelated to media, and claim..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-06-16
The CAG report on how the government favoured Reliance and two other companies on KG-Basin gas was broken by TOI and HT on the same day, carried on page one, and both had follow up stories the next day. The Hindu picked it up on page one the second day...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-06-14
Swami Nigmananda, fasting for almost four months to protest illegal mining and stone crushing along the Ganga near Haridwar, died at the Himalayan hospital in Jollygrant in Dehradun on Monday. He was admitted in the same hospital as Baba Ramdev. Ironically it was only after paying with his life, that he..
IN Media Freedom | 2011-06-13
In a country where there is now more soft journalism than hard, J Dey, editor investigations of Mid-Day, has paid the price for risking taking on dangerous people.
Crime reporters: The journalists who know too much
IN Media Freedom | 2011-06-12
The dastardly killing of J Dey, Mid-Day’s special investigations editor, in Mumbai, the second since January this year, underlines the precarious lives of crime reporters,
Radio combats HIV and violence against women
IN Community Media | 2011-06-11
Violence against women is rampant in Nepal, and violence has also been a cause of spread of HIV here. Samajhdar, a weekly grassroots radio programme is addressing that.
IN Opinion | 2011-06-11
In FATA, the theatre of conflict between Pakistani and international forces and militants of Taliban and Al Qaeda, conflict sound bites drown out news and information about development and public works.
The eternal dissent of the artist
IN Media Practice | 2011-06-09
The death of M F Husain, away from the country of his birth, underscores his painful decision to stay away from India after facing increasing attacks from rightwing forces, but artists in India continue to register their dissent.
IN Opinion | 2011-06-09
Letter to the Hoot: The display of brutality by the "self-righteous (sic) media foot-soldiers" exposed their veneer of sophistication and pedestrian convictions,
IN Media Practice | 2011-06-08
Its not clear whether ‘Didi’, who had portrayed herself as a champion of democracy, approves of such behavior but it is obvious to the field reporters in Kolkata that the media is on its knees.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-06-08
Times Now continues to put its full weight behind Anna Hazare. On the 7th night the anchor and reporter gave detailed instructions on how to get to Rajghat on the 8th June, presumably to support his fast. Quite amazing...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-06-08
French regulators have banned the words “Facebook” and “Twitter” from French TV and radio unless those words are used to refer to the companies themselves in news stories. The regulator, France’s Conseil Supérieur de l’Audiovisuel, says that it is "clandestine" advertising to use the names otherwise, violating a 1992 decree..
IN Media Practice | 2011-06-07
Do we now hear that there is "communal" and "secular" corruption? It depends on whether you support or oppose the midnight eviction of Baba Ramadev. If the polity is not serious about corruption as it is often pointed out, the nature of media coverag
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-06-07
The Hindu has decided that Baba is not a suitable prefix for the man at the centre of the news for the last few days – Ramdev. In an edit (June 6) on the developments around his fast, The Hindu first puts ‘Baba’ within inverted commas before his name and then..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-06-07
Kidnapped Colombian journalist Mario Esteban Lopez escaped being burned alive by kidnappers because the gasoline they doused him with wetted their matches, he told EFE. "I struggled with them, the pack of matches fell to the floor of the car and was left completely soaked," he said Friday by telephone..
IN Censorship | 2011-06-06
The killing of Syed Shahzad is a royal gag order -- a warning to the journalists who are speaking out about the unravelling of the state of Pakistan due to its destructive obsession with a security doctrine that has nothing to do with the people,
IN Media Freedom | 2011-06-06
The killing of Syed Shahzad is a royal gag order -- a warning to the journalists who are speaking out about the unravelling of the state of Pakistan due to its destructive obsession with a security doctrine that has nothing to do with the people,
IN Opinion | 2011-06-06
The Times of India, which never fails to surprise, was in fact the best in using the day, and the day before, to bring across some serious stories on the environment.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-06-05
Lots of eyebrows rose in Kolkata when two news channels close to chief minister Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress scooped the state higher secondary results, and started running them before the official press conference to release them. The scoop was aired by Channel 10 and Kolkata TV...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-06-05
Kaveree Bamzai becoming editor of India Today is believed to be a precursor to MJ Akbar exiting in a few months time. His tenure as editorial director for the magazine and Headlines Today turned out to be remarkably short-lived. Why? A wag suggests that while MJ was being MJ, Aroon..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-06-03
Some PR, this! Speaking at Ramila Grounds, Baba Ramdev couldn't thank the media enough. He put a monetary figure for their support. The number of pages written and the number of telecast minutes translated to "crores of rupees which this sanyasi cannot count". He asked his supporters to applaud the..
Family owned channel captures minister’s post-election dynamism
IN Regional Media | 2011-06-03
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.
Print media, women and the state
IN Books | 2011-06-03
The first half of the book dwells upon the importance of modernity, politics and literacy upon women in India, the second half is a collection of essays mapping the history of the newspaper industry in India.
Merging old and new media: a new research agenda
IN Books | 2011-06-03
Media researchers have begun to study how media groups worldwide are appointing editors, and staff, to mine the social media networks and promote their programs via YouTube and Facebook.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-06-02
In the foreground a business channel reporter was narrating details of what was coming to light about the ways in which Dayanidhi Maran was using his home in Chennai as a mini telephone exchange linked to the Sun TV business premises, when he was communications minister. In the background a live stockmarket ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-06-02
Journalists in Pakistan have been allowed to carry small arms for self-protection following the killing of Syed Saleem Shahzad, who was said to have been picked up by the ISI and tortured. Geo News quoted Interior Minister Rehman Malik as saying that orders have been passed to allow journalists to..
IN Media Freedom | 2011-06-02
The evolution of Pakistan’s independent broadcast media coincided with the rise of terrorism in the country…While over 70 have been killed, a staggering 2,000-plus have been injured, arrested or kidnapped
Call for investigation into murder of Pak journalist
IN Media Freedom | 2011-06-01
The brutal murder of Pakistani journalist Syed Shahzad shocked the world and free expression organisations around the world have demanded an investigation.
UN Rapporteur on intermediary liability
IN Media Freedom | 2011-05-30
‘Take down notices’ can severely infringe freedom of expression and intermediaries must follow these only after judicial intervention,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-05-29
When the Economist sent out emails to subscribers, apparently only in India, saying there would be a delay in distribution due to issues of clearance with the Indian Customs, it drew attention to its website which had the article available to readers. That article is no different, the box included, from..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-05-29
The Indian Express is suing the New Indian Express group for breach of agreement, for bringing the Sunday Standard to Delhi. Watch this space...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-05-29
Mumbai attack plotter David Headley told a Chicago court on May 25 that live TV broadcasts from India on 26/11 gave terrorist handlers in Pakistan all the visuals they needed to instruct their gunmen on how to battle advancing Indian commandos, recalibrate the attack on the ground and inflict maximum..
Why Mumbai’s slum demolitions go unreported
IN Opinion | 2011-05-29
Though almost half of Mumbai’s population lives in slums, its English print media readers remain unaware of the rapid demolition of thousands of homes. The demolition of the Golibar slum has gone largely unreported, deemed irrelevant to English reade
IN Media Practice | 2011-05-27
There are shoulders and shoulders. Then, there is Gautam Gambhir’s shoulder. Healthy, it fetches money for Gambhir. Injured, it fetches money for the channels and publicity for Gambhir.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-05-27
Not to be outdone by television, the Hindustan Times devoted an entire sports page out of two, every inch of it, to Gautam Gambhir's shoulder. ..
The right to free expression includes the right to offend
IN Media Freedom | 2011-05-26
The recommendations of the UN Special Rapporteur, Frank La Rue, acquire significance in the wake of the meeting of G8 countries in Paris to discuss tighter controls on the internet.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-05-24
When an NDTV anchor says Jairam Ramesh has foot in mouth disease because he criticized the quality of the teaching staff at the IITs and IIMs, what exactly is she suggesting? That these institutions are sacred cows in our elitist mindset and disparaging remarks about them are not allowed? (Sonia Singh..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-05-24
‘Corporates denied bail’, ’corporate booked for cheating’. When did an adjective become a noun? And when did a word which applies to a body corporate begin to be used to suggest businessmen and executives? ..
IN Media Practice | 2011-05-24
The jholawala is gone and now we have journalists portrayed in movies with chief ministerial aspirations.
Reporting the 2010 agitation in Kashmir
IN Books | 2011-05-24
STUDENT RESEARCH ON THE HOOT: A comparative study of the regional and mainstream dailies suggests discernable differences in their coverage of 2010 Kashmir agitation.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-05-22
The Indian Customs held up distribution of the May 21 issue of The Economist for featuring a map showing the "current effective border" between India and Pakistan, requiring it to "show only its territorial claims" according to an email from the publishers to all Indian subscribers. The issue carries a cover story..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-05-22
An Outlook reader wonders if it is a mere coincidence that the magazine’s latest issue has a story related to India’s defence chiefs followed by another on the Pakistan army, with three full pages of defence-related advertisements alongside. Or is the magazine linking advertising to editorial?..
A frenzied media fails to use the RTI Act
IN Media Practice | 2011-05-22
Social activists have converted the RTI into a powerful tool for those seeking justice, using persistence. They acquire information under the act and give it to the media.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-05-21
Twice a year its time to remember Rajiv Gandhi at the exchequer’s expense. This year, on his death anniversary, the tally in English newspapers came to 69 ads over 41 pages in 12 newspapers, reports San Serif. Consider that doubled and tripled, since the Hindi and regional language newspapers in the..
IN Media Practice | 2011-05-21
The book is a useful reference guide that should be mandatory reading for all associated with journalism. It would, however, have carried more weight with contributions from men,
Changes at the Hindu postponed
IN Media Practice | 2011-05-21
An EGM of Kasturi and Sons passes resolutions permitting the professionalisation of the 132-year-old newspaper, but a Company Law Board order restrains their implementation. The member says the proposal to remove all the family directors is not in
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-05-20
The latest on Sun News: First lead, Mamata swearing in. Second, strike in Kerala over petrol prices. Third, an update on Rajnikant’s health. Fourth: shifting of the secretariat in Tamil Nadu. No mention of Kanimozhi’s arrest. ..
IN Media Freedom | 2011-05-19
How free can speech be before it offends someone and can we have a legally acceptable common sense approach to the issue,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-05-18
Zee news has launched a publicity campaign which says, ‘say no to the non-news content on news channel to maintain the sanctity of news.’ It has a launched microsite for the purpose and is getting advertisers, fellow channel heads and others to come and state why they think non news..
IN Books | 2011-05-18
It is notable that both Indian ministers and their Australian counterparts were forced into breathless reaction by the Indian media’s coverage of the ‘racism story’.
Assam channels re-enact poll wars
IN Media Practice | 2011-05-17
The Assam election process has been completed and the Congress has been returned to power with a thumping majority.
Propaganda TV fails to make a mark in TN poll
IN Media Practice | 2011-05-16
Media reach has always represented power in TN politics and has been factored into predictions of poll outcomes.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-05-16
There has been precious little mainstream media focus on the smaller parties that have made a difference to the outcome of these elections. On the AIUDF, which has overtaken the AGP as the principal opposition party in Assam, on the All India NR Congress, a breakaway from the Congress formed just..
Elections 2011 – jo jeeta woh Sikandar
IN Media Practice | 2011-05-15
By 9.50 am Arnab Goswami on Times Now had already granted the LDF victory : "We can put our neck out on this one..LDF is winning in Kerala- Prakash Karat did not support VS, what will happen to him?"
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-05-14
Guess what Jaya TV was showing shortly after Jayalalitha’s press conference. An old Jaya and MGR movie with prancing and dancing sequences. Odd choice?..
Elitist press spouts asatya on Baba
IN Media Practice | 2011-05-14
To anyone who has paid unbiased attention to what Baba has said it is quite clear that his teachings emanate from a conviction in the idea of a singular divinity.
We are committed to free speech, says Indian government!
IN Digital Media | 2011-05-13
The Indian government’s clarification on the curbs on intermediaries seeks to reassure critics of the IT rules,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-05-13
When you’ve had months to plan, is it so difficult to format your onscreen display so that people can view results for five states at a glance? Of all the news channels, only NDTV 24x7 managed it. Not even NDTV India...
Cheap insinuations about Kanimozhi
IN Opinion | 2011-05-12
Letter to the Hoot: The three stories are cheap, and perverted, bringing a marital relationship in to question and violating our fundamental right to privacy,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-05-12
A viewer writes: When it comes to covering Rahul Gandhi, Star News certainly lives up to its tagline 'aapko rakhe aage'. On May 11 in UP Deepak Chaurasia was at his 'Peepli Live' best, drooling over Rahul Gandhi, reminding us of his past outings in Mumbai locals, night spends in Dalit huts, etc. A..
Now Govt can also access personal data via the IT Act
IN Privacy | 2011-05-11
The new rules under the IT Amendment Act of 2008 actually authorize the government to access passwords and credit card information. Corporates have to hand them over, if the government asks for them.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-05-11
"There are a lot of young Indians who want their newspaper to be stimulating, intelligent and empowering. Only two papers in India fulfil that role: the Hindu and the Express". Shekhar Gupta in an interview to GQ. Wonder if the bosses at the Hindu concur!..
IN Media Practice | 2011-05-11
With every media house clearly selective about whose corruption they will expose, the fourth estate's credibility in Andhra Pradesh is now touching rock bottom.
IN Books | 2011-05-10
The Hoot excerpts an essay from Nalini Rajan’s edited volume The Digitized Imagination.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-05-09
Tehran Times has run an "exclusive" interview with Siddharth Varadarajan, "editor- in- chief" of The Hindu...the interview has him speak on international affairs and that he doesn't "think that Washington will be successful" in damaging friendly ties between Iran and India. Nothing wrong with the interview you'd say, till you..
The 10 Tools of Online Oppressors
IN Media Freedom | 2011-05-08
The world’s worst online oppressors are using an array of tactics, some reflecting astonishing levels of sophistication, others reminiscent of old-school techniques. From China’s high-level malware attacks to Syria’s brute-force imprisonments, this m
The 10 Tools of Online Oppressors
IN Media Freedom | 2011-05-08
The world’s worst online oppressors are using an array of tactics, some reflecting astonishing levels of sophistication, others reminiscent of old-school techniques. From China’s high-level malware attacks to Syria’s brute-force imprisonments, this m
IN Media Practice | 2011-05-08
What sense do FCRA restrictions for not for profit media make when commercial media houses are permitted varying degrees of foreign direct investment? Why did the law passed last week not take the changed FDI scenario into account,
IN Books | 2011-05-08
STUDENT RESEARCH ON THE HOOT: While it is evident that the RTI is a powerful tool in the hands of the media, only a few are making adequate use of it.
Book review: A constructive discourse
IN Books | 2011-05-06
The book portrays the changing scenario of peoples’ expectations from mainstream media which has been corporatized and is responsible for the commodification of news.
Lokmat forces inquiry into sex scandal
IN Regional Media | 2011-05-06
The Kolhapur sex scandal has come to light because one newspaper was bold enough to report on it.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-05-05
Chief Electoral Officer Bhanwar Lal said on May 2 that returning officers concerned have issued 55 notices to the various contesting candidates in the Andhra by elections, including Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy, who received 39 of them for paid news during the campaigning. Reddy has replied to nine of..
Osama is dead, long live print!
IN Opinion | 2011-05-04
What we heard were the predictable voices, the concerted attempt to fix Pakistan’s complicity and the self-righteous tone of ‘security experts’ from India.
Media laps up fake photo of Bin Laden
IN Media Practice | 2011-05-04
Many newspapers and channels used a morphed photo of Osama after he was killed.
Can't take free speech for granted in India!
IN Media Freedom | 2011-05-03
Since January, one journalist has been killed, and nine others attacked.Besides, there is the blocking of 11 websites, telephone taps, hate speech on Facebook and the censorship of books and film.
Can't take free speech for granted in India!
IN Media Freedom | 2011-05-03
Since January, one journalist has been killed, and nine others attacked.Besides, there is the blocking of 11 websites, telephone taps, hate speech on Facebook and the censorship of books and film.
IN Media Practice | 2011-05-03
One anguished reader of The Arunachal Times wrote, "Osama killed Dorjee Khandu". But for the people of Arunachal Pradesh, Khandu is probably more important.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-05-03
On the May 2nd morning TV channels switched their aggression on, with Times Now, who else, taking the lead. Questions on the screens, and scrolling below: “Can Pak army really claim they had no idea?” “Isn’t it apparent that ISI was involved in building Osama’s hideout?” “How was Osama living..
Re: Professional vs family editors?
IN Media Business | 2011-05-01
The Editor is to be responsible to the entire Corporate Board and not to any single director. The editorial agenda comes under the direct purview of this board, never mind the express provision in the Code of Values to insulate the Editor from "share
Language newspapers in a metropolis
IN Books | 2011-05-01
STUDENT RESEARCH ON THE HOOT: `Obituary pages are a favourite with Malayalis living outside Kerala.’ A reader survey of two Malayalam newspapers, Malayala Manorama and Mathrubhumi, based in New Delhi.
IN Media Freedom | 2011-04-30
Personal data is being perilously retained on the Web
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-04-30
A pitch-perfect, non-bloomer wedding? Times Now tried its best to sex it up with the comments on the TV screen. “Kate lives up to pressure of beating Diana at the alter” said one. “Prince Edward married amidst rumours of his homosexuality,” said another...
IT rules for intermediaries: chilling effect for free speech on the Net
IN Media Freedom | 2011-04-29
From harassing, disparaging and blasphemous to anything that threatens the unity, integrity, defence or public order - the ambit of the new Information Technology rules is vast and arbitrary,
Chilling effect of IT rules for intermediaries
IN Media Freedom | 2011-04-29
From harassing, disparaging and blasphemous to anything that threatens the unity, integrity, defence or public order - the ambit of the new Information Technology rules is vast and arbitrary,
Professional vs family editors?
IN Media Practice | 2011-04-28
Many journalists within the paper will welcome the move, even if Varadarajan’s rival claimants do not. The problem in the Hindu has always been, how far up the editorial ladder can a truly talented professional go?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-04-27
The Times of India has given all its reporters a Blackberry. And generosity is not the reason behind the free gift. The paper wants all its reporters to file separate stories for its online edition and to make it easy for them, there is the office sponsored BB...
The Hindu: the sparring continues
IN Media Practice | 2011-04-27
The Minister’s intention to hugely reward The Hindu that had been so friendly to him in its coverage was obvious. Publication in other newspapers was just a cover.
IN Opinion | 2011-04-25
Letter to the Hoot: Despite a seemingly compromised ownership, Mathrubhumi has been fair and rigorous in it election coverage.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-04-25
Sai Baba's death is no longer about his death. It is more about who's who (dignitaries, film stars, cricketers) visiting and shedding tears. Headlines Today for instance ran a special on Sachin Tendulkar breaking down and sitting beside the Baba's body. The camera kept zooming on Sachin and his wife,..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-04-25
Pending a 4 pm official announcement that Suresh Kalmadi was arrested, minutes after noon TV channels were racing to claim credit - 'Impact’. CNN-IBN said it was the first to break the story of the contract to a Swiss company, and the Times Now took credit for the AM Cars..
Good journalism that is also commercially successful
IN Media Practice | 2011-04-25
The Hindu’s newly stated code of values raises the question of the plausibility of the traditionally-understood role of the media as the ‘fourth-estate’ and its compatibility with what is understood as ‘commercially successful journalism’ today,
Chhattisgarh media: sounds of silence
IN Media Freedom | 2011-04-23
"I just want to report honestly on the plight of these very poor people....I have reported on how police detain youths and tonsure them. But I face intimidation with thanedars warning me to suppress the reports."
Copyright and discursive freedoms
IN Opinion | 2011-04-23
Fair dealing clauses, technology, electronic copying, piracy...
IN Regional Media | 2011-04-22
Every other day we have Mamata eulogies camouflaged as news. She is the mainstream media’s candidate and she is also the industry’s favourite as the next chief minister.
IN Media Practice | 2011-04-21
We would not wish to be diverted from the basic objective of taking the Company and its publications, above all The Hindu, forward. Separation of ownership and management is a principle many successful organizations maintain, and when it comes to n
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-04-21
If Siddharth Varadarajan becomes editor of the Hindu as proposed by N Ram he will be the first non family member (and non Iyengar) to be editor of the paper since it was bought over by the Kasturi family. Apparently other names proposed were P Sainath and Praveen Swami...
IN Media Practice | 2011-04-21
Almost a year past the agreed retirement date, his position having become untenable in the face of the Company Law Board order, Ram seems bent on taking all the editorial directors into retirement with him with a scorched earth policy to ensure that
Internet media: fragile freedom
IN Media Freedom | 2011-04-20
Cyberattacks, politically motivated censorship, and government control over internet infrastructure are among the diverse and growing threats to internet freedom. India ranks as ‘partly free’
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-04-19
The TOI had a page one story on April 18 on the Kashmiri soldier who reported an overture to enlist him as a spy for Pakistan on the sidelines of the Mohali match. The headline read, “J&K Muslim jawan helps nab Pak spy”. And then it referred to the jawan as..
IN Media Freedom | 2011-04-18
Its time we jettisoned sedition, and the Binayak Sen case is a perfect example of why this needs to be done.
IN Media Practice | 2011-04-18
Two commercials which portray women in poor light are put under the scanner.
IN Media Freedom | 2011-04-18
Its time we jettisoned sedition, and the Binayak Sen case is a perfect example of why this needs to be done. The law minister admitted that this case highlighted the need to review the existing sedition law.
IN Media Practice | 2011-04-16
This is the post-Anna public. And their message to the journalists is also loud and clear. there is no reason to believe that the India which has risen against corruption in bureaucracy, politics and judiciary, would tolerate it in media,
Net Neutrality survival basic for women's media
IN Media Practice | 2011-04-16
Prioritising online content could relegate some websites to a "slow lane" on the Internet and others to a "fast lane". What ultimately happens with the fight for free speech on the Internet will direct impact female representation in our media - and
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-04-16
The Indian Journalists’ Association (IJA) in Europe said it found itself at the receiving end of aggressive behavior from a Sahara India Parivar employee on April 5 while covering the unveiling of Royal Mail stamps featuring Subroto Roy. They were seeking a clarification on the impression given by the Sahara..
Letters to the Hoot: Suroor omits and Sardersai patronises
IN Opinion | 2011-04-16
Two letters on how the Hindu reported Assange’s public debate, and how CNN IBN treated Khushboo on a panel discussion.
Bhrasht media sceptical of Anna’s fight
IN Media Practice | 2011-04-13
All media were plugged into the fast from the word go and stayed there till the last sip of lemon water went down the throats of the protestors. Both scepticism and enthusiasm marked the frenzied coverage of Anna Hazare’s fast at Jantar Mantar.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-04-11
The Hindu is the new media partner of IPL team Chennai Super Kings. Ironically P Sainath in his comment "How to feed your billionaires" on 17th April 2010 wrote "With the IPL comes the convergence of the most important media trends: the ABC of Media — Advertising, Bollywood and Corporate..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-04-11
On the Rajdeep Sardesai anchored 9 PM news on April 11 there was a surprise! Outlook's Editor-in-Chief, Vinod Mehta counselled Anna Hazare to "stop giving interviews" to the media lest a "stray remark" derailed a movement of which he, Mehta, was a 'well-wisher". Kiran Bedi, on the other hand, asked..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-04-11
What next? The Gujarati daily Sandesh now offers 3D advertisement supplements along with special glasses to view them. The first such edition carried 3D advertisements from diverse segments of the industries such as real estate, telecom, healthcare, consumer durables, FMCG, retail outlets, jewelers, hospitality etc. Advertisers are delighted. (exchange4media)..
IN Media Practice | 2011-04-11
Professional probity was always his doctrine, and he virtually shed tears over the advent of the "paid news" era.
IN Regional Media | 2011-04-11
Despite a growth in readership, reporting events in Chhattisgarh is almost impossible because journalists are denied access to the interiors. And what is reported is coloured by the interests the media owners have in the state,
IN Media Practice | 2011-04-10
Entire television studios descended from their air-conditioned interiors to Ground Zero to beam what the media saw as the first civil society uprising in the age of satellite television.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-04-08
Headlines Today is running a promo of experts analyzing the ongoing Assembly elections--ALL men. Expert after expert looks pointedly at camera, exuding an air of political punditry. Hard to believe that they could not find even ONE woman expert or a senior woman journalist in India who could comment on the..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-04-08
Thursday night (March 7) belonged to Chetan Bhagat. While most TV studios had the usual suspects spewing theories on corruption, Anna Hazare etc., Mr. Bhagat took over TV, seen simulataneously on CNN IBN and Times Now. One wonders if both channels had linked up with the author at the same..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-04-08
A discernibly less aggressive Barkha Dutt had to contend with Jaya TV microphones sticking into her frame as she "exclusively" chatted with Amma. Ms. Dutt who interviewed Jayalalitha while she sat in her campaign vehicle had to share space with two Jaya TV mikes thrust alongside, but since Jaya TV is..
The websites the government admits to blocking
IN Media Freedom | 2011-04-08
The Centre for Internet and Society and Medianama did an RTI and obtained some replies from the Department of Information Technology on which websites the government blocked.
IN Media Practice | 2011-04-07
The Sedition Law directly attacks the freedom of expression, and is therefore impossible to reconcile with conditions necessary for a healthy atmosphere for culture, art and intellectual life,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-04-07
When Kapil Sibal lost his cool on the 6th night and asked Barkha Dutt on NDTV what she was trying to suggest, was he corrupt, had he ever been accused of corruption, etc. she missed her cue and backed off. Anna Hazare and those protesting with him were saying that none of the..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-04-04
Ajit Bhattacharjea, former editor of the Hindustan Times and the Indian Express, author of a political biography of Jayaprakesh Narayan and books on Sheikh Abdullah and Kashmir, died on April 4 in Delhi. He was suffering from a brain tumour. ..
IN Opinion | 2011-04-04
Hyper-nationalism has now become an accepted part of the script during every international cricket fixture where Pakistan is one of the teams playing.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-04-04
Mail Today's story about the World Cup's replica being presented because the original was stuck with Customs gave TV channels something to live off for the rest of the day. By the time everybody is done with the story (including tomorrow morning's papers), it will be difficut to know what to believe. ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-04-03
The Sunday Standard, launched by Prabhu Chawla for the New Indian Express group, made its appearance in Delhi today. Bit of a damp squib, no big scoop to mark its presence in the capital city with...
IN Law and Policy | 2011-04-01
Even a bad book has a right to exist. This decision rests only on one aspect: do we as an open, democratic society remain confident of responding to books by engaging with them or do we wish to surrender that right to forms of governmental control?
IN Media Practice | 2011-04-01
On the cookery reality shows there are a few women aspirants too but the majority are male, both impartially given to tears.
Relating to TV soap characters
IN Media Practice | 2011-04-01
Many respondents believed that the repeated depiction of abusive behaviour resulted in normalising it for viewers.
High Court indicts Former SC Judge’s Report Part II
IN Media Freedom | 2011-04-01
While the need for honest and unbiased reporting by the media has grown, concentration of its ownership in the hands of the powerful is having the opposite effect,
Justice Srikrishna’s secret note
IN Media Freedom | 2011-04-01
High Court indicts Former SC Judge’s Report - Part I: In the report of a panel set up by the government he had suggested that the media should be managed to frustrate the goals of pro-Telangana agitators.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-03-31
The Times of India and The Hindu both turned blue on March 31. Literally. Not because they are particularly drawn to the colour blue, but because turning blue makes good sense, good money sense. Volkswagen released front, two inside pages and back page ads in both newspapers titled “Think Blue”. What followed was the..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-03-30
What's with DNA? Its edition today screams, War Without Shooting, in a huge point size. And has a jingoistic para on how win or lose, Indians are much superior, both on and off field...
IN Books | 2011-03-30
The big newspapers are Indian, as much as they are ethnic or regional in character. Their choice of news reflects the upward mobility of middle class India.
Letter to The Hoot: Sour grapes?
IN Opinion | 2011-03-30
The Hindu has been lambasted by a former employee for doing all the right things,
The Sun shines on Karunanidhi in TN polls
IN Media Practice | 2011-03-30
The DMK front rally was telecast live by Sun News. With a control of over 60 per cent of electronic media, the DMK holds an edge in Tamil Nadu elections.
Chhattisgarh: More attacks on media
IN Media Freedom | 2011-03-29
Journalists continue to be threatened and their movements restricted in this conflict-ridden state,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-03-28
There is money to be both shelled out and made at Mohali on the 30th. ESPN is charging over Rs.20 lakh per 10 seconds for the last minute ad inventory. (BestMediaInfo.com)..
IN Media Practice | 2011-03-27
It follows then that barring a few cases which are supported by accounts of events that can be corroborated by other sources, Wikileaks is all about an American hegemonic view of the world.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-03-25
Pakistani journalists who are still awaiting their visas for travelling to Mohali for the India-Pakistan cricket World Cup semifinal clash on Wednesday, found a saviour in tournament director Ratnakar Shetty. Shetty is reported to have heard the Pakistani journos and forwarded their requests to the Indian government. ..
IN Media Practice | 2011-03-24
‘This was a very crucial piece of footage because it conclusively proved and closed the loop about the two BJP MPs having met Amar Singh as Reoti Raman Singh had urged them to do the night before.’
Tehelka, CNN IBN, and the cash for votes story
IN Media Practice | 2011-03-24
The story by Ashish Khetan asserts that CNN IBN held back crucial footage which would have nailed Amar Singh but Sidhartha Gautam says that he does not believe this was the case.
The rotten smell of fear and helplessness
IN Media Freedom | 2011-03-23
The CRPF stops me. "Where do you think you’re going?" he asked. "Home," I said. "Where are you returning from?" he persisted. "Work." "Don’t you know its curfew. I didn’t see you earlier on in the day walk from here." I told him that was because I
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-03-22
At around 5.30 pm on March 22, Headlines Today was promising an exclusive: revelations by a Naxal leader on the Trinamool connections with the Maoists at 7.30 pm. Come 7.30 pm and the exclusive was an interview with Ricky Ponting. Then the News, then other stories, but no sign of the..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-03-22
Shobhaa De probably wanted to be the early bird tweeting her homage to former President APJ Abdul Kalam. The news was a rumour and Ms. De having not cross checked, had to tweet a hurried apology a second time. On Tuesday she first tweeted "India salutes its greatest president! Dr Abdul Kalam..
IN Books | 2011-03-22
The Hoot book review: It is evident from both the books that Christian evangelism has converted the world into a global village based on religion. In the process it has also influenced other religions and been influenced by them.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-03-21
The New York Times website went pay last week. The subscription plan allows for free access to a set amount of content across digital platforms. When the monthly reading limit is reached, users who are not already home delivery subscribers will be asked to become digital subscribers, the paper said. Digital..
Censoring Kabir? Anything’s possible…
IN Censorship | 2011-03-20
It is difficult to imagine renderings of Kabir would promote superstition, obscurantism or invoke contempt for communities or stoke hindu-muslim divisiveness,
`Yes minister, we are with you’
IN Media Practice | 2011-03-20
It’s nobody’s case that the environment minister is not clean. We don’t know. But it's our job to ask uncomfortable questions of the man who has gone back on his word repeatedly.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-03-19
You have to be polite to a guest. Aroon Purie asked good questions but refrained from trying to show up a hopelessly inept Sarah Palin at the India Today Conclave. If the lady was out of depth in 2008, she remains so now, judging from her answers in New Delhi. ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-03-19
Perhaps as a result of the Sunday Times sting, TOI has started writing “Advertorial, Entertainment Promotional Feature” under the masthead of its city specific supplements. Criticism in India does not bother it, but international badnami evidently does. The irony is that something of news value appears here sometimes. On March 19 Delhi..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-03-18
The Reliance Digital logo on laptops of the anchors on CNN IBN has been irritating viewers for some time now. Now its even more prominent with its red panel announcing the brand name. Editorial claim that it is a marketing deal they don’t know the details of. And say that it..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-03-18
DNA has dropped its prominent 'No Paid News' logo from its masthead. Does that mean it has begun accepting paid news?..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-03-18
There is hope for the four NYT journalists who were taken into custody by Gadaffi loyalists. The journos are expected to be released on Friday. The journalists are Anthony Shadid, a two-time Pulitzer-prize winning foreign correspondent; two photographers, Tyler Hicks and Ms. Addario and videographer, Stephen Farrell, who in 2009 was captured by..
TV transforms Assam's election experience
IN Media Practice | 2011-03-18
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.
"Journalists doing their jobs were beaten up and fired upon"
IN Media Freedom | 2011-03-16
The clampdown for more than seven months last year during the agitation in Kashmir severely restricted media freedom, but journalists keep finding different ways to break the silence.
Courting the media, Arjun Singh style
IN Opinion | 2011-03-16
Singh considered it important to be closer to those in the media who criticized him than those who sang his praises.
I am a Muslim, not a terrorist
IN Media Practice | 2011-03-16
I completed my job late in the evening and started my journey back to Kerala. On the way back, I received a call from the Circle Inspector who asked me if I was a terrorist. I did not have any answer,
"Warning to the media: Don’t challenge the state or else…" - Shahina K K
IN Media Freedom | 2011-03-15
The recipient of the Chameli Devi Jain award 2010 for an outstanding woman mediaperson dwells on the cases filed against her by the Karnataka police for her investigative reporting. Excerpts from her acceptance speech at the Media Foundation function
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-03-15
Government sources wondered at the timing of Times Now beginning to run crawlers on the pressure put by the US president on the Prime Minister through a letter. The channel called it open lobbying for F-16 fighter planes. The crawlers began to run in the hour before the cabinet committee on security was..
IN Media Practice | 2011-03-12
Superficial treatment by media of issues pertaining to women marked yet another Women’s Day. Bringing Bollywood into the talk shows on the occasion was one indicator of this.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-03-12
The Washington Post has launched a feature that provides a link to a correction form for each online article. Readers can use the form to report any errors they believe they spot, both factual and grammatical, and suggest ways to improve coverage on the topic. Editors then review the submitted..
Letter to the editor- Why has the pen stopped writing?
IN Opinion | 2011-03-11
There has been very little commentary in the press on the Supreme Court notice to L K Advani and other Sangh Parivar leaders in connection with the Babri Masjid demolition,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-03-10
A high profile wedding where everyone who is a someone attended, has to make it to the papers. And if the papers do not make a story of it, what better way than to buy the space. On Thursday HT City had a full page advertisement on who attended the..
Media disappoints in slum demolition saga
IN Books | 2011-03-10
The coverage given to the fraud that was allegedly perpetrated on Golibar slum residents shows the media’s bias for high profile stories.
" Access is the most important issue"
IN Media Freedom | 2011-03-09
I find that India is this incredibly advanced country in all forms of research and technology but those are being used by very few. I was a bit shocked to discover that this super power of technology has only 7 per cent of its population connected to
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-03-09
NDTV reporter calling Rebecca John, the Talwars' lawyer in the Arushi case, on her mobile: Ma'm has your mother been murdered? On Monday, her mother was found murdered. ..
Orissa: brazen muzzling of dissenting voices
IN Media Freedom | 2011-03-08
A distinct pattern has emerged in the frequent and vicious attacks on journalists here,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-03-08
Things are a happening in Marathi journalism. Kumar Ketkar, Editor-in-Chief of Loksatta, the Marathi title of the Indian Express Group is all set to join the new Marathi daily Divya Marathi which would launch first in Aurangabad, the largest city in the Marathwada region. Meanwhile, the Sakal Group is toying..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-03-08
Congress member in the Lok Sabha P T Thomas has earned himself some brownie points. On March 7 during the Zero Hour in Parliament, Thomas pressed for the early implementation of the Wage Board recommendations for journalists and non-journalists...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-03-07
A Star News Special on March 6 had to be seen to be believed. The channel used the occasion of Varun Gandhi’s marriage to reconstruct his mother’s exit from Indira Gandhi’s house in 1982! And how. Using Khushwant’s Singhs account of the events, three reporters took turns to dramatically narrate..
Blocked websites and new draft IT Act rules ring alarm bells!
IN Media Freedom | 2011-03-06
Four websites blocked by ISPs, reportedly at the behest of the Indian government even as cybermedia activists grapple with draft rules on cybercafés and responsibilities of intermediaries.
Blocked websites and new draft IT Act rules ring alarm bells!
IN Media Freedom | 2011-03-06
Four websites blocked by ISPs, reportedly at the behest of the Indian government even as cybermedia activists grapple with draft rules on cybercafés and responsibilities of intermediaries.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-03-06
On March 6 the sites reported to be blocked by the Dept of Telecom were accessible on MTNL and Tata Indicom. It is not clear whether the block has been lifted with regard to all ISPs. The sites were Mobango, Zone-h, Clickatell, and Typepad.com. Clickatell was still not accessibe from..
" Access is the most important issue"
IN Media Practice | 2011-03-06
I find that India is this incredibly advanced country in all forms of research and technology but those are being used by very few. I was a bit shocked to discover that this super power of technology has only 7 per cent of its population connected t
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-03-05
A right to Information petition has been filed by a civil society group vwith the Department of Information Technology and the Department of Telecom seeking to know how and why some blogger sites have been banned in specific ISPs. All ISPs are not affected. ..
Seeking umbrage under Official Secrets Act
IN Media Practice | 2011-03-05
The real strength of a democracy lies in transparency. The need to maintain secrecy in official interest is not always in public interest.
Media ownership: interesting indicators
IN Media Business | 2011-03-04
Interesting indicators emerge from the mandatory March declarations. About the investments made by the Ambani brothers in media, and about the presence of companies registered in Mauritius in the shareholding of media companies.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-03-02
Rupert Murdoch has sent out a letter announcing that News Corporation has become carbon neutral across all of its global operations, and claiming to be the first company of its kind to do so. It says that Fox Entertainment has developed robust carbon footprinting standards and tools for film, television,..
Organised crime muzzles freedom of expression
IN Media Freedom | 2011-03-01
Mafias and cartels today pose the biggest threat to media freedom worldwide,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-03-01
The Times of India ,Bangalore edition, arrived with a blank front page on March 1, and of course, it was an advertisement ! So did its Delhi edition. The last time a front page was delivered blank in India was during the Emergency as a mark of protest against the gagging ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-03-01
A reader writes that while most channels spouted economic jargon in their day long coverage, Punya Prasun Vajpayee of Zee News deserves credit for simplifying the Budget very intelligently for ordinary viewers in his programme, Badi Khabar...
Budget 2011: corporate driven coverage
IN Opinion | 2011-03-01
With all their Live OB vans, not a single channel attempted to cut to a single one of the six lakh villages and speak to farmers in rain fed areas or landless agricultural labourers or even NREGA beneficiaries or non beneficiaries.
Journalists on the frontlines of revolution
IN Media Freedom | 2011-02-28
Al Jazeera’s double standard may come home to roost and I can’t wait to see how the station’s much-ballyhooed journalism will cover an uprising in the streets of Doha.
Revisiting defamation: the demand for decriminalisation
IN Defamation | 2011-02-26
The law of criminal defamation has several ramifications, affecting the right to privacy and contempt too
Mothers and daughters give voice to tribals
IN Community Media | 2011-02-24
There are at least 15 tribal women and girls reporting from Bastar and other areas of Chhattisgarh.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-02-24
The Indian advertising industry recorded a 27 per cent growth in calendar year 2010, wiping out loses of 2008-09 with a gain of about Rs 5,000 crore. Good times are back and the TV channels which reported losses in the last financial quarter have a chance to make good this year...
IN Opinion | 2011-02-23
Letter to the Hoot: Vilasrao Deshmukh’s outburst against journalists is indicative of a loss of esteem for the profession.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-02-23
Don’t politicise the Godhra verdict, holler the anchors at their panelists. And whom do they call as participants? Political party spokespersons. We shouldn’t have trial by media, says the media. And whom do they put on TV panels to discuss a verdict? The prosecution and defence lawyers...
'Allow this kind of free speech to flow'
IN Media Freedom | 2011-02-22
I think the time as come in this country to have a little revolution…young people and old people alike, speaking out with anger against a regime which really torments poorer people, I think the time has come to really allow this kind of free speech
Free Speech Issues in India 2010: A monograph
IN Media Freedom | 2011-02-21
For a democracy, India's free speech record in 2010 was far from exemplary: attacks on the media, unwaranted charges of sedition, hate speech, culture wars and much else.
Free Speech Issues in India 2010: A monograph
IN Media Freedom | 2011-02-21
For a democracy, India's free speech record in 2010 was far from exemplary: attacks on the media, unwaranted charges of sedition, hate speech, culture wars and much else.
TNN again, but it sounds suspiciously like Medianet
IN Media Practice | 2011-02-20
Yesterday the Times of India made news in the Sunday Times, London, with a story called "India’s media demand cash to run favourable news."
Getting ridiculous with cricket
IN Media Practice | 2011-02-20
When quotes and controversies are found wanting, channels are resorting to invention in an attempt to keep the viewer interested.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-02-19
Guess who will start recruiting by April–May this year: Prasar Bharati. The broadcaster which has not recruited for at least 14 years has over 11,000 vacancies which are growing all the time as people retire. It has 196 cadres for which rules had to be written. This has been done..
A complaints body for broadcasting at last
IN Law and Policy | 2011-02-19
This Council is meant to make private sector broadcasting more accountable and the big question is whether the Government will bring Prasar Bharati under its ambit. It should.
IN Books | 2011-02-16
The Hoot excerpts a passage from Pradip Ninan Thomas’s Strong Religion, Zealous Media.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-02-16
Does the prime minister need to be protected from Arnab Goswami? His media advisor evidently thought so. Harish Khare intervened rather sharply when our inquisitorial friend sought to do his usual number on the head of government. He accused him of interrogating the Prime Minister and jumping from one scam to..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-02-16
The Mumbai press club has rustled up new sponsors for its excellence in journalism awards. A card has now gone out with the logos of MCHI and IndusInd Bank replacing those of DBRealty. After the CBI arrested Shahid Usman Balwa, director of Mumbai-based DB Realty in the 2G spectrum case on..
Egyptian mob assaulted CBS correspondent
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-02-16
CBS News has said that its correspondent Lara Logan "suffered a brutal and sustained sexual assault" while covering the resignation of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak the day he stepped down. Logan was covering the jubilation in Tahrir Square for a 60 MINUTES story when she and her team and their..
IN Media Practice | 2011-02-14
As events unfolded in Tahrir Square, the Indian media failed to develop a perspective of its own.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-02-14
Arun Shourie has a willing platform in the Indian Express any time he wants, with the paper providing as much space as he needs. Surely if they had wanted to ask some questions of him at the Indian Express Ideas Exchange (Feb 13), about his telecom tenure, he would have..
Revolution in the time of market
IN Media Practice | 2011-02-14
If Obama was president born through media and social media, this was revolution cast similarly. It exploded as media event; ended as media event. All at one place, I didn’t even have to shift my chair.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-02-14
The chief election commissioner said in Chennai on Feb 12 that he was in favour of banning opinion polls before elections. He said it was a major problem which could even lead to “paid opinion polls”. “in the circumstances, when news can be paid, even opinion polls can be paid,"..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-02-14
What Kiran Karnik told the Hindu after resigning from the board of the ISRO Devas project is worth noting. He said he believed no wrong had been done, and processes adhered to, but “I do not have the time or the energy… in terms of talking to the media and..
Ten years on: why the Hoot needs you to pitch in
IN Media Practice | 2011-02-13
The Indian media needs a watchdog like never before. Please contribute so that the Hoot can continue to be a space where media practice is tracked.
‘The time has come to really allow this kind of free speech to flow’
IN Media Freedom | 2011-02-12
Criminal defamation, censorship, hate speech, bans on books, obscenity, sedition...the list is long but people are speaking out with anger,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-02-12
Nearly a week after Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar suggested a gag on the media, his uncle and union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar Friday expressed "regrets" over the remarks. Suggesting the formation of a committee comprising senior mediapersons like Kumar Ketkar and Arun Sadhu to examine the entire episode,..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-02-12
The BBC has said that Iranian authorities were blocking its Persian language TV channel for showing news related to the mass protests in Egypt. The interference began Thursday evening after the BBC's Iranian service broadcast extensive coverage about the continuing demonstrations against Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, the Telegraph reported Friday...
Mumbai press club drops sponsor
IN Media Practice | 2011-02-11
Two awards for journalists to be presented by the Mumbai Press Club next week had been sponsored by DB Realty whose director was arrested on Tuesday in connection with the 2G scam. The club has now dropped DB Realty’s name from the invite.
Honest Commissioner of Police being maligned
IN Opinion | 2011-02-10
Letter to the Hoot: PSR instilled confidence in the citizenry and fear in the midst of the wrong-doers. It is not surprising that some people are out to tarnish his image,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-02-09
The CBI special court's ruling in the Aarushi Talwar murder case turned evening news into a soap opera that shut out whatever else might have happened in a large country with a billion plus people. And turned news channels into biased purveyors, presenting the story in a manner that indicated a pro-Talwar..
IN Opinion | 2011-02-08
As a team of incurable pacifists, we were naturally wary of the distinguished-looking editorial consultant who was introduced to us as the father of the Indian bomb.
Minister blasts media, gets no support
IN Media Practice | 2011-02-07
So angry he was that he wanted curbs on the media because it hyped things. "If you do not show factually correct news, a calamity will befall you," the Indian Express quoted him as having said.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-02-06
Americans demanding Al Jazeera English on their cable channels? The clamour is growing because most US cable operators don’t carry it, and Americans are tuning into the Channel’s livestream on the Web to catch events unfolding in Egypt. AJ named 371 locations ( including some in India) where there will be meet ups..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-02-05
A reader wants to know if the North East is a foreign correspondent's beat for mainland TV channels. The Manipur earthquake was first reported by Associated Press and their release was then carried byCNN-IBN...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-02-05
Here is a funny from Twitter: BBC: 860 people reported injured in Cairo, CNN:10 people killed in Egypt, NDTV: Barkha's camera broken, India TV: Shiv Ling found under Cairo...
Three different stories from one source
IN Media Practice | 2011-02-05
Three newspapers with a national presence have reported differently on the same event, picking what suited their line of thinking.
Global call for Egypt to respect freedom of expression and protect the right to
More than 53 civil society organisations from around the world are calling on Egyptian and international bodies to respect freedom of expression and the right to information.
India’s law minister's moots proposal to decriminalise defamation
IN Media Freedom | 2011-02-04
The increasing use of defamation laws to stifle dissent is a dangerous trend, but lawmakers are beginning to take note,
Mint’s editor responds on story sourcing
IN Opinion | 2011-02-03
The Indian environment is different from the one J schools have in mind when they teach people the trade. Most business people and almost everyone in the government speaks on the condition that their name will not be used,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-02-02
The CBI made public their arrest of Raja only 2.45 hours after Times Now reported that he would be arrested. S M Krishna got cracking on the California school incident involving Indian kids only after Times Now broke the story. What would we do without Times Now?..
IN Opinion | 2011-02-02
Letter to the Hoot: How credible can a story be which is full of anonymous sources,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-02-02
Journalists in Colombo took to the streets to protest against the torching of a prominent news website's offices. More than 40 journalists and editors have fled the country following a series of attacks on them in the last five years. At least 17 journalists have been killed and several media institutions..
IN Media Practice | 2011-02-02
The lead story on Daily News & Analysis (DNA) on February 1, 2011 was the newspaper itself.
IN Media Practice | 2011-02-02
The DNA has launched a campaign that scoffs at the negative image that the media has portrayed of the country so far and seeks to focus on the positive.
Conviction of Mumbai-based columnist for casteist remarks: need for debate
IN Censorship | 2011-01-31
The sentence of conviction of a columnist for making allegedly casteist remarks has important repercussions for both free speech and hate speech,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-01-30
OpenLeaks co-founder Daniel Domscheit-Berg used a World Economic Forum side-event on January 28 in Davos to publicly launch OpenLeaks, a new leak site project that aims to help whistleblowers to get information out while protecting them. He said: “We are not publishing material but we provide the link between whistleblowers..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-01-30
For three days straight viewers of NDTV saw Barkha Dutt in the same fiery red beret and mostly red clothes. Surely Ms. Dutt's wardrobe for Davos includes more than just the red beret, unless it is a lucky charm prescribed for her post the Raja-Radia hullabaloo...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-01-30
There’s been another stormy board meeting at the Hindu where some family members were critical of the paper’s editorial policy on A Raja. Followed by an annual get together of employees event where the retirement issue that has divided the board apparently surfaced in N Murali’s speech. ..
Killing a leopard, killing Adivasis
IN Media Practice | 2011-01-30
Media reporting of the killings of a Scheduled-1 animal (a Leopard) and Scheduled Adivasis (Maoists) in Odisha: there is a marked difference in the way the media as a whole covered the killing of the leopard and that of the Adivasis,
Mysterious climate change reporting
IN Media Practice | 2011-01-28
The Asian Age suddenly filed a news story on a June 2009 report by a non-governmental international panel on climate change. Why?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-01-28
There were some seven or eight journalists on the Padma Awards long list this year, but no one got an award. Reliable sources say that post-Radia the feeling at the operative levels in Government was that this was not a good year to associate the awards with the media profession. ..
Televangelism and the Hindu community
IN Books | 2011-01-27
James focuses on the ways in which American style preaching, presentation, and media practices are either disseminated directly or repackaged for Indian audiences.
Response to the story on the media dubbing the mosque illegal
IN Opinion | 2011-01-25
Letter to the Hoot: I was surprised to see the story "Media dubs mosque illegal without probe" and it appears that the Waqf Board view has also been carried without any cross-checks at all.
Journalists dying in Chhattisgarh
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-01-25
A journalist was shot dead by two masked gunmen in Raipur district, police said on Jan. 24. Umesh Rajput, a reporter with Hindi daily Nai Duniya, was shot on Sunday night by assailants outside his home in Chura village, they said. A note, stating in Hind ‘if you don't stop..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-01-25
This happened last week in a small trading town, Tadepalligudem, in West Godavari district, AP. The police registered a criminal case against local journos for allegedly obstructing officials of the Income Tax Department in discharging their duties. The officials complained to the police that the scribes had obstructed their work..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-01-22
The three editors on Karan Thapar’s Last Word on Friday night on CNN IBN were all political people, according to Sanjay Baru editor of the Business Standard. He told Thapar that while he was referring to Chandan Mitra of Pioneer as a BJP politician and to him (Baru) as the..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-01-22
The Indian Newspaper Society (INS) has urged the government to reject the recommendations of the latest Wage Board. At an emergency meeting held in Mumbai on 20 January 2011 its members said that if the report of the wage board for journalists and other newspaper employees is accepted by the government, it..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-01-22
The Week has been going to town claiming that their circulation is more than India Today’s now. With their own reporters unable to digest this bit of news, the administration has begun sending out emails informing them of the feat. Like charity, news mongering also begins at home...
IN Media Practice | 2011-01-22
Television reporters and camera crews were also present, and not only recorded the razing of the mosque by DDA authorities but also the violence that ensued.
Media dubs mosque illegal without probe
IN Media Practice | 2011-01-22
The demolition of an `illegal’ mosque has given rise to tension and further alienation of the Muslim community from the media.
IN Media Practice | 2011-01-19
With the Radia tapes, journalistic ethic has hit rock bottom. What has always been practiced by the media in private is now out in the public realm.
Shelf expression: Pakistan’s beleaguered artists
IN Media Practice | 2011-01-18
Artists and performers in Pakistan are familiar with threats to freedom of expression, having faced years of repression during the Zia years,
IN Opinion | 2011-01-16
Letter to the Hoot: The varying figures of victims in the endosulfan case show irresponsibility on the part of the media.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-01-16
On January 14 Eenadu ran a report "Manmohan rakshanalo Bhanu!" (Bhanu under Manmohan's protection). The story is about the investigation of Maddelacheruvu Suri's murder and speculation about the alleged killer, Bhanu, taking shelter with his trusted driver, Manmohan Singh. The headline is grossly misleading as any greenhorn sub editor knows that unless..
IPL’s bimbettes and him-bettes
IN Opinion | 2011-01-16
It was extraordinary to see how the entire exercise seemed to erase recent memory of the seedy scandals surrounding the IPL and its chief promoter, Lalit Modi
Student politics in the Bengal press
IN Books | 2011-01-15
While the Telegraph covered city based colleges and universities, Anandabazar Patrika looked at the significant role that student politics plays in the state, covering college elections across districts with greater regularity and with in-depth ana
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-01-13
It used to be no ads. Now a Tata freeze extends to reporting. The sections of the media whom the Tata group will not cooperate with for what Mint calls story-related contact, are Open, Pioneer, Outlook, Bennett, Coleman and Co. and publications of the India Today group. A Tata Sons..
IN Media Practice | 2011-01-13
Why are news channels so diligently following the guidelines of the NBA and the Cable Regulation Act on the Telangana issue alone?
Telugu channel exposes IPS officer’s escapades
IN Media Practice | 2011-01-12
A police commissioner who sent lewd smses to a woman doctor is interviewed live on ABN Andhra Jyothi
IN Media Practice | 2011-01-11
Fashion PR and fashion journalism. Do they interact in ways that the line of editorial control is often draped over? Does Indian fashion journalism have to be mostly innocuous?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-01-11
Mid Day seems to think that the only way to protect a victim's identity is by giving her a pseudo name. In its January 11 issue, it has a story on how a Russian national working in India was chased by two men. Alongside the story where the victim's name has..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-01-11
Here is a new first. Mid-Day in Mumbai dropped its cover price by Re 1 on Jan 10th in order to promote a new show premiering on Colours. Along with a front page ‘impact’ cover on the show. Apparently the show is about a man who changes his life from..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-01-11
There is no end to reality TV and what it has to offer. Lest the voyeur-viewers feel deprived, Sony TV is coming up with 'Maa Exchange', where mothers will swap families for a week. Based on the hugely popular ' Wife Swap', Maa exchange has been toned down for the 'Indian..
Reporting the Maoist Insurgency in West Bengal
IN Books | 2011-01-10
The paper uses first names of suspected Maoists leaders frequently as if they were household names. ABP also uses first names of the local CPIM or Trinamool leaders, and assumes the readers know whom they are referring to.
IN Media Practice | 2011-01-07
When Suri, prime accused in the murder of TDP leader Ravi, was shot dead, His bloodied body was shown with close up shots unmindful of any sort of media ethics or sensitivity.
Chhattisgarh: danger zone for scribes
IN Media Freedom | 2011-01-06
Three journalists are threatened with a dogs death in a pamphlet, the DIG police says they were black sheep. Fear grows as police and vigilante groups increasingly intimidate both mainstream and citizen journalists.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-01-06
Newspapers resumed publication on January 6 in Manipur. The arrested editor of Sanaleibak was released on Jan 5 on bail and print journalists in the state resumed work the same day...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-01-06
A white couple in sunwear passed by as President Patil sunned herself on a Goa beach.Photographers clicked. The Raj Bhavan said the presidential entourage was embarrassed by the sight of the sari-clad president sunning herself, along with a half-clad white couple. So the photo journalists were summoned by the Goa..
Media in Manipur: Walking the thin edge
IN Media Freedom | 2011-01-04
In the intense conflict between insurgent groups in Manipur, the media is constantly on edge,
Journalist facing persecution for reporting about a mass grave in Gujarat
IN Media Freedom | 2011-01-04
A criminal case has been registered against journalist Rahul Singh for reporting a mass grave in Panderwada village, Gujarat, reportedly with the remains of 21 victims of the 2002 Gujarat genocide.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-01-04
Anybody noticed that newspapers have not been published in Manipur for the past five days? Journalists there have demanded unconditional release of Mobi Singh, editor of Sanaleibak, who was arrested by the police on December 29 for an alleged link with the militants. The All Manipur Working Journalists Union says the..
Sms ban partially lifted, Kashmir’s sms news services remain down
IN Media Freedom | 2011-01-04
During the months of unrest people missed SMS news service as a new medium to update them. Run by aspiring journalists operating from their localities, they used students, shopkeepers, newspaper vendors and government employees as news gatherers.
IN Media Practice | 2011-01-04
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.
The Nature of Televangelism in India
IN Books | 2011-01-03
The Hoot excerpts a passage from Jonathan James’ McDonaldisation, Masala McGospel and Om Economics.
IN Digital Media | 2011-01-03
What will be the impact of mobile phones on journalism? The wag would say Niira Radia, but seriously, it is a question worth asking as the firms who got 3G licenses in 2010 begin to roll out their services here.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-01-02
Prabhu Chawla who has joined the New Indian Express has sent around a mail promising that he will continue to answer readers’ questions from his new platform, expressbuzz.com. And that he will be starting a new talk show in place of Seedhi Baat on Aaj Tak on an unnamed channel...
IN Media Practice | 2011-01-02
Many sincere developmental journalists are frustrated with eating 'green' ideas fed by pot-bellied editors. It is insulting to ask these reporter to dig out green stories,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2011-01-01
One of last year’s victims of sedition charges was released on New Year’s Day in Srinagar, after the High Court granted him an interim bail on Friday. The teacher Noor Mohammed Bhat was arrested last month for setting an exam question paper around last year’s Kashmir’s unrest. Earlier On Dec..
Free Speech in India 2010: One step forward, two steps backward!
IN Media Freedom | 2010-12-31
While vigilante groups had a field day and the mailed fist of the state was also used against both the media and civil society activists, the judiciary gave some relief for free speech in just a few instances, only to take it away in others.
Free Speech in India 2010: One step forward, two steps backward!
IN Media Freedom | 2010-12-31
Vigilante groups had a field day and the mailed fist of the state was used against both the media and civil society activists and the judiciary gave some relief for free speech in just a few instances, only to take it away in others.
Lop-sided reading of evidence led to Sen’s conviction
IN Media Practice | 2010-12-31
In convicting Binayak Sen of sedition, the sessions court has not only chosen to ignore evidence to the contrary but has also extended the interpretation of section 124A illogically.
Free Speech issues in India 2010
IN Media Freedom | 2010-12-31
While vigilante groups had a field day and the mailed fist of the state was also used against both the media and civil society activists, the judiciary gave some relief for free speech in just a few instances, only to take it away in others.
Journalists in 2010 targets and bargaining chips
IN Media Freedom | 2010-12-30
Numbers don’t lie, as these figures about the precarious conditions of security of journalists and tenuous freedom of expression for the media in 2010,
Sedition, free speech and dissent
IN Media Freedom | 2010-12-30
The year 2010 has seen this law invoked by state governments on not less than five occasions, including Dr Sen’s case. Is the law on sedition being invoked a little too often for a democracy that values free speech?
IN Books | 2010-12-30
Books by Upton Sinclair, Janet Malcolm and Michael Ignatieff help us understand the precarious and tenuous relationship between a journalist and his source.
Sedition, free speech and dissent
IN Media Freedom | 2010-12-27
Five instances of sedition in 2010 alone - what does this tell us about our democracy?
Competing fasts, competing dailies
IN Media Practice | 2010-12-27
Sakshi and Eenadu are priming up their political mentors as they report on farm suicides in Andhra Pradesh.
Media raises Muslim terrorists’ bogey again
IN Media Practice | 2010-12-26
The baseless reporting by almost all the newspaper from this city has spread an atmosphere of suspicion in Muslim majority areas.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-12-24
“One person who won’t be enjoying his Christmas eve is rights activist Binayak Sen…” The opening words of the NewsX evening bulletin item on the conviction of Dr Binayak Sen for sedition and treason. Fit occasion for being flip?..
IN Books | 2010-12-24
The Hoot excerpts a second passage from Madhu Trehan’s Tehelka as Metaphor.
IN Regional Media | 2010-12-23
"It is really essential that we build a Media Centre there and start training young people from Ladakh to become journalists."
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-12-23
Similarly, CCC found that the DNA newspaper’s advertisement claims of being “The No1 Daily for the independent people”, “The No.1 daily for the new Indian”, “The No.1 daily for the people’s voice”, “The No.1 daily for tomorrow’s leader” are not substantiated with any data or research from any independent organisation...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-12-23
ASCI's Consumer Complaints Council pulled up newspaper Prabhat Khabar, which claimed No 1 position in Jharkhand by citing data from the Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC) July-December 2009. The CCC’s findings show that the ABC July-Dec’09 results do not reflect Prabhat Khabar as the numero uno newspaper in Jharkhand as the..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-12-23
In these era of 'paid news' what The Economist does with advertisements which look like editorial content is instructive. In its December 18-21, 2010 edition it had a six page section on Macau which it it tagged as advertisement but also entered a caveat, in capital letters: This supplement has been produced..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-12-20
Arunachal Pradesh did not get newspapers for second consecutive day, on Dec 20. The working journalists of the State have gone for indefinite strike since December 18 with their demand to nab the culprits associated with an assault on two women journalists on December 12. They demonstrated in front of..
Youth Speak sheds a new light on slum kids
IN Community Media | 2010-12-18
A UN funded newsletter project aims at giving voice to children from the red light districts of Calcutta who say, ``Our right is to be heard.’’
Grim year for Pakistani journalists
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-12-17
Forty-two journalists were killed around the world this year, and Pakistan was the deadliest country of all, according to a study by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). The New York-based CPJ said that Pakistan led the list of fatalities with eight, followed by Iraq with four and three each..
Khasi daily completes fifty years
IN Regional Media | 2010-12-17
The newspaper that fought for Meghalaya’s statehood and reported on the struggle to gain it has turned 50.
WikiLeaks and Internet companies
IN Media Freedom | 2010-12-16
The pressure on internet companies to deny services to Wikileaks, bodes ill for freedom of speech and expression, as well as threatens the independence of the internet.
As bombings spread, Pakistan deadliest nation
At least 42 journalists are killed in 2010 as two trends emerge. Suicide attacks and violent street protests cause an unusually high proportion of deaths. And online journalists are increasingly prominent among the victims.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-12-15
Manu Joseph the Editor of Open Magazine who has been in the news for the infamous Radia tapes, has been nominated for the prestigious Man Asian Literary Prize 2010 for his book Serious Men. Joseph's main protagonist in the book has a flair for among other things,eavesdropping. Talk of art..
IN Regional Media | 2010-12-15
Quoting different surveys many Hindi newspapers in Jharkhand’s capital have begun claiming that they sell the most.
IN Opinion | 2010-12-13
Letter to the Hoot: Everyone has piled on to Kalmadi in the wake of the corruption scandals surrounding CWG and he is being blamed for more than he could have done.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-12-13
Prabhu Chawla is joining the New Indian Express as editor in chief. A bit of an irony there—this is one newspaper which went to town with the Radia Tapes, right after they first came out, carrying a page of excerpts. They dropped Vir Sanghvi as a columnist when he figured..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-12-13
On December 12 the Bangalore Edition of Sunday Times carried a small blurb at the bottom of page 1. The title read "Binayak Sen Linked with terrorists". The article talked of the prosecutor's assertion in court that Binayak Sen and his wife were linked to terrorists. The short para ends..
IN Media Business | 2010-12-13
As Outlook unveils more tapes, more Ambani connections to the media pop up.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-12-11
Q: When the son of N.K. Singh--politician, former bureaucrat and most recently one of the dramatis personae in the Radiagate-- gets married who do the organisers call to do the PR? A: Why Vaishnavi Communications of course. Lowly hacks who were ferried, mostly from Delhi, were told strictly to observe; not to..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-12-11
Another gem from a new batch of tapes on the Outlook website: Radia calls up Vir Sanghvi on June 20, 2009, the day before his Counterpoint column appears in HT. “Wrote it”, says Sanghvi, “I’ve dressed it up as a piece about how public will not stand for resources being..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-12-11
India Today under M J Akbar is sticking its neck out in strange ways. The latest issue publishes a list of corrupt IAS officers and is unable to say for all of them what the charges are, but names them any way. And then Akbar writes a spoofy column (with..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-12-11
More evidence of Barkha Dutt having done more than string Radia along has emerged in another tranche of tapes released by Outlook on November 11. Talking to an unidentified person Radia says, "Congress ne to statement thank God issue kar diya. Barkha ne karwaa liyaa us se. Ki it's not about..
Right to privacy II---Tata’s privacy claim specious
IN Law and Policy | 2010-12-10
When former US President Richard Nixon sought protection against public exposure for the crimes he committed when in office, the court ruled against him.
The fuzzy line between privacy and public interest
IN Law and Policy | 2010-12-10
Could the investigation for possible income-tax violations not be carried out without eavesdropping on Niira Radia and her clients who may have had nothing to do with those violations?
Women Radio Jockeys usher in a new era in Uttar Pradesh
IN Community Media | 2010-12-10
Lalit Lokvani the first community radio station that has women handling the microphone is bringing about an attitudinal and behavioural change.
Wikileaks – don’t shoot the messenger
Widespread condemnation of the unprecedented witchhunt against Wikileaks founder Julian Assange as well as the website itself,
No cover for crime under right to privacy
IN Law and Policy | 2010-12-09
It is unreasonable for public persons to claim immunity from publicity for their actions that may affect vast sections of a population.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-12-09
Internet users in China have been blocked from accessing the website of Norwegian broadcaster NRK on the eve of the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony.Blocking access to NRK's site is but the latest sign of China's anger over the Norwegian Nobel Committee's decision to award the 2010 prize to jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo.The websites..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-12-07
Media houses in India digging up dirt on other media houses is so very unusual that one cannot help wondering why the Sunday Guardian has published its expose of specific financial transactions made by NDTV back in 2008. Its story on December 5, 2010 alleges that NDTV Limited and associate..
IN Regional Media | 2010-12-07
Continuing the Radia Tapes Debate: So let’s not debate ethics in media any more. The veils have been lifted and either we go about business as usual or take the first step towards change.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-12-07
Al Jazeera English, the 24-hour global news and current affairs channel, announced today that the channel has been granted a downlinking license to broadcast in India. The decision, which was made by India’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, allows cable and satellite companies in India to add Al Jazeera English..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-12-07
Two Pakistani reporters – Abdul Wahad of Express TV and Pervez Khan of Waqt TV – were killed in a double suicide-bombing on Monday at a meeting of tribal elders in a government building in Ghalanai, the main town in the northwestern Tribal Area of Mohmand. About 40 people were..
"The right to privacy is not valid because we are talking about professional con
IN Media Freedom | 2010-12-06
Senior Supreme Court advocate Prashant Bhushan speaks about the public’s right to know,
‘Investigate’ the police at your own peril: The case of Tehelka’s K K Shahina
IN Censorship | 2010-12-06
Is the police above the law? Is its investigations above scrutiny? When Tehelka journalist K K Shahina decided to investigate the police case against Abdul Nasar Madani in the Bengaluru blasts case, she was charged with intimidating witnesses,
Is technology the ‘fifth estate’?
IN Digital Media | 2010-12-06
In an era of institutionalised fraud where the sanctity of news is long gone, the agency that employed technology to expose corruption in the Radia case was not part of the media.
‘Investigate’ the police at your own peril
IN Media Freedom | 2010-12-06
When Tehelka journalist K K Shahina decided to investigate the police case against Abdul Nasar Madani in the Bengaluru blasts case, she was charged with intimidating witnesses,
Right to privacy not valid in Tata case
IN Law and Policy | 2010-12-06
Senior Supreme Court advocate Prashant Bhushan speaks about the public’s right to know,
IN Opinion | 2010-12-05
Every editor who counts in the English media, pink or white or electronic, pops up in the transcripts...Every editor also understands that you need to meet them to get a fix on the issues.
IN Regional Media | 2010-12-05
Following a play and a documentary on the plight of the post-LTTE Tamils, Mathrubhumi front-paged a sedition story implicating the organisers.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-12-03
Counterpoint is not the only column Vir Sanghvi will not be writing. The column he wrote for the New Indian Express, titled Parallax View, was dropped by the paper the day the Radia Tapes were published. The NIE was perhaps the first newspaper to publish extensive excerpts from the tapes,..
IN Media Practice | 2010-12-03
Tuesday told me that media ethics are amorphous. Where it should have been one editor’s call and matter closed at NDTV, it is now what anyone and their eyeballs make of it.
The sedition case against Roy and Geelani: a case of the reluctant prosecution
IN Media Freedom | 2010-12-02
The directive of a Delhi metropolitan magistrate to police to file an FIR charging sedition against the writer and the Kashmiri separatist leader,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-12-01
A visibly disturbed Barkha Dutt decided to let herself be questioned by four journalists on her controversial role in the Radia Tapes, on Nov. 30. While it was a brave performance she did not answer two crucial questions adequately. One, posed repeatedly by Manu Joseph, Editor,Open -why did she fail to report..
Demand to uphold free speech and expression
IN Media Freedom | 2010-11-30
Academicians, film-makers, journalists, lawyers, writers and others have come together to condemn the demand to levy charges of sedition against writer Arundhati Roy
IN Opinion | 2010-11-30
In showing their proximity to political and business bosses, journalists have been probing new depths in unethical behaviour. Ultimately, they have to ask themselves why they are in the trade – to push agendas, to be kingmakers and queen makers or si
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-11-30
Shivnath Thukral, formerly with NDTV and now with ESSAR, makes a strong case for lobbying by redefining it to mean advocacy (in the latest Outlook). A reader wonders if ESSAR's generous Diwali gift of iPads to select journalists this year was advocacy or lobbying?..
Say yes to phone tapping and Tata to privacy
IN Media Practice | 2010-11-30
Zero safeguards, sweeping laws on interception and monitoring of digital data and the amassing of immense personal data for schemes like Aadhar, give all citizens, not just those under surveillance, little or no privacy rights,
Say yes to phone tapping and Tata to privacy
IN Privacy | 2010-11-29
Zero safeguards, sweeping laws on interception and monitoring of digital data and the amassing of immense personal data for schemes like Aadhar,
IN Opinion | 2010-11-29
Letter to the Hoot: The Indian media may write exposing many scams, but it seems to leave Rahul and Sonia Gandhi alone.
Deccan Chronicle and Eenadu reflect CWG swings
IN Books | 2010-11-28
A comparative analysis of the coverage of CWG game in two southern newspapers reveals that they exercised restraint and balanced the negative stories with many positive ones.
Headline wit in the Telugu press
IN Regional Media | 2010-11-28
The Telugu press often comes up with interesting headlines, and Eenadu comes out with the best. Unless explained, the innuendo can be lost in translation.
IN Media Practice | 2010-11-28
The Radia Tapes debate: Is defining clear guidelines a solution to prevent recurrences? No. The issue is not about defining a code, but its implementation.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-11-28
Vir Sanghvi’s latest ‘Counterpoint’ column concedes no wrong doing but says he is taking a break to do some rethinking. Also to "protect" his column from the muck flying around. Top people including the proprietors at both NDTV and HT media have had long meetings following the exposure. Dutt was..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-11-28
A reader points that the Indian Express issue of November 27 has a second lead on Ratan Tata saying India could end up becoming as lawless as a banana republic where people are killed mysteriously. And a bottom anchor on the same page describes just an encounter killing in Gujarat,..
Debating media ethics? Go, get a life
IN Media Practice | 2010-11-27
The tapes give lesser mortals in the media fraternity an opportunity to learn the fine art of chatting up a source from their two very successful colleagues,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-11-26
Open magazine devotes two pages in its latest issue to how the media covered the media-related disclosures in the Radia tapes. Two blank white pages. ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-11-26
The tolerance for the journos' daily wheeling and dealing is suddenly dropping sharply within media establishments. While the Indian Express has begun to take a re-look at its ethics rules, India Today sacked a person in their Bangalore bureau today for taking land on a discretionary allotment. Sensitive issue, after the..
The Radia Tapes debate--swallowing the bait
IN Media Practice | 2010-11-26
As for stringing along, can we, even for a moment, believe that the likes of Radia – who can wake up star journalists from sleep and pester a pest out of existence – can be strung along?
IN Media Practice | 2010-11-26
In this new game of privatising public resources, media has to be an important ally. Only an insider can create a credible smoke-screen that makes the mafia look like the saviours.
Tough going for media in Kashmir
IN Media Freedom | 2010-11-26
Accessing news sites has become an ordeal and gaining authentic information on the disturbances that break out,virtually impossible. Greater Kashmir and Rising Kashmir have become targets of selective ad placements and restrictions on movement,
The Radia Tapes debate: working journalists introspect
IN Media Practice | 2010-11-26
Every hack covering government formation in May 2009 knew the PM didn't want Raja and TR Baalu because they were "tainted". Were Sanghvi and Barkha--the former gave the impression he had a hot line to the Gandhis--unaware of this?
IN Books | 2010-11-25
The Hoot excerpts a passage from Madhu Trehan’s Tehelka as Metaphor.
The Radia Tapes debate: journalists and others write in
IN Media Practice | 2010-11-24
So let us build a "What If?" argument here. What if, I am a journalist covering the ministry of defence? What if, an arms dealer (or lobbyist) becomes one of my "legitimate sources" for news?
Philippines: Still no justice a year after Maguindano massacre
On 23 November 2009, at least 57 people, among them 32 journalists and media workers, were slaughtered on a grassy hilltop in Maguindanao province in the southern Philippines while travelling in an election convoy,
Radia Tapes: Media ethics at the crossroads
IN Media Practice | 2010-11-23
"From as far back as I remember in my 20 year career as journalist, the primary rule has been: cultivate your source, listen to all his woes, extract information from him, but don't promise to ‘fix’ anything for him." Starting a debate on the Hoot.
IN Media Practice | 2010-11-23
The great media blackout on the Radia tapes is finally ending. Maybe editors and others who said that they could not use the tapes or transcripts for lack of authentication are waking up to the the fact that there have been no statements of denial f
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-11-21
Maharashtra Times, the Marathi newspaper from the Times of India stable is being launched in Pune. To staff it all rival papers including the leader Sakaal, have been raided. No launch date set but it is considered imminent given the major marketing offensive already launched. Talk of taking price wars to a new level: four months'..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-11-20
The I&B Ministry seems to be limiting is big brother role to television alone. While Bigg Boss has been pushed to an 'adult slot' for unsuitable content, several newspapers get away despite printing almost pornographic pictures. A case in point is Midday (Thursday November 18). On Page 13 it has a series of..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-11-20
We need to tell Mr Obama that we are continuing to provide employment to Americans. Pamela Anderson, for instance, flown in for her stint in Big Boss’s house...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-11-19
More tapes involving journalists discussing portfolio allocations with Nira Radia have surfaced, this time on the Outlook website. //Menu effects var suf_nav_delay = 500; var suf_nav_effect = "fade"; ..
IN Opinion | 2010-11-19
Politicians are these ordinary guys doing a difficult job. They sometimes need help from those who can see things as they are. Like us hacks.
IN Media Practice | 2010-11-18
There’s something exciting unfolding on the print media scene. Two of the leading English language newspapers, The Hindu and The Times of India, are on a value-addition drive.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-11-18
The Open Magazine tapes also have Vir Sanghvi talking to Nira Radia about what he can do to give Mukesh Ambani a platform. He suggests he can use either his TV programme, or his column Counterpoint, in the Hindustan Times. Headline to this story: What kind of story do you want?..
Blaming the messenger: Media under pressure in Kashmir
IN Media Freedom | 2010-11-16
Truth was a permanent casualty in the Kashmir valley since the unrest in June, when state curbs on news-gathering and blockading of newspapers or television channels combined with parachute journalism and selective encouragement of pro-establishment
Lakshmi Jain instituted the Chameli Devi Award
IN Media Practice | 2010-11-16
So Lakshmi learnt early about the importance of free speech and media freedom as he joined the Quit India struggle. This was to be a lasting influence on his life.
Because Writers Speak their Minds: 50 years, 50 cases
IN Resources | 2010-11-15
Fifty emblematic cases mark a year-long campaign that focuses on writers who have been imprisoned, exiled or attacked merely because’ they spoke or wrote their minds’,
IN Regional Media | 2010-11-13
The Telegraph tried really hard to find local angles to the US President’s visit. Its Bengal counterpart Anandabazar Patrika however went for straight news coverage which put the Telegraph in the shade.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-11-12
The grapevine has it that the Dainik Bhaskar has ordered all its staff across the country to stop using press stickers on their vehicles! The journalists are not pleased. The logic? The hacks don’t know. The circular was sent to the guys at the top...
Women are still read less, seen less, heard less
IN Media Practice | 2010-11-12
Despite the fact that women are making their presence felt, the world, as seen in the news media, remains largely a male-dominated one, with 76 per cent of the people heard or read about in the news being male.
A long day’s journey into the night
IN Books | 2010-11-12
"Sometime later, Birla rang me with three complaints about the HT’s coverage." The Hoot excerpts a selection from B. G. Verghese’s First Draft.
IN Regional Media | 2010-11-11
Why was Ashok Chavan sacked? Clearly, the real reason for this drastic action lies somewhere else.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-11-10
Prasar Bharati getting greedy during the opening ceremony telecast of the Commonwealth Games proved counter productive in the long run. Its revenue from advertising during the CWG was just a little over a quarter of the Rs 200 crore projected. The government reacted to adverse criticism of the onslaught of..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-11-10
The claim for breaking the Adarsh society story continues. While CNN-IBN has been headlining that it broke the story on TV as far back as April, it is also--a first for a news channel-- acknowledging that it was The Times of India that broke the story in print. Meanwhile not-so-..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-11-10
Is imitation a form of flattery or a farce? One of CNN-IBN'S Rajedeep Sardesai's favourite quotes on corruption--is hamaam mein sab nange haen--was recycled by Times Now's Arnab Goswami albeit in English: "We are all naked in this bathtub," said the anchor talking about rampant corruption...
IN Media Practice | 2010-11-09
Stories of the worries about what Obama’s domestic policies mean for many Indians makes more sense to certain parts of India that export human resources to the US, more than other regions.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-11-09
Prannoy Roy initiating a panel discussion on whether the media was unnecessarily obsessed with the P word during Obama’s visit—is that NDTV criticizing rival Times Now without naming the channel?..
IN Opinion | 2010-11-09
Suddenly, Goswami decided that this was indeed a "historic" visit and went to the extent of saying that he believed that Obama was a "hawk"!
Monitoring government surveillance of Blackberrys
IN Digital Media | 2010-11-07
The agreements between governments of various countries and Research in Motion (RIM) to allow Blacberry services is now under a scanner,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-11-07
By queering the pitch from the start of the Obama visit, Arnab Goswami is doing his channel a disservice. Times Now is losing its claim to be considered a credible news channel and ending up as an America-Pak bashing pulpit that is slanting any news coming its way. With Maroof..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-11-07
Rajiv Sikri may have quit the foreign service in protest because he was not made foreign secretary, but for CNN IBN he is a former foreign secretary. Just as Leela Ponappa is former NSA, forgetting the gentleman called M K Narayanan. Getting designations of their panelists right was beyond the..
IN Books | 2010-11-07
‘The other Durga asks for peace with efforts from all parties’, read the story of the Adivasi Durga carrying the flags of all political parties, and yearning for peace.
Clamping down on the dissenting voice
IN Media Freedom | 2010-11-06
Despite stricter judicial interpretations of sedition, dissenting voices have been prosecuted under it,
How sedition crept into the framing of the Constitution
IN Media Freedom | 2010-11-06
The response of a newly independent nation to cries for freedom indicates its maturity, or lack of it.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-11-06
And on a day when no newspapers came you would have to be really lucky to catch even a squeak of other news on TV channels waiting for Air Force One, waiting for the steps to join the craft, waiting for Barack and Michele to stop shaking hands, waiting for..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-11-06
The mainstream media (including CNN-IBN’s new show on the media) has pretty much steered clear of commenting on the Aroon Purie plagiarism episode, except for the DNA executive editor’s light-hearted take. And a Business Standard columnist says she has quit writing her column because the paper did not initially use..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-11-04
Guess what one company (Essar) sent journalists this year for Diwali: an iPad. Wonder how many did not accept them!..
The upside of plagiarism and why copying won’t die
IN Media Practice | 2010-11-04
Plagiarism is the ultimate form of flattery. You think something is so good that you want to call it your own. But copying has economic spinoffs.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-11-04
It had to happen. The TOI has got so fat with advertising that hawkers are protesting that it weighs too much. A printed pamphlet issued by a hawkers’ union inserted in the newspaper on November 3 said, “in recent months, we are facing some difficulties in delivering the newspaper, Times..
IN Books | 2010-11-04
Reporting Ayodhya IV--The Telegraph as well as Anandabazar Patrika came up with some amazing headlines – good, bad, ugly, convoluted, confused – during the Ayodhya pre-verdict and post-verdict coverage,
Disaffection and the State: the Law of Sedition in India
IN Media Freedom | 2010-11-03
Three sedition trials – of Tilak, Gandhi and Sheikh Abdullah – hold out important lessons on freedom of speech and dissent,
IN Media Practice | 2010-11-03
The locals had known of the existence of these tigers at high altitude for some time and yet the BBC claimed a discovery.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-11-02
While the Hindu has been more than willing to speak in her defence and give her the space to tell her story, Arundhati Roy is questioning the credentials of TV channels. In her piece in the Hindu she has more than hinted at the nexus between trouble makers and TV workers...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-11-02
On November 1 Headlines Today did an investigation with a hidden camera on the grossly unsanitary conditions in which Diwali sweets are produced. When the sweets maker was trotting out names of retailers who bought sweets from him to sell in their shops, the channel beeped them out. Pray why?..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-10-31
Dilip Bobb, rumoured to be the only casualty so far in the India Today plagiarism episode (he is believed to have resigned), continues to be listed on the India Today masthead as a managing editor. Even as he appears in the latest issue of rival mag Oulook with a column. ..
"Our paper isn’t for our editors. It’s for people."
IN Media Practice | 2010-10-30
Do you see our editors at high-falutin’ power lunches or power parties? No. We have town hall meetings where editors talk to people to understand their concerns.
IN Books | 2010-10-30
The Telegraph carped, Anandabazar cheered. One ignored achievements of the atheletes from its home state, the other celebrated them. From The Hoot’s comparative coverage series
"Sedition charges, despite the Supreme Court"
IN Censorship | 2010-10-29
Though the government has backed down on charging Roy and Geelani with sedition, lesser-known activists in India have been charged with sedition this year. State governments have been ignoring the Supreme Court's qualifier on this law.
But what about the little guys
IN Media Freedom | 2010-10-28
When you raise your voice a little too stridently against injustice in India’s districts you invite charges of sedition.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-10-27
There are in house divisions over Kashmir, judging by the debates on TV channels. On October 26 while Junior Jethmalani sat in a TV studio saying powerful authors cannot use their pen to write seditious stuff...Senior Jethmalani was busy in another studio flying in the face of what his son and the..
Call for freedom of expression during historic elections in Burma
Thirty-three IFEX members have called for more transparency in the elections in Burma,
IE lobbies for large dams in Arunachal
IN Media Practice | 2010-10-25
A series of reports and editorials that began appearing in the Indian Express beginning October 8 makes the newspaper sound like a mouthpiece for the Arunachal Pradesh CM and the pro-dam lobby.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-10-25
Question in the Sunday Times of India's 'Open Space' slot on Oct. 24:”What is paid news?” Answer: “Paid news or paid content are those articles in newspapers, magazines and the electronic media, which indicate favourable conditions for the institution that has paid for it. The news is much like an..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-10-24
There is a buzz that the Americans will allow only one TV channel to interview Obama during his India visit. The speculation is that it is NDTV that has bagged the deal. But a point to ponder, why did the Americans not choose the national broadcaster? Because they took a dim view of..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-10-24
Actor Omkar Das the protagonist of Peepli Live will now don the mantle of a reporter. The scruffy looking Das is "covering" Bihar elections for the Hindi channel ‘ Live India’. The actor-reporter was seen recently at Arun Jaitley's press con. A nice symbiotic relationship here: the channel grabs eye..
IN Regional Media | 2010-10-23
The minority perspective got virtually no space in both the Anandabazar Patrika and The Telegraph in the run up to the Ayodhya verdict.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-10-23
At last, a media show on prime timeTV. Karan Thapar conducts The Last Word on CNN-IBN like any other studio discussion. The Centre of Media Studies statistics playing out on the screen add an element of substance. Otherwise it is the same faces, same approach, and no names in the media..
The politics of television in the 2002 Gujarat riots
IN Books | 2010-10-22
The Hoot excerpts a second passage from Nalin Mehta’s India on Television.
IN Opinion | 2010-10-21
Letter to the Hoot: Police officials have tried all means to suppress the coverage of the rape and murder of an 11-year-old school girl.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-10-21
Diwali is here and journalists are going to be snowed under with gifts from corporates, politicians and others. One gift packet stands out is that sent by former CM, former Lok Sabha Speaker, currently Rajya Sabha member Manohar Joshi's Kohinoor Group. It consists of candles, assorted issues of annual Diwali..
`Most Nepali publications lean to the Left’
IN Media Practice | 2010-10-21
In today’s age of economic globalization television has become powerful and a key element of reporting is the blackout of people's struggles which affect the investment climate.
India falls in world press freedom ranking, rest of the world situation grim
IN Media Freedom | 2010-10-20
Press freedom has little to do with economic power and India’s much touted economic reforms haven’t helped protect the media,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-10-20
The puja season has just ended in West Bengal and this year like any other, media people (camera persons included) have got their gift of clothes from Didi. The list is not a mass one, Mamata sends clothes to the journos she knows, and has been doing it for years. The..
As students vent on Facebook, school authorities get edgy
IN Censorship | 2010-10-19
Students in Vadodara and Chandigarh have been suspended by school authorities for using the social networking site to air their grievances and sentiments,
Media fails to veil its bias at Sena rally
IN Regional Media | 2010-10-19
The Shiv Sena’s annual rally at Shivaji Park saw the English newspapers playing into the hands of Thackeray as they `roared’, `slammed’ and `passionately hit out’ to his tune.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-10-18
Hindustan Times brings out a 12-page A4 size weekly supplement called HT Dwarka every Thursday. That's not surprising. Dainik Jagran also brings out a similar supplement every Sunday. What's surprising is HT's mode of delivery -- it falls out of Thursday's Times of India every week. Meanwhile, the Times of..
IN Opinion | 2010-10-18
A 78 metre long cargo ship has floundered off the fragile ecosystem of Lakshadweep threatening the beauty and diversity of the island.
IN Regional Media | 2010-10-18
In Hyderabad both Eenadu and Deccan Chronicle bent over backwards to maintain balance. One defining feature of Eenadu was the effort it took to present both the sides for almost all stories.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-10-16
Sheila Dikshit may be selling you a line, but do you have to buy it? In a post CWG offensive the Delhi CM is doing interview after interview and getting nailed in not a single one. NDTV particularly, Barkha Dutt andVikram Chandra downwards, seems to have bought all her assertions...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-10-16
The reporter of a Hindi TV channel to the Indian athletes who have been performing well at the Games..."Kya aap ko dekh kar ladke seeti bajate hai...?".(do boys whistle when you walk by)...and then comes the big one..."Aap ke kya shauk hai...koi ladkiyon wale shauk??" (Do you have any girlie hobbies). Just..
IN Regional Media | 2010-10-16
Gujarati newspapers used treatment, rather content, to indicate their pro- verdict stance. Did TOI’s well-meaning communal harmony efforts reaffirm stereotypes? Our series on Comparative Coverage begins with the Ayodhya coverage in Gujarat.
Star stumbles on to a fund mine
IN Media Practice | 2010-10-16
An unwitting Star Mhaja camera mike recorded the andar ki baat between senior Congress men discussing fund raising for a Sonia rally.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-10-16
The Times of India in Mumbai broke a record of sorts on October 15. Readers had to work hard to find the front page of the paper because it had two and a half front pages before you got to the real front page. The two full page ads before..
A media booster for Manipuri sportswomen
IN Media Practice | 2010-10-15
When boxing champion Sarita protested against being dropped from the Indian team, the media was present in strength to take up her case.
The Nobel Peace Prize winner and the politics of dissidence
The Chinese government blocks news of the Nobel Peace Prize but the desire for freedom of speech can’t be quelled,
IN Media Practice | 2010-10-14
When Thackeray’s grandson bamboozled the Mumbai University VC into banning a book few newspapers or channels took up the issue.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-10-14
Delhi CM Sheila Dikshit wants to ensure that she gets credit for all the nice things associated with the Commonwealth Games. Having earned her share of brickbats for the disasters that unraveled during the countdown to the Games, the CM now wants to bask in adulation. Two full page ads each in..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-10-14
After booking over 80 minutes of advertising for the closing ceremony, Doordarshan finally aired none, letting the three hour ceremony proceed undisturbed. There were so many complaints about the opening ceremony that the Government ordered DD to telecast the show without ads. The network lost a lot of money...
IN Media Practice | 2010-10-13
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.
IN Regional Media | 2010-10-13
A lift from Slate appears in the Southern edition of India Today, in the letter from the editor in chief. Does this mean Purie does not write the letter himself, at least for the Southern edition?
RSF concerned about lack of transparency in BlackBerry deal
IN Digital Media | 2010-10-12
What exactly are the terms of the agreement between the UAE and the smartphone manufacturer, and how does this affect the freedom of expression of users?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-10-11
Bigg Boss 4’ made its debut on the day of the Games’ opening ceremony – on October 3, 2010. While the opening ceremony started airing at 5.30 pm on DD1 and DD Sports, ‘Bigg Boss 4’ started airing at 9 pm on Colors. According to data released by TAM, the opening..
Withdrawal of acclaimed book from Mumbai University curriculum: A cowardly move
IN Censorship | 2010-10-10
A groundswell of opinion is building up against the move by the Mumbai University’s Vice Chancellor to withdraw Rohinton Minstry’s book ‘Such a long journey’ from the curriculum for undergraduates.
IN Media Practice | 2010-10-09
After a year of handwringing but little action on paid news and other aberrations, media ethics seem to be finally coming onto civil society’s agenda. Will it stay there?
IN Opinion | 2010-10-09
Letter to the Hoot: The `Fragrance of Gujarat’ ads are partisan and favour one community.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-10-09
Prasar Bharati is thrilled with the money making opportunities the Commonwealth Games are presenting. It is planning to quickly roll out DVDs of the opening and closing ceremonies and has promptly hiked its ad rates for the closing ceremony. The current ad bookings for this event exceed 80 minutes already...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-10-09
The Hindu wrote an edit on October 9 on the Nobel Prize winner for literature. Hindu watchers (including the Chindu blog) are waiting with bated breath to see whether it will write an edit on the Nobel Peace Prize winner and what that will say...
Press freedom under attack around the world
IN Media Freedom | 2010-10-08
At least 56 journalists have been killed in the first eight and a half months of 2010, and media employees worldwide continue to face physical violence and persecution of all kinds, whether from public officials, criminals or terrorists,
IN Media Practice | 2010-10-08
`Justice for Pratibha’ in Bangalore on Friday could well have become `Gowramma needs to be saved’.
When a ‘paper decides the dress code
IN Media Practice | 2010-10-08
Every day, the newspaper announces the colour for the next day, and lo and behold, working women gather as they exit their workplaces and remind each other of the next day’s colour.
Free spectrum bounty under scanner
IN Media Practice | 2010-10-08
By not charging a license fee to private channels for use of airwaves, the government is losing out on revenue and a way to regulate content.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-10-05
Kalmadi can do it all, including bring out his own newsletter for exclusive distribution in the Games Village. The organising committee that can be called Team Kalmadi, is bringing out a four-page tabloid-sized glossy that gives all the positive news about the Games and the athletes. ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-10-04
When the big day dawned it was like being back in 1982, with only Doordarshan there to broadcast it. Two anchors sitting in a studio dishing out banalities on the main channel, and Charu Sharma with a dishy fellow anchor borrowed from ESPN, on DD Sports. The only thing that possibly..
Live TV and dubious judicial logic
IN Media Practice | 2010-10-04
Whether a self-proclaimed custodian of God can go to court claiming land in His name and whether Indian courts can endorse such ownership of land was not explored by any channel.
IN Media Practice | 2010-10-02
On channels like TV 9 in Bangalore the famous Gandhi bhajan Ishwar, Allah Tero Naam, Saboko Sanmati De Bhagvan literally became the signature tune for the day, while reports were beamed on Hindu-Muslim amity in remote villages and districts of Karnat
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-10-01
After all the bad press, the CWG organising committee has begun warming up to journalists. A cocktail party was organised on October 1 to bring a thaw in the strained relations. Even the mascot Shera is now being sent to some media offices as a friendly gesture. ..
IN Books | 2010-10-01
The Hoot excerpts a passage from Nalin Mehta’s India on Television.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-10-01
Ravi Shankar Prasad, BJP spokesperson who has been frustrating TV journalists these days with his- “I am not wearing a BJP hat today- I am wearing a Counsel’s hat-I am not wearing a Counsel’s hat now but I am wearing a Citizen’s hat etc”- was on a 'attack English news channel mode'..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-09-30
Aaj Tak seemed to emphasize the pro-Hindu portions of the verdict in its constant news flashes. DD News chose not to show Mayawati’s press conference live, though everybody else did. CNN used Google Earth to show where Ayodhya was. And for some reason both Vinod Mehta and Shobha De were..
IN Opinion | 2010-09-30
Letter to the Hoot: I hope with the recent "India First" initiative, Mr Gowsami will return to objective anchoring. He is a rare talent and the country should not lose him,
Reporting on a struggle means becoming part of it’
IN Media Practice | 2010-09-30
‘Only the media can give voice to the oppressed. To me, journalism is a way out of the mindset that nothing can be changed’.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-09-28
Whatever the motives of the Times of India in unleashing a wave of stories on the Commonwealth Games, the outcome was positive. it had a salutary impact in that the Organising Committee was forced to speed up and get its act together. However, its front page story today is quite..
IN Media Practice | 2010-09-27
Last Tuesday Haryana’s chief minister Mr. Bhupinder Singh Hooda handed out cash awards totalling Rs 40 lakh to 153 journalists working for a string of big and small newspapers and television networks out of Delhi, Chandigarh and the state’s district
Google’s Transparency Report: the information governments want blocked
IN Censorship | 2010-09-26
In an innovative move to combat online censorship from governments that demand information be blocked, Google unveiled its new transparency tool to track these requests. India, incidentally, ranks fourth highest, after USA, UK and Brazil!
IN Media Practice | 2010-09-25
Shouldn’t reporting done well, be enough `solution’ in the media? Should we ask readers and viewers to ``be the solution’’? Unless of course, you are admitting that the reporting wasn’t meant to solve anything in the first place.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-09-23
After a couple of years of experimenting with his own publications, MJ Akbar is back at the head of a publishing group. He joins the Living Media group as editorial director of India Today and Headlines Today. And Prabhu Chawla moves sideways to a post created for him as editor..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-09-23
Ironical. Just a few months back Mike Hooper took the help of the Indian media to complain about things going wrong with the Commonwealth Games (CWG) preparations even as Indian organising comittee members threateningly ordered him to stop talking to the press in the CWG office premises. Yet just a few..
Mixed response to `talking ads’ in print
IN Opinion | 2010-09-22
Impact of this `speaking ad’ was amplified by the social networking websites. The Times group’s critical comment on this ad is a step forward for the community.
IN Opinion | 2010-09-22
Are reporters, who fall for police and IB plants and happily give chapter and verse on the lives of individuals suspected of terror links, bound to apologise if they are proved wrong?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-09-22
The Times of India came in two sets on September 21, 2010, each with a front page, masthead and all, with a small black box pasted to the second's back page, under the centrefold. When opened to read it belted out an audio advertisement from a chip inside a black..
IN Media Practice | 2010-09-22
There are some things that we take for granted in the newsroom everyday--rules that are not written down but that every practitioner of journalism knows exist and abides by.
IN Law and Policy | 2010-09-20
So what will the UPA government do next in this sticky case of an overly autonomous CEO? Will his writ continue to run? Will some in the highest echelons of this government continue to protect him?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-09-18
The News Broadcasters Association has put out an advisory on how the High Court judgement on the Ayodhya issue should be reported. All news on the judgement in the case should be a verbatim reproduction with no opinion or interpretation, no speculation of the judgement before it is pronounced should..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-09-17
The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting may have recommended the removal of the CEO of Prasar Bharati and sent the file to the PM. But the PMO, seen in many circles as the source of B S Lalli’s strength, is not obliging yet. The Hoot learns that the file has..
IN Media Practice | 2010-09-17
Hindi news channels cover most of north India. But barring a few stories on water logging in Panipat, Ambala and Agra (oh my god, not the Taj!), they behave like local Delhi TV.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-09-16
Media expansion is alive and well. Dainik Bhaskar recently entered Jharkhand. Now the Rajasthan Patrika is getting ready to assault Chattisgarh and has begun a hoarding campaign in Raipur. ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-09-16
After the Times of India published the prime minister’s China comments (which were supposed to off the record) as a lead story, there is a new wisecrack on the hack circuit. From now on, at the end of such senior journo interactions, the TOI editor who broke the confidentiality understanding will..
Book extract: communications in the new India
IN Books | 2010-09-12
Intro: The Hoot excerpts two passages from Pradip Ninan Thomas’s Political Economy of Communications in India.
IN Media Practice | 2010-09-11
At 4.03 pm, the deluge didn’t come. The reporters looked confused. A reporter from India Live stood valiantly, waist-deep in the river, doing her flood piece.
Transparency and free flow of information vital to Millenium Development Goals
IN Media Freedom | 2010-09-10
The free flow of information and transparency are vital for the achievement of the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs), says the London Declaration for Transparency, the Free Flow of Information and Development,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-09-09
Soap makers have moved on to real life police cases. A new soap to hit the screens soon is apparently based on the infamous Ruchika Girhotra molestation and suicide case. Actor Ashutosh Rana has been roped in to play a role that seems inspired by the ex Haryana DGP SPS Rathore. Titled ''Kali - Ek Agnipariksha'..
Reporting in times of communal strife --IV
IN Regional Media | 2010-09-09
More than Kashmir Times published from Jammu, commentary in Greater Kashmir highlighted the alienation – economic, physical, and psychological – fostered by the blockade and the fact that it was directly antithetical to India’s claim to the Valley,
Getting it wrong deliberately?
IN Media Practice | 2010-09-08
If you note the choice of words – outsiders, on which the newspaper leveraged the entire story – and the comments sought by the newspaper, it becomes evident that the lure of sexing it up was too strong.
IN Media Freedom | 2010-09-06
The impunity with which journalists were attacked by CPM cadre in Lalgarh, West Bengal, on September 3, and the state government in denial mode – is a good indicator to the value attached to freedom of speech and expression – or the lack of it,
IN Opinion | 2010-09-06
Letter to the Hoot: Does a comment that highlights a Peepli (Live) like situation and critiques the electronic media deserve a front page display?
IN Media Practice | 2010-09-06
Your head covering at the press conference reflected the assumption that Pakistani women in public spaces are or should be covered up like this. This is one of the fights we are fighting.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-09-06
When Vir Sanghvi gets invited to Iceland by the government and then produces three pages in HT’s Brunch on that country and why it makes a great holiday destination for Indians, what should we call that? Sponsored news?..
IN Media Practice | 2010-09-05
A documentary on an intractable problem leaves the viewer with more question than insights
Judges caught copying in LL.M exam
IN Media Practice | 2010-09-05
Andhra Jyothi channel reporters jumped the wall, overcame the resistance by the security guard and entered the exam hall with their cameras.
Reporting in times of communal strife --III
IN Media Practice | 2010-09-05
Comments and editorials that followed the Amarnath land allocation dispute revealed a desire for communal harmony and a need for calm deliberation rather than rabble rousing.
IN Opinion | 2010-09-05
Letter to the Hoot: Every small dispute, be it a fight between youngsters, is being portrayed as a border row.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-09-05
The blog Churimuri has a long post which seeks to link the Times of India’s daily attacks on the Commonwealth Games with the fact that the paper proposed a deal to the CWG authorities which the latter did not bite. The paper’s executives apparently wrote to Suresh Kalmadi in November..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-09-05
Siddharth Varadarajan of the Hindu has written to the jury which gave the Indian News Broadcasting Award for News Reporter of the Year 2010, Hindi, to Neeta Sharma of NDTV India, protesting at the choice. He says this was the reporter who had written a false story in the Hindustan..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-09-02
Newspapers advertise their special strengths to attract readers. But advertise their advertisement content on other media to attract readers? This is now being done by the Daily News and Analysis (DNA) in Mumbai. It sends out text messages drawing attention to an advertisement, directly plugging a client, ending with "...Please call..
IN Media Practice | 2010-09-02
Neither Ms Dutt nor her fraternity have till now felt the need to venture out of their air-conditioned studios into these badlands and find out exactly why UP farmers are out shouting slogans on Delhi streets.
Reporting in times of communal strife --II
IN Media Practice | 2010-09-02
Media narratives: Jammu versus Kashmir. The Dainik Jagran published from Jammu took it upon itself in the summer of 2008 to give voice to Jammu’s anger, anguish and sense of discrimination.
IN Opinion | 2010-08-31
Peepli [Live] has ended up trivializing a very grave issue and fails to highlight the real plight of the farmers or the dimensions of the agrarian crisis.
Reporting in times of communal strife
IN Media Practice | 2010-08-31
Two years after Amarnath erupted and caused a lasting schism between Jammu and Kashmir, The Hoot looks at the role played by the media in the state. Did they rise above the strife or did they opt to cater to their home constituencies? Did they
Testing concepts about print, newspapers, and politics
IN Books | 2010-08-31
The Hoot excerpts a passage from Robin Jeffrey’s Media and Modernity.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-08-30
The Times of India and Ananda Bazar Patrika’s scoop of last week has been exposed by the Telegraph today, August 30, to be a police plant. The Maoist rape victim interviewed in a forest has apparently been in police custody since April this year. After the story came out police..
Say ‘No’ to UID: call for a national campaign
IN Media Freedom | 2010-08-29
Are the risks of surveillance and profiling acceptable trade-offs for the ‘inclusion and portability’ of the Unique Identification Number (UID) that government officials believe the scheme will confer?
Truth buried under inspired reporting
IN Media Practice | 2010-08-28
A report that has no quotes on behalf of the accused and names, although as an alias, a rape victim, violates basic journalistic ethic.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-08-28
The Securities & Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has ordered that all media houses should disclose on their websites the private treaty they have with companies and mention it when reporting news of such companies. The Daily News and Analysis (DNA) and the Indian Express carried this news item in their Mumbai..
No one is going beyond the floods
IN Media Practice | 2010-08-28
The full picture of Pakistan’s month of sorrow has still not emerged. The rigour shown by media while reporting religious extremism and terrorism in Pakistan, is absent in the floods coverage,
Privacy is not a trade off for transparency
IN Privacy | 2010-08-27
Agencies of the State and the private sector are collecting a variety of data on individuals. Adequate regulatory measures are needed to rein them in and safeguard individual privacy and data protection,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-08-25
Reality star Rakhi Sawant has donned a new avatar. She will soon be handing out justice on national television. "Rakhi Ka Insaaf", a new reality show is expected to go on air soon on NDTV Imagine. The drama queen is expected to solve the mundane problems of the aam admi..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-08-25
At a time when small newspapers are available on the Net it is ironical that the reputed trust- based Chandigarh Tribune has taken 12 years to put its Hindi and Punjabi papers on the Net. The English paper got its Net edition in 1998. The language publications went on the..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-08-25
Commuters in Chennai were stranded on August 24, when over 1,000 buses of the Metropolitan Transport Corporation staying off the roads. Their staff, affiliated to the ruling DMK’s Labour Progressive Front, stayed away to participate in a rally demanding wage revision. The TOI, New Indian Express and Deccan Chronicle mentioned..
IN Regional Media | 2010-08-25
"We are forever on the road, talking to people about all their movements and little mutinies."
IN Media Practice | 2010-08-22
The censoring of art and attacks on artists like M F Husain appears to have had a chilling effect and several artists and art galleries have opted for self-censorship,
IN Media Practice | 2010-08-22
By the end of sustained news reporting of the collision, the issue had blossomed into a clean-up drive inspired by TV channels.
July was a bad month for free speech
IN Media Freedom | 2010-08-22
There were 26 free speech-related developments on the Hoot's Free Speech Hub, only one of them positive.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-08-21
Sadhbhavna Diwas is a boon for newspapers. On August 20 there were more half page advertisements in memory of Rajiv Gandhi than news in most papers. HT and TOI had 18 and 17, the Hindu had 16, Asian Age, 6. The tax payer should be grateful that DAVP rates are..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-08-20
Ever since Raghav Behl's first book, Superpower: The Amazing Race between China's Hare and India's Tortoise was launched last week, he has been getting amazing coverage on all the IBN channels. One reason could be that Behl is founder and managing Director of Network18, a news and business network, that co-owns..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-08-20
Actor Deepika Padukone was moved to tears on the sets of a reality show. she was apparently moved by Rahat Fateh Ali Khan's singing, but Headlines Today decided the tears were because the song reminded Ms Padukone of the time spent with ex love Ranbir Kapoor. The channel's conclusion seemed..
Another stab at broadcast regulation
IN Law and Policy | 2010-08-18
In November, 2009 a Task Force was constituted by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to evolve a consensus on the draft broadcasting bill. It has recommended both content and carriage regulation.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-08-18
As the Saxena committee report on Vedanta's violations in Niyamgiri goes public, Vedanta announces the acquisition of Cairn India - a player in the energy space. A quick look at Google News. Searched for "Vedanta": 976 articles related to Vedanta Acquisition of Cairns. 72 articles related to the Saxena Committee..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-08-17
Arnab Goswami was in no mood to let off Robert Wintemute, a professor of human rights law at the King’s College, London for calling Indian visa rules racist. Goswami found an able accomplice in Maroof Raza, defence expert. Both men badgered the professor to the extent that he finally threw off..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-08-16
The Dainik Bhaskar is on an anti-corruption drive. The paper’s MD said in a letter last week that corruption in journalism would not be tolerated. It listed three categories: taking a bribe for publishing news, blackmailing somebody, and publishing useless news. He did not say anything about news as advertising which..
IN Media Practice | 2010-08-16
When newspapers find a letter to the editor unacceptable should they reject it or rewrite it?
When Bigotry rules: Religiosity and censorship in Goa
IN Media Practice | 2010-08-15
The attack on the paintings of Dr Jose Pereira by the Hindu Janjagrut Sanghatana was appalling, but what of the response of the State, intellectuals and the media?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-08-15
Looks like government propaganda will now be outsourced. The UIDAI has published a tender for a public relations firm. Brief includes creating networking opportunities between key officials in the UIDAI and the media and educating key influencers in the media. Taxpayers sponsoring paid content? ..
IN Media Practice | 2010-08-15
A farmer is about to commit suicide! TV reporters, politicians from the bottom to the top, and finally the agriculture ministry in Delhi all become caught up in the rip-roaring chase that follows.
IN Media Practice | 2010-08-14
Noting the manner in which information was appearing in the media, the apex court asked the CBI, "Who are these anonymous sources dishing out information to the press?"
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-08-13
Me, the glossy magazine for women brought by DNA has been closed down, ostensibly because the Diligent Media Corporation wants to focus on news alone. Edited by Satya Saran, formerly editor of Femina, Me was originally a weekly pullout of the newspaper, but later converted into a stand-alone magazine. The entire staff,..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-08-12
Since the government is losing the propaganda war in Kashmir rather badly the home minister Mr Chidambaram has taken to inviting Kashmiri journalists in Delhi for chats. The ones he needs to talk to are the Kashmiri journos reporting from Kashmir. ..
Is our neighbour’s tragedy not our own?
IN Opinion | 2010-08-11
So why did the Indian media choose to ignore a huge human tragedy which, by virtue of its proportions, has to be considered "breaking news" by any objective criteria,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-08-11
The Tamil Nadu Illathu Pillaimar State Association put in ads in Tamil newspapers warning the Tamil magazine Junior Vikatan that a massive agitation would be held in front of its office in Chennai if it failed to apologise for carrying a ‘news’ story in its column titled Mister Kazhugu (Mr..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-08-11
DNA's Mumbai edition is thinner soon after its fifth anniversary. DNA Money, hitherto a pink pullout has been put in the main paper, bringing the pages down from a total of 26 to 24. Even the DNA after hrs, the several pages big page 3 version of other newspapers has been trimmed. This,..
IN Censorship | 2010-08-10
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,
IN Books | 2010-08-10
Is political representation on so-called national television diverse? Of course not. National politics is represented on television debates by just six politicians from the Congress and BJP.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-08-08
Four tonnes of oil spilling into the sea by the hour from container ship MSC Chitra in the Mumbai harbour after a collision with another vessel, is a "minor leak" to Hindustan Times in its August 8, Mumbai edition. Carried on page 5. It is not a story at all for the Indian..
Lay off the Commonwealth Games!
IN Media Practice | 2010-08-08
There is little doubt that excessive media coverage of the delays and corruption allegations against the Organising Committee (OC) is now proving detrimental to the success of the Delhi Commonwealth Games 2010.
IN Media Freedom | 2010-08-07
When citizens are under curfews, bans on television channels and curbs on newspaper distribution, they turn to cybermedia and even street graffiti
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-08-07
Breaking news on CNN IBN! The channel is the first to reach Leh! ..
IN Media Practice | 2010-08-06
The Press Council subcommittee’s original report on Paid News, and the sanitised one that the Council membership finally accepted offer an interesting contrast.
IN Media Practice | 2010-08-06
If the Fourth Estate does not do process reporting consistently, it will remain stuck as ambulance chasers. The worst casualty then is democracy and civic society.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-08-06
When cutting DNA's 5th anniversary cake, Subhash Chandra, Co-Chairman of its publisher, the Diligent Media Corporation, said he suspected that every evening the Times of India editor and his DNA counterpart got together to decide what stories to play up. In short - the two products almost look alike, when the paper..
IN Media Practice | 2010-08-06
The Indian media has piled on so many layers of posturing that if you want to restore ethics and craft, then you have to roll back at least two decades into the past.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-08-06
What's with these TV channels and their gender bias? Why are all the talk shows and discussions on the CWG so completely male- dominated--there are anchors with guests in eight to ten windows, and ALL of them are men! ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-08-06
It is open season these days on TV channels as the CWG dirty linen is washed before the nation. There was a spat between Swapan Dasgupta and Vinod Sharma on Times Now on Thursday night, on air. Sharma accused Dasgupta of double standards. "He didn't want Amit Shah punished but wants Kalmadi hanged!..
A cheeky video game by Greenpeace but corporate giant Tata is not amused
IN Media Freedom | 2010-08-05
The defamation suit against the environmental group is the latest in a string of SLAPP litigation by corporate against activists
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-08-05
With a new editor at the helm, the Tribune is attempting an image makeover. While the paper is yet to offer an e-version of the day's newspaper on its website, it has begun showing interviews carried out by the editor or the staff. The videos are a little clumsily shot..
Net news proliferates in Manipur
IN Digital Media | 2010-08-05
When Burning Voices could not find any takers for its documentary on harassment by security forces in the national or local media, it posted the same on the internet
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-08-05
The Indian Express carried an amazing op ed piece by former director, IB, Ajit Doval, which actually argues that the press is eroding public trust in governance by endlessly covering the Sohrabuddin case. It further argues that "there are many who feel that there is a higher rationale for such..
Supreme Court rejects SLAPP suit against eco –activists filed by Pesticides lobb
IN Media Freedom | 2010-08-04
Rejecting a defamation case on 11 activists filed by the Association of Pesticide Manufacturing Companies, the apex court upheld their freedom of speech and said their report was in public interest.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-08-04
Kashmir Journalists Corps has condemned the assault on its spokesman and Star News Bureau Chief Asif Qureshi by the security forces near Hazratbal on August 4 evening.He was stopped by the CRPF, asked to alight from the vehicle and told to clear the road from blockades. He was asked to..
IN Media Practice | 2010-08-04
English newspapers in Pakistan are now divided into two prominent sections. There is ‘news of the day’ and then there is ‘my’ news of the day. It’s all about personal opinion. And on television it is self-obsessed histrionics.
IN Regional Media | 2010-08-02
Nurturing a key media institution in the highly literate and political conscious state of Kerala is perhaps a challenge.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-08-02
Sports Minister M S Gill glibly told the media on Sunday that they should report "postive stories" on the progress of the Commonwealth Games infrastructure. Even as reporters plod through the mess. Meanwhile a BBC reporter flew over all the stadia that are built and ready in UK for the 2012 Olympics...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-08-02
In his interview with Barkha Dutt CWG organizing committee chairman Suresh Kalmadi came across as a sanguine gentleman. Everything put to him was water off a duck’s back. 42 people have died in the course of the Games preparations? Yes they have, he tut-tuted. Cost overruns have been 17 times..
Book bans: Tale of three books
IN Media Freedom | 2010-08-01
Judicial pronouncements in three recent cases on book bans and curbs on books for allegedly causing enmity or communal disharmony have upheld freedom of expression in different ways,
Supreme Court lifts ban on Laine book
IN Judgements | 2010-08-01
Upholding the judgement of the Bombay High Court that the Maharashtra government could not establish which groups would suffer enmity by the publication of James Laine's book on Shivaji,
No material to show disharmony or enmity: James Laine book
IN Judgements | 2010-08-01
The Maharashtra government has not shown any evidence that the publication of the book would foment enmity,
No criminal proceedings against writer Murzban Shroff
IN Judgements | 2010-08-01
There are no grounds for criminal proceedings against short story writer Murzban Shroff on allegations of spreading communal harmony,
Student rape case: media offenders
IN Media Practice | 2010-08-01
The blog giving details of the assaulted school girl and the publicity given to the blog by the media will play into the hands of the accused.
IN Media Business | 2010-07-30
The Hoot excerpts a second passage from Vanita Kohli-Khandekar’s The Indian Media Business.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-07-29
The Kashmir government has banned on July 29 the transmission of two local TV channels, SEN Channel and SEN Awaz for telecasting what it called as "provocative programmes"including speeches of secessionist elements and protests. The channels are accused of "showing stone pelting attacks on CRPF bunkers, statement of separatists and..
No time or space for the dead soldier
IN Media Practice | 2010-07-29
The space contest between these dead soldiers and the wedding of the Indian cricket captain, nikah of Sania Mirza and the kiss of Rakhi Sawant is woefully one-sided.
TV channel replaces God with Allah
IN Opinion | 2010-07-29
Letter to the Hoot: In the homes that the dubbed version of Air Force One was watched, many must have gone to bed with the image of another gun totting fanatic with a barely coherent agenda evoking Allah.
"These bastards need to be bared"
IN Media Practice | 2010-07-28
Leading an award winning investigative media website headquartered in Sweden with five full time journalists and 800 volunteers worldwide, Assange has been out for a kill.
Reporting as if gender matters
IN Media Practice | 2010-07-27
The Hoot excerpts a passage from Kalpana Sharma’s edited volume Missing: Half the Story: Journalism as if Gender Matters.
IN Media Freedom | 2010-07-27
The intimidation of journalists in the form of physical attacks, threats and initiation of legal proceedings against them has reached a peak in Naveen Patnaik’s state.
Orissa attacks listed, January-July 2010
IN Media Freedom | 2010-07-26
There have been 12 instances of attacks, six instances of intimidation from January 2010 till date, as well asd against journalists from 2004-4009.
Orissa: attacks on media rise, state remains spectator
IN Media Freedom | 2010-07-25
The attacks on journalists are inextricably linked to the changing equation between the state and civil society, brought about by the triumvirate of aggressive industrialisation, political interests and competitive media houses.
How did Hemchandra Pandey die?
Mystery still clouds the death of Hem Pandey, in an 'encounter' along with Maoist leader Azad, on or around July 1. While Pandey’s wife Babita stated that he was on an assignment, police insisted he was a Maoist and Hindi newspapers quickly distanced
Hemchandra Pandey: unanswered questions
IN Media Freedom | 2010-07-24
Hemchandra Pandey died in an encounter along with Maoist leader Azad, on or around July 1. Was he on assignment as a journalist or as a Maoist sympathiser? When the police insisted he was a Maoist, Hindi newspapers quickly distanced themselves from
IN Media Practice | 2010-07-23
An amazing story on the India Today website seems to think that appointing Dalit cooks in schools is a deliberately divisive move by a state government.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-07-23
Mail Today wants us to know exactly how much their circulation figures stand at. The paper has recently begun printing the numbers on the front page just below the masthead. Will other newspapers follow suit?..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-07-23
The Chairperson of Tulsipur FM (100.2 MHz), Devi Prasad Dhital alias Hemraj was shot dead by an unidentified group on July 22 around 8:45 PM in the mid-western Dang district of Nepal. Freedom Forum records an incident a day against the media in Nepal. ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-07-23
Students of Hansraj College say that a HT City photographer came over to click photographs of the first day of college. He asked some seniors to rag juniors, after which he started clicking photographs. This did not go down well with the authorities who came with police personnel and asked..
Media amnesia and sexual harassment
IN Media Practice | 2010-07-23
It has been rather ironic, watching KPS Gill ranting against sexual harassment and sermonising about the "rot" within the system.
IN Opinion | 2010-07-23
Letter to the Hoot:Express reporter Vijay Pratap Singh's death on duty clearly exposes the very thin line that divides the reel and the real world of Indian politics and the conditions under which journalists work.
IN Media Practice | 2010-07-22
The reported revival of Hum Log, in a new village-based avatar, needs to be contextualised in the contemporaneous and multi-faceted evolution of the electronic media
IN Media Practice | 2010-07-19
Honour killings seem to have brought out the best among serial makers who are now responding by highlighting these in their shows.
IN Digital Media | 2010-07-19
The Hoot excerpts a passage from Maya Ranganathan and Usha M. Rodrigues’ Indian Media in a Globalised World.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-07-19
Govindraj Ethiraj, Editor-in??"Chief, Bloomberg UTV, is leaving TV news to join the government of India. He will be part of Nandan Nilekani’s team at the UIDAI project. Exchange4media ofcourse writes an entire news story on that development without spelling out the acronym of the Unique Identification Authority...
IN Media Freedom | 2010-07-18
In less than twenty days of this month there have been six assaults on journalists and one arrest in Manipur, Kerala, Kashmir, Maharashtra, Orissa and Delhi.
IN Media Freedom | 2010-07-18
In less than twenty days of this month there have been six assaults on journalists and one arrest in Manipur, Kerala, Kashmir, Maharashtra, Orissa and Delhi.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-07-17
The TV channels had all day on the 17th July to obtain some information on what actually happened at the July 16 talks in Pakistan. It was extraordinary that every one of them focused on what happened at the press conference the previous day, and had no new information to offer...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-07-17
The government says talks with Pakistan will continue. Times Now says, "Talks fail, ties hit." Who knows better, we wonder...
Freedom of expression important, yet ban is justified
IN Judgements | 2010-07-15
The Bombay High Court justified a ban on the book, "Islam – A concept of Political World Invasion By Muslims" by R V Bhasin.
IN Community Media | 2010-07-14
The most watched channel is Arirang, shops are overflowing with Korean goods and the youth of Nagaland flaunt hair styled on Korean actors and actresses.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-07-12
India has refused to renew the visa of Shogo Takahashi, the New Delhi bureau chief of Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK). The external affairs ministry was apparently upset over some biased content in some of the NHK's documentary programmes. The NHK's coverage of the Lok Sabha elections last year, with its focus..
Journalism and 'the words of power'
IN Media Practice | 2010-07-12
The real tragedy of the media’s surrender to the state is that journalists have stopped reading books, especially history books.
IN Media Practice | 2010-07-12
The state's advertisement budget has jumped even as criticism of Nitish Kumar's government in the local and national media has slumped.
IN Media Practice | 2010-07-10
On July 8, 2010 many Delhi based news channels went to town with an intercept of a conversation between a Hurriyat (Geelani) leader and an activist of the same faction. Was the translation of the conversation in Kashmiri accurate? Here are two versio
IN Opinion | 2010-07-10
DNA, Saamana, Prahaar and Sakaal all used an original map from a blog without so much as a by-your-leave.
IN Media Practice | 2010-07-10
The classic story-telling strategy of the media is for the story teller to develop an axiom or hypothesis on what he would be reporting, and then collect information that suits the axiom.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-07-10
A viewer wants to know why NDTV which has been campaigning for animal rights and conservation stooped to the gimmick of getting a caged parrot on a Vikram Chandra show to compete with Paul the octopus in predicting the outcome of the FIFA final. Particularly since the parrot reacted in..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-07-09
Google said on July 9 that the Beijing government had renewed the license that it needed to continue operating a website in China, and that the company looks forward to continuing to provide web search and other services to users in China. There was no immediate word from China’s information..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-07-09
Times Now’s day long "exclusive" on the transcript of an intercepted conversation between a Hurriyat (G) leader and a paid Hurriyat activist, was also on Headlines Today and on NDTV 24x7. The government should be pleased that they have such a mightily cooperative media. ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-07-09
On the 8th, for a second day journalists in Srinagar were denied free movement, newspaper staff were unable to reach their offices to bring out their publications. Yet the army collected photo journalists and videographers and took them on their flag march so that the rest of the country would..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-07-08
Twittering has cost a CNN reporter her job.Octavia Nasr who lamented the death of Lebanese Shi'ite cleric Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, an early mentor of the militant group Hezbollah in her tweet was sacked after she her comment was found unacceptable by CNN. A CNN spokesman said: "CNN regrets any offence her Twitter..
IN Opinion | 2010-07-08
The language used to describe those who protest in Kashmir is not just a matter of semantics. It is important because it places what is happening within a context,
Media distrust touches a new high
IN Media Practice | 2010-07-07
Even as belief in the entrenched media in the West sees a new low, it is time to take stock of where Indian media stands.
Censoring films to ‘protect’ the audience
IN Censorship | 2010-07-06
The paternalistic logic that ‘vulnerable audiences’ need to be protected from images of violence, nudity, obscenity etc is completely irrational
IN Media Practice | 2010-07-06
Starting with this account you find that those reporting tend to settle into one of two focuses: dying youth or stoning youth.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-07-06
The secret wedding of MSD was a severe blow to the media, imagine losing out on stories about what the groom and bride will eat, drink, wear, etc. But our fastidious reporters are not giving up so easily. If Aaj Tak went ahead with breaking news declaring that it had..
Making light work of a literature meet
IN Regional Media | 2010-07-03
English media covering the World Classical Tamil Conference did not highlight the fact that the meet was an exercise in nostalgia which failed to give a direction for the future development of the language.
IN Media Freedom | 2010-07-02
Should a self-proclaimed champion of peace be so reckless in his use/misuse of inflammable words? Or are we dealing here with calculated ambiguity, a deliberate playing with fire?
The Sad Story of Prasar Bharati
IN Media Practice | 2010-07-02
PB needs restructuring. But it must first be rescued from the limbo in which finds itself or from euthanasia.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-07-01
Midday has a story on how actor Kangana Ranaut is learning French, because she intends to holiday in France. The story says the actor had a bad experience in Italy because she couldn't understand the language. Citing an example of her Italian dream holiday going sour, she says: " Another time i wanted to go..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-07-01
Bangalore Mirror has an article spewing outrage on CSWs openly soliciting in Bangalore (Call girls 'fly' on BIA road’). The paper also has a classified section dedicated to "Massage Parlors and Escort Services". Was the piece a marketing ploy to get the pimps to start advertising in their classifieds?..
IN Media Practice | 2010-06-30
Barring editors and office bearers of the journalists’ union, not a single reporter has been spared the threat calls by unidentified persons in Manipur.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-06-30
A reader suggests that there might have been a very good reason why Saina Nehwal's moment of triumph was not a front page picture in the Hindu. She was wearing a Deccan Chronicle tee shirt!..
IN Digital Media | 2010-06-29
In a first of its kind, an ‘anti-censorship virtual shelter will seek to help provide security for journalists and bloggers,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-06-28
You would think a Southern daily would front page badminton star Saina Nehwal's hat trick victory which established her world number two ranking. Instead the Hindu buried the Hyderabad-based Saina's success on its sport page inside and led with the latest results of the FIFA World Cup...
IN Media Practice | 2010-06-28
The Hoot decided to do a six week survey of five newspapers and four magazines to see which ones benefit the most from the advertisements the Institute puts out.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-06-27
The inevitable has happened. India Today’s lifestyle add-on Spice, has now overtaken the main magazine in the number of pages—80 to India Today’s 72. ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-06-27
Headline in the Sunday Guardian on the Al Gore story: Gore the Bore accused of local warming. ..
IN Media Practice | 2010-06-25
The Dainik Bhaskar in Haryana has found an ingenious way to make money from election coverage without attracting the allegation of indulging in paid news.
Hate Speech: The fault line that divides advocates of free speech
IN Opinion | 2010-06-24
The legislative intention of hate speech laws seem to be on a permanent collision course with their real effects. Rather than protecting minorities from the vitriolic outbursts of the law has been consistently used by an intolerant majority whose sen
Three journalists killed in one week
IN Media Freedom | 2010-06-24
The media in Philippines continues to be under attack and outgoing President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s reign is emblematic of impunity and media murders,
IN Media Practice | 2010-06-24
Although millions of rural and urban Indians do not have decent sanitation and thousands die from diarrhoea, the issue is like an abandoned terrain that nobody wants to tread on.
IN Books | 2010-06-24
The Hoot excerpts sections from Vanita Kohli-Khandekar’s The Indian Media Business.
Air Waves are Public Property: Broadcasting and freedom of speech in India
IN Media Business | 2010-06-23
A historical analysis of the development of free speech in cinema and broadcasting reveals the importance of the individual’s viewership rights,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-06-23
India’s Directorate of Revenue Intelligence is holding up a 1000 metric tonnes of newsprint imported by Kantipur Publications in Nepal for investigation It has taken control of the newsprint imported from Canada and South Korea through Kolkata port for the last 26 days, and the delay is hurting the paper...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-06-23
Ashok Banker is accusing the media in his blog, especially influential people in the media (without naming names), of being softer on David Davidar than they would be on a politician or a businessman in a similar situation. Many users on Twitter have now joined the debate after Banker made..
IN Censorship | 2010-06-22
Infringing the media's 'right to question' is a common phenomenon in a politically divided West Bengal. But without that right, objectivity and truth are seriously compromised.
IN Media Practice | 2010-06-22
In India, going upmarket means more of page 3 — skin and spin. The media do not consider India as a civilisation, but as a market.
IN Regional Media | 2010-06-21
Infringing the media's 'right to question' is a common phenomenon in a politically divided West Bengal. But without that right, objectivity and truth are seriously compromised.
IN Media Practice | 2010-06-21
The picture of a dead woman, hands and legs tied to a pole carried by security personnel, appeared in several newspapers. Why was the body of the woman depicted in that manner?
IN Media Practice | 2010-06-18
How and why did the government agree to settle for an eighth of the compensation it had initially demanded from Carbide? Why was even this absurd sum not distributed promptly among the victims? No questions asked, no answers given.
Operation Green Hunt's Urban Avatar
IN Censorship | 2010-06-17
Distortions,falsification and a witch-hunt...anything goes when news is to be manufactured,
Contempt punishment to Arundhati Roy ‘black spot in judicial history’
IN Judgements | 2010-06-15
Judicial accountability and the untrammelled powers of the judiciary to punish those who commit contempt of court can lead to a dangerous abuse of power,
When the hungry go on hunger strike
IN Media Practice | 2010-06-15
Why can't media houses keep up a relentless coverage on the unseen and ongoing disaster of hunger -- give voices and faces to the voiceless and faceless who live and die in our villages?
Is this equality? A response to Vir Sanghvi
IN Opinion | 2010-06-14
This new generation did not care that the victims of Bhopal were demanding that Dow Chemicals be held answerable for the pollutants still lying on what the media now loves to call ground zero.
'Indian English' writing -- Indian enough?
IN Media Practice | 2010-06-13
What constitutes 'real' Indian English? Are Indian-English writers who are educated abroad and write in "propah" English, any less able to reflect the 'real' Indian spirit?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-06-13
It was extraordinary. Arun Nehru made a wrong assertion on News X. The channel not only does not correct him, during the interview, it does not know better itself, and carries that particular soundbite. Nehru said on June 12 that the Government of India should have not let Dow Chemicals..
Media under assault in Bangladesh
IN Censorship | 2010-06-12
The censorship of the media in Bangladesh and the blocking of social networking sites like Facebook have given rise to fears that the government’s commitment to freedom of expression may not stand up to pressures by Islamist groups,
Freelancing -- freedom at a price
IN Media Practice | 2010-06-12
Now there is a whole new generation that knows only team jerseys. For them, independent perspective -- that dangerous 'free' -- and losers go hand in hand.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-06-11
At the Times of India's Delhi Times, they’ve just had another bright idea. Marketing execs are writing to PR firms telling them about a soon to be started pret page which will carry pictures of clothes and accessories on the market. What will it cost to feature in it? A mere Rs..
IN Media Practice | 2010-06-11
For all its sound and fury the Indian media couldn’t move its masters – the mainstream market – on the situation in Manipur.
IN Media Practice | 2010-06-11
Front benchers at Trinamul press conferences often shout down other reporters asking ‘unpleasant’ or ‘difficult’ questions to Mamata Banerjee or any of her party leaders.
Are NGOs from the North East suspect for the media?
IN Media Practice | 2010-06-08
At the end of the press conference one wondered-- had the two women been from so-called ‘ mainland India’ NGOs would the media have asked the same questions?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-06-08
On Pratibha Patil’s recent China visit members of her media delegation were rude to their Chinese handlers, and generally made a nuisance of themselves. They forced a young Chinese boy to act as their tourist guide though he was meant to be an interpreter, and made ceaseless fun of him,..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-06-08
The BJP has nominated two editors and a former editor of a Sangh Parivar organ to the Rajya Sabha. Chandan Mitra and Ajay Maroo are editors of the Pioneer and The Ranchi Express respectively, and Tarun Vijay whom Wikipedia describes as "a famous freelance journalist" was a long time editor of the..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-06-08
A reader points out that the Economic Times editorialized on the Bhopal verdict on June 8 observing that the court ruling ‘establishes the accountability of senior management, executive as well as non-executive’. It did not mention Keshub Mahindra by name, the man to whom the paper gave a lifetime achievement..
IN Community Media | 2010-06-08
Child Radio Reporter, a joint Jadavpur University-Unicef initiative, empowers children to talk about their everyday lives -- focussing on subjects like child labour, human trafficking, broken marriages and their effect on children, and alcohol-relate
Naming journalists in Goa’s drug mafia nexus
IN Media Practice | 2010-06-07
Is the IANS story based on the police investigations, or the allegations of the alleged drug dealer?
Warped media coverage portrays Goa as a rape capital
IN Media Practice | 2010-06-05
Sensational reporting of incidents of rape and murder of foreign tourists in Goa overshadows the fact that Goa has a much better track record on gender issues. It also gives the misleading impression that this is the single biggest problem the state
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-06-05
HT City has been carrying a story on the upcoming FIFA World Cup in South Africa practically every day for the past week. Reporters complain they have run out of ideas, and are resorting to "made-up" stories on football fans in the city. A wag wonders if the South African..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-06-05
Saturday is World Environment Day and what better than to have the country's erudite and prolific Environment Minister take charge as guest editor. The TOI has managed to rope n Jairam Ramesh as guest editor to oversee page 1, write for them and oversee some environment specials. Hopefully, the Green Minister's role as Ed will have no..
IN Opinion | 2010-06-05
While one journalist uses fashion vocabulary to locate a cultural type, the other finds a moralistic high ground to defend her. Both appear to believe that to be meaningful, a woman must be in self-denial.
IN Regional Media | 2010-06-05
Have the local journalists too succumbed to the inherent sentiments of ‘us’ and ‘them’? Or are they still unsullied and stand firm on the values of objectivity?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-06-04
On 31 May, it was HT which used italics on the front page to link the Volkeswagon ads. On June 2, it was the TOI, Mumbai which turned all its Ts in headlines, including the one in Masthead, into a blue clover, the emblem of a new mobile service provider..
Human rights versus self defense
IN Regional Media | 2010-06-04
Any government that cannot put it’s foot down on and end inhumane actions like blockades that starve people on the other side has no moral right to continue governing.
The Constitution and the press
IN Media Freedom | 2010-06-03
The first real strain on the seamless fabric of the constitution and on press freedom emerged in the context of three decisions, one by the Patna High Court and two by the Supreme Court.
You know you’re a Naga journalist if…
IN Opinion | 2010-06-03
You do a story on Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio. And your heading is always that eternal liner: "Rio’s plea for peace and development."
IN Community Media | 2010-06-03
Varsha, a reporter with the IndiaUnheard community news service, talks about her fight against domestic violence
In Pakistan, journalist Shabina goes green
IN Media Practice | 2010-06-02
By putting environmental issues on the agenda in the Urdu Press, Karachi-based journalist Shabina Faraz was able to tap the mass circulation of that media, and take green concerns to an entirely new audience.
IN Media Practice | 2010-05-31
A no-holds-barred battle between a policeman and a politician becomes masala for the media and rocks the ruling coalition in Maharashtra.
Congress ‘Rajneeti’, cut & paste
IN Censorship | 2010-05-30
The celebrity playback singer Kishore Kumar refused to sing at a Youth Congress Rally. All his songs were banned on All India Radio and Doordarshan.
How the Press carved out freedom of speech in India
IN Media Freedom | 2010-05-30
While the state provided no special right to the press, the judiciary was forced to expand the scope of the Constitutional provisions,
IN Media Practice | 2010-05-30
And if the government is keen on a scroll from two hours before the CM's speech (`Watch CM live at 11:30 am today from Guntur'), that will cost more.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-05-29
When it is not discussion time, Times Now uses captions to sustain its harangue against imagined Maoist sympathisers. After the rail disaster in West Bengal on Friday the channel kept running footage of the mangled train and the victims and asking through a caption, "are the sympathisers watching?"..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-05-27
It is always the media that gets blamed for "misconstruing facts", "not putting things in context", etc, etc, and the latest to join that bandwagon are Khap Panchayats. Representatives of the Khaps from various States at a meeting in Delhi recently affirmed that they have been "demonised" by the media, for being..
Did the Indian Prime Minister address the Indian Media?
IN Opinion | 2010-05-27
The media is busy 'analysing' the PM's performance after the press conference on May 24, 2010. Perhaps, we should analyse the media performance too,
IN Media Practice | 2010-05-27
Can one safely assume that all correspondents who wrote stories were present at the press conference and had not covered it from the live teleast?
IN Media Practice | 2010-05-27
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?"
Religious unity and freedom of expression -- where to draw the line?
IN Censorship | 2010-05-23
Clause 35 of the regulation specifically prohibits telecasting, broadcasting, and printing of programs that may result in damaging the religious unity of Maldives.
Assam: journalists living on the edge
IN Regional Media | 2010-05-23
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.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-05-23
2010 so far has seen positive signs of the recession abating. The Times of India, the Hindustan Times and Mail Today have all given raises this year to their staff. The Indian Express is expected to follow suit soon, at the Hindu they are wondering if their turn will come… ..
Response to the Shoma Munshi extract
IN Books | 2010-05-23
I have several bones to pick with the author of the book about the Jensen and Oster study which she seems to quote with enthusiasm in this extract.
IN Media Practice | 2010-05-22
The once Congress-affiliated media house now attacks the Congress party as well as Chandrababu Naidu -- a new strategy with wider political implications for the Congress party and YS Jagan Mohan in Andhra Pradesh.
Pakistan blocks Facebook over caricatures of Prophet Mohammed
Opinion is sharply divided over the blocking of the site and cyber activists in Pakistan are troubled over the censorship of the internet.
Prime time soap operas and women's empowerment
IN Books | 2010-05-21
The Hoot excerpts a section of Shoma Munshi's Prime Time Soap Operas on Indian Television.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-05-21
CNN IBN on May 20 decided to focus on the six week old highway blockade of Manipur by people in Nagaland. It railed about how the mainstream media had ignored a blockade which had brought a state to a halt. But that begged the question: what stopped CNN IBN from focusing..
Where is Paresh Barua? Ask the media
IN Media Practice | 2010-05-21
In the absence of official confirmation, it is interesting to see how the local television channels have come out with their own ‘exclusive’ versions of how and when the arrest took place.
Freedom of Expression and UAPA
IN Media Freedom | 2010-05-20
Union Home Minister P Chidambaram’s statement on using provisions of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act evoked sharp criticism from civil liberties organisations, both national and international
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-05-19
Participants at the Indo-Pak CEOs Forum are unanimous that media in Pakistan has become "more free" than ever before. Citing an example of how unbridled the media is, a designer told a group of women journalists that unlike in India where journos only write about the cuts and colours, designers in Pak have..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-05-19
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is understood to have suggested discussions on the long pending Wage Boards for working journalists and non-journalists before any view is taken on extending its tenure which ends on May 23. The Wage Boards, headed by Justice Gurbax Rai Majithia, had sought an extension till December 31 but the..
IN Media Practice | 2010-05-18
An innovative pilot programme in Andhra Pradesh trains children in using video to bring local problems to public attention and claim their right to self-expression.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-05-18
Each new atrocity in the Naxal belt comes as a godsend for Times Now. It guarantees an hour or more of low cost programming at prime time as Arnab Goswami lines up a panel which includes those he calls Naxal sympathisers and proceeds to assault them with his sanctimonious harangue...
IN Community Media | 2010-05-16
Families in remote areas of Meghalaya are now getting information about climate change via a popular FM radio music programme in Khasi.
IN Opinion | 2010-05-16
What was striking was how judgment day was used to virtually endorse mob justice by repeatedly airing the views of "the people" who wanted Kasab to be hanged immediately.
Vox Populi Chhattisgarh – What an Idea, Sirji!
IN Media Practice | 2010-05-15
Men and women from the Gond or Oraon tribes, beyond the pale of any media attention, are now use mobile media to get their stories out to other tribals and to the world at large. GEETA SESHU on how C G Swara has gifted communication to those livi
Sri Lanka's media-friendly turnaround
IN Media Freedom | 2010-05-15
What are the reasons behind the recent presidential pardon awarded to dissident journalist Jayaprakash Tissainayagam and the Sri Lankan Government's new media policy? A genuine change of heart or international pressure?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-05-15
Reporters based in Imphal have stopped looking for news. They are looking for petrol instead. After the police crackdown on supporters of NSCN (I-M) leader Th. Muivah on May 6 at Mao town, no fresh supply of essential commodities is coming to Imphal. "My editor is angry that I did..
IN Media Practice | 2010-05-13
Within 24 hours of this news being flashed on NDTV this week, all major media of India have reported this over a month old fatwa.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-05-12
At Headlines Today they do not believe what they see. Recently the channel was not convinced when they saw a picture of actor Deepika Padukone carrying a male co-star on her back. So the reporter climbed on to a chair and asked the "petite" actor to lift her. The actor..
IN Media Business | 2010-05-12
On April 26 The Press Council of India deferred release of its report on paid news prepared by two of its members. Some council members argued that it would destroy the publishers’ credibility and hurt their long term interest.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-05-12
On May 11, IBN7 claimed that it has 'exclusive' access to the recent mail exchanges between Lalit Modi and the BCCI. Simultaneously News 24 made the same claim as did many other news channels like Aaj Tak and Star News. One wonders then, what does exclusive stand for? ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-05-12
In order to review the existing Television Rating Point (TRP) system, the government hasset up a committee headed by FICCI secretary general Amit Mitra. It is expectedto address issues related to accuracy, accountability, transparency andobjectivity in the TRP generating system. It will look at how toprevent the impact of misleading..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-05-12
Natasha Jog anchoring a longish programme on NDTV on Viswanathan Anand’s retaining the World Chess Championship title, was a classic example of how the media serves up celebrity gush instead of informed commentary on his game, his career and much else. On Wednesday night. It takes so little to do..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-05-11
There are 1,943 newspapers and nearly 10,000 periodicals in China, and the government shuts downs those that it thinks are unviable. Over 360 publications will be closed over the next three years. A total of 188 newspapers and periodicals were closed in 2009, after the government introduced a market-oriented competition..
Environmental journalism and economic liberalization
IN Books | 2010-05-11
The Hoot excerpts a section of Richard Mahapatra’s essay from The Green Pen, edited by Keya Acharya and Frederick Noronha.
Timid candidates, pampered journalists
IN Regional Media | 2010-05-10
Today’s Marathi journalism can,by no means,be called healthy,
IN Media Practice | 2010-05-09
In a nascent democracy like Bhutan, the media is perceived as having a socially committed role to play, and the government is actively promoting media development.
Making learning easy through videos
IN Community Media | 2010-05-09
Videoshala, an innovative program in Gujarat that trains community members in producing educational videos with local content, has helped rural students absorb lessons that are otherwise difficult for them to understand.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-05-09
The big question is not which publication will get the full transcripts of the tapes which recorded the conversations between lobbyists, politicians and a couple of journalists, but which one will go ahead and use them. Mail Today used a bit, but the newsmagazine which was going to use them..
Empowering marginalized voices
IN Media Practice | 2010-05-08
Charkha Development Communication Network has been connecting unheard voices from the margins to the mainstream media for last 15 years,
IN Media Practice | 2010-05-07
Mountaineering cannot be reported the way you would a game with assigned rules; often the take-home is perspective, not verdict.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-05-06
At least three TV studios featured an animated noose as the news of Kasab's death sentence was flogged through the day--Aaj Tak, Zee News and India TV. There may have been others. Did we need such special effects to sate a country's thirst for revenge?..
IN Censorship | 2010-05-05
The incidences of organized crime, political corruption, criminal acts, black marketeering, and smuggling are the issues Nepali journalists consider taboo issues to be covered.
Covering the motormen’s strike
IN Opinion | 2010-05-05
Letter to the Hoot: The mass news media was clearly used by the politicians to convey messages.
Media, patriotism and foreign policy
IN Media Practice | 2010-05-05
Most of those arguments, surprisingly, are with fellow journalists, who are supposed to be more liberal than most, and with diplomats, whose livelihood by definition should employ the softer line.
IN Media Freedom | 2010-05-05
The incidents of organized crime, political corruption, criminal acts, black marketeering, and smuggling are the issues Nepali journalists consider taboo issues to be covered.
Sri Lankan journalist Tissainayagam gets Presidential pardon
IN Media Freedom | 2010-05-04
An intensive global campaign, the latest supporter of which was US President Barack Obama, exerted pressure on the Sri Lankan government on World Press Freedom Day, May 2010.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-05-04
At 9 pm on May 3, India TV showed ‘Samandar’, a one hour, 14 minute long movie on 26/11 with subtitles like ‘see why Kasab should be hanged’, ‘the first true film, ever made on 26/11’ and ‘dialogues in this movie are true.' The film showed detailed conversations between Ajmal..
Response to 'Trashing Sunanda Pushkar'
IN Opinion | 2010-05-04
The problem with this rejoinder is that it confuses between lively writing and libelous writing. It places reporters in rigid blocs allowing no mobility between them.
IN Opinion | 2010-05-04
Do public figures have privacy rights? Should reporters travel in packs, writing essentially the same story because anything different will raise questions of impropriety?
Between the bullet, the baton and the gavel!
IN Media Freedom | 2010-05-03
On the occasion of World Press Freedom Day, observed globally on May 3, an assessment of the precarious condition of freedom of speech and expression in India.
Environmental journalism and economic liberalisation
IN Books | 2010-05-02
The Hoot excerpts the Darryl D’Monte's foreword from The Green Pen, edited by Keya Acharya and Frederick Noronha.
IN Law and Policy | 2010-05-02
The nexus of wrong doers and the authorities threaten journalists because their reports jeopardize this unholy nexus.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-05-02
Yoga guru Baba Ramdev who is in Goa for a four-day yoga camp, first chided reporters covering his press conferences for being obese, and then made his classic marketing pitch. "Out of Goa's 15 lakh population, more than one lakh are obese. I can see from here that many reporters who..
IN Media Freedom | 2010-05-01
It is important to refrain from putting the police in charge of media regulation without tempering it with the participation of civil society. Meanwhile, the media’s failure to self-regulate, while damaging itself severely, is also threatening the su
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-04-30
Without giving any official reason, as many as 24 FM partner stations of BBC in Pakistan have been ordered by the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority to cease broadcasting BBC Urdu service news bulletins. PEMRA says it was acting on orders from the government. BBC World Service has expressed concern at..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-04-30
Zee News and India TV devoted 8 pm on April29th to the ‘truth’ of Madhuri Gupta, the diplomat turned spy. While Zee News had termed it as ‘Gaddar Ke Kitne Razdar’, India TV called it ‘Madhuri Ki Kahani, Madhuri Ki Zubani’ and recreated a dramatized version of Madhuri Gupta’s confession..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-04-29
British prime minister Gordon Brown calls a voter bigoted as he drives away from a campaign meeting where she asked a question. A radio mike he is still wearing picks it up, and when he is on an interview panel it is played back to him on air. The woman he..
Media and free expression under attack from all sides: Thailand political crisis
IN Media Freedom | 2010-04-28
The Thai government’s shut down of pro-opposition television, jamming of radio stations and now, the attempt to close down Prachatai.com, an established independent news website, highlights the slippery slope on which all members and forms of the Tha
IN Opinion | 2010-04-27
In the run up to a general election the Guardian asks its readers to write in on which candidate it should endorse.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-04-27
The prime minister of Bhutan is a leader who likes to choose his words judiciously. Addressing a roomful of South Asian journalists in the run up to the SAARC Summit in Thimpu, he replaced some of the words in his written text. He substituted the reference to ‘a roomful of..
IPL-Gate --how not to do follow up reporting
IN Media Practice | 2010-04-27
Questions are not asked, news angles ignored. There has been a media witch hunt rather than responsible follow up reporting,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-04-27
DNA executive editor R Jagannathan wrote a column on Sunday on corruption in IPL and other fields.It devoted two paragraphs to TOI. "The preference for monopoly is widespread. We know about IPL’s policy of exclusion. In the media business, The Times of India follows the same policy. To stifle competition,..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-04-27
Media may not have access to the reception and ‘walima’ ceremony of the Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Malik, yet to be organized in Sialkot, after his marraiget o Sania Mirza. Reason? Nobody is ready to cough up a whopping Rs 3.5 crore which the cricketer has reportedly demanded for the rights..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-04-27
It seems that the former MoS for External Affairs, Shashi Tharoor is a bitter man these days. According to The Indian Express, last Thursday, Mr. Tharoor found himself encircled by a group of television journalists. "Are you angry with us, sir?"asked one of them. "Put yourself in my place and..
IN Media Monitoring | 2010-04-25
When a government adopts propaganda as a mechanism to reach out to the people, it is a tacit admission of a people's divided thinking on the role of the Maoists.
Audiences and new media genres
IN Books | 2010-04-25
The Hoot excerpts a section of the Introduction from Arvind Rajagopal’s edited volume ‘The Indian Public Sphere’.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-04-25
Observed at a Sapru House seminar in New Delhi: a TV guy bustling around at the venue almost knocked down a former ambassador. As soon as he recovered the gentleman said: "I know your a journalist, but please behave." Comments the reporter who told us: "you have to see how..
IN Media Practice | 2010-04-25
When a government adopts propaganda as a mechanism to reach out to the people, it is a tacit admission of a people's divided thinking on the role of the Maoists,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-04-22
In an election year the Bihar chief minister, Nitish Kumar has turned a blogger. His blog (nitishspeaks.blogspot.com) was launched on Monday. His aides say that the CM wants to reach out to a much wider public, but skeptics say that though it might project him as a bit net savvy, blogging did..
Transparency is the best defence?
IN Media Freedom | 2010-04-21
Google has decided to tell the world how many requests it receives from governments to disclose data on its servers, and to remove data hosted on its products like Orkut or YouTube.
Iranian journalist Jila Bani Yaghoob wins "Freedom of expression" award
The award pays tribute to all Iranian bloggers and journalists who have been arrested, imprisoned or driven into exile these past months.
Transparency is the best defence?
IN Digital Media | 2010-04-21
Google has decided to tell the world how many requests it receives from governments to disclose data on its servers, and to remove data hosted on its products like Orkut or YouTube.
Supreme Court: don’t prejudice a trial
IN Law and Policy | 2010-04-21
There is danger, of serious risk of prejudice if the media…publishes statements which outrightly hold the suspect or the accused guilty even before such an order has been passed by the Court.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-04-21
This takes the cake. The Times of India has the gall to run a middle edit titled "In Bad Taste" in which it says IPL coverage should inform not titillate, and specificially mentions reports on Sunanda Pushkar. Meanwhile its sister publication Mumbai Mirror is a major offender: it carried a..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-04-20
Outlook magazine’s story on Sunanda Pushkar is amazing. It describes her ‘insatiable ambitiion,’ and says she was the "P3P Queen of Masala Dubai, chasing the glittering mirage with vampire-like thirst." Elsewhere it talks of how she would her "claw her way to sponsors". Luckily for the magazine Pushkar’s lawyer said..
Your freedom ends where my fist begins
IN Censorship | 2010-04-19
Draconian laws, threats, violence and even derisive television anchors – all these techniques, and more, are deployed to curb free expression of opinions.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-04-19
Some days back a journo wondered aloud if the Indian Express ws gunning for Shashi Tharoor, given the number of stories it had published that day on the l’affaire Kochi IPL. On the 19th morning it certainly seemed like it, after the Express gave Tharoor’s exit more than half the..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-04-19
The only paper to focus more on what would now happen to Lalit Modi, was the Economic Times. Its front page on April 19 predicted that he would be asked to quit as IPL commissioner, and went into some detail over the Income Tax findings on IPL. ..
Your freedom ends where my fist begins
IN Media Freedom | 2010-04-19
Draconian laws, threats, violence and even derisive television anchors – all these are deployed to curb free expression of opinions.
IN Digital Media | 2010-04-18
The two Pulitzer prizes given to online and internet based works is an acknowledgement of the changing landscape of journalism.
IN Media Practice | 2010-04-18
If you want to take your mind off Maoism and much else what better to focus on than a hatti-gatti-Punjabi-kudi version of rural India?
An open letter to the Editor's Guild -Ignoring a national disaster
IN Media Practice | 2010-04-18
I am not asking you to stop covering the skeletons of the IPL and entertainment. I am asking why a natural disaster of such magnitude cannot get a fraction of the same bandwidth,
Marathi media on the Chavan-Amitabh issue
IN Regional Media | 2010-04-16
While severely criticizing Congress culture and the party’s narrow political game, ‘Saamna’ has commented that Bachchan is not a political personality.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-04-16
While almost all the TV channels remain busy chasing Tharoor and his bete noir Lalit Modi, Shekhar Gupta has managed to walk the talk with Sania and Shoaib Malik. However the viewer had to strain the ears to hear Shoaib whose voice was lost somewhere between the noise from passing..
Freedom of expression: comparisons from Sri Lanka
IN Media Freedom | 2010-04-15
Arundhati Roy’s essay ‘Walking with the Comrades,’ supporting the struggle of the CPI (Maoist) in the tribal areas, was published by a mainstream, corporate-controlled Indian magazine, Outlook.
Freedom of expression: comparisons from Sri Lanka
IN Media Freedom | 2010-04-15
Arundhati Roy’s essay ‘Walking with the Comrades,’ supporting the struggle of the CPI (Maoist) in the tribal areas, was published by a mainstream, corporate-controlled Indian magazine, Outlook.
IN Media Practice | 2010-04-15
For nine years, Andhra Pradesh has been running five education channels under the name MANA TV. Their popularity has proved that notwithstanding computers, television can grab eyeballs in the classroom,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-04-15
When IPL makes news even the killing of 120 people in North India in a storm becomes marginalized on the 9 o clock news. Ironically while the BBC made it one of its main news stories on The Hub on the 14th night, what hogged airtime on Indian English news..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-04-13
In an effort to whip up viewer interest in a wedding they could not get near, India TV ran what seemed an interminable programme on the mehendi Sania would wear for her wedding. A model(or was it a staffer) sat around having mehendi applied to her arms so that wecould..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-04-13
HT City has a new weekly feature called I, Me, my Delhi.A local personality tells you which her favourite restaurant, gym, designershop, etc. are. For some of these a phone number is provided in brackets.Anyone want to hazard a guess as to whether HT City is just being helpfulproviding numbers..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-04-13
The way the electronic media covered the Sania-Shoaib episode has provoked many interesting status messages on Facebook. One by an NDTV journo which echoes the sentiments of regular TV viewers, shows she is aware of the kind of business she is into. "…Sania's marriage.....the only TRP gaining moment of the..
IN Media Practice | 2010-04-12
Ever since Lalgarh catapulted naxals into TV headlines, every tiny bit of news on them is now tracked with breathless urgency.
Response to 'Response to Is this Empowerment'
IN Media Practice | 2010-04-12
Letter to the Hoot—responding to Sheetal Vyas’s rejoinder on why women watch some kinds of soaps.
Nitish Kumar’s "Bihar Shining" campaign
IN Media Practice | 2010-04-12
In four years the chief minister has taken annual advertisements placed in newspapers from Rs 4.5 crore to Rs 25.25 crore.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-04-12
Dainik Jagran has made news over the last two days for very different reasons. On the one hand Blackstone Group LP, a US equity firm announced that it was investing Rs 225 crore in Jagran Media Network which publishes the paper. On the other hand, the Press Council of India..
IN Media Practice | 2010-04-10
It is about the scary burden of apportioning fame, shame and blame that the media seems to have appropriated for itself. It determines public opinion to an uncomfortable extent.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-04-08
Two woman reporters from the Hindustan Times and Mail Today got into a scuffle at a hotel after a press conference in Delhi. Apparently the MT staffer suspects that a male colleague has been leaking her stories to the HT girl. It got ugly enough for the HT reporter to..
IN Resources | 2010-04-07
Art, in any form, constitutes a key medium through which information and ideas are imparted and received. Artist Alert, launched by ARTICLE 19 in 2008, highlights cases of artists around the world whose right to freedom of expression has been curtail
IN Opinion | 2010-04-07
Apart from being a focal point for information and debate, the Free Speech Hub will also be a platform for news and information of free speech issues everywhere. So if you know of any attacks or threats to freedom of speech and expression or even if you wish to share..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-04-07
In the end the settlement for Ayesha Siddiqui was Rs 15000. So much for Shobhaa De’s staunch assertion on Times Now that this was all about money. She had claimed that the Siddiquis had been offered Rs 4 crore and wanted more, and that Sania and Shoaib were settling in..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-04-07
News 24 on the conclusion of the Shoaib-Sania saga: Fraud No 1 ki Biwi No. 2...
Contempt powers and free speech
IN Media Freedom | 2010-04-06
The present definition of criminal contempt is arbitrary and can lead to unreasonable restrictions on freedom of speech.
IN Media Freedom | 2010-04-06
Campaigns were launched Karnataka and Tamilnadu in support of victims of charges of sedition.
The government’s private number for you!
IN Privacy | 2010-04-06
What are the implications of the Unique Identification Number for privacy and security of personal information?
IN Media Practice | 2010-04-06
To keep unwanted incursions on our many freedoms at bay, a society needs to be watchful. Vigilance requires a flow of information.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-04-06
Sania Mirza and Shoab Malik’s Hyderabad press conference on April 5 sounded so much like heckling by a mob that it must have dispelled any notion we entertain about our tribe’s ability to question civilly. Sania is a toughie but even she was daunted by the end of the encounter...
A response to "Is this empowerment?"
IN Media Practice | 2010-04-06
For a very long time now, media-watchers and analysts have berated the average viewer for her tastes, shuddered and averted their eyes from the gaudy colours, the campy vamps and the bizarre plotlines.
IN Media Practice | 2010-04-06
TV soaps with bizarre, regressive storylines seem wildly popular and, according to studies, empowering too. Are these script writers more in touch with reality than literal-minded activists and journalists,
Should not writers be made of sterner stuff?
IN Media Practice | 2010-04-05
Political expedience forced the Marathi Sahitya Sammelan to sidetrack an important discussion on freedom of expression.
Sticking to the Gujarat government’s version
IN Media Practice | 2010-04-04
Does the Narmada issue and its emotive appeal in Gujarat predetermine the stylistic and editorial cuts in such a way that ‘an official’s version’ is zealously embraced, putting aside all the qualms about verifying the truth,
IN Media Freedom | 2010-04-03
What we in the media really need to fear is that we will lose our freedom to think and to express ourselves rationally if we do not constantly show up "sensitivities" all around for what they really are.
Because the collegium is supreme
IN Law and Policy | 2010-04-03
In one more contempt case, a high court chief justice grills a newspaper for exposing a judge’s background.
IN Media Practice | 2010-04-03
On one hand, the Constitution enables all citizens with a Right to Freedom of Speech and Expression. On the other hand, there is a political system aimed at disciplining all the constituents of a single organization and putting forward a unified view
IN Censorship | 2010-04-03
India has far less Internet surveillance and censorship that many other countries in the world. Its society is admirably censorship-resistant,
Press freedom is important, warts and all
IN Media Freedom | 2010-04-03
Politics of censorship attempts to isolate us from each other,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-04-03
Five journalists killed in March alone, Honduras has become the world's most dangerous country for media persons.A recent report by Paris-based media watchdog Reporters Sans Frontieres Borders (RSF) also says no action has been taken against anyone for these attacks on journos. The RSF has petitioned the European Union seeking..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-04-03
The National Commission for Women has strongly condemned recently-aired episodes of the serial Na Aana Is Desh Meri Lado where a woman is subjected to torture and ordered to have into sex outside marriage in order to bear her mother in law a male heir. NCW chairperson Girija Vyas said..
IN Media Practice | 2010-04-03
Public contempt for dumbed down news is music to politicians' ears.It gives them a handle to attack our freedoms.
The Amended IT Act – draconian or farsighted?
IN Censorship | 2010-04-02
The Act tries to deal with e-commerce on the one hand and on the other, regulates a whole host of civil society involvement with both cyber and mobile media.
'Free speech includes the right to receive information'
IN Media Freedom | 2010-04-02
"Blocking goes against free speech because free speech includes the right to receive information. But technology does not help sustain blocking. The internet treats censorship as damage and routes around it."
‘A direct impact on free speech in cyberspace’
IN Media Freedom | 2010-04-02
Supreme Court advocate and cyberlaw consultant Pavan Duggal bemoans the absence of adequate checks and balances to the powers of the government in the amended IT Act.
It will resist censorship of the media and culture by political, religious, corporate or any other forces.
IN Media Freedom | 2010-04-01
" I believe the state has begun to interfere a little too much in defining what is right and what is wrong. Sure, there are limits but how do you define those limits? "
IN Media Freedom | 2010-04-01
When women’s groups protested the misogynistic rancour directed at Khushboo, they did so in defense of her right to free speech; and to insist that frank opinions on sexuality not be proscribed by self-appointed morality cops.
Body scanners and the right to privacy
IN Privacy | 2010-04-01
Already, the proposal has triggered objections and the Darul uloom at Deoband has stated that it would be against the Shariat.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-03-31
Star News mobile phone headlines: Mumbai Indians fined for slow over rate. J&K: four LeT men, 3 jawans killed in Rajouri encounter. Russia: 9 dead, 7 hurt in an explosion. In that order. ..
IN Opinion | 2010-03-30
While TOI seems to have run out of steam, perhaps temporarily, The News, the Jang group’s English daily, is going great guns.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-03-30
Star News has announced a talent hunt for aspiring anchors. The nationwide hunt will have the winner walking away with a "rewarding career on Star News." According to the company the 12 week talent hunt would have its Grand Finale in Delhi after covering 10 cities. The chosen also stand to..
Monday morning-A breath of different air
IN Media Practice | 2010-03-29
Before critics scream so what, it is a product of another well worked out publicity strategy, the story needs to be looked at in terms of what perhaps the print editions of our newspapers could potentially do.
The Media's newfound love for reservations
IN Media Practice | 2010-03-29
This is the same media and middle class who have always been hell-bent against all reservations, who have listed reservation as among one of the most despicable evils.
IN Media Practice | 2010-03-28
Then there is underwritten news, which is simply a matter of picking up the tab for coverage on location.
Journalists’ unions unite in Assam
IN Media Practice | 2010-03-27
Journalists' organizations in the state recently came together to rally for their joint concerns.
‘Time to Introspect’: commentaries in the Naga media
IN Regional Media | 2010-03-27
Media and Nagaland--Part III. While reporters voices are largely absent in Naga media there are vibrant editorial and citizen commentaries that enhance the public sphere in myriad ways.
The Mayawati bashing was unprofessional
IN Media Practice | 2010-03-25
True professionals stick to facts, avoid contemptuous language and let viewers and readers draw intelligent conclusions.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-03-25
N Ram editor in chief of the Hindu has decided to sue the Indian Express and Financial Express for both civil and criminal defamation for the story published on March 25. Meanwhile a Hoot reader has sent this Twitter exchange between N Ram and N Ravi, both directors on the..
IN Media Practice | 2010-03-24
The selected ‘ green development story’ is covered in detail by Doordarshan anchors who travel by bicycle, exemplifying a reduction in carbon footprint!
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-03-24
The Deccan Chronicle had an amazing booboo on March 23rd. It carried a story on the conviction of those involved in the Satyendra Dubey murder case with a photograph captioned Satyendra Dubey. Only it was the picture of the HT bureau chief Varghese K George. ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-03-23
Zohra Chatterjee, the Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting who oversees policy matters regarding television and radio, has been posted as Secretary, National Commission for Women, New Delhi. Her office said she 'may' take up the new post. She has been involved in the consultations the ministry is..
All the news that’s fit to buy
IN Media Practice | 2010-03-20
Paid news is not free speech. The commission is concerned about the undue influence that paid news can create in the mind of the voter. It is against free and fair polls. It could derail democracy,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-03-19
Moneylife, the financial website, likes to occasionally expose the paid news practices of the Bennett, Coleman publishing group. But it fights shy of naming the paper. It wrote a recent item against the group’s "strong arm tactics" against a top-grossing Hindi movie, giving details. But no names--not of the paper,..
‘Nagas at crossroads’: reporting conflict in Nagaland
IN Media Practice | 2010-03-19
Media in Nagaland-Part II. Reporters reproduce terms used by the underground without quotation marks, which highlights the extent to which the linguistic frames of the underground are normalized through their circulation in mainstream media discours
IN Media Freedom | 2010-03-18
"The atmosphere isn’t conducive. There’s no one really to back us. Press owners will not stand by us. There’s always the fear of what will happen to our families."
IN Media Practice | 2010-03-17
Their PTCs may lack the finesse of a Barkha or a Nidhi Razdan but it’s hard to miss the conviction and confidence with which they do them.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-03-17
The proprietor of Assam’s largest circulating daily Asomiya Pratidin, Jayanta Barua, is contesting the Rajya Sabha polls as the common candidate of opposition parties in Assam. Though Barua’s paper is anti-Delhi in its stance, he evidently sees no contradiction in becoming an Indian lawmaker. ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-03-15
Arnab Goswami kicked off Times Now’s March 15 Newshour with a long, righteous on-air editorial on the scandalousness of Mayawati’s 1000-rupee-note garland, invoking the country’s founding fathers and what not. Then the bulletin got down to news coverage...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-03-15
The Hindu wants credit for breaking the story "SIT summons Modi in Jaffrey murder enquiry" that appeared on page one of its March 12 edition. The paper says so in the last para of the story itself. "The Hindu broke the story on its web site, beta.thehindu.com, at 4:45 p.m...
Why politicians are now complaining
IN Opinion | 2010-03-15
Letter to the Hoot: It is not that they were not aware of the dishonesty of media houses earlier. But no politician was interested in raising these issues because it did not hurt their interests,
Conflict and reconciliation in Naga newspapers
IN Regional Media | 2010-03-15
Media in Nagaland�Part I. �The making and the un-making of the Naga Nation�: narrating conflict in the Naga English media.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-03-15
The Times of India has launched a product called Flamante which it describes as a bi-monthly fashion venture. The publication is the ultimate in advertorial—it is almost impossible to tell which page is an ad and which isn’t. ..
IN Media Practice | 2010-03-14
Politicians, journalists and the Election Commission all plead helplessness in tackling paid news on their own.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-03-14
Asked leader of the Opposition Sushma Swaraj at a March 13 meeting organized by journalists: if politics is so dirty why do all the editors want to come to the Rajya Sabha ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-03-12
Mid day on March 11 carried a story on a sexually explicit scene being depicted in a forthcoming film. And if the story and the accompanying picture weren't offensive enough, the paper decided to pull out pornographic pictures from the files to add more masala to the copy. While the objectionable..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-03-12
When Colours killed off Ballika Vadhu Anandi its sister channel IBN 7 drummed up the development on its news bulletins as much as it could. Anandi sustained a gunshot in the forehead but took a while to even drop to the ground. It then took an entire episode for her..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-03-10
Barkha Dutt stole a march over rivals, by getting Madam Gandhi to speak "exclusively" to NDTV first after the passing of the Women's Reservation Bill in the Rajya Sabha. But knowing that the others wouldn't be far behind, NDTV decided to run the interview with the slug "First exclusive interview"...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-03-10
After grabbing eyeballs with his televised wedding, Rahul Mahajan'splans of telecasting his honeymoon have been stalled by a local courtin Delhi. While allowing him to leave the country for his secondhoneymoon, the court has imposed a condition that the much talkedabout holiday will not be aired. Rahul's undertaking that his..
IN Media Practice | 2010-03-10
With cameras shrinking to the size of a pen head, smuggling one into a private place is no great achievement, but what begs question is just what justifies it.
Sri Lanka: Petition against State media coverage
IN Media Freedom | 2010-03-07
A fundamental rights violation petition has been filed against the Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation and the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation for the partisan use of State media in the recently held Presidential election.
More women journos does not mean more gender awareness
IN Media Practice | 2010-03-07
Young Indian women are taking to journalism in droves, these numbers do not necessarily translate into gender awareness.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-03-07
The Times Group is tireless in thinking up ways to make subscribers pay more. Now its Speaking Tree column has been expanded to an add on supplement at an additional cost of Rs 1, tucked into a copy of the Times of India without the hawker asking if you want..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-03-05
The Hindu had the Hyderabad air crash pictures prominently displayed on its front page on March 4. But since a vertical shot was used horizontally it ended up displaying a building sideways...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-03-05
The Economic Times had been announcing on Page 1 that the Finance Minister would have breakfast with ET and a chosen panel on March 4. On the fifth morning however there was no mention of the high-powered breakfast in the paper. Apparently the FM ditched. ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-03-04
The Vedanta ads about its aluminium project in Kalahandi is making people wonder whether it is okay for newspapers to accept advertising that makes misleading claims. The full page ad which appeared on March 3 in the Hindustan Times, and in the Indian Express and elsewhere earlier, paints a rosy..
IN Media Practice | 2010-03-04
Singer and MP Kabir Suman will protest outside Parliament from March 6 against his party’s whip.
IN Media Freedom | 2010-03-03
The media in the Kannada Prabha case is the victim of a larger threat to creative, artistic and academic discourses. Unfortunately, media institutions are sitting ducks for public ire--genuine or orchestrated,
A snapshot of gender representation
IN Media Practice | 2010-03-02
The news presents a skewed picture of a world in which women are almost absent in positions of authority or responsibility outside the home.
Husain’s nationality: Pyrrhic victory for fundamentalists
IN Media Practice | 2010-03-01
Renowned painter M F Husain's decision to give up on his Indian nationality was the subject of intense discussion, less so was the culture of intolerance that pervades every sphere today.
The hills are alive with the sound of FM
IN Media Practice | 2010-02-28
In a region mired in bloody conflict, the magic of radio is back and has struck an emotional chord with the music loving populace of the region.
The media and the SRK-Sena clash
IN Media Practice | 2010-02-26
There is a school of thought that believes that the media has given the Sena its second coming through its over-the-top coverage of the SRK episode.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-02-26
President Pratibha Patil went all out to woo journalists covering the President's office by inviting them with their spouses for a dinner at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. Only a few senior women journalists were chosen to share the head table with the President and her husband much to the consternation of..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-02-26
Journalists are not the torchbearers of etiquette and some of them displayed their lack manners at the President's dinner. They could barely contain their views about the food served. A couple of foodies turned up their noses at the fare much to the embarrassment of the servers and began to run ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-02-26
Environment minister Jairam Ramesh confessed to women journalists at the Indian Women’s Press Corp that he has been surrounded by controversies owing to his plain-speak on matters like Bt Brinjal and climate change. While he seemed unfazed by the barbs that his cabinet and party colleagues throw at him, the..
IN Media Practice | 2010-02-26
At a time when opposing points of view are shouted down, the participating audiences of Andhra Pradesh Dasa, Disa listen intently and wait for their turn to rebut.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-02-24
TV Journos making an appearance in films, playing themselves is common. The latest to join the bandwagon in Barkha Dutt, who also had a character inspired by her in a Farhan Akhtar film. In the much hyped My Name is Khan, Dutt is shown reading a bulletin, but what stands..
Reporting intelligence - a reporter's dilemma
IN Media Practice | 2010-02-22
At many times in recent years journalistic perspectives have been shaped by lobbies that are active within the agencies, thus distorting the overall picture.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-02-21
Amitabh Bachchan has sought an apology from the Mumbai Mirror for claiming that his daughter-in-law Aishwarya Rai Bachchan is suffering from stomach tuberculosis. After chastising the media in his blog, Bachchan now wants a full apology to be printed on the same page, in the same size print as the..
Explosives which did not make news
IN Media Practice | 2010-02-19
It is astonishing that a seizure of explosives in container bags that carry a Pune connection on the very next day of the Pune blast, is not a story for the media!
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-02-16
The NBA announced today that its members would not be covering the IPL matches because the organisation had declined to abide by the norms drawn up in 2008 for the use of cricket footage. It described this as an ‘unreasonable commercial approach’. The Hoot recalls a similar standoff earlier. But..
IN Media Practice | 2010-02-15
Has the media learned anything since 26/11 about its own responsibility during and after such events? Within an hour of the Pune blast, television cameras were hounding the wounded being wheeled into hospitals.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-02-13
DNA reported on February 12 that I&B minister Ambika Soni was among those whose ministries did not get a good performance rating from the PMO. Maybe it was just a coincidence that journalists got an sms invite the same day to lunch with the minister next Sunday...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-02-13
DNA reports that the press information officer in charge of the ministry of women and child development has been removed from his charge following the controversy over a former Pak air chief’s photo figuring in the ministry’s campaign. (See story ‘Image Problems’ on the Hoot.) Minister Krishna Tirath blamed him..
IN Opinion | 2010-02-13
It is really time for the Editors Guild and all other professionals and news channel managements to silently march towards India Gate in Delhi and take a vow that they will give the SS company a long holiday to focus on other issues that affects th
IN Media Practice | 2010-02-13
JEHANGIR POCHA, The co-promoter of NewsX, was not amused by SHAILAJA BAJPAI’s half-humorous take on TV news in the week gone by.
Media, IPL, Shiv Sena, and Shah Rukh Khan
IN Media Practice | 2010-02-13
The IPL auction, itself a pseudo event, spawned off other pseudo news events that appear to be in the domain of media, politics, films and cricket.
Shiv Sena forced to respect freedom of expression!
IN Media Freedom | 2010-02-12
Audiences defied the Shiv sena’s threat to disrupt screenings of ‘My Name is Khan’ and asserted their right to choose what they should watch.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-02-09
The Financial Chronicle complained late last month that its scoop on a Air India-Indian Airlines demerger was ripped off point by point by the Times of India and carried as TOI’s own bylined story two days later. It also listed other plagiarised points in TOI’s story.The only original point, said..
IN Media Practice | 2010-02-09
The Central Government squarely blamed the media, and only the media, for publicising the hoax that had an obvious malign intention.
The real challenge is the issue of social censorship
IN Censorship | 2010-02-08
"The first thing about the issue of free speech in India is that the courts have become cold on it…today, defending free speech is not a major priority."
IN Media Practice | 2010-02-06
It is not clear what has prompted Tamilnation.org’s current closure. It is perhaps to do with a realisation for renewed reflection; or a sense of futility in the wake of the re-election of Mahinda Rajapakse,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-02-04
The Hindu?s London correspondent has written an entire newsletter (Feb 4) on how the London conference on Afghanistan became an Indo-Pak tension story. A welll known TV journalist from Delhi whipped up a ?spurious controversy? outside of the conference proceedings by doing interviews with the two foreign ministers and pitching..
IN Opinion | 2010-02-04
Why would Karan Thapar want to bring Binayak Sen on his show? For roughly the same reason, it transpired, that an Arnab Goswami would want to bring a Gautam Navlakha on his.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-01-31
On Sunday (31st Jan) India TV spent a good part of the evening calling spirits to their studio. While Benazir Bhutto obliged and made an appearance (of course refusing to answer any questions), Divya Bharti and Michael Jackson weren't that complying. The panel in the studio had scientists pitted against..
No change of heart in Sri Lanka
IN Media Freedom | 2010-01-31
President Mahinda Rajapaksa does not seem inclined to be particularly magnanimous towards the media following his re-election by a handsome majority.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-01-31
Apropos its feature story in its Delhi edition on January 31st on an Afghan bakery, The Indian Express needs to educate its reporters on the fact that a person from Afghanistan is an Afghan, the country?s currency is the afghani. ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-01-30
Bihartimes.com reports that the Bihar government spent an amount of Rs 80 crore on newspaper advertisements and hoardings in the financial year 2006-07, 2007-08 and 2008-09. This figure was given in response to an RTI query by the Information and Public Relation Department. According to one of the petitioners this..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-01-30
The Times London reported earlier this week that a TV soap actress in Sri Lanka claimed that she was taken off air for supporting the President's rival in the election. She has a leading role in a soap opera on the state-run ITN, but the story line was changed to..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-01-26
By the time of Rann?s release this weekend we will have had Amitabh Bachchan and his fellow stars do a virtual takeover of our news channels. After Barkha Dutt obliged the film?s makers with an interview which served Bachchan?s purpose in a lot of ways, you have Star News laying..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-01-26
NewsX ran a panel discussion recorded in Columbo as part of its coverage of the elections in Sri Lanka. It was ruined by the constant flashing reminder that the location was the Taj Samudra. Whatever the deal with the Taj group might have been, does any hotel demand such intrusive..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-01-26
Barkha Dutt?s interesting edition of The Buck Stops Here from the Jaipur literary festival was marred throughout the duration of the show by the absence of lip synch. Good lord, do our upmarket channels still have to contend with such basic problems? ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-01-26
A fielded ball broke Rahul David?s jaw. But it was Aaj Tak that could not get over it, with an animated arrow jabbing at his jaw, and continuing to hover on the screen even when the image behind it changed. The story was breaking news for practically an entire bulletin...
IN Digital Media | 2010-01-26
A former Pakistani Air Chief appears in an Indian government ad. Picking random images off the net is not only unethical, it is potentially dangerous as well.
Creating a sectoral partnership
IN Media Practice | 2010-01-24
Women parliamentarians, journalists and civil society members from Pakistan, India and Bangladesh begin to work together on women and HIV-AIDS.
IN Media Practice | 2010-01-23
An outstanding feature of the conflict framing seen in newspapers here is the fact that it is rooted in Christian theology.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-01-18
An appropriate sign of how times have changed in India by the time Jyoti Basu came to die, is how the Delhi edition of the Hindu looked on the 18th morning. The national daily most sympathetic to Basu?s party displayed a vertical split on page 1. Half the page was..
IN Media Practice | 2010-01-17
By and large the tone of the Bengali and the Hindi press is generally gossipy and sensational when reporting such cases.
IN Media Freedom | 2010-01-15
'We launched Google.cn in January 2006 in the belief that the benefits of increased access to information for people in China and a more open Internet outweighed our discomfort in agreeing to censor some results.'
IN Media Practice | 2010-01-15
NGC's documentary takes us back to the old question of whether media has any moral responsibility. Can any Hindi general entertainment channel beat the reality show they presented,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-01-14
A BBC Urdu listener writes: The opening line on BBC language broadcasts used to be 'Ye BBC London hai' or This is BBC London. But this has recently changed in the BBC Urdu service. Their broadcasts now begin with :"Ye BBC Pakistan hai..." What of BBC?s Urdu speaking listeners in..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-01-14
HK Dua, the Chandigarh Tribune chief editor who was recently nominated to the Rajya Sabha, is now leaving the Tribune and relocating to Delhi. The paper is looking for a replacement for him. ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-01-11
J.S. Tissainayagam, serving a 20-year prison term in Sri Lanka on a conviction of inciting communal disharmony and in custody since March 7, 2008, was released on bail Monday pending his appeal. court officials said. He was ordered to surrender his passport and remain in the country. Convicted last year..
Media hysteria over attacks in Australia
IN Media Practice | 2010-01-11
Even in routine coverage of news stories about their nationals residing overseas, news media can easily abandon any pretence of being objective.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-01-09
TV5?s telecast of a dubious story related to the late Rajshekar Reddy?s helicopter crash led to CNN IBN interviewing their boss Rajdeep Sardesai on air in his capacity as president of the Editor?s Guild (8th Jan). He was critical of TV5. Hopefully 2010 will see the media maintain a critical..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-01-09
A reader writes: CNN IBN seems to be confused about whether or not to reveal the names of victims of violent crime. This probably prompted them to do both simultaneously. On the evening of 29 December, during "CNN IBN Impact" segment, the lead anchor of the channel was running an..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-01-09
The DB Corp IPO (publishers of Dainik Bhaskar) has done handsomely, being oversubscribed by 40 times and closing the the first day of trading at a premium of 25 pc over its issue price. This despite the best efforts of its rivals Gujarat Samachar and Sandesh which published damaging stuff..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-01-09
When it comes to adhering to rules laid down by the courts and the press council, the Hindu is pretty selective. While it recently decided to drop Ruchika's name from the infamous molestation case involving former DGP Rathore, it has no qualms about printing photographs of dead victims, which is..
Andaman govt tightens screws on local media
IN Media Freedom | 2010-01-09
The administration has taken one more step to cut advertising support to the local media, by empowering a department to stop ads.
Is privacy becoming a dirty word in India?
IN Media Practice | 2010-01-08
The Indian media's all-consuming hunt for a sensational story often sees them trespass on an individual's personal life with little restraint or editorial responsibility.
ULFA leader writes, readers respond
IN Media Practice | 2010-01-05
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.
After the Laxman Choudhury episode
IN Media Practice | 2010-01-02
After a stringer without an ID card from his paper languished in jail for two and half months, journalists in Orissa are organising themselves under the banner of Media Unity for Freedom of the Press.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-01-02
The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has been running an awareness campaign on TV channels on preventing H1N1/swine flu by washing hands frequently. But they are also running a campaign for awareness about 'Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder', a psychological condition, the first ever such campaign, also using the example of washing..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-01-02
Chandigarh Tribune editor in chief H K Dua began his maiden speech in the Rajya Sabha with the following: ??over 45 years ago, I was in the Press Gallery above where I started my Parliamentary reporting. In these 45 years, I have travelled a distance of 10 yards to avail...
The Times of India discovers Peace
IN Opinion | 2010-01-01
The sceptics in India will be forgiven for questioning the motives and timing of the Times Group. The first step that the Group needs to take in its Aman ki Asha project is to get the Times Now anchors to tone down their anti-Pakistan rhetoric,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2010-01-01
Sanjeev Srivastava who headed the BBC bureau in India has moved to Sahara India Parivar as CEO and editor-in-chief. He will head media-related activities of the group. The move should represent quite a change in work culture. One presumes that in the BBC journalists did not have to cross their..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-12-29
New year?s eve in Delhi offers for the ?first time in India? a live cage dance by way of entertainment at a farm house bash offering unlimited booze, food and fun. Picture on promo shows glistening naked bodies inside a cage. Presented by Mid Day and supported by exchange4media.com and..
Militant handover morphs into saas bahu soap opera
IN Media Practice | 2009-12-29
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?.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-12-27
The Hindu has stopped giving the name of the molestation victim in the S P Rathore case. Though the paper did name Ruchika in earlier reports it has now decided that it will follow the Supreme Court guidelines in covering sex crimes. ..
Channel expose forces Tiwari to step down
IN Media Practice | 2009-12-26
The ABN channel in Andhra Pradesh can now legitimately take the credit for sending a Governor out of office by stirring up public opinion. The case also threw up a Constitutional poser,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-12-26
To make a last page column devoted to masala dosas sound like soft porn takes some doing. But Krishna Prasad does just that in the latest Outlook. Check it out. ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-12-26
The TV channels are clearly trying to do a repeat of their campaigns on Jessica Lal with the Ruchika case, bent on manufacturing outrage. What is difficult to swallow is their vying for exclusives with the father of the dead girl on December 24. They find it difficult to keep..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-12-26
Did anybody notice that the Hindustan Times and the Times of India chose not to carry the Editors? Guild press statement on the campaign to put an end to the practice of paid news? The Hindu had it as a second lead on page one, and other papers too announced..
IN Media Practice | 2009-12-24
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.
Indian blogger ostracized in the US media
IN Media Practice | 2009-12-24
An Indian freelance blogger is found guilty of repeated instances of plagiarism and misattribution.
Hospitals and the Political Farce in A P
IN Regional Media | 2009-12-22
This convenience of television coverage that magnifies small events has made long-term, sustained building up of grass roots opinion unnecessary.
Reporting climate change from here on
IN Media Practice | 2009-12-21
Climate is a cross-cutting issue, concerning the environment, economy, energy, development and human rights, so no journalist can afford to stay unconnected,
Good year for India, terrible for the Philippines
IN Media Freedom | 2009-12-20
At least 68 journalists were killed in 2009, 32 in the Philippines, 9 in Somalia, 4 in Pakistan. Compared to 4 deaths in 2008, there were none this year in India.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-12-18
The German newspaper, Hamburger Abendblatt had begun charging web visitors putting an end to the "culture of free" on the internet. The main newspaper in Hamburg, Germany?s second city, will charge 7.95 euros (11.60 dollars) per month for online access to its local news and back issues, but will keep..
Free foxes among free chickens?
IN Media Practice | 2009-12-18
The commercial media operate like hardcore businesses, but when it comes to regulation, they wish to be treated with kid gloves as they claim to serve the values of free speech.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-12-15
A reader writes: On December 15 morning Headlines Today was running a partially blacked out MMS clip of a policemen and a female victim in Goa engaged in oral sex. The clip left little to the imagination. The story could have been reported without using the clip. What is it..
Relentless coverage fanned Telangana flames
IN Media Practice | 2009-12-15
If all Telugu news channels were to shut down for ten days, peace would be restored in every nook and corner of the State.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-12-14
Meanwhile DNA in Mumbai, whose staff are feeling considerably less upbeat than the owners of the company, has seen another senior level exit with the departure of Sidharth Bhatia. Yet another senior level departure is imminent, and some of the younger staffers are looking for jobs. ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-12-14
The DB Corp IPO, by the owners of Dainik Bhaskar and part owners of DNA, is currently tapping the capital markets. Shortly after it opened a few days ago DNA Money carried a favourable assessment of this public offering, recommending it to investors, with the writer offering the disclaimer that..
Which version should we believe?
IN Opinion | 2009-12-11
Letter to the Hoot: The Hindu gives space to two versions of an assault on an all women fact finding team Narayanpatna, on the same day, with different datelines and sources,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-12-11
In Gujarat, dog is happy to bite dog. Gujarat Samachar, Divya Bhaskar and Sandesh are busy reporting on each other. Now rivals Gujarat Samachar and Sandesh have joined hands against Divya Bhaskar and are assailing the forthcoming DB Corp IPO. The stories running in these papers' Gujarat and Maharashtra editions..
The ‘facts' HT found in Dantewada
IN Opinion | 2009-12-11
Did Mr. Menon meet the same man, who you now claim was electrocuted, not burnt in oil? We would like to clarify, and we would have known, had the fact-finding team leader helped us meet the elusive oil-dipped man.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-12-11
The Delhi Medical Council has threatened to take action against newspapers for carrying advertisements about medicines, more recently the full page ones about the cervical cancer vaccine. According to the law, medicines cannot be advertised. Newspapers and magazines could suffer a huge revenue loss...
IN Media Practice | 2009-12-11
Journalists often have a tendency to the sweep legal aspects of the situation totally under the carpet, and a sub plot in 'Paa' satirises this point.
Online advertising will not rescue print
IN Media Business | 2009-12-08
In a 182-billion dollar press advertising industry, digital revenues of newspapers accounted for less than 6 billion dollars last year, and will grow to no more than 8.4 billion dollars by 2013.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-12-08
A reader sent this: On the NDTV programme Your Call on Dec 6 Sonia Singh was talking to Viswanathan Anand when his mother asked him on the show who his role model was. Anand said Mahatma Gandhi. Singh said ¿that is interesting¿, and moved on. It was an answer which..
IN Media Practice | 2009-12-07
Media establishments have begun to implement dubious editorial practices and the individual no longer has a choice.If journalists young and old are writing copy that could put PR agencies out of business, who among us is going to do something about i
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-12-06
At a session on paid news at a SAFMA seminar Ashok Chavan, the chief minister of Maharashtra, recently exposed by the Hindu for getting copious, unaccounted for coverage, declined to answer questions on the issue by saying the matter was subjudice. BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad observed at the same venue,"If..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-12-05
HT has rediscovered Sanjeev Nanda, the infamous BMW accident accused. Now that the Nanda boy is no longer behind bars, HT City has taken itupon itself to keep readers informed about his life. Recentlythere was a piece on how he has exchanged rings with the girl who"regularly visited him in..
IN Opinion | 2009-12-04
Letter to the Hoot: This inability of the newspaper to carry the response from the affected parties is tantamount to suppressing facts which are relevant to the issue raised by Neelesh Misra.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-12-04
The Hindu carried an expose on the use of advertisements as news, paid news, in its editions of November 29, 2009 at two levels: one citing how Ashok Chavan, Maharashtra Chief Minister fudged his accounts and another on how newspapers ran a scandalous business of coverage packages for elections. The..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-12-03
The Dainik Bhaskar group is going for an IPO. Divya Bhaskar announced to its Gujarati readers that 1.81 crore shares will be issued, out of which 1.27 crore shares will be new. The group has claimed in its advertisement that its readership has grown from 32 lakh to 1.55 crore..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-12-01
Business Standard changed its masthead colour from black to maroon and urged its readers to enjoy the Business Standard experience. Newspapers are not only becoming allergic to looking sober, they have also begun to sound like airlines...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-12-01
Last month's Indian Express exclusive on the contents of the Liberhan Commission report was actually a Chandigarh Tribune exclusive, published in two parts in that paper on July 1 and July 2 (Sans Serif). Evidently a scoop in a regional newspaper makes so little impact on the government and the..
IN Media Practice | 2009-11-30
In selling out to aggressive revenue enhancing practices, the media has compromised its role as democratic watchdog.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-11-28
Is it unfair to expect male journalists to know how long saris are? About the state dinner given by President Obama for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Washington, Times of India¿s correspondent Chidanand Rajghata writes: "She (Mrs Obama) wore her hair swept back and had piles of sparkling 'churis' on her..
Is there another way to handle anniversaries?
IN Opinion | 2009-11-27
How do we deal with anniversaries? Do we use them to rake up the past or are there different ways of addressing the issue without hurting those who are already hurt?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-11-26
The Hindustan Times will contribute ten per cent of their 3 days advertising revenue to the Mumbai Police Welfare Fund "to prevent any future 9/11s." It urges advertisers to advertise in the 26th, 27th and 28th November issues of the Mumbai HT to support this cause. With only ten percent..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-11-26
Who writes the front page stories on the latest readership survey figures: the editorial staff or the marketing staff? Check out the Times of India and the Hindustan Times stories. TOI brags about itself as only that paper can, and HT finds circuitous ways of getting around the fact that..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-11-26
Who is the finest writer in Indian journalism today? According to Tarun Tejpal who feted his colleagues at the fifth anniversary party of Tehelka magazine, it is Tehelka's executive editor Shoma Chaudhury. ..
IN Regional Media | 2009-11-24
The Nitish Kumar Government amends the RTI act to allow only a single piece of information per application and has restricted the number of free of cost pages.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-11-24
The reporting on the media angles to the bribery case registered by the CBI against the company law board member R Vasudevan, a company secretary and a senior advocate, has been discreet to the point of not reporting them. The company whose case it is happens to be is Amar..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-11-23
Viewers have noticed that the attack on CNN IBN's office in Mumbai by lumpen Shiv Sainiks rated precious little outraged coverage on rival channels. There was not much solidarity on display. Rajdeep Sardesai had to take the support of print editors like N Ram and Kumar Ketkar to have the..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-11-22
Information Minister Ambika Soni was asked by a reporter why the I&B department had put out such massive advertisements about Indira Gandhi. She snapped back "Don¿t the newspapers keep asking for ads- should we stop giving ads then?" The reporter persisted bravely: why did the government feel the need to..
26/11 myth making: to what purpose?
IN Media Practice | 2009-11-22
Kavita Karkare spoke of all this to the media - to print and television but she was puzzled and dismayed by the fact that it had no impact whatsoever.
Fifth Estate forces reforms in judiciary, not the media
IN Law and Policy | 2009-11-20
If the bar associations and advocates' unions had not brought out the issue of allegations of irregularities against judicial elevation, fear of contempt consequences might have prevented media from making any comments,
Orissa journalist languishes in jail
IN Media Freedom | 2009-11-20
Choudhury continues to languish behind bars in a cell of R Udaygiri jail in Gajapati as two courts threw out his bail applications.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-11-20
The New Indian Express has been running a five part series on RAW and what ails the organisation. What is unusual is the pointed blurb it runs every day with the series saying that all the troubles are due to the agenda of one man, M K Narayanan, India's National..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-11-20
When H K Dua, chief editor of the Chandigarh Tribune, was nominated to the Rajya Sabha by the government, his newspaper ran it as the first lead. ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-11-20
India's top three media billionaires according to Forbes India are, in that order, Subhash Chandra of the Essel Group which owns Zee TV, Indu Jain of Bennett, Coleman, and Co, and Kalanidhi Maran of Sun TV Network. ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-11-20
Network 18 which runs CNBC TV18 and CNBC Awaaz has announced a restructuring on November 20 which will make 12 per cent of the positions in the company redundant. That could translate into upto 200 jobs lost. ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-11-17
TV has touched a new low. Apparently it is no longer safe for celebs to type out sms with the media anywhere around. Mid-day on Tuesday carried a story on what Kareena wrote to Saif. The whole message was "recorded" when Kareena was in the office of a Marathi channel and..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-11-17
The Press Council of India (PCI) has set up a committee to study the "paid news syndrome", in the recent elections, its chairman Justice (retd) G.N. Ray said on Nov. 16 "A committee has been set up to collect inputs from various parts of the country and make in-depth study..
Why did Indian channels not air the 26/11 documentary?
IN Media Practice | 2009-11-17
For TV channels the Dan Reed documentary is the worst of news. It is embarrassing and damaging as it shows all too clearly the link between the media coverage and the actions of the terrorists and their handlers,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-11-14
Inder Malhotra's op ed piece in the Indian Express on November 13 begins with "On the eve of Nehru¿s 45th death anniversary..." And all this while we thought November 14 was his birth anniversary. Evidently both Malhotra and Express believe otherwise. ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-11-13
When it called a press conference to announce the hike in Metro fares on Nov 11, the Delhi Metro kept TV crews out. Annoyed, they sat on dharna outside the Metro Bhavan, much to the amusement of passersby. On Thursday, when the first train to Noida was being flagged off,..
Positive fallout of Indian TV's racism overkill
IN Media Practice | 2009-11-12
The series of measures that the Australian Government has initiated following the attacks on Indian students can all be traced to the media coverage in India.
The pen is mightier than the gun
IN Regional Media | 2009-11-11
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.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-11-11
Something major is afoot at DNA, amounting to Zee, the partner company in a joint venture between Zee and the owners of Dainik Bhaskar, gaining more operational control of the newspaper. There were two senior resignations on Nov 11. If Subhash Chandra is more hands on, the paper could see..
IN Media Practice | 2009-11-11
MILITANT TO JOURNALIST Part II-- 'I am proud to be a good Indian. I am now waging a quiet revolution with my pen against the injustices of the society'.
IN Media Practice | 2009-11-11
The CPI(Maoists) is an underground party… Thus any leader of this party must hide his/her identity… Therefore, asking media not to take frontal shots of leaders is perfectly legitimate.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-11-08
These days free samples stuck to magazines in the shape of sachets of shampoos, tea bags and cream sachets are almost par for the course. But this month the Indian publishing industry is seeing a new low. Girlie magazine Maxim has stuck a box of premium condoms along with a..
IN Opinion | 2009-11-07
Prabhash Joshi reported from the field, mixing with high and low, and wrote a regular column in Jansatta...telling it as it is, focussing on values, principles and the lives and wellbeing of ordinary people.
India: Right to information empowers Muslim women
IN Media Practice | 2009-11-05
She believes RTI is essential and the only option to activate an indifferent government machinery and goad it into protecting the interests of the minority community.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-11-04
On November 3 a Gauhati Court issued summons to the lone surviving accused in the murder in 1996 of Parag Das, executive editor of Asomiya Pratidin. The accused, Mridul Phukan, had been acquitted for lack of evidence by a Kamrup district and sessions judge in July, a decision which caused..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-11-04
A hand grenade exploded near the offices of the Sangai Express and the Matamgi Yakairol dailies in Manipur on November 3. Five on the road were injured. It was not clear who the target of the explosive was. ..
IN Media Practice | 2009-11-04
'Photojournalists are treated as second category professionals' even though they are the first to reach ground zero.
The media creates a Robin Hood
IN Media Practice | 2009-10-31
Media savvy Maoist Kishenji uses the media to bargain with the government.
Media, propaganda and the Maoists
IN Media Practice | 2009-10-31
Are journalists so dependent on Kishenji's phone calls to cover Maoist issues in West Midnapore that they are willing to take all kind of arrogant, humiliating nonsense from him,
When the government swallows up more newsprint than news
IN Law and Policy | 2009-10-31
What are the chances of opening a national daily and not seeing page after page of advertisements adorned with pictures of preening politicians?
When Shashi Tharoor was not amused
IN Digital Media | 2009-10-29
My Twitter account Shashi Tharoor Fake, started on Oct 6, had built up about 100 followers...by Oct 23, Shashi Tharoor's team had contacted Twitter in USA to suspend my account.
Selling coverage and getting away with it
IN Media Practice | 2009-10-29
Now that the elections in Maharashtra are over will the Election Commission consider being more proactive than it was after the Lok Sabha elections in the matter of paid news?
IN Opinion | 2009-10-29
Giving is something that has disappeared from our vocabulary as the media concentrates on promoting consumption.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-10-28
The Manipur government issued an order today transferring the senior SP and additional SP of Imphal West district. On invitation, a delegation of the AMWJU met the chief minister along with senior members of his cabinet, chief secretary, home secretary and the advocate general. The government action follows the mass..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-10-28
The Indian Foreign Ministry has not allowed participation of foreign journalists in an environmental journalism course scheduled to be held in Tuticorin, India from October 26 to November 6. "We are extremely sorry to inform that because of the unfortunate decision from the Ministry, the course is now conducted only..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-10-27
Ads have become progressively intrusive during the economic slowdown, because media outlets are desperate enough for advertising to allow any positioning demanded. But even so the Sunday Hindustan Times (October 25) took the cake. It had a front page bathed in an ad for a bathing bar. You could read..
Manipur journos surrender accreditation cards
IN Media Freedom | 2009-10-27
Threatened by the chief minister's goons, The All Manipur Working Journalists Union has sent this letter to the prime minister. A hundred journalists also surrendered their accreditation cards to protest being targeted by the state's forces.
Shopian: Rumors and leaks - Part II
IN Media Practice | 2009-10-26
A close examination of the contents of the letter…clearly indicates that it was written with an intention of misdirecting the investigation, with PTI playing along,
Shopian: Rumors and leaks - Part 1
IN Media Practice | 2009-10-25
The Majlis-e-Mashawarat (MM), fear that the information leaks to PTI"at selective intervals" in the course of the CBI investigation are aimed at advancing"a suitable truth" about the case.
Participants in the hostage handover?
IN Opinion | 2009-10-24
News Channels on the one hand are protesting that the government is negotiating with terrorists. On the other hand, they were falling all over themselves to play a role in the hand-over of the hostage.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-10-24
The police officer Atindranath Dutta who was kidnapped by the Naxalites and later released before a group of journalists in the forest, had to travel, according to the NDTV correspondent, in her office car to come out of the forest. Hullo? The Government left it to a journalist to provide transportation..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-10-24
An American newspaper, Westword, is looking for a "pot correspondent"and claims to have received over a 100 applications already. The eligibilty criteria is that the candidates must have a medical ailment allowing them to enter a dispensary and use marijuana. The newspaper, is seeking a writer for its weekly review of Colorado¿s..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-10-24
The Thana pipeline accident showed journalists, camera crews and photographers hampering rescue and clearance operations by their presence in large numbers. In the background one could hear an anchorperson in the studios asking railway officials why gas cutters had not reached the site yet. ..
IN Media Practice | 2009-10-23
The liberal-left is getting clobbered in the TV debates on Naxal violence.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-10-22
A reader points out that the episode of Bigg Boss 3 on Colors on October 20 had participant Raju Srivastava using racist language about the German participant, Claudia. He called her ¿gori chitt¿, ¿doodh ki dhooli¿, ubla anda and other terms. The other participants thought it was funny. And yet when one of the current participant¿s..
IN Opinion | 2009-10-22
Is Neelabh Mishra's write-up--What Caste Is A Nobel?â€"in Outlook plagiarized? Or are both the article and interview cited drawing upon French Sociologist Pierre Bourdieu's concept of Cultural Capital?
Pakistan: crossing borders, sharing words, joining the dots
IN Media Practice | 2009-10-21
"We are living in tenuous times. This region has one of the worst records of women?s rights in the world. That?s why it is so important to raise our voices and strengthen our bonds."
Assam TV channels live off conflict
IN Media Practice | 2009-10-21
The political ownership is reflected in the coverage since allegiance to a political party colors objectivity and reality,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-10-20
Track coverage of the RIL-RNRL dispute on NewsX. It is noticeably less even-handed than coverage on other channels. You'll observe an interesting trend that has to do with the rumoured ownership of that channel. Clarity in a complex world? ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-10-20
What is it about a discussion on Naxalism that draws out so much aggression in our TV anchors? On the 20th evening Arundhati Roy and and Gladson Dungdung from Jharkhand were at the receiving end of Rajdeep Sardesai and Suhasini Haidar on CNN IBN attacking them for being soft on..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-10-20
The New York Times plans to eliminate 100 newsroom jobs ( about 8 percent of the total) by year's end, offering buyouts to union and nonunion employees, and resorting to layoffs if it cannot get enough people to leave voluntarily, the paper announced on Monday. Around 15-20journalists here lost their..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-10-17
On Oct 16 Mike Hooper,CEO, of the Commonwealth Games Federation was replying to questions from the press on Suresh Kalmadi¿s attack on him when some persons led by Lalit Bhanot, Secretary General of the Commonwealth Organising Committee, walked into the room and ordered Hooper to stop speaking to the press...
Politicians polarize media in West Bengal
IN Media Freedom | 2009-10-16
The media was viewing an assault on itself in the light of political allegiance rather than protection of its rights. And that is the real tragedy.
When today's poison is tomorrow's wonder drug
IN Media Practice | 2009-10-14
Flooded with often contradictory information on health by the media, whom should we believe?
IN Media Practice | 2009-10-14
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.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-10-14
Exit polls are done by media houses but nobody finds it worth their while to do one on Arunachal Pradesh. The presumption is that politics is of interest only if it relates to one of the mainland states. ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-10-13
Who is responsible for the attack on the General Headquarters in Rawalpindi on October 10? If some of Pakistan¿s press and Urdu TV channels are to be believed, part of the suspicion falls on the USA and India...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-10-11
That Pakistan is chummy with China is no secret but even so what a delegation of South Asian journalists were served at a dinner thrown by the chief minister of Punjab in Lahore, was a surprise: Chinese food of the take-way kind. Since the host was absent following a terror..
Media cautiously optimistic about Black Widow surrender
IN Media Practice | 2009-10-08
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,
Recycled, dubbed serials rule the landscape
IN Opinion | 2009-10-08
Can we stop a moment and look at the signals we are sending to our children? Would adults be able to tolerate such a diet of recycled, dubbed and rerun serials each day?
TV9 brings you the floods, live!
IN Media Practice | 2009-10-08
One saw several reporters in waist deep water, waving mics at people for sound bites. Another reporter on a boat waved the mic for bites from a person in neck-deep water!
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-10-08
Is self regulation in television getting anywhere? Does not look like it, judging by how the footage of Francis Induwar's body was repeatedly recycled on the news channels. Times Now in particular looped the footage continuously. ..
IN Media Practice | 2009-10-06
Are any means justified to capture people hiding from the law?
Manipur: violent, yet out of mind
IN Media Practice | 2009-10-06
Mainstream Amnesia Part III. An emergency, be it one of law and order or of governance, is not recognised as one if the media abdicates. Though Manipur saw a steady flow of violence, most of it went unnoticed in the surveyed mainstream dailies.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-10-05
Mail Today's page one headlines on October 5 capture neatly the paradox of contemporary India: high infant mortality, government noises about vulgar corporate salaries, nepotism in politics, too many government holidays, and Paris fashion! ..
IN Media Practice | 2009-10-04
The gathering of information alone is threatening for many companies, organised crime groups, governments…Environmental concerns complicate their plans.
IN Opinion | 2009-10-03
His main interests lay in the fields of political affairs, external relations and security, and he wrote editorials, columns, and books on this topic.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-10-03
Whatever else makes news in Delhi papers, events in the Northeast don't. With the exception of the Hindu which had a six column top of the page story on page 12, the surrender of the 360 members of the DHD(Jewel) faction of militants in the NorthCachar Hills of Assam on..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-10-03
All major English newspapers saw fit to carry a large, above the fold picture on the occasion of China celebrating the 60th anniversary of its communist revolution. The Hindu went much further. It had a large picture, and a full top half page story, dateline Beijing, under the byline of..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-10-01
The negotiations regarding the Air India executive pilots strike seemed to be carried out entirely on multiple television channels! The pilots aired their reasons for the snap strike on TV channels, the management gave their version on them, then the Union Civil Aviation Minister appealed to the pilots through TV channels..
Reporting Assam's ethnic cauldron
IN Media Practice | 2009-10-01
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.
Misusing the media's credibility
IN Media Practice | 2009-09-28
After this cowardly act of the Bengal police, media people will be viewed with a suspicion in any part of the country. This can in turn even bring threat to their lives.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-09-28
Police masquerade as journalists to nab a Maoist suspect in Lalgarh. Its called a sting! What next? Taxmen passing themselves off as journalists to nab businessmen?..
Two media takes on Kobad Ghandy
IN Media Practice | 2009-09-27
Two extracts from the same Sunday's papers makes an apt study in subjectivity.
IN Media Practice | 2009-09-27
Naxalites are terrorists for the media, not just for young reporters who don't know anything, but also for some TV anchors who should be more knowledgeable.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-09-25
The self righteous Arnab Goswami who expects his guests to either apologise or confess on "your channel" managed to surprise viewers with a strange multi lingual "exclusive" interview with Raj Thackeray. While Goswami fired questions in English, Thackeray replied in Marathi and for the confused viewers there were subtitles in English. Matter of time, before..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-09-25
A Kerala court has decided to initiate action against 17 media organisations for telecasting and reporting narco-analysis tests conducted on an accused in the Sister Abhaya murder case. The clips were aired on September 14.The Ernakulam chief judicial magistrate responded to a petition from the family of one of the..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-09-25
The Delhi Police has been instructed not to prosecute two journalists for what officials said was a wrong report about Chinese firing across the border. Home Minister P. Chidambaram is learnt to have told Delhi Police Commissioner Y.S. Dadwal not to proceed against the journalists against whom the Indo-Tibetan Border..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-09-25
TV viewers will have to endure more Rakhi Sawant in the coming days. There is trouble in paradise and the drama queen has fallen out of love with the NRI prince charming. The buzz is the couple will soon call it quits, which means more shows,"news" and "analysis" on what..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-09-25
Manini Chatterjee who heads the Delhi bureau of Telegraph is blazing a trail of sorts. Her book 'Do and Die: TheChittagong Uprising, 1930-34'. is being made into a film by Ashutosh Gowariker with Abhishek Bachchan reported to be playing the lead...
IN Community Media | 2009-09-25
Radio stations in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) started by the Pakistanl government in 2006, use women's voices to counter the militant¿s propaganda.
IN Media Practice | 2009-09-25
The years of clashes and even the grim problems of today have found a reflection in the writings of some Bodo women, who have chosen to use their pen to describe the realities that their community is facing.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-09-24
Granted specialisations do not matter in IAS transfers, but even so this appointment is worth taking note of. IAS officer Supriya Sahu has been posted on deputation as director (broadcasting content) in the Information and Broadcasting Ministry. Prior to this she was joint managing director, Tamil Nadu Water Supply and..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-09-20
The Home Ministry has decided to file an FIR against the two Times of India reporters who reported that ITBP jawans were injured in firing by the Chinese. That is quite extraordinary. How about tracing the motivated leaks/plants from within the government?..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-09-20
Newspapers are unlikely to object to the large DAVP ads put out by Mr Chidambaram's ministry asserting that Naxals are nothing but cold blooded murderers. They are happy to get the advertising. But are bad English newspaper ads going to help win the war against Maoists? ..
IN Media Practice | 2009-09-20
Musharraf's gift of the gab and perfectly strategised TV skills disarm viewers and persuade them to suspend disbelief at least for the moment.
Tweets and the political class
IN Digital Media | 2009-09-20
The Tharoor controversy has thrown light on the yawning gap between the evolution of newer platforms of expression and the limitations of the politicians in India in understanding them.
Reporting Kashmir's summer of discontent
IN Media Practice | 2009-09-19
MAINSTREAM AMNESIA--- A three-part series on conflict and media on The Hoot. Part 1, Kashmir. Overall it is clear from the coverage that the media was donning it's familiar ambulance chaser hat while covering J&K, post Shopian,
The media forces Andhra Pradesh ministers to take oath again
IN Media Practice | 2009-09-18
Until Rosaiah said that he was not caretaker Chief Minister, the media was calling him that, also using the prefixes acting or temporary and stop-gap.It is difficult even for the world's bulkiest Constitution to provide for every doubt the controver
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-09-17
The Hindu's surprising foray into investigative journalism is welcome. It ran a story on September 17 on what Rahul Gandhi's three day Southern trip will cost the Youth Congress, given that he did not take any commercial flight. Upwards of Rs 1 crore, for planes and helicopters used, ground handling..
IN Media Practice | 2009-09-16
CNA's era was marked by media options that combined journalism and literature on the one hand and theatre and cinema on the other, for wider reach.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-09-16
On September 16 the Indian Express reprinted the letter Gautam Navlakha actually sent in response to the paper's editorial called Batla and Ishrat. (See the item 'Two letters' on the Hoot.) And apologized for incorrect editing and printing...
Browbeating media? The CPM in Kerala backs off
IN Media Freedom | 2009-09-15
Once the media was full of stories against the police and the CPM in this case, Pinarayi Vijayan came out openly against the journalists.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-09-15
Minister of Information and Broadcasting Ambika Soni did some plain speaking at a function to commemorate the 50th anniversary of public broadcasting. You tell me how to make Doordarshan and AIR more public spirited when out of the 800 MPs and 1000s of members of state legislatures the majority are..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-09-15
The Hindustan Times says in a page one item that Doordarshan is 50 today, September 15, 2009. That is the common misperception. TV came to India on September 15, 1959 as a division of Akashvani. Doordarshan was not born as an organisation until 1976, during the Emergency. ..
Untold stories of the Doordarshan years
IN Opinion | 2009-09-14
The DD years have been exhilarating and fun, we dared, we fought, we often won. Innovation was a necessity for achieving dreams and impossible realities.
IN Opinion | 2009-09-13
What the Indian Express carried in its Letter of the Week column bore little resemblance to the letter the writer had sent.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-09-12
The ToI decided to be politically correct in one place but not in the other while running the same story. Its e-paper dated September 12 said, in a story on foreign varsities coming to India, ¿¿White skin or chinky eyes aren't a common feature even in India's top educational institutions,..
Jailed Sri Lankan journalist gets international support
IN Media Freedom | 2009-09-11
Tissanayagam, a JNU alumnus, will prove to be another test case for media freedom where the state?s power is unleashed to gag journalists,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-09-11
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati has come under fire from scribes and the opposition for slapping the Dalit Act on reporters of a TV channel IBN 7 for a news report on how a starving Dalit sold off his wife in poverty-hit Bundelkhand. Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav has..
IN Opinion | 2009-09-11
Increasingly, news events are characterized by the Hour of Imagination, the period in which the hyperbolic and the spectacular are possible, before drab facts force themselves onto the scene.
IN Opinion | 2009-09-08
The inconsistencies in the various accounts put out in the press were also glaring. Yet, no one followed up.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-09-06
The Election Commission said on September 6 that it had received several complaints about the prevalence of paid news in the media in the last elections but added that it was very difficult to prove the charge. The information regarding this has to come from the media, Chief Election Commissioner..
IN Media Practice | 2009-09-06
Some interested parties wanted to create a hype to prove a point. The more the deaths, the more the popularity of their departed leader among the people.
Not so funny RTI innovations from Jharkhand
IN Regional Media | 2009-09-05
Recent reports in Jharkhand suggest that information seekers are told to pay substantial sums in the name of the government staff’s salary.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-09-03
Grief has no privacy in the era of satellite TV. The newly widowed wife of the late Andhra Pradesh CM Rajshekhar Reddy was made a public spectacle of the instant it was confirmed that all aboard the copter were dead. Doesn’t it occur to camera crews to stop shooting family..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-09-03
The Delhi and Mumbai based news channels confirmed the news of the Andhra CM’s death before the two Telugu channels Sakshi TV and ETV 2, the former owned by YSR himself, did. But they carried on with business as usual while the Telugu channels went into mourning mode. Sakshi did..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-09-03
Arnab Gowsami must be disappointed. He tried so hard on Wednesday to find a Naxal angle to the CM’s disappearance until the National Security Adviser M K Narayanan scotched that theory in no uncertain terms. Whereupon Goswami quickly began banging away about the fitness of the chopper. ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-09-03
Economic Times reported that air traffic control in Hyderabad went by what a local TV channel said when it reported on Wednesday that the CM’s helicopter had been located. Wow. Now we have aviation authorities getting their information from TV channels?..
IN Opinion | 2009-09-01
During the ongoing swine flu outbreak, the television and print media played a big role in raising public awareness, but some concerns remain,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-09-01
Sonia Gandhi surrendered her honorary membership of the Press Club of India, a day after the party stated that her accepting it had nothing to do with the internal politics of the club. A wag from the Indian Womens Press Corp says that she would have done better to have..
IN Media Practice | 2009-09-01
Why James Murdoch is mad at the BBC and Ofcom, but cool with I and B and Doordarshan.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-08-27
Senior journalists at the Marathi daily Sakal have been deserting the organization during the last few days. Among them are Anand Agashe, the Sakal group’s Director Editor, and Abhay Kulkarni, the Corporate Editor. Both of them held the key posts in the organization. Four others have also left recently, one..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-08-27
Reader¿s Digest, once a favourite monthly magazine in millions of homes in the US and around the world, filed for bankruptcy this week. The magazine is the latest of several debt-laden media companies in the US to succumb to the recession. DPA/IANS..
Flawed media, flawed democracy?
IN Media Practice | 2009-08-27
Whom do the news media serve when they provide coverage going beyond saturation to cloying excess: their viewers or themselves?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-08-24
When Anil Ambani writes a loaded piece about trust in the Speaking Tree column of the Times of India ("Trust is everything, nurture it" August 22) you wonder who will turn spiritual next for the benefit of the Times. Brother Mukesh? And how will they repay the paper for the..
Do leaked audit reports make a good story?
IN Media Practice | 2009-08-23
From the news items one cannot make out if this is a case of a few selective leaks or this bias came in from journalists taking out selective bits to make for a good story,
Balika Vadhu: Showcasing reality through drama and text
IN Media Practice | 2009-08-23
Far from "encouraging" child marriage as some politicians feel, Balika Vadhu is the rare serial that induces audiences to engage intellectually with social conflicts on an entertainment platform,
How the media helped out on LGBT issues
IN Media Practice | 2009-08-23
Kannada, Telugu and Tamil papers and TV channels gave the 377 story a lot of play.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-08-20
The 12th Rajiv Gandhi National Award for Journalism was given to chairman of the Bhaskar Group Ramesh Chandra Agarwal on August 19. The same award was given to Vineet Jain of the Times Group for Industry. Strange. If anything, the Bhaskar Group has more industries in its fold than the..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-08-19
When the Ambani brothers are at war it is good for the media in more ways than one. It gives them news stories emanating from both sides to live off, and it also yields advertising. On August 19 morning every newspaper in Delhi and doubtless other cities, had huge front..
IN Media Freedom | 2009-08-19
The editor of Lokmat has filed a police complaint alleging that he received death threats after he published a cartoon of Swami Ramdas Samarth in a suit.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-08-17
More than a third of the pictures of sleeping infants in women¿s magazines depict babies in unsafe sleeping positions, says a new US study. There are major discrepancies between what doctors recommend to prevent sudden infant death syndrome and what mothers may see in mainstream media, say the authors. The..
IN Media Practice | 2009-08-17
The High Court has taken cognizance of the investigative series, and recorded a ‘sue moto’ public interest litigation by making the editor a PIL litigant and providing an advocate to him to fight the case.
The Kashmir the media does not report
IN Media Practice | 2009-08-17
And then, I ran. Not because I wanted to shirk off my journalistic duties but because no story is worth a life.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-08-16
Someone tells us what happened to Shah Rukh Khan is a straight replay of the first fifteen minutes of Karan Johar’s film, My name is Khan, in which SRK is acting. The airport too is Newark. Just an amazing coincidence? The script of the film has been kept under wraps..
IN Media Practice | 2009-08-16
Gone are the days of mother-in-law taunting the daughter-in-law to irritate. She now gets her kin knifed on a highway by her henchmen.
IN Opinion | 2009-08-12
The tempering words of a few individuals cannot possible negate this overall picture that comes through the visuals.
Grief Porn : media and mass mourning
IN Media Practice | 2009-08-10
When tragedy strikes a confounded public, and a sensation-hungry media goes overboard in its coverage, the casualty is always personal grief,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-08-10
The Sunday Indian Express chose to mark George Fernandes’ election to the Rajya Sabha with a two-page photo feature on his marriage to Leila Fernandes.The couple are estranged even though they sometimes meet, according to the story. The pictures may have come from Leila but its difficult to see what..
IN Media Practice | 2009-08-10
It is of great importance for the public to know who the owners of the newspapers and the channels are and what their primary source of funding is.
Kashmir cable restrictions: No let up after two months
IN Media Practice | 2009-08-07
"As a deputy Commissioner of Srinagar city I am committed to a free press but press too have some responsibilities."
IN Media Practice | 2009-08-07
The Times’ recent report isn’t unusual; the paper has been consistently running down the performance of reserved category IIT aspirants and students.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-08-06
A reader says that the headline on page 20, TOI 4.8.2009 (Mumbai edition) ¿Sweeper¿s Son steals the show" about a young football player is extremely offensive because the pedigree of the young lad is irrelevant to his performance. It is his achieving competence which needs to be praised, and this is..
IN Media Practice | 2009-08-06
Tehelka’s photographs are forcing a nation to sit up and take notice. Because seldom does the media take note of a state that reported 37 encounter deaths over a period of 60 days between May and July.
IN Opinion | 2009-08-05
If the Deccan Chronicle wants to play with the big newspapers like the Times of India, Indian Express, and the Hindu, then it had better start acting like a big newspaper and follow up on its stories.
Hate speech in reporting Kasab trial
IN Books | 2009-08-04
Marathi newspapers show regional and political bias in their coverage. Saamna sensationalized the issue with frequent use of vitriolic language.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-08-04
The grand finale of Rakhi Sawant¿s swayamvar was being broadcast live on NDTV Imagine. Even as Rakhi¿s engagement to the NRI from Toronto (who the media now adddress as Mr. Rakhi Sawant) was being shown live, NDTV India at the precise moment begun showing the couple¿s press conference post the ceremony, which was also live!!..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-08-03
Inspired by the HT, the Indian Express is also going in for an image makeover. The paper is merging its pullout the Newsline with the main paper. The new look is expected to be more compact and reader friendly! ..
IN Media Practice | 2009-08-01
In that one fell swoop, Sach Ka Saamna, the Indian version of the controversial Moment Of Truth, pushed everything right over the edge.
Mother sold TV rights to aftermath of Scarlett killing
IN Media Practice | 2009-08-01
Wikileaks.org published an anonymous post based on hacked emails, detailing negotiations on behalf of Fiona Mackeown by her lawyer with Channel 4.
Public interest validates media trial
IN Media Practice | 2009-08-01
The apex court has respectfully distanced itself from interfering with the free expression of the media by rejecting the plea to lay down guidelines for sting operations.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-07-31
A dawn-to-dusk general strike called by political and rights groups against the acquittal of a surrendered militant in the 1996 murder of journalist Parag Kumar Das, brought life to a virtual standstill in Assam Thursday. A local court on July 28 acquitted Mridul Phukan, a surrendered militant, citing lack of..
Rights violations by the media?
IN Media Practice | 2009-07-31
When the Imphal Free Press carried a photograph recently of a rape victim, it generated these two editorials. The paper allowed a leader writer to have her say, but also countered it two days later, with its own view.
What’s changed for freelance writers?
IN Media Practice | 2009-07-27
Has freelance journalism changed over the years in terms of attitude, ethics, payments, and the way of working,
Community radio in Nagappattinam
IN Community Media | 2009-07-27
The community radio station was inaugurated on July 12 2009 and covers a community within 10 kilometers around Vilunthamavadi. "When we had the funds we did not have the licence and now we have the licence but no funds,"
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-07-27
Part of the media reports that the Gates Foundation is exiting its HIV programme in India and handing it over to the Government, adding that it has not been very successful. Then the government bestows an award on Gates, and the Indian Express writes an approving editorial on the Gates..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-07-27
The sun rises in the morning and sets in the evening and the moon comes into view when or much after the sun sets. But not for the Times of India, which has for months been listing the moonrise at, for instance in its July 23, 2009 edition at"Friday: 0822..
IN Media Practice | 2009-07-27
It is sloppiness, not "Indian English", that is responsible for the basic rules of grammar not being followed. 24X7 news television is murdering the English language,
IN Media Practice | 2009-07-27
So, when journalists didn’t do their homework well, it became easy for Metro Chief Sreedharan to launch an attack on the CAG of India.
Learning from the Australian racism story
IN Media Practice | 2009-07-27
Initially the media exacerbates an incident, political parties then jump in and twist facts as they please, and passions are thus easily whipped up.
Sexism, humour, and The Telegraph
IN Media Practice | 2009-07-22
When it comes to a particular type of assertive and sexist humour, it’s The Telegraph that has momentarily led the show in Kolkata city,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-07-22
At a recent event at the ITC Green Building, Hillary Clinton was scheduled to have an ¿exclusive¿ tête-à-tête with Barkha Dutt. Not impressed by the feat, a colleague from a rival channel was quick to point out that the order of the interviews was indicative of NDTV¿s slipping position. While..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-07-20
We thought that television news channels were the only media that claimed exclusives indiscriminately even as the same ¿exclusives¿ appeared across other channels. Now it seems that the print media is also suffering from the ¿exclusive¿ flu. In its latest edition, July 27, Outlook has a story (Exiting Windows) on..
Press clubs in a conflict zone
IN Regional Media | 2009-07-19
"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,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-07-18
The Telegraph of July 18 decided to lampoon the inaction leadership in West Bengal, by putting the chief minister, chief secretary, etc in saris on its front page. It added a line below saying "We apologise to women who may feel the elegant sari has been wasted on our administrators"...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-07-18
The Times Group coopted the US Secretary of State in its promotion of its Teach India campaign. On a special show Saturday night Arnab Goswami led a discussion with Clinton on education, suitably tweaked so that the programme became an unabashed plug for the group’s social service. ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-07-18
Hillary Clinton¿s India visit will be covered on the social networking sites of Twitter, Flickr and Facebook, through accounts run by the US Department of State Bureau of International Information Programs. Users are invited to upload their professional or cell-phone photos and notes through these new media tools. That¿s a..
Cable censorship in Kashmir continues
IN Media Freedom | 2009-07-18
So far no cable TV owner has approached the government seeking lifting of the 15 minute daily limit on the telecast of news.
IN Opinion | 2009-07-13
So what has happened to the Grand Old Lady of Bori Bunder? Why this sudden change of heart, or a "Cinderella moment" as it likes to call it?
Citizen journalism and freedom of expression
IN Media Freedom | 2009-07-11
Is there a specific need to keep citizen journalism above normal journalistic practices such as gate keeping?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-07-11
TV anchors are perpetual fodder for spoofs, particularly anonymously authored ones. For a brilliant rip-off on our egoistic news stars see noiseofIndia.com. Any wit willing to satirise TV news under his/her own name for a change, is invited to contact the Hoot! ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-07-11
Newspapers can do what humans cannot: suddenly shed decades and turn youthful. The new Hindustan Times is young, colourful, with it. And the news? Well you have to hunt for it amidst all those pictures, graphics and other cute stuff...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-07-11
The CAG has pulled up the information and broadcasting ministry for "premature release" of Rs.7 crore as advance for constructing the National Press Centre in Delhi and asked it to observe "due diligence" in financial matters. Twenty per cent of the project cost was released to to NBCC before statutory..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-07-09
Srinagar-based working journalists are protesting against police threats to Fayaz Bukhari of NDTV and Rasheed Rahi of CNS news agency. Bukhari was threatened by no less than the DGP Kashmir Kuldeep Khoda, for reporting on the July 8 allegations by the family of Asrar that the youth disappeared in police..
For the truth about the Kosi river, track the Nepal media
IN Media Practice | 2009-07-09
One gets to see more news on the Kosi barrage--under the control and operation of the Government of Bihar--emerging from Nepal-based media houses rather than from the Indian media,
IN Media Practice | 2009-07-08
In this conservative domain populated by liberal women, Akbar’s cry for change is a cry in the wilderness.
IN Opinion | 2009-07-07
How many days does it take a child-centric tragedy to slide off centre-stage in the print media?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-07-07
..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-07-07
It is interesting to see how Brinda Karat’s mandatory appearance on NDTV 24x7 is handled. She came and protested loudly about how it was a budget for the khaas admi, not the aam admi. She raised specific issues which neither Prannoy Roy nor Vikram Chandra countered or engaged with. The..
Sec 377: what’s religion got to do with it?
IN Media Practice | 2009-07-06
Since when has religion been the upholder of human rights in the country? Why did the media jump to get the opinions of religious leaders as soon as the verdict was out,
Sri Lanka: media persecution continues
IN Media Freedom | 2009-07-03
The political leadership of Sri Lanka has created a culture of impunity which makes each day a hunting season for attacks on the media,
IN Opinion | 2009-07-02
The sports page designers for the Express seem to be dying to do something else. This will not do, if the Express wants to remain competitive.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-06-30
Many a TV discussion on the Class 10 exam issue is grounded in ignorance about the reasons why a board exam was introduced at this level. Barkha Dutt and some of her educationist guests on We the People were no exception. They seemed unaware of the strong vocationalisation rationale for..
IN Media Practice | 2009-06-30
As far as the media houses go, none of them have seriously called into question the necessity of this police action.
When Michael Jackson came to Manikganj
IN Media Practice | 2009-06-30
Author and inventor Arthur Clarke had told me that the satellite television revolution was the second swiftest in history. Looking back now, I think that Michael Jackson was firmly etched in that history.
IN Media Practice | 2009-06-28
The articles written after the Imphal NWMI meeting do not cover the issues of havoc caused by umpteen insurgent groups, which is no less in measure than the human rights violation by the AFSPA,
IN Media Practice | 2009-06-28
The US-based web-site Heliums recent axing of Indian contributors smacks of ‘protectionism’,
Lalgarh’s PCAC: tribal resistance or Maoist front?
IN Media Practice | 2009-06-27
Crucial to the telling of the Lalgarh story is the role of the People’s Committee against Police Atrocities (PCAPA) led by a man called Chhatradar Mahato.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-06-27
I & B minister Ambika Soni has lots of buddies among journalists and is likely to be media friendly in her policies. She has just cleared all pending proposals for TV channels. The new channels approved include CNBC-TV 18 South, CNBC-TV 18 Gujarat, City Pulse, Krishna TV, Awam, Samaj, Mumbai..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-06-24
When news bulletins go live from inside TV newsrooms, the camera often catches interesting stuff happening in the background. It is a common sight to see people chatting, eating and running around, but on ET Now, when a reporter was giving a lowdown on the markets, a man in a bright orange shirt chose the..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-06-24
Delhi¿s mild-mannered Finance Minister A.K. Walia who recently presented the city¿s budget was heckled by journalists for being a bachelor. At a press meet they asked him if the budget had anything special for bachelors. Would they have dared ask the same question to Ratan Tata or AB Vajpayee who are also single?..
IN Media Practice | 2009-06-24
Marathi newspapers expose corruption and find 60 percent of the employees in Maharashtra¿s agriculture department are unqualified,
IN Media Practice | 2009-06-24
Should anonymity be an entitlement for all bloggers? And if not, for which kinds?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-06-21
The government of Gujarat issued an ad which was carried in the Ahmedabad TOI. Under the headline "Gujarat¿s pride, Educated Girl child," it listed achievements of the state government in the field of education. Read one, "Sakshardeep Karyakram has led to 26 lakh illerate people gaining illiteracy." Now here is..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-06-20
An angry reader writes: Prannoy Roy ended his show on June 18 with the statement - "How many UP policemen does it take to change a light bulb?" Would he crack the same joke if he had interviewed the wives of the four constables who died in the siege? Why..
IN Opinion | 2009-06-20
Letter to the Hoot: TOI’s appalling article on the effect maids have on men and marriages shows insensitivity and class bias,
Twitter in Iran: genuine or orchestrated?
IN Digital Media | 2009-06-20
"I narrowed it down to a handful of people who have accounted for 30,000 Iran related tweets in the past few days."
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-06-19
Harish Khare the Hindu¿s resident editor in Delhi has resigned to take up the assignment of media advisor to the Prime Minister. Sanjay Baru, the former media advisor to the prime minister, will also be returning to the PMO in a different capacity. ..
Local Cable TV becomes a victim of Shopian unrest
IN Regional Media | 2009-06-17
Prior to imposing curbs, the owners and editors of Cable TV channels in Kashmir were summoned by the authorities and threatened that they had better "behave properly".
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-06-15
Recesssion in the media seems to be on its way out. The Times of India has decided to partially roll back the salary cuts announced some time back. And the Hindu which has recently tied up with NDTV in Chennai, will come out with an edition from Kolkata on the..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-06-15
Sonia Gandhi has converted Prabhu Chawla into an admirer. Though there is little new to take away from his ¿Power and Politics¿ page in Mail Today, (June 15) read it for its approving gush. ..
IN Media Practice | 2009-06-14
With changing times and the burgeoning media landscape, women journalists in Kashmir are finally coming into their own.
Reporting Kashmir: a problem of versions
IN Media Practice | 2009-06-14
Three newspapers published from Delhi and one TV channel make a telling case study of how those who are reporting the alleged rape in Shopian project very different versions.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-06-12
TOI reporter Manju V is more scandalized at a maid who "could not read and write English" being upgraded to business class on Air India, because she is a "minister¿s servant" than at another minister¿s son being upgraded from economy to first class, on another flight. She puts the latter incident at..
IN Media Practice | 2009-06-10
The channels were identical in their details. All of them specified that Anees and Dawood were shot at near the Al Habib Bank ATM in Karachi.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-06-10
Over the last few days Headlines Today has changed its orange and white colors to blue and red with white letters. The logo when it appears has a visual similarity to Times Now. Both channels also have a "popular news" approach. The propensity for war mongering on both channels is..
The war against the media is not over
IN Media Freedom | 2009-06-10
In post war Sri Lanka surely the culture of impunity must give way to an inclusive and democratic culture,
IN Opinion | 2009-06-10
Track Indian columnists who write regularly on the Indian media through the Hoot. Links to recent columns by Shailaja Bajpai, Poonam Saxena, Vanita Kohli-Khandekar, P.N Vasanti and Sevanti Ninan
More on how the media earned from the elections
IN Media Practice | 2009-06-09
The way in which the ruling party in Punjab had chalked out a plan for exploiting the media to its advantage during elections as can be seen from the following chart.
IN Opinion | 2009-06-08
Is civil society mounting enough of a fight against the extraordinary powers Mr Raja¿s ministry is arming itself with?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-06-07
After several days of unfettered coverage of the unrest sparked by the alleged murder and rape of two young women in Shopian, the Jammu and Kashmir government on June 6 issued a directive to local cable channels to restrict their news bulletins to 15 minutes. ..
Response to The Hoot column ¿Second Take¿
IN Opinion | 2009-06-06
Letter to the Hoot: The tone and tenor of the analysis leaves me with no choice but to characterise it as the work of of a mindset whose body is perhaps attuned to GMT rather than IST.
Catching up on vacation programming
IN Opinion | 2009-06-05
Seriously, is anyone looking at these episodes individually and commenting on their suitability and for which age-group even if it is on a children’s channel?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-06-05
On World Environment Day the Hindustan Times announced that it would be saving 24 lakh trees a year by being printed on paper that was 95 per cent recycled. Is there any way of auditing this claim?..
IN Regional Media | 2009-06-05
If the media is reporting the misuse of force by the state government against protesters is it unprofessional?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-06-03
A reader writes: India TV on June 1 interviewed a minor (well below the age of six) live on TV and extracted an "eye-witness" statement from him on how his mother was murdered by the father. How sadistic can they get? Is this not enough for them to be taken off..
IN Opinion | 2009-06-03
The only way we gain perspective about what is happening in our country is if we know what is happening outside our borders.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-06-02
Are hard times to blame for new benchmarks being set in intrusive advertising? On June 1 Reliance Mobile’s advertisement with colour strips signifying signal bars took over the front pages of Times of India and Mail Today, engulfing the day’s news. Is this is a call taken by editors or..
Whipping up panic over Australian racism
IN Media Practice | 2009-06-02
Have you experienced any form of racism? No, I haven’t, I’m going to scream at the next TV channel that rings me.
IN Media Business | 2009-05-30
A Connecticut newspaper conducted an outsourcing-related sting operation on Indian journalists.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-05-30
A reader writes: At around 6AM this morning Sun News carried a headline/news story around a postman who had 3 wives. The channel owned by TN¿s first family, conveniently ignored the precedent set by their own patriarch. Karunanidhi¿s wives cause crisies in the country¿s cabinet formation but they don¿t make news..
Online Campaigns: Look Who¿s on Twitter?
IN Media Practice | 2009-05-29
The promise of civic engagement via new technologies remains limited to the upper classes, and it will be a while before it reaches the masses.
Why political websites were not effective
IN Books | 2009-05-27
A study of websites of Indian political parties shows that the two biggest political parties clearly use their websites as an information tool than as a participatory one.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-05-27
Tarun Tejpal’s ode to Sonia Gandhi in Tehelka, ‘Mrs Gandhi and her Extra God’ has to be read to be believed. Now we know just how saved our liberal intelligentsia feel by the vote in this election. At the end of this letter to Sonia Gandhi she is asked to..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-05-27
Newspapers are sporting far more half jacket ads, which enclose the entire front page, than before. Obviously with the collapse of advertising advertisers are able to dictate terms more favourable to themselves. Newspapers which had remained conservative about the ad positioning they would allow, are now giving in...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-05-27
If you’ve ever wondered why all Delhi papers carry large photographs of exuberant students from St Thomas School at exam results time though the toppers seldom come from there, the answer is simple. It is much more centrally located than some of the other leading schools...
News for sale in General Elections 2009
IN Media Practice | 2009-05-27
The Andhra Pradesh media must voluntarily disclose how much money they made and what is the amount of space they sold to a political party.
When a Guinness world record isn’t news
IN Media Practice | 2009-05-25
When the Guinness book of world records recently recognized Kashmir as the ‘largest militarized territorial dispute’ in the world, the Indian media blocked the news as usual.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-05-25
Elections achieve miracles. Swapan Gupta has written an entire column in the Pioneer (May 24) on the Congress vs BJP without sneering at the former, and actually granting that Manmohan Singh and Rahul Gandhi were perceived to have a higher decency quotient than the BJP. ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-05-22
The recession is not over but media launches are back. The Financial Chronicle, Mint, and now Forbes. The two financial newspapers launched editions in more cities, and Forbes India from the TV18 stable though delayed, has now surfaced. A few months earlier saw the launch of the new monthly mag,..
IN Media Practice | 2009-05-22
Orissa brought mixed fortunes for the several print and TV personalities who contested elections.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-05-21
Rajdeep Sardesai asked Omar Abdullah if he was feeling bad that he was "stuck in the state" when he could have had a cabinet berth. Omar Abdullah said, is that a question or a comment? What does this say about what our anchors think of the value of a state..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-05-21
Mail Today asks on the cover on May 21, Aamir Khan to pair with Kate Winslet? Turn to the inside and you find that this is ultimate in making something out of nothing. The producer of a film is thinking of asking Kate Winslet if she will star in a..
IN Media Practice | 2009-05-20
If one examines this issue, the origin of the problem is in the severe lack of access to the media time and space that all candidates face.
IN Opinion | 2009-05-20
It is also fascinating to note, in these recessionary times, how commercial compulsions dictate the choice of panelists in some of these channels.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-05-20
The HT wants to make sure that the readers do not forget Manmohan Singh and Rahul Baba¿s age. For the past two days the paper that has a story on how fit the PM is at 76, insisted on mentioning the age of the two leaders in brackets. Incidentally while the age..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-05-18
Most newspapers on Sunday morning put the setback suffered by the Left parties on page one. The exception was the Hindu which said nothing at all on page one, and took note of the Left debacle way down the column in its editorial on the election results...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-05-18
Headlines Today has been a pretty on-the-ball channel with its election coverage. But it has not been immune to occasional bloomers. Its graphic on the Lok Sabha showing which party would occupy how many seats in the House put the treasury benches on the left...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-05-18
The Economic Times came up with the masthead art it serves up on special occasions. It had a delightful illustration featuring the zuzus who have charmed TV viewers during the IPL matches. ..
Shock and anger on pro-Hindutva websites
IN Digital Media | 2009-05-18
"The BJP does not impress Hindus any more, and it manages to frighten non-Hindus. Not a combination to win India."
IN Opinion | 2009-05-16
A journalism that ignores or dismisses the role of religion in our common life misses the greatest stories of our time.
IN Regional Media | 2009-05-16
Strangely enough money thus earned by way of bribe is invested in the same business of liquor shops owned by those belonging to the prohibition department.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-05-16
Anchors become sartorially self conscious on these occasions. At 7 in the morning Nalini Singh and Barkha Dutt were dazzling in shocking pink, Shekhar Gupta was in a designer kurta, Chandan Mitra too was all dressed up. They made the guys in suits look positively staid...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-05-16
Both Prannoy Roy and Rajdeep Sardesai took to congratulating their pollsters. NDTV wanted those in the studio to give Dorab Sopariwala hand, Rajdeep paid tribute to Rajeeva Karandikar. Why, we wonder, since everybody was off the mark by a long shot. A commentator on Headlines Today quipped that the best pollster..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-05-16
The NDTV outing in Uttar Pradesh with P Roy Shekhar Gupta and Dorab Sopariwala going native, was marked by their harping two days in a row on Jayaprada’s fight in Rampur. They gave the contest far more importance than it deserved, and nobody failed to notice that the politician they..
IN Media Practice | 2009-05-16
NDTV and Headlines Today were way ahead of the rest of the pack with the numbers, particularly the alliance position, throughout the early hours of leads.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-05-12
A Dainik Statesman reporter had a close shave on Sunday when two assailants in a two-wheeler (without number) shot at him. He wrote a series of exposes on the CPI(M)¿s corruption and misdeeds. Asked about this incident at the press club of Kolkata, chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said " terroristic assaults" had increased after..
Media ethics and the SIT report on Gujarat
IN Media Practice | 2009-05-12
Reporters should be careful about claiming to have "access" to explosive confidential documents when all they might have are a few paragraphs selectively planted on them by vested interests.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-05-09
Karunandhi was speaking to the electorate from a hospital bed with IV tubescoming out of his neck (aired by Kalaignar TV). DMK was pulling the oldesttrick out of the campaign book- the sympathy vote for a sick leader.Nobody picked it up in the English news channels (the dramatic appeal from..
Fighting paid election coverage
IN Media Practice | 2009-05-09
The "deal" between the newspaper managements or their representatives and the candidates was that the "coverage" would begin from the date of election notification or whenever the deal was agreed upon.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-05-08
On voting day Delhiites woke up to the Times of India sporting a huge half jacket ad urging them to vote. The paper explained that since its readership was middle class it had taken it upon itself to persuade the middle class to be more politically active so that its problems would not be neglected..
IN Media Practice | 2009-05-07
In spite of the fact that the reporter was informed about the mistakes by the RTI applicant, the newspaper made no corrections on the subsequent day.
IN Media Practice | 2009-05-07
During the third phase of polling when it was the turn of the Mumbaikars to exercise their democratic right, there was palpable anxiety among the news channels.
IN Media Practice | 2009-05-05
Indian correspondents based in Sri Lanka were mindful of the sourcing problem created by the fact that the war zone was out of bounds to the press.
IN Media Practice | 2009-05-04
IBN 7’s talk show host drove Shweta Singh to break down on the small screen with her probing questions.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-05-04
The Pioneer chose to interpret the PM’s statements on Rahul Gandhi in his interview to CNN IBN more definitively than any other newspaper. "…the Prime Minister also disclosed…that he would pass the reigns (sic) into the hands of ¿young¿ Rahul Gandhi midway through his own second stint…" ..
IN Media Practice | 2009-05-02
If the participation of the people in the J&K assembly elections was a vote for India why is the non-participation this time being attributed to broken promises as reported by Greater Kashmir, poll fatigue as reported by the Himalayan Mail, lack of z
Has Beebs taken on more than it can chew?
IN Opinion | 2009-05-02
Trust a British broadcaster to remember how wonderfully the railways catch the India story.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-05-01
The assassinated Sri Lankan journalist, Lasantha Wickrematunge, will posthumously receive the 2009 UNESCO World Press Freedom Prize on Sunday. Wickrematunge, Editor of the Sunday Leader, was shot by two gunmen on motorbikes while driving to work in Colombo on 8 January this year...
A poll boycott that is not news
IN Media Practice | 2009-05-01
Kashmir remains alienated despite the substantial turnout in the assembly elections last year, but the national press has no space for that story.
IN Opinion | 2009-04-29
The TOI clearly delivered, having thought about how to cover the IPL. Well done! DNA needs to borrow a leaf or two from TOI’s book, or should I say newspaper.
Taliban threaten press in Swat valley
IN Media Practice | 2009-04-29
The Taliban advance into Mingora has forced four newspapers - Khabarkar, Azadi, Chand and Awaz-e-Swat - to leave the city.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-04-28
Indian Express editor Shekhar Gupta has written to his staff congratulating those who have cut wastage and initiated savings, inviting suggestions from employees for further cost saving, and declaring that Chairman Vivek Goenka and he will " take substantial cuts and deferrals in our respective compensations." No other employees are..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-04-27
The Times of India must be complimented for its front page analysis of the media’s class reaction to two recent deaths of Delhi schoolgirls, Shanno is a municipal school, and Aakriti in Modern school. ..
IN Books | 2009-04-27
A book commemorates the centenary of Saninik Samachar, a weekly magazine for the Indian soldier.
Pravin Mahajan’s biography and the Marathi press
IN Regional Media | 2009-04-27
In his editorial Loksatta editor Kumar Ketkar has explained why he published part of autobiography by Pravin Mahajan while others lacked courage to publish it.
IN Media Practice | 2009-04-26
Had Aakriti been in a distant state like Kerala, Assam or Orissa, would media care to highlight the event in the same manner?
Letter to the Hoot: Reporting Akriti’s death
IN Opinion | 2009-04-24
This opens up television reportage to the worst kind of manipulation possible. By all means, hang the guilty, but don"t perennially fall for the victimhood syndrome,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-04-23
Was it a slow news day that made several news channels live off the death of a Delhi schoolgirl from asthma? Arnab Goswami on Times Now kept goading the dead girl¿s mother to react, NDTV, CNN IBN, Aaj Tak, all helped convert a press conference at the school into an exercise..
Sri Lanka: the reader emerges the loser
IN Media Practice | 2009-04-23
News on the dreaded war in Sri Lanka is now a string of guesstimates, rumours, allegations and questions.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-04-22
Varun Gandhi goes to Pilibhit to file his nomination at the DM’s office and at least seven news channels are covering it live. Does a sense of proportion have anything to do any more with news judgement? ..
IN Opinion | 2009-04-21
The more I try to couch things in simple terms the more convoluted the explanations become.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-04-20
Among those who have donated to the Lok Sabha election campaign of Mallika Sarabhai is Divya Bhaskar, the Gujarati publication of the Dainik Bhaskar group. The amount is decidedly odd: Rs 2152. Inconsequential enough to not raise queries of why a media house is a supporting a politician. ..
Holding a mirror to the MIRROR
IN Media Practice | 2009-04-19
Was it a peer support to an offending newspaper because others too have been careless – even reckless – in how they approach a story?
The Story Makers: foreign journalists in Pakistan
IN Media Practice | 2009-04-19
Foreign news bureaus in the country are multiplying, but is the foreign media portraying a skewed image of Pakistan or are they simply reporting the reality?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-04-18
NDTV has sacked five people in its Bangalore bureau--two cameramen, who have been there since 1995, one editor, a front office person, and a reporter. They have been given some months’ salary as compensation...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-04-18
The Assam media is exercised over the case of a local journalist procuring the mobile phone records of a politician for a minister friend to use for political snooping. The minister in question was health minister Himanta Biswa Sharma, who did not identify his journalist friend. A case of media..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-04-18
In case you did not know, you have the Times of India to thank for some who turned out to vote on the first day of polling. It actually says so: "Many voters told our correspondents they were influenced by awareness campaigns …especially TOI’s Lead India campaign." Its own Page..
IN Opinion | 2009-04-17
Elections are a time when the media discovers the real India and ventures to do stories about them. They give newspapers a news hook to run such stories,
IN Media Practice | 2009-04-16
"Journalism here is the art of not writing," he said. "I earn around Rs 5,000 every month by not writing."
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-04-16
Even as anti-Pakistan elements disrupted a panel discussion with Pak journalists in Delhi on April 15, the panel moderator was seen calling out to TV cameramen not to give them publicity. ‘Don’t turn your cameras on them.’ Fat chance. Within minutes the story was on air, and the disrupters got..
Less dictation, more questions
IN Media Practice | 2009-04-16
A 26/11 scoop sourced from Indian officials is contradicted by a Pakistani news report, quoting the country’s interior minister.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-04-12
Trust the BJP to make full use of YouTube. Every interview that NarendraModi has given to TV channels during these elections is uploaded there. And that includes regional channels. ..
IN Media Practice | 2009-04-12
Like all great strategists, from his early days as Lok Satta chief, JP has been using media, particularly television, to reach out to a larger audience.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-04-10
Mint decided to shut down for Good Friday. That must surely be a first for a Delhi newspaper. Its sister publications in HT Media did nothing of the kind...
The Self Regulatory Authority issues its first order
IN Media Practice | 2009-04-10
The complainant, Farhana Ali, a writer, lecturer and policy analyst, had alleged that India TV had misused an interview she had given to Reuters news agency.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-04-09
"The moment the TV cameras turned on me I understood my form of protest was wrong. I had gone there as a journalist, I was not representing the community. For this I express my regret to the entire media community." Jarnail Singh the shoe thrower in TOI...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-04-09
A reader writes: TOI’s Bangalore edition of April 7th carried a bylined article on the shifting of Indian Coffee House from its M.G. Road premises. Tracing the history of the Coffee House movement, the box item published with the story says, "Under the leadership of A.K. Gopalan (a communist) this..
IN Media Practice | 2009-04-09
Throwing shoes during news conferences is an extreme form of editorialising which professional reporters must refrain from, especially those who are a poor shot.
IN Media Practice | 2009-04-07
How much of a big deal can a newspaper scooping ad industry awards become? A press freedom versus media ethics issue, no less.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-04-07
This story appeared on HT online: ‘All the six legislators of low-caste Bahujan Samaj Party or BSP switched political allegiance to join Rajasthan¿s ruling Congress party on Saturday…’ We are still using terms like low caste, are we? ..
Express scores over DNA and TOI
IN Opinion | 2009-04-06
The Indian Express outdid its rivals this time, and should continue its good work. Some imagination is needed at DNA, I think.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-04-04
Umarji Ahmed Ugharadar alias Aziz Tankarvi is the editor of Gujarat Today, only news paper owned by the minority community in Gujarat. The Congress party has fielded him from Bharuch Lok Sabha seat where minorities have sizable presence. Tankaravi is a reputed journalist and writer with a clean image. ..
Prince in the Pi(libhi)t and other poll-time maladies
IN Media Practice | 2009-04-04
Anchors should record their own shows, analyse them interruption by interruption, trivial question by trivial question and see if there’s some real news they can add to beef it up,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-04-01
The bad news continues. NDTV has sacked people at Metro Nation, including a couple of senior editorial staff, Mail Today has sacked several, and so has DNA. Exchange4media reports pay cuts at Outlook by less than 10 percent, of all those in the Rs 12 lakh annual salary bracket. ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-03-29
Lets put the hype over the Ramachandra Guha book deal with Penguin in perspective. A TV anchor in the category of a Barkha Dutt or a Rajdeep Sardesai will earn more in a year that India’s top non fiction writer will between now and 2015...
News channels: why self regulation will not work
IN Opinion | 2009-03-29
Systemic problems have to be tackled before we can see substantive change in the content, tone and type of the news served up to us.
Key words: originality and authorship
IN Opinion | 2009-03-28
How do we convey the concept of "authorship" to young children who may not read as much in print as we did, and who use the Internet more than we do,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-03-26
A lot of journalists would have recognized the portly figure on Outlook’s cover, titled Backroom Brahmins. It was the magazine’s foreign editor, Pranay Sharma without his shirt. Now is this an economy measure at Outlook, getting staffers to double as cover models? ..
Assam editor’s death takes toll to 22
IN Media Practice | 2009-03-26
Mazumdar (40) was gunned down in front of his Rajgarh Road residence as he was returning from office at Ulubari around 10.30 pm.
‘Vir Sanghvi is being elitist’
IN Opinion | 2009-03-24
Those could be his opinions but they fail two important tests. One, they fail to take cognizance of facts. Two they fail the test of neutrality.
Book extract: History of Media Ethics
IN Books | 2009-03-24
Ethical issues have had to be confronted by those working in the mass media ever since the media came into being.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-03-24
At the Nano launch announcement at the Mumbai Parsi Club the Aaj Tak reporter tells Ratan Tata that she wants him to address her viewers in Hindi. He picks up the microphone and proceeds to reply in English. Then a large number of journos start with congratulating Ratan Tata instead..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-03-24
Salary cuts have begun now at INX. The company has communicated individually to journalists affected so the extent and level of the cuts is not known. One of them reported at ten per cent cut. ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-03-22
Vijayan Thomas, the chairman of the Congress-owned television channel in Kerala Jai Hind TV, has said he would contest as an independent candidate from the key Thiruvananthapuram constituency from where the party has fielded former UN undersecretary general Shashi Tharoor. ..
IN Opinion | 2009-03-22
The matter isn’t done yet, but it has already been quite a journey.
IN Media Practice | 2009-03-20
If the media really believed that Varun Gandhi’s speech would cause unrest among a section of the people, did the repeat telecasts of the speech make any sense?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-03-20
Rajdeep Sardesai to Purno Sangma of the NCP (whom he refered to Purneo at the start of the conversation): ‘Mr Sangma, what kind of ridiculous politics is that?’ Later, ‘Has Sharad Pawar betrayed you? Be honest.’ And after another question, ‘…be honest again.’ Know of any other place in the world where..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-03-19
When she¿s not sitting in judgment over cases of domestic strife, former super cop Kiran Bedi is selling the "No Marks cream". While the manufacturers are cashing in on her "honesty", the model gets to take home moolah to support "good causes". Apparently Re. 1 from every tube sold will be given towards Dr..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-03-17
BBC Radio recorded a programme some time back asking people to comment on the assumption that it would be broadcast after she was dead. Shilpa Shetty is scrambling to meet her before she dies. Jade Goody’s publicist is working overtime to ensure her last few hours are not private. What..
Bad news folks, and warm regards
IN Media Business | 2009-03-17
TOI and NDTV write to staffers spelling out salary cuts that will be enforced. NDTV protects employees earning less than a lakh, and community facilities for employees.
Lahore and conspiracy theories
IN Opinion | 2009-03-17
Why does the Indian media choose to forget the basics of reporting and journalism when it comes to Pakistan?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-03-15
The Goa BJP will use Anil Ambani¿s Big FM to reach out to the state¿s one million voters for the Lok Sabha polls. The I and B Ministry had decided some time ago to allow political advertising on FM radio, even though it still disallows news on this medium...
IN Media Practice | 2009-03-15
In reporting from the performance audit reports of Rural Employment Schemes the media should go into the details.
IN Media Practice | 2009-03-15
The Hindu’s stories of any incident related to Tibet and China stand out in stark contrast to similar stories filed in other dailies, India or foreign.
More obtrusive, more intrusive
IN Digital Media | 2009-03-14
As online publishers and behemoths like Google strategise to fight the recession, more in-your-face advertising and more intrusive tracking of surfers will result,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-03-14
The telecast of Pakistan¿s Geo News television channel was blocked in some parts of the country such as parts of Karachi, Hyderabad, Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore, Quetta, Multan, Rawlakot, Muzaffarabad, Deepalpur and Sargodha cities, the channel¿s website said. (IANS)..
‘Not a drop of contrived reality’
IN Media Practice | 2009-03-12
Kiran Bedi’s court show gets the ratings. Alternative dispute resolution is the future in a country whose law courts are clogged with cases, she says.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-03-12
In the ad for BSNL, Hindustan Bol Raha Hai, Deepika Padukone goes into a village home with a laptop and comes out with a just-delivered baby. Huh? Dressed all the while as a rural belle. ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-03-10
Shahrukh Khan came up with a series of devastating imitations of Prabhu Chawla and his programme Seedhi Baat at the India Today Conclave. Alas, though there is a transcript, a video as well as a report of his speech on the India Today site, you will won’t find any of the..
IN Media Practice | 2009-03-09
A Pune tabloid, shows how newspapers can empower citizens to address and resolve issues that concern them,
West Bengal’s terrorised district reporters
IN Regional Media | 2009-03-09
Mofussil reporters who file exposes on corruption, nepotism, non-performance and crude partisanship in West Bengal, risk their lives.
IN Opinion | 2009-03-09
DNA seems to have a good sports desk, which has an excellent sports sense, giving all the important issues more than adequate space on the pages.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-03-09
International Women’s Day saw Hindustan, edited by Mrinal Pande, turn pink, literally. Its masthead and other parts of page one were in a sort of strawberry pink, even as its lead story was a survey of attitudes to women among its readers. And a silhouette of a young woman in capris..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-03-08
Courtesy India Today’s conclave, India’s beautiful people got to ask some uncomfortable questions of General Musharraf. And got some uncomfortable answers. The good general said that if India wanted Pakistan to defeat the terrorism in its backyard, it would have to support the Pakistani army and the ISI...
IN Media Practice | 2009-03-06
The Mangalore incident was widely condemned while the attack on the Statesman was largely papered over in the media. Is an attack on the freedom of expression of a newspaper editor less significant than that of a woman going to a pub,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-03-04
Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray, undergoing treatment at the Lilavati Hospital in Mumbai, has poked fun in the party mouthpiece Saamna, at the way TV news crews are reporting his health. But he has also taken pity on them and asked a corporator to provide them with a mobile toilet,..
The Hindu, the Readers’ Editor, and the CEC episode
IN Media Practice | 2009-03-04
It is perfectly within the realm of journalistic ethics to pick up such "leaks". But you cannot editorialise in the news story.
IN Opinion | 2009-03-04
What we in the media really need to fear is that we will lose our freedom to think and to express ourselves rationally if we do not constantly show up "sensitivities" all around for what they really are.
Govt. ignores Prasar Bharati irregularities, targets man who exposed them
IN Media Practice | 2009-03-02
On election eve, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting guns for an official who was trying to nail financial wrong doing in Prasar Bharati, under CEO BS Lalli’s watch.
IN Media Monitoring | 2009-03-01
It is quite amusing to see how geo- political differences can influence the coverage of events that have cultural acceptability across borders.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-03-01
The economic downturn doesn¿t seem to have dampened the enthusiasm of India¿s media entrepreneurs. The applications of 97 private satellite TV news channels for licences are being scrutinised by the information and broadcasting industry. Minister of State for I and B Anand Sharma told the Rajya Sabha on Feb 26..
IN Opinion | 2009-03-01
Children and children’s issues are a big draw for the news media, but there is little on the news channels that she would want to watch with her child even at prime time,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-02-24
A journalist in Jharkhand¿s Lohardagga district was hospitalised in critical condition after being shot by unidentified criminals, police said Monday. Rakesh Sinha, a reporter with a local daily, was on his way home when unidentified gunmen pumped bullets into his stomach from close range on Feb 22nd. The police are..
IN Media Practice | 2009-02-24
"The job of a journalist is not to be an inanimate, unthinking robot. You are seeing the liberation of TV as a news media. TV is speaking its mind."
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-02-24
The anchor story was about how Shahrukh Khan was no longer a brand ambassador for Pepsi, after ten years. On the sports page?
IN Opinion | 2009-02-21
Should we as journalists just watch and record what is happening? When your duty as a citizen calls upon you to act, you must set aside your supposed "impartiality", if indeed there is such a thing, and intervene,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-02-21
The Hindustan Times did a follow up on the Mid Day "exclusive" on how an MBA student¿s video clip, showing her perform strip tease, was leaked by hacking her email account. HT not only put the story on page 1 complete with the picture of a clip a la Mid..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-02-21
Abhishek Bachchan has solved the puzzle of why anchors and reporters especially Rajdeep Sardesai are always so breathless and excited on television. During a visit to the CNN-IBN studio to promote his film delhi- 6, the junior Bachchan spotted coffee and chocolate vending machines in the office and concluded it..
IN Media Practice | 2009-02-21
She combined the reviewer’s instinct for recognizing a dud, the story getter’s natural aggression and the TV anchor’s easy confidence.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-02-20
Film and television critic Amita Malik who pioneered media criticism in India passed away on Friday afternoon at the age of 88 in a Noida hospital. She had suffered brain hemorrhage two weeks ago. ..
Making a Mutalik of a molehill
IN Media Practice | 2009-02-17
Thanks to the fifteen minutes of fame that the television gifted him, Mutalik and his sapped-out Ram Sena are today household names.
IN Law and Policy | 2009-02-15
The Bombay High Court admits a public interest litigation on TV news coverage during the Mubai siege, and the New Broadcasters Association comes up with more guidelines.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-02-15
To promote its prime ministerial candidate L.K. Advani, the BJP has put out five ad campaigns on 2,000 websites, including those of the US, British and Pakistani media, frequented by Indians. (IANS) Which led Tavleen Singh to comment cattily in the Indian Express that Mr Advani was popping up on..
Telugu channels in election mode
IN Media Practice | 2009-02-15
During this election season the Election commission should ensure that the media is not manipulated by candidates, political parties and partisan lobbies,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-02-13
Johann Hari, the British author of the article that led to Muslim protests in Kolkata and the arrest of the editor and the publisher of The Statesman has said, "I wrote in defence of the right to criticise religion - all religions - and it is vitally important to keep..
IN Media Freedom | 2009-02-13
The Statesman publishes a frank piece on Islamic intolerance and sees its editor and publisher arrested because the mob bayed for blood.
IN Media Practice | 2009-02-13
The horrifying thing is that the Indian media have chosen to drop the good old firewall that the word alleged constituted.
Regional media and state governments
IN Regional Media | 2009-02-13
Only an authority like the Comptroller and Auditor General of India can possibly carry out an audit in all states and expose the incestuous relationship once and for all.
IN Media Practice | 2009-02-12
Is it logical to have the leader in one of the most polluting industries in the world as a sponsor for an environmental campaign?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-02-12
The editor and the publisher of The Statesman were arrested in Kolkata on Feb 11 and released on bail. They had reprinted a strong article from the London Independent on the intolerance of Islamists, particularly from Saudi Arabia. Muslim groups had demonstrated in front of the Statesman’s office...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-02-11
Responding to concerted lobbying by newspaper owners and editors in recent days, the Government today decided that it would raise the DAVP advertising rates by 30 per cent, and scrap newsprint duty of 3 per cent. It could not afford to ignore media pleas in an election year...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-02-09
Pakistan’s Standing Committee on Information and Broadcasting on Feb 9 recommended immediate banning of Indian TV channels in the country, Geo TV reported. (IANS)..
Conflicting slants on Sri Lanka conflict
IN Media Practice | 2009-02-09
The English and the Tamil media, with a few exceptions, have been speaking literally and figuratively in different languages.
IN Media Practice | 2009-02-07
Among those who were not amused at NDTV’s choice were the jury of its Indian of the Year awards. This was not an award that they had voted on.
IN Opinion | 2009-02-07
The newspapers were obliging for a change and actually wrote about what the readers wanted.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-02-05
Jhujjar Singh, the redoubtable TV anchor who is now with NewsX, was accosted by unidentified men in Lahore along with his cameraman Tilak Raj, and relieved of all recording and camera equipment. The South Asia Media Commission (SAMC) and the South Asian Free Media Association (SAFMA) have called upon the..
IN Regional Media | 2009-02-04
If Nitish Kumar really wants to strengthen democracy and fight corruption, he must keep friendly journalists at bay.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-02-04
The CBI is investigating three Ahmedabad All India Radio officers who connived to defraud the public broadcaster of funds meant for programming. They commissioned programmes from themselves under assumed names and then sanctioned them in their official capacity! ..
IN Media Practice | 2009-02-04
Recently, one of the highest circulating English newspapers carried an advertisement by an ayurvedic centre claiming a cure for AIDS.
Indian TV¿s first visually challenged news anchors
IN Media Practice | 2009-02-04
Officials of the TV channel said that the audience response to these three news anchors has been very encouraging.
Marathi press on Belgaum issue
IN Regional Media | 2009-02-04
Most of the Marathi newspapers have critically interpreted the police action with analysis of the burning issue,
IN Media Freedom | 2009-02-04
The odyssey of a Karnataka journalist, B. V. Seetharam, clearly shows how press freedom in India is a mirage,
IN Media Practice | 2009-02-01
A blogger indulged in some abusive free speech about Barkha Dutt’s reporting of the Mumbai seige. And invited a legal notice for defamation from NDTV.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-02-01
Sometimes what looks like an assault on press freedom turns out to have nothing to do with press freedom at all. The Nepali journalit Uma Singh whose recent murder in the Terai region caused outrage, was actually the victim of a property dispute, the police say. The Hoot had carried..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-01-31
Who got the contaminated water supply fixed in the Delhi colony of Vasant Kunj? The Hindustan Times believes it was a case of "HT impact". It announced it was their story that sent the Delhi Jal Board scurrying into action. But its arch rival The Times of India asserts it¿s after..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-01-29
The latest in a string of senior editorial departures is Khalid Mohamed, the senior film critic and writer at Hindustan Times. Mohamed was fired from the post of national culture editor. He had anchored the entertainment pages of the daily from Mumbai and was responsible for the section called HT..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-01-29
The latest community radio station to go on air is the Mannvikas Samajik Sanstha Community Radio in Dist. Satara, Maharashtra, which began regular transmission on Republic Day. It will cater to a drought prone region where the incidence of poverty and unemployment is high. ..
Human trafficking: exaggerated numbers?
IN Books | 2009-01-29
If media reports are to be believed, there would be no young girls left in Nepal.
IN Media Practice | 2009-01-29
The declared assets of the MPs in the Sunday Indian cover story are not the same as that mentioned in their affidavits for the General Elections, 2004.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-01-27
When political parties call for a shutdown to protest an attack on an editor you have to look closer. The Hyderabad attack on Siasat Editor Zahid Ali Khan has more to do with his being a candidate in the forthcoming election than with his being an editor. The attack was..
IN Opinion | 2009-01-26
As a newspaper in India, some coverage of Indian teams would be a good idea, no?
IN Media Practice | 2009-01-26
Misleading headlines lead to confusing coverage of Satyam scandal.
IN Media Practice | 2009-01-22
In its 400th issue, ’Down To Earth’, focuses on inspirational, community and personal success stories at the grassroots level.
Nov. 26: What the print media missed out
IN Media Practice | 2009-01-22
How is it that no newspaper has bothered to send its reporters to simply reconstruct what happened that night…and ascertain whether this matches with the official version,
The Africa we choose to ignore
IN Media Practice | 2009-01-22
Africa is one interesting story that we in India rarely get to see or read; more news space is given to American politics in a week than all of Africa gets here for months.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-01-22
President Asif Ali Zardari, while addressing a group of businessmen from the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) on January 15, is reported to have said that "journalists are bigger terrorists than terrorists themselves". While the Pakistan government said that he could never have uttered such words, the businessmen present insisted..
IN Media Practice | 2009-01-19
The Outlook Group responds to former Outlook Money editor Monika Halan’s email published on the Hoot.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-01-19
The Economic Times handed over most of the upper half of its page one on January 19, to announcing its news channel ET Now. The Prime Minsiter unveiled its logo, though the channel is not yet ready to launch. The media group that has been firing people intermittently since the..
IN Opinion | 2009-01-19
Today’s parents were not assaulted by brands or nurtured on the Internet while growing up, the way their kids are.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-01-19
Media houses in Nepal continue to have problems with Maoist workers’ unions. The Himalayan Times and the Annapurna Post owned by the Indian company APCA reported on Sunday that the collection and printing of advertisements in their dailies was disrupted for 3 days running. APCA was also warned not to..
The ministry’s unfinished business
IN Law and Policy | 2009-01-19
The Information & Broadcasting ministry’s 2008 year-end review is mostly a rehash of earlier year-end reviews and a promise of things yet to come.
IN Media Freedom | 2009-01-17
It was only in death that one got to know what a fine journalist Nepal had lost in Uma Singh. Working in the most lawless part of Nepal, she was fearless with her written and spoken word.
Why the Outlook Money editor quit
IN Media Practice | 2009-01-15
‘…there is an increasing conflict of interest between edit and management and my work ethics do not allow me to be a party to this.’
The good, the bad and the ugly
IN Opinion | 2009-01-14
Looking at these two main topics, I can see a general pattern which these three mainstream national dailies fall into.
The Marathi press on the Satyam scam
IN Regional Media | 2009-01-14
The daily Samana, mouthpiece of the Shivsena, has described this development as the economic murder of lakhs of investors.
Corporate fraud needs a more vigilant media
IN Media Practice | 2009-01-14
Perhaps it is time for the media to look beneath the veneer of glossy reports, and corporate shows to ensure that alarm bells are rung before it is too late,
IN Media Practice | 2009-01-14
¿It has long been written that my life would be taken, and by whom. All that remains to be written is when.¿
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-01-10
P Chidambaram was at his wittiest best when a journo persistently questioned him on his planned visit to Washington with evidence of Pakistan’s involvement in terrorism. At first the Home Minister declined to reply, but when asked whether the plan was shelved because of the ongoing trucker’s strike, PC replied,..
IN Media Practice | 2009-01-10
When television whips up war hysteria, one feels compelled to leap without seeing.
Who is television’s police icon?
IN Media Practice | 2009-01-09
‘Let me narrate an incident I witnessed that should make all votaries of real time television journalism shudder.’
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-01-08
Midday¿s idea of an "exclusive" angle to the Noida gang rape case is their cover story quoting one of the 10 rapists saying that they saw the victim and her friend make out in the car. And "swayed" by the scene, the perpetrators committed the hideous act. The tabloid joffers the..
Keeping the Mahatma¿s ideals alive
IN Community Media | 2009-01-08
A group of teenagers is keeping alive Mahatma Gandhi¿s ideals through its work on the "The Yamuna" newspaper, but not many want to pursue a career in journalism,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-01-07
The shocking gang rape of a 24-year-old in Noida has given TV channels fodder to feed on. Arnab Goswami went a step further and announced that his channel would follow the story everyday till the judgment is pronounced. His declaration however failed to enthuse his guests, and Madhu Kishwar was quick..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-01-07
Editor-in-Chief of the Karavali Ale, BV Seetaram’s reports against the activities of Sangh Parivar organisations in his daily have led to his arrest in a defamation case. The editor who had declined bail, fearing for his life was recently produced in court handcuffed and tied to a chain. A practice that..
IN Opinion | 2009-01-07
If the Indian media ignores the facts, distorts the truth and draws parallels with Mumbai (e.g. - Israel has a right to self-defence) we will be missing the truth by much more than a mile!
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-01-06
On the latest talk show "First Ladies" on NDTV¿s Good Times, Nita Ambani in her clipped accent exclaimed that the Rs. 250 crore luxury jet was not her birthday present. The real gift, she quipped, was a film on her life specially commissioned by husband dear. Wonder what the other Ambani Bahu with a yatch worth Rs. 200..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-01-06
With reference to the item below, Raju Narisetti, former editor of Mint responds that in his three years in India he is yet to get an email from Shekhar Gupta let alone copies of any memos...
IN Media Practice | 2009-01-05
In an increasingly dangerous world, journalists need to be prudent, as no story is worth dying for,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-01-05
There is a delicious nugget in Information Commissioner Shailesh Gandhi’s report for 2008. He says that in the first quarter of the year RTI was able to uncover the fact that the Maharashtra Chief Minister¿s relief fund was used,among other things, to build toilets in the Press Club of India at Delhi...
IN Opinion | 2009-01-05
Frankly, this report reveals a laziness to write on a subject that may be of great importance: suspect bowling actions.
India¿s only magazine for slum dwellers battles for survival
IN Community Media | 2009-01-05
¿Slum Jagatthu¿ published from the country¿s tech hub, failed to come out with its December 2008 and January 2009 editions for lack of funds.
The Chinese are echoing Pakistan
IN Media Practice | 2009-01-05
Chinese state-controlled media has made its pro-Pakistan tilt apparent with despatches which largely echoing Islamabad¿s position,
IN Media Practice | 2009-01-05
That media is a volatile sector in India was affirmed afresh in the year gone by. How many significant shifts did we see in a single calendar year?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-01-03
Rumour mills in Delhi have it that Mint editor Raju Narisetti’s exit last month had something to do with the home minister’s displeasure over an anonymous letter from an IAS officer which Mint carried, and then re-carried. The Hoot ran into P Chidambaram and asked him if it was true...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-01-03
Indian Express editor Shekhar Gupta says he has been copying some of his internal memos to Mint editor Raju Narisetti, ever since Mint published an internal mail from Gupta to his staff as a story. With Narisetti gone, Gupta¿s cc-ing has presumably stopped. ..
IN Media Practice | 2009-01-02
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.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2009-01-01
The ubiquitous OB vans that have made IGI Airport their home ever since the fog¿s descent, have become a traffic hazard. Harassed airport authorities facing the flak from commuters both on account of delayed flights and messed up entry, have shot off a "request" letter to the TV channels urging..
IN Media Freedom | 2008-12-30
Will the deal signed between the Federation of Nepalese Journalists and the Maoist Government bring a reprieve from daily attacks upon the media?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-12-30
Even an election does not get Bangladesh on the front pages of Indian newspapers, except for a couple of briefs each day on the 29th and the 30th of December. The exception was the Hindu which had a two-column story on Tuesday. ..
‘TV is being asked to play God but is seen as the sinner’
IN Media Practice | 2008-12-29
There is a trend to scream, to be loud, to be extreme because you realize the viewer¿s or reader¿s attention span is becoming more and more fleeting.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-12-29
A report by media NGO Intermedia says that in Pakistan during 2008, on an average every month one journalist died, more than three were arrested or abducted, six were injured in assaults, about 10 were threatened or intimidated, nearly 20 media organisations were issued gag orders and overall more than..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-12-28
A reader writes, "I read the Telegraph (Wed, Dec 24, 2008) where a reporter says that NDFB cadres were paid Rs 50 crore to plant bombs. But this same newspaper reported that the NDFB is against Muslims in Udalguri clashes. In that case, why will the Huji seek support of..
IN Media Practice | 2008-12-28
Mis-reporting has been another serious irritant over the past year. It has been virtually impossible to depend on television news for accurate information.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-12-27
The media have come in for a lot of criticism about how the Mumbaiattacks were covered. But People India deserves praise. In times ofcost cutting People India came out with an ad free special issuewithin four days of the terror attacks with stories about ordinarypeople who did extraordinary work, which..
A critique of Vamsee Juluri¿s lament
IN Media Practice | 2008-12-27
In a way we should be disappointed by Juluri¿s lament and critique. What did he expect?
Letter to the Hoot: comment censored?
IN Opinion | 2008-12-27
When someone does raise substantial issues, the comment is simply blanked out! This is a shocking state of affairs.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-12-26
As India and Pakistan lock horns over terrorism, cricket is not the only casualty. The filmwaalas who in the past have made many a song and dance about love across the borders have decided to pitch in too. UTV for instance has decided not to release ay of its forthcoming..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-12-24
Combative runner up
Ombudsmen: good for the news business?
IN Media Practice | 2008-12-24
"I am very happy when I can solve a conflict that has emerged between a source and a journalist. Or when I have been able to protect journalists against baseless criticism."
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-12-23
Aamir Khan knows how to have the media eating out of his hands. While promoting his latest film Gajini he sent 200 reporters photographs of themselves with a personal note to each one inscribed at the back. Those who reported this could not help telling you in their stories that..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-12-22
The Ahmedabad Mirror which used to be given free with the Times of India in that city, has now been priced at Rs 1. The Economic Times in Ahmedabad has stopped hiring. DNA in Ahmedabad has engineered the departure of four journalists employed with them, including one in Rajkot. It has scaled..
IN Media Practice | 2008-12-21
This is the kind of event that brings back the debate about the nature of Indian democracy and the role media can play in it.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-12-19
At a time when recession is forcing newspapers to either shut shop a la Sakaal or downsize like the TOI, the opening of DNA’s Bangalore edition has come both as a surprise and a relief. Priced competitively and backed by an aggressive marketing campaign the paper launched on December 14, is..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-12-19
The Hindu has hiked its price from Rs. 2.50 on weekdays to Rs. 3 and from Rs. 4.50 on weekends to Rs. 5. It is also giving less for the increased price, since it has simultaneously cut pages...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-12-19
She shares a love-hate relation with the media and several party members who dared to disobey her commandment of not talking to the "presswalas" have been made to to suffer. But all that is changing, and the BSP¿s "Behenji" has decided to make peace after all with the media. After its debacle in Delhi..
IN Media Practice | 2008-12-18
Is there is a need for our channels to carry Pak propaganda? Or to display self righteousness, or to indulge in self promotion on such occasions,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-12-17
NDTV India¿s tribute to the victims of the Mumbai attack was a moving compilation of songs and sentiments. Hosted by Vikram Chandra, who handled the subject with sensitivity, the show had several celebs in a role reversal. While the macho John Abraham struggled to speak as he fought tears, it..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-12-17
An Iraqi journalist¿s shoe-throwing attack on George W Bush is now an online video game. Players wanting to redo-Muntadar al-Zaidi "famous act" have to aim the crosshairs of their gun and fire their weapon. President Bush loses "health points" every time he is accidentally shot, or hit with a shoe,..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-12-16
Mid Day¿s idea of creativity is an advertisement showing the belly of an expecting woman. The half page ad in the tabloid that invites unreleased print ads from creative agencies, has a tag line that reads, "Your ad is not a b**tard". Promising to publish the most innovative five, it..
When ‘nationalism’ trumps responsible reporting
IN Media Monitoring | 2008-12-16
All journalists have their own world views and political baggage but at least we can aspire to be fair – to our ‘subjects’, to our audiences, and perhaps to our common humanity rather than national identities. BEENA SARWAR says the media
Najam Sethi wins 2009 Golden Pen of Freedom award
IN Media Freedom | 2008-12-15
Under threat from the Taliban, Pakistan’s fiesty editor is guarded at home and office, but has ignored advice to flee his country.
IN Media Practice | 2008-12-14
If the American media rushed to internationalize 9/11, they seemed to be in an equal hurry to domesticize 26/11, as if "terror" is something that happens regularly in India, like water problems, or sly airport touts.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-12-13
If the ministry of information and broadcasting is going to spend crores of rupees on full page ads in god knows how many newspapers, it should use a better copywriter and visualiser. Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh telling us that the the Mumbai terror attack "was an audacious assault on..
Self regulation not good enough
IN Media Practice | 2008-12-13
The Committee is in favour of having statutory regulations in place covering the print and electronic media, in the larger interest of the society.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-12-12
The plotting and pleading bahus in heavy make-up and matching sarees are passe. The tube now belongs to the little ones and their histronics. Following the success of their famed bahu--little Avika Gaur in Balika Vadhu, Colors has come up with another child-centric programme, Uttaran, where an evocative performer Sparsh plays out the aspirations of an..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-12-12
Following the Dec 8 arrest of Lenin Kumar, author of the book "Dharma Nare Kandhamalare Raktara Banya" (Flood of blood in Kandhamal in the name of religion), rights activists, journalists and writers sported black badges and gagged their mouths Thursday as they staged a sit-in at Bhubaneshwar, outside the official..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-12-09
Her first "task" after her party¿s thumping return to power was to chastise the media. Caught in a crossfire of questions volleyed by journos shouting aloud, Sheila Dikshit found it hard to maintain composure. With everyone shouting their questions simultaneously to seek her reaction, a frazzled Dikshit too found herself screaming at the media. ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-12-09
A wag points out that for Barkha Dutt to say that Infosys Chief Mentor N R Narayana Murthy appreciated her coverage of the Mumbai terror attack is a bit thick because after all Mr N is on the NDTV board...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-12-07
It was a classic example of projecting only an angle that suits the publication. Mail Today (which belongs to the group which owns Aaj Tak and Headlines Today) did a story on December 6 on media reactions to the I & B Ministry advisory on TV terror coverage. It projected..
Media complicity in Mumbai terror
IN Media Practice | 2008-12-07
The visual media and terrorism have a mutually reinforcing relationship, which needs to be broken to the detriment of the latter,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-12-07
The nonstop relay of the Mumbai terror attacks on TV news channels increased viewer ship significantly. The TAM media research data shows Hindi channels were the biggest gainers with viewer ship jumping from 6.7 per cent to 16 per cent in week 48 as against a mere 0.4 per cent..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-12-07
Actors who missed out on giving bites on the terrible tragedy in Mumbai are making up for it by sending out signed pieces and giving detailed interviews. Safeena (Saif and Kareena) from far away Philadelphia dispatched a jointly signed statement, criticizing the government and Preity Zinta in an interview to..
On the record: Mumbai and media coverage
IN Media Practice | 2008-12-04
Why did we interview waiting relatives who staked out at the hotels as they waited for news on their families and friends? Quite simply, because they WANTED to talk.
Three days of Mumbai terror reporting
IN Media Practice | 2008-12-04
The media behaved as if the country was so terrified it came to a standstill. As if Madhya Pradesh did not go to polls, as if Delhi did not vote, as if a former Prime Minister, V P Singh, did not pass away
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-12-04
A day after the Naval Chief¿s tirade against Barkha Dutt was prominently displayed in newspapers, media biggies spoke out in defence of one of their own. While Prannoy Roy wanted the comments expunged, Vir Sanghvi was more acerbic, calling the press conference "foolish" and claiming that the Navy deserved better. Barkha too..
Mumbai blasts--Letters to the Hoot
IN Opinion | 2008-12-04
The media is manufacturing consent for a war and manufacturing consent for the very people who they are blaming – the politicians.
After bullets, media terrorises Jadhav
IN Media Practice | 2008-12-04
Jadhav¿s face trembles with pain as the camera crew of a television channel switches on the light mounted on their camera. He is traumatised by the way the media is harassing him to repeat the same thing again and again.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-12-03
In the aftermath of the Mumbai attacks it seems that Barkha Dutt has earned the ire of the extended Facebook community. As of today over 1,500 people have signed up for the ‘Can U Please Take Barkha Off Air’ posting and another 542 have signed up for ‘Barkha Dutt, Worst..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-12-02
With We the People going live on NDTV 24x7 on Sunday night the channel ended up telecasting actress Simi Garewal saying that if you looked out at the slums in Mumbai you would see Pakistani flags flying there. Her remark brought an attack on her from members of the audience...
Hotel Taj: Icon of whose India?
IN Media Practice | 2008-12-02
Resilience was another word that annoyed the pundits of news channels and their patrons this time. But the same channels celebrated resilience when bombs went off in trains and markets killing and maiming the Aam Aadmis.
IN Opinion | 2008-12-02
Free spirited and joyful, she had such a magnetic personality that it almost caused weather disturbances.
IN Media Business | 2008-11-30
Layoffs in the media sector have begun. Sakal Times abruptly tells 70 people in Delhi that they are not needed any more.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-11-30
While the others were going ahead and even announcing M K Narayanan’s resignation which had not been accepted, Doordarshan News shrank on Sunday afternoon from announcing the Home Minister’s resignation for a very long time, at least an hour after NDTV had broken the news of P Chidambaram being named..
The mayhem in Mumbai: readers react
IN Opinion | 2008-11-29
Was it necessary to provide 24-hour coverage of the hostage crisis? Did it do anything for the viewers, the security forces, the helpless hostages, Mumbai city or the nation…?
Marathi press blames ATS, both Patils
IN Regional Media | 2008-11-29
Pudhari blamed the ATS and the UPA government for focusing on the Sadhvi more than jehadis.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-11-27
Times Now did a tireless job of reporting through 65 hours of an unfolding story. Arnab Goswami and his reporter on the spot stayed with the action with very short breaks, often being ahead of the pack with the latest news. But did Goswami have to keep up such a..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-11-27
Even if it did not seem like it, the extended coverage of the Mumbai terror attack was the first stab by the News Broadcasters Association at self regulation. An advisory was sent out late on the 27th to all member channels advising restraint in coverage. Meanwhile the Delhi Union of..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-11-27
Drama queen Rakhi Sawant, brought in her birthday by cooking pasta for her friends, so we were told by numerous TV channels. But Aaj Tak¿s reporter not only got to share Rakhi¿s secret recipe, (add a dash of cream for a glowing body), she even got to taste the fare...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-11-27
Bigg Boss contestant Raja Chowdhury and his "drunken revelry" at parties post the reality show has become a constant source of entertainment for several channels. India TV for instance has been following the man around zealously. Funnily while the channel insists Raja¿s bad behaviour is a "publicity stunt", it goes..
Warring dailies exploit family politics
IN Regional Media | 2008-11-26
The war between Telugu dailes Eenadu and Sakshi acquired political overtones with elections round the corner. Sakshi, interviewed Ramoji’s estranged son.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-11-26
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has taken note of the killing of two journalists in the North East in the space of a week. A statement said he has spoken to the chief ministers of Assam and Imphal about taking immediate steps for prompt and fair investigations into the killings. Unidentified..
IN Media Practice | 2008-11-24
What began as a potential public sphere is now steadily transforming into the most unethical of all media.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-11-24
When you are Nandan Nilekani the media will sell your book for you. The day before the launch of ‘Imagining India’ saw Vir Sanghvi give a half-page boost to his ‘friend of three decades’ in the Hindustan Times, Barkha Dutt turn her show We the People over to discussing the book, and..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-11-24
India Today devoted 49 (including ads) pages of its 80-page December 1 issue to a sex survey which asked questions like, if given a chance would you like being in a porn video? Even the Hindu is beginning to sex up its offerings: its November 22 Metro Plus Weekend from..
Political ads on FM, but no news
IN Law and Policy | 2008-11-21
If political ads are broadcast without the context of impartial news reportage and analysis by the broadcaster, it will achieve manipulation of news and views.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-11-21
November 21, 9.28 pm. Anand Vishwanathan is speaking live from Chennai on two different TV channels. His shirt is dark blue on Times Now, and an altogether different blue on CNN IBN. The background location of each interview is different. The questions he is answering at the precise moment are..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-11-21
Haryana CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda¿s latest goody bag for journalists includes a Lifetime Achievement Award, an ex-gratia sum to the next of kin from the Journalist Welfare Fund, electronic lockers to store their data and a state-of-the-art Press Room with LCD TV screens and gizmos at the Media Centre in..
IN Media Practice | 2008-11-18
It is abundantly clear that the Police use the media to cover up unprofessional and weak probes. Should the media oblige whether it involves Jihadi terrorists or Saffron terrorists?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-11-18
Her infamous "bite" about women being "adventurous" after the murder of TV journalist Soumya Vishwanathan, has returned to haunt Delhi CM Sheila Dikshit. The BJP is using it in their advertising arsenal against the Congress. The party has come up with a series of attack ads including "They sell election..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-11-18
A group of around 10 unmasked persons burnt copies of Himal magazine in front of its office at Maitighar in Kathmandu on November 16. The group seized 5000 copies of the magazine and burnt around 1300 out of them. This is the second attack on Himal Media within a 30-day period. ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-11-18
In Lunch with BS (November 18, Business Standard) it is said with reference to Arun Shourie being his own publisher, that "he does not need a manuscript editor". A journo says that should be rephrased to read –"he does not use a manuscript editor." Because if there is one thing..
IN Media Business | 2008-11-17
What are the manifestations of a growing media recession? Postponed launches, dropped supplements, shrinking advertising, cancelled ads. And more.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-11-16
When Monica Bedi is voted out of the Big Boss’s house it makes news on some of the Hindi news channels, so why not on CNN IBN which is increasingly finding itself promoting the shows of its sister channel, Colours. And Mail Today, doing more cross promotion, writes a feature..
IN Media Practice | 2008-11-16
Even under the Right To Information Act, departments related to the case have denied information on what transpired in the Batla House encounter.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-11-14
Rahul Gandhi¿s visit to the college he did not graduate from recently drove the media into a frenzy. With the college making it a "closed door" event, TV journalists aiming to get that one "exclusive" quote from Rahul Baba had to brave belligerent security guards at the heavily secured gates. As for..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-11-12
On November 7 India TV ran a "story" about Kareena Kapoor wanting to have children. It featured a vulgar image of Kareen with a slight bump, sitting and reading a book. They encircled her stomach with a red line, ostensibly to show her womb, and that red circle kept moving..
IN Media Practice | 2008-11-12
Parties with better resources will now be looking for multiple platform strategists and experts to fight the impending electoral battles in India, thanks to the precedent Obama set,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-11-12
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has decided to hold charge of the information and broadcasting ministry during the period of sickness of Priyaranjan Dasmunsi. The latter is seriously ill since early October. When parliament was in session last month minister of state for external affairs Anand Sharma held temporary additional charge..
Should the media be concerned about trust?
IN Media Practice | 2008-11-12
The numbers show us that trust doesn’t bring readers or viewers, but every -one from the Prime Minister down thinks it’s important.
IN Media Practice | 2008-11-09
How cool it would be to have a Muslim in the most powerful seat in the world. Obviously today everyone is looking for a foot in the right door, and the White House is one hell of a door.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-11-09
Koel Purie took her red and white fur couch and her cleavage to Sachin Pilot’s rural constituency where she said they were surrounded by real cows, real village folk and real makkhis. Pilot sweated visibly through questions like "Have you had many girlfriends," and, "Don’t you feel claustrophobic that in..
Scurrilous insinuations about raped nun
IN Media Practice | 2008-11-06
An Oriya daily owned and edited by a BJD MP has published a number of articles questioning the veracity of the rape, and making other insinuations.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-11-06
As happens whenever a new round of a readership survey surfaces, the Hindustan Times and The Times of India are both claiming to be Delhi’s no. 1, in identical page one anchor pieces. HT claims to be no. 1 in Delhi in NRS 2008 round 2, and no.1 in the..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-11-06
Balika Vadhu on Colours has been getting heavily into issues of class. Apart from Maasa repeatedly reminding each of the daughters in law that they get better food to eat in her home than in their parental homes, she has now begun to object to people from Anandi¿s village visiting..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-11-06
Wonder if Barack Obama knows how much anxious chatter there is on our news channels about what his victory means for India. From his economic impact on India, to whether we need to sign the CTBT when he takes over, to what the prospects will be for Indian IT, or..
IN Media Practice | 2008-11-04
We in the media need to seriously interrogate our approach towards crime and justice and ensure that we are not abetting the former and negating the latter,
IN Media Practice | 2008-11-04
A lack of resources and time are proving to be critical in the way the new generation of journalists are getting trained and mentored in the newsroom.
IN Media Practice | 2008-11-01
It was quite evident that the news managers of these channels perhaps thought the ghastly blasts in Assam were happening in a neighbouring country.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-10-31
Even granted the level of American election mania in the Indian news media, Mint’s editorial endorsement of Barack Obama was eyebrow raising. As if anticipating that, the paper hastened to explain in a three column front page box why it was doing so:partly because 40 per cent of its regular..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-10-31
NewsX, lately memorable for the fact that the irrepressible Jhujjar Singh has taken up residence there, has a new selling line. "Not everyone watches NewsX. Then again, not everyone owns a Rolls-Royce." Huh? If you want only Rolls Royce owners to watch you you’re not going to get any numbers,..
IN Opinion | 2008-10-30
This isn’t about reassuring minorities or the underclass. Middle America, which could just develop cold feet about a black president, is where it is at.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-10-30
The Goan daily Herald carried a half-page advertisement supported by 390 named individuals making allegedly defamatory references to a minor German rape victim.The ad identified the victim¿s mother by name, and claimed that the victim was "romping" with older men at Goan night clubs". A child rights panel is planning..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-10-27
NDTV predictably has been going hammer and tongs on Hindutva terror but they spoil the effect of their investigations with the heavily loaded language used. Baby-faced anchors spout adjectives and opinions galore. When the facts are damning enough, it helps to just stick to them. ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-10-27
The Tehelka cover story on trafficking has several pictures of victims whose faces are so ineffectually obscured as to be perfectly recognizable. Since a magazine unlike an online publication cannot withdraw pictures, the damage is done...
IN Media Practice | 2008-10-26
The guest panelists referred to the extermination of the members of the Ahmadiyya Community as incumbent upon all Muslims, and the host repeated this instruction several times.
IN Media Practice | 2008-10-26
Anchors on NDTV have been pushing viewers to invest. One is not sure if there is conflict of interest in such advice from ESOP holders in a listed media company,
IN Opinion | 2008-10-26
What impact does the global financial crisis have on the media boom in India, partly backed by foreign direct and institutional investors?
IN Media Practice | 2008-10-26
Those who strive to improve the fundamentals of our primary education are fools of the first order. What they should do is put a mobile phone in the middle of nowhere and this country will be transformed,
IN Community Media | 2008-10-26
A magazine for women trapped in prostitution, Red Light Despatch is a window into the feelings and traumas of those living in red light areas.
Sri Lankan Tamils, the LTTE and The Hindu
IN Media Practice | 2008-10-25
It has been a tight-rope walk for the daily since there is a sizeable section of the middle class in the state which is sympathetic towards the LTTE.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-10-25
Doordarshan has come up with the bright idea of putting cable operators and its families in the audiences for their reality shows. The folks at Prasar Bharati thinking this will be an effective bribe in getting operators to put their channels on the prime band, since they cannot match the..
A direct pitch to Tamils in India
IN Media Practice | 2008-10-21
An anonynmous video on the plight of Tamils in Lanka is finding a receptive audience in Tamilnadu, including chief minister Karunanidhi.
Standing up to Tamil chauvinism
IN Media Practice | 2008-10-20
The Hindu is attacked by political elements for its editorial stand on DMK’s support to the Tamil Tigers.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-10-19
After giving us a glimpse into the minds of bombers, India Today this week gives us a peek into what a nice guy Naveen Patnaik is, the chief minister that secularists are busy demonizing. S Prasannarajan does such a snow job that even Patnaik would be embarrassed. ..
IN Media Practice | 2008-10-17
There should not be separate standards for reporting communal clashes – one for Hindu-Muslim strife and the other for Hindu-Christian violence.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-10-16
October 15 saw the launch of the first communty radio station in India run by rural women. Justice P B Sawant who delivered the landmark judgement ‘Airwaves are public property’ switched on Sangham Radio, in Pastapur, Medak District, Andhra Pradesh. It will initially broadcast daily from 8 pm for one..
IN Media Practice | 2008-10-14
Will the same fate meet Maria¿s find, the latest mastermind Mansur Peerbhoy, the `techie¿ from Pune with a salary of Rs 19 lakh?
IN Media Practice | 2008-10-13
The entire story is a web of self-incriminating confessions from the accused that render any need for fair trial that all citizens of India are entitled to, unnecessary.
Olympian losses, but the babus had a ball
IN Media Practice | 2008-10-13
If you cringed at Doordarshan’s Olympics coverage, now take a look at what it cost and who benefited.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-10-13
Somebody has set up http://stupidindiatv.blogspot.com/ which simply posts grabs of India TV’s way out stories. It functions as an online reminder of the kind of journalism peddled by this channel. ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-10-13
A reader writes about a story yesterday on CNN - IBN on the canonisation of Sister Alphonsa. "The reporter from Mumbai began the story by thanking the Lord for being given an opportunity to report on this - which in itself is a once-in a lifetime chance! I mean give..
IN Media Monitoring | 2008-10-13
Indian accusations about the ISI are taken with less than equanimity, and defensive positions among the Pakistan intelligentsia become apparent.
The Indian Mujahideen striptease
IN Opinion | 2008-10-11
In India the evils of premature briefing even before an investigation has been completed have been growing.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-10-11
On October 7 in a story on the allegeded connection between India’s ¿Osama Bin Laden¿ Abdus Subhan Qureshi and Dawood Ibrahim, India TV showed a reconstruction of how the Indian Mujahiddin terrorists composed the terror email. They showed three men in a flat, working sporadically on a laptop, all skull..
IN Media Practice | 2008-10-11
By and large, the press has forsaken the use of certain prefixes such as ‘alleged’ and ‘suspected’. Most newspapers described those killed and arrested in Delhi as terrorists.
Tehelka versus Nanavati Commission report
IN Media Practice | 2008-10-11
They refuted the Nanavati Report with their sting camera footage, much of which had already been shown in November last year on Aaj Tak.
One more survey that is actually an ad?
IN Media Practice | 2008-10-11
If you thought this was a subtle and tasteless campaign for selling more blades, worse was waiting to come.
IN Regional Media | 2008-10-08
The 61 year old newspaper from Indore announced its arrival with the news that it was appointing a former chief justice as ombudsman for the group.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-10-06
One of the families of the three men interviewed by India Today for its cover story, ¿Inside the Minds of the Bombers¿, had to approach the Delhi High Court and get an order because the police would not allow them to meet him. But its nice to know that the..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-10-04
Headlines Today has begun a "Justice for Soumya" campaign to seek to get to the bottom of who murdered their news producer Soumya Vishwanathan, in New Delhi. But the fact that she drove home alone at 3 am should surely also raise concerns about the safety of women who work..
IN Media Practice | 2008-10-04
Although all newspapers and TV channels used the same source, the police, they differed in the basic facts reported about the police encounter in Jamia Nagar.
Those mythical bomb blast deaths
IN Media Practice | 2008-10-04
How did the media report deaths in the Agartala bomb blasts when nobody died,
IN Media Practice | 2008-10-02
This trend needs to be stopped before more corporates see the beauty and simplicity – and economy – of claiming the kudos for an idea instead of achievement.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-10-01
The suspected murder of a Headlines Today producer (September 30) led the channel to mourn her the first day, on both Aaj Tak and HT, in a repetitive way, and really live off the story the second day. Sensitivity did not come in the way of repeatedly revisiting the evidence,..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-09-30
Headline in Asian Age: If it is Saturday, it must be Delhi. Is being flip about terrorism okay? We think not...
Familiar complaints from across the border
IN Media Practice | 2008-09-30
The next time you watch in horror as a talk show host predicts the breakup of our nation or extols the nightmare of Talibs coming to get ya--switch off the idiot box
Legal aid to the Jamia accused and media intervention
IN Media Practice | 2008-09-30
The Hindu editorial in this case seems to be restrictive and does not reflect its otherwise balanced perspectives on other issues.
The uses and misuses of photographs
IN Media Practice | 2008-09-27
The sceptics wondered how it came about that the three arrested suspects came to be in possession of brand new rumaals, which they could readily pull out of their pockets to cover their faces,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-09-27
Here’s an odd one: the PRO of Delhi police writes to the Hindustan Times (September 27) to say that their story about one of the Delhi blast suspects arrested by them confessing that his associates plotted the Mumbai train blasts, is wrong. The interrogation revealed no such thing, he says...
A blog ring for young journalists
IN Digital Media | 2008-09-26
Thought the contributors are mostly Westerners, the issues they voice are common for most journalists around the world.
OTV’s telecast offends viewers
IN Media Practice | 2008-09-26
Orissa TV, owned by a leading BJD politician’s family, repeatedly telecast the explicit sexual content of a porn CD involving a young college girl, who had already committed suicide.
New media turns personal like never before
IN Digital Media | 2008-09-26
Now, don’t be surprised if you yourself appear to be a ‘candidate’ in the US election!!
Churches and conversions in the Bangalore press
IN Media Practice | 2008-09-24
Hardly ever are people who are actually in a position to illuminate the scene with the light of knowledge quoted in the press or interviewed on television.
The trouble with relying on police sources
IN Media Practice | 2008-09-24
These days, two kinds of sensational events dominate our media: bomb blasts and large scale mob violence. But the difference in the way the media has handled them is glaring.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-09-23
When the CEO of a company is beaten to death by his workers it is not news for our upbeat business press. While the general newspapers led with it on Sept 23, Mint and Economic Times did not have the story at all, and Business Standard had a single column..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-09-22
A Hoot reader writes that if he is at the receiving end of a hit and run he hopes he gets hit by a BMW. He says the TOI Bangalore on Sept 21 reported a hit and run thus:" An unidentified man was killed on Friday night in a hit-and-run..
Tackling Hindu and Islamic terror the media way
IN Media Practice | 2008-09-20
Can violence that takes lives, destroys communities, and terrorises people be treated differently because different groups are involved?
IN Media Practice | 2008-09-20
The TTD offers cable operators a package deal in return for carrying its channel, and journalists in AP queue up for tickets in the next election.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-09-20
Did the Delhi police tip off the media on September 19 before they went to Jamia Nagar to nab the terrorists they said were holed up there? Several channels showed live footage of the encounter—how did their OB Vans come to be there? A local resident who sent around a detailed..
Was the email message the real bomb?
IN Media Freedom | 2008-09-19
The media, in its infinite wisdom, has taken on the task of persuading us to secure our wireless networks. And it is pulling out all stops!
How the media created the Raj Thackeray bogey
IN Media Practice | 2008-09-16
But what did the newspapers do? They reported that Raj Thackeray criticised Bachchan. Far from the fact, that.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-09-16
The Delhi police think the media needs to learn how to behave at blast sites. "How do you expect the police to do their work when you trample all over the site and just not pay heed to any requests to move away so that the investigation can be done?"..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-09-14
On the 13th and 14th of September the Hindustan Times carried a solid investigation on a large number of malnutrition deaths in Madhya Pradesh which deserves mention. The first lead display (13th) was also commendable. The fact that the paper has an edition in Bhopal helps, the initial reporting was..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-09-14
When a terrorism strike is being covered even the best of us, it seems, cannot resist gory melodrama. CNN-IBN, during the coverage of the blasts in Delhi had, for special effects, blood dripping down the screen. And no channel can resist looping the goriest footage they have, over and over..
Narmada: planted news vs genuine reportage
IN Media Practice | 2008-09-13
The tenor of the news story went on to present the speculative conjecture of ‘an official’ as if it were a fait accompli.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-09-12
Only the Hindu reported on September 12 that President Bush had said in his covering note to the US Congress that assurances of fuel supply to India were not legally binding on the US. Were other newspapers too complacent about the 123 agreement to track this? ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-09-12
FactCheck.org and PolitiFact.com—these are the two websites which vet campaign statements and advertising in the US elections for the veracity of what is put out. The Los Angeles Times reports that both organizations are finding that the McCain campaign is doing more energetic misleading about Obama than vice versa. ..
IN Opinion | 2008-09-12
Focusing on foeticide and child marriage, a documentary and a TV serial find imaginative ways to explore still-grim gender realities in India.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-09-11
Rajesh Talwar in TOI (Sept 11) on role of media in the Aarushi Talwar murder case: "Its like I am a doctor, I kill a patient and then say sorry…would you be satisfied with the explanation? …It is very easy to bring someone down, but you must have the power..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-09-09
The CBI¿s failure to file a chargesheet in the Arushi Talwar and Hemraj murder case became another occasion to live off the story. NDTV 24x7 got an exclusive interview with the Talwars. In the minutes before the 9 pm bulletin the channel did a countdown to the story, then through..
Sensational story, dubious ethics
IN Media Practice | 2008-09-09
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.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-09-09
At least five English newspapers had stories on the visiting Chinese foreign minister’s comments on China’s role in Vienna vis-a-vis the NSG waiver. Only the Hindu made it a first lead highlighting the Chinese denial and allowing their honorable FM to rubbish media reports. So don’t believe all that stuff..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-09-07
While much of the media was beside itself with excitement and gushing over a place at the high table, etc. Siddharth Vardarajan in The Hindu and Shorbori Ganguli in the Pioneer spelt out most clearly on September 7 what India has committed to get the consensus from the Nuclear Suppliers..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-09-06
The Hindustan Times, which paid extensive tribute to its proprietor K K Birla the day after he died, goofed up on the caption for a front page pix. It said it was a picture of Birla and his late wife. The next day it corrected that with another pix of..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-09-06
There will be a Daniel Pearl memorial concert in Goa on Monday September 8 in memory of the Mumbai bureau chief of The Wall Street Journal, who was on an assignment in Pakistan when he was kidnapped and later killed on Jan 30, 2002. Its theme: ¿Harmony for humanity¿. IANS..
IN Regional Media | 2008-09-06
The non-stop Chiranjeevi show is capturing TV audiences across Andhra Pradesh, leaving little space for the actor-turned-politician’s rivals,
Vogue India aims for indigent chic
IN Media Practice | 2008-09-06
A fashion spread in the latest Vogue India, in which poor, nameless Indians sport $10,000 handbags and $100 bibs, has kicked up a furore in the Western press.
Tejeshwar Singh memorial fellowships
IN Books | 2008-09-05
Sage Publishers has instituted a fellowship in memory of pioneering media studies publisher Tejeshwar Singh, for research in media and communication studies.
IN Media Practice | 2008-09-05
The blast which occurred on 24th August hardly found even a single column space in the leading news papers like The Hindu and Times of India, next day.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-09-04
SAFMA clarifies that they issued a statement on September 1 condemning the attacks on media freedom in Indian-administered Kashmir and urging the authorities in J & K to ensure media freedom by facilitating functioning of journalists and distribution of newspapers without any restrictions...
When media came under attack in Kashmir
IN Media Freedom | 2008-09-03
During the present government clampdown, for the first time in Kashmir’s history, newspapers could not go to print for seven consecutive days.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-09-02
Rising Kashmir reports that Srinagar-based journalists are enraged over the attitude of SAFMA which has maintained silence on the censorship of local media in Kashmir. "They have been exploiting the tension in the region and making their own fortunes for the past several years" it quoted a senior journalist as..
For the public, a redressal mechanism
IN Law and Policy | 2008-09-02
A regulatory authority constituted by private broadcasters will now take up complaints from the public against TV channels.
IN Law and Policy | 2008-09-02
Self regulation for TV broadcasters is set to come into existence from October 2. The News Broadcasters Association has come up with its own code of ethics and broadcasting standards.
IN Opinion | 2008-08-31
In spite of the massive coverage in recent times, the point of view of the Kashmiris hasn’t found a voice in the media.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-08-30
The Tamil Nadu Cable-TV Owners¿ Association has demanded investigations by an impartial fact-finding team to expose the pressure exerted on its members in the southern part of the state to air specific programmes by M.K. Azhagiri, son of Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi. They are also asked to subscribe to his..
New media tries to capture ‘reality’ in Jammu & Kashmir
IN Digital Media | 2008-08-30
YouTube and Google videos have become a favourite space for hundreds of videos and the Internet, blogs and SMS are being imaginatively used by people on both sides of the communal divide.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-08-27
CNN IBN’s story on the Jammu hostage crisis was amazing. It seems that now when the army strategises on its counter attack on militants, it gives a point by point briefing on its strategy to tv networks to be broadcast to the world at large...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-08-27
Mail Today carried two stories on August 26 and 27 on the Bajrang Dal bombers, members of the BD who were accidentally killed in Kanpur while assembling bombs to mount a terrorist attack. It said police suspect these were meant for retaliatory attacks for the Ahmedabad blasts. The second story..
Orissa violence: lies and media reports
IN Media Practice | 2008-08-27
The newspaper report, which is being circulated by email and on the Web by supporters of the Sangh Parivar, is not only inflammatory, but also factually incorrect.
New media change U.S. politics
IN Digital Media | 2008-08-24
Such Web sites as OpenLeft, Eschaton and DailyKos, along with a host of bloggers who file reports to these and other sites, make up a constituency that Democratic candidates seek not to offend.
IN Law and Policy | 2008-08-24
Justice Markandey Katju, writing in the Hindu on the Aarushi Talwar coverage, harks back to the theme of the social responsibility of the media.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-08-21
The Hindustan Times was a leading beneficiary of chamchagiri by ministries on Rajiv Gandhi¿s birthday.It got half page ads from Human Resource Development, Social Justice and Empowerment, the Delhi government, BSNL, MTNL, the textiles ministry and the ministry of new and renewable energy. And a quarter page from the Congress Party...
No shrill blame game in the media
IN Media Practice | 2008-08-20
Overall, the Indian media did not buy the thesis that the ISI was behind the chronic unrest in Kashmir, and Pakistan’s press was too preoccupied with the country’s internal woes to focus much on Kashmir.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-08-19
On Sunday night on We the People on NDTV you had people who mattered from Jammu and Kashmir and from Delhi on the show but it became and stayed a shouting match, all heat and no light. On Monday there was reportedly a five lakh turnout at the Hurriyat rally..
Doordarshan’s golden rules of Ol-u-mpics coverage
IN Media Practice | 2008-08-17
Phelps at the pool? Then DD will be at the handball prelims. You can bet a gold on that.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-08-17
Koel’s Couch, on Papa Aroon Purie’s channel Headlines Today, had its moments. Salman Khan’s disarming candour was more riveting than those endless exclusives showbiz chat shows present with the other two Khans, Shahrukh and Aamir. Pity she didn’t ask him who killed the black buck if he did not. And..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-08-16
With Doordarshan’s special genius for doing things, the network missed showing the prime minister hoisting the flag at the Red Fort, because at that point they were busy showing a recording of him at Raj Ghat. But its Olympics (sorry, Olumpics) coverage is what has taken the cake. Even as..
Journalists and politicians—Part II
IN Media Practice | 2008-08-16
An Independence Day special. How Jayaprakash Narayan persisted with his desire to see the English weekly Everyman carry some pages in Devnagari.
Forging a network of Southern journalists
IN Media Practice | 2008-08-15
The new frontiers of the media’s role require it to move beyond mere reporting to a more incisive role in creating in-depth understanding of key issues.
Journalists and politicians—Part I
IN Media Practice | 2008-08-15
An Independence Day special. M V Kamath’s reminisces about political figures of yesteryear-- Morarji Desai, Ramakrishna Hegde and S.K. Patil.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-08-14
Prasar Bharati says the private news channels have no business helping themselves to footage of the Olympics. It has written to all of them reminding them that DD Sports holds the rights. Apparently while it is mandatory for private channels with cricket rights to share their telecasts with Prasar Bharati,..
Is the State victimizing journalist-activists?
IN Media Practice | 2008-08-13
For journalists who feel strongly about the issues they report, the line between journalism and activism is sometimes thin.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-08-13
Abhinav Bindra’s parents’ farmhouse, around 15 km from Chandigarh, has been surrounded by the outdoor broadcast (OB) vans of various television news channels. "Abhinav¿s parents barely have any time to eat or even change their clothes. They are on air on all the news channels throughout the day," said Tej..
IN Media Practice | 2008-08-13
When a channel does a sting operation there is a purpose and a logical end to which it has to take its investigation instead of leaving it to the viewers to draw their own conclusion.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-08-10
Sri Lanka’s Minister of Labour Mervyn Silva, who is immortalized on YouTube in a video which shows him getting it back from radio employees whom he assauited in December, has now assaulted two journalists from the Sirasa television network at the site of a bridge opening in Kelaniya on August..
IN Community Media | 2008-08-10
From a decrease in dowry deaths to an increase in girls’ education, ‘Chala Ho Gaon Mein’ is helping the villagers help themselves .
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-08-08
A bench of the Supreme Court described the media as a "super-super investigative agency" more powerful than even the RAW (Research and Analysis Wing). Its rebuked the media for causing "irretrievable" damage to the image of Arushi¿s parents, dentists Rajesh and Nupur Talwar, through reports. ..
Pak media cautious on Musharraf impeachment
IN Media Practice | 2008-08-08
"It¿s time to go Mr. President, and for the sake of all of us - please maintain your dignity and go quietly," an editorial in The News said.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-08-08
The Hindu of August 7 had a telling photograph on the Mayawati government. It showed the chief minister laying the foundation stone for a number of projects for the Vrindavan region of Mathura District, without stepping out of her home. A number of vertical foundation stones are mounted before her,..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-08-05
Sri Lanka¿s The Nation newspaper, which describes itself a s fiercely independent on its masthead, asked in its editorial on the last day of the SAARC summit whether this was an exercise in reasserting India¿s stamp of authority over its regional neighbors and in rubber stamping its hegemony in South Asia. ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-08-05
India TV, true to form, had the most controversial coverage of the case of the couple in Bombay who want to abort a 20 weeks plus foetus. While channels across the spectrum were playing up the story on Monday night, India TV showed the ultrasound images of a moving foetus,..
Ananda Viketan’s amazing poll on Eelam
IN Digital Media | 2008-08-05
It is not clear just whose thoughts the poll results reflect. Is it indeed that of the people of Tamil Nadu or also those of the people abroad who access the website?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-08-03
Indian foreign secretary Shiv Shankar Menon and US Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher held press conferences during the SAARC summit in Colombo and tried to talk about larger issues. But all journalists at both places wanted to know about was the ISI¿s role in the Indian embassy bombing at..
IN Media Freedom | 2008-08-02
The media climate here is unusual. The day before the inaugural the morning newspapers in this country carried a full page advertisement which said Stop War on Journalists.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-08-01
When foreign ministers of SAARC nations addressed journalists in Columbo, Pakistan Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi was a big hit. A People’s Party politician, he told a convention of the South Asia Free Media Association that fighting for 8 years for the revival of democracy in his country had..
CNN IBN explains why it did not telecast the tapes
IN Media Practice | 2008-07-31
Since the speculation is based on hearsay, conjecture and mere guess-work, we at CNN-IBN, feel that it is necessary to set the record straight
Corporate communication’s newest avatar- The Blog
IN Opinion | 2008-07-31
Corporations are turning to blogging in a bid to connect with their publics and move away from the traditional secrecy that surrounds their operations.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-07-31
The media minister of Sri Lanka, Anura Priyadarshana Yapa, came to be chief guest at the opening of the South Asian Free Media Association conference on media in conflict situations, held on the eve of SAARC in Columbo. As he sat impassively at the dias, a SAFMA delegate read out a..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-07-29
A Tamil TV channel owned by the PMK party is set to air yet another controversial serial based on a real life incident involving former chief minister M.G. Ramachandran. The serial, "Marakka Mudiyumaa?" (Can it be forgotten?), is based on a shooting incident in 1967 that left him partially speech-impaired..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-07-29
The live telecast on CNN of Obama at a convention of black journalists on July 27 showed the candidate prevaricating on issues more than he used to. Was America ready for a Muslim President? Waffling answer. Has he been wrong on Iraq since the Surge seems to be working? Roundabout answer. And..
The Pakistan hand in India’s terror?
IN Books | 2008-07-29
Indian newspapers took their cue from the National Security Advisor in explaining the Kabul attacks, but looked inward while apportioning blame for Ahmedabad and Bangalore.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-07-28
The police theory that the blast could have been inspired by the recently released Bollywood film Contract, came as a godsend to TV channels looking for the showbiz angle to news. Aaj Tak brought Rahul Dholakia who made Parzania into the studio and launched a discussion on this topic. ..
IN Media Practice | 2008-07-28
Mr Akbar and Mr Kalbag did not formally represent their cases as perceived by them. Nor did the respective managements offer any explanation to the readers for the sudden editorial changes at the top.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-07-26
The Hindu’s readers do not approve of Somnath Chatterjee defying his party and not resigning. For the last two days the paper has been publishing letters asserting that he should have listened to his party. Only two out of fourteen letter writers think the party was unfair to him...
IN Opinion | 2008-07-25
Can the numbers ever be most of the story when you have that rare thing on hand: Parliament actually applying itself to a debate on issues?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-07-23
Newspapers across the spectrum carried editorials on the outcome of the Lok Sabha trust vote, the morning after. The only major paper which did not was The Hindu. Maybe it saw no reason to hasten to pronounce on a subject which has been controversial within the paper...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-07-23
Why did CNN IBN not telecast the footage of the cash for vote sting, which it is supposed to have possession of? Two theories are doing the rounds. One, that there was no conclusive evidence in it and the material was not good enough to use, and two, that Anil..
IN Media Practice | 2008-07-23
Is it the job of a TV channel to provide proof to any Constitutional authority, in this case the Speaker, before telecasting the news to its viewers?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-07-21
The Gujarat government has ordered a probe into the July 18 attack on scribes who were covering clashes following the mysterious death of two boys at religious leader Asaram Bapu¿s ashram. Ahmedabad’s City Police Commissioner said the people who attacked journalists during the Ahmedabad shutodwn would be be identified from..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-07-21
Anybody who wanted to watch the debate on the motion of confidence in the UPA government would have been grateful for the Lok Sabha Channel. It was the only place where you could catch the latest speaker, as other channels reran the early speeches through the day or focused on..
Not such a great profession after all?
IN Media Practice | 2008-07-19
Journalists in India are better paid than ever before, but job satisfaction is on the decline.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-07-19
The nuclear deal is a sensitive subject for The Hindu. Its chief editor is opposed to it, and senior staff have to toe the editorial line. Siddharth Vardarajan’s article on July 12,saying it wasn’t such a bad deal after all, was countered on July 14 by Prabir Purkayastha, a contributor,..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-07-19
The media reads actors’ blogs assiduously and floods us with silly stories picked off them. If Amitabh Bachchan says on his blog that British Airways lost his family’s bags, it becomes a news story. If Salman Khan says the loves of his life are dogs, it becomes a news story..
IN Media Practice | 2008-07-17
People who read newspapers in the naïve faith that the journalists are batting for them, will get a rude shock after reading such accounts.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-07-14
Outlook magazine’s exclusive interview with Barack Obama which makes up its latest cover story, does not say that it was an email interview. But it certainly sounds like one. No counter questions to his answers, no photograph of interview taking place, no accompanying description of atmospherics which any reporter would dish..
IN Media Practice | 2008-07-13
Why do India and the United States, countries with a long tradition of democracy and free speech, not have access to AJE when even Israel can see it?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-07-13
The possibility of the Left coming together with the BJP to bring down the UPA has seen the Hindu soften its stance towards the BJP and give L K Advani huge front page space. Alas the BJP mouthpiece, the Pioneer, is not returning the compliment. It continues to be rude about the..
IN Media Practice | 2008-07-13
Arushi’s father is out on bail, pleading for the media to leave their family alone. Will a day come when trial by media becomes a cognizable offence?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-07-11
A Laxman cartoon in Times of India had the Common Man’s wife asking whether, if Obama was elected, the White House would be renamed the Black House. Nor quite the order of wit we would expect from from someone as tall as Laxman. ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-07-11
Star News decided to stick through most of Thursday evening with its medical analogy for the UPA crisis. It used the slug UPA ka ECG and had a simulated beep running through the entire news item, every time it did an update. Corny and irritating. The channel kept adding up..
China violates Olympics media freedom commitments
IN Media Freedom | 2008-07-08
One source for a foreign television journalist was beaten so badly that he required hospitalization; after his release, he was placed under house arrest.
Ignoring judicial corruption in Gujarat?
IN Media Practice | 2008-07-05
It is a mystery why neither the national nor regional media followed up on detailed exposes of the chief justice and some of his fellow judges, published by a Gujarati weekly in the state.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-07-05
The editor of Nepali morninger Commander which scooped the photograph of Charles Sobhraj’s fiancée, said that it boosted sales immensely. "I had printed extra copies and all of them sold out, even in distant places like Pokhara," he said. Meanwhile Sobhraj is concerned that the media glare could make the..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-07-04
Now the government is considering a monitoring mechanism to stop television channels from resorting to "sensationalism" to gain popularity. Information and Broadcasting Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi has said that there would be two rounds of meetings between private channels and officials from various ministries on the proposed monitoring mechanism and..
IN Community Media | 2008-07-04
Funded completely by ads, the paper is then printed and distributed for free at shops across Mcleod Ganj.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-07-01
A Goan blog called Penpricks played a practical trick on the news media by emailing them a hoax about a Nazi war criminal called Johann Bach being arrested on the Goan border. It was lapped up with alacrity by the The Times of India, Indian Express, Deccan Herald and Telegraph...
Dubious ethics of TV talent shows
IN Media Practice | 2008-07-01
It is not just phone-in programmes or reality shows which are not what they seem. There is something rotten in the ethics of TV broadcasting.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-06-28
Ram Gopal Varma is a new convert to revenge through blogging. Criticism of his latest film Sarkar Raj has prompted him to take on critics by name, and by review, as he rebuts them sentence by sentence. They must be flattered. ..
Keep this alternative alive and healthy
IN Media Practice | 2008-06-28
If anyone wants a model for socially responsible, public interest broadcasting as an alternative to the commercial cacophony that satellites pour into our homes, the Lok Sabha channel would fit the bill.
Assam journalists discuss corruption in media
IN Media Practice | 2008-06-28
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
Social engineering in the media?
IN Media Practice | 2008-06-28
Thejas was a newspaper being launched by a Muslim organization dubbed extremist by the mainstream press and there had to be a keen and clear understanding of what was going to be its political and ideological standpoint.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-06-27
The editor and two reporters of Andhra Jyothy, arrested for beating an effigy symbolising a Dalit leader, were granted bail by a court here Thursday. The journalists will be released only Friday as the jail authorities did not receive the court orders by 5.30 p.m.The court granted unconditional bail to..
Check the caste before you protest!
IN Media Freedom | 2008-06-27
The finger of suspicion points to the chief minister of the state who time and again named Andhra Jyothy in public for cheap journalism.
Andhra Jyothy’s casteist offence?
IN Regional Media | 2008-06-26
The Andhra police arrest three journalists under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, a month after the alleged offence.
IN Media Freedom | 2008-06-24
The most recent newspaper to bow to government pressure is the Hindustan Times, whose owners have chemical factories and sugar mills in the state.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-06-23
Cyrus Broacha’s Week That Wasn’t on CNN-IBN decided that the Arushi murder case was now ubiquitous enough to become the butt of a joke. Joke no.1: The CBI is looking for a khukri. Why look for a khukri when you already have a Talwar? Joke no. 2: Narco tests are..
IN Media Business | 2008-06-22
The chief minister’s son is challenging Sun TV’s cable supremacy in Tamilnadu, but TDSAT has thwarted his attempts to get Sun TV signals on his cable network without revealing his subscriber base.
IN Media Practice | 2008-06-20
Somebody on cable TV called her a she devil. Another said that she looked like everyone’s first wife standing outside a probate court.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-06-20
Sonia Gandhi paid her respects at the shrine of the Shirdi Sai Baba. One TV channel speculated that it was to seek his blessings for the Congress party which is approaching election year. But News 24 took the cake, with an endless programme on how she probably prayed for a..
IN Opinion | 2008-06-19
Can there also be news tailored for children? Can news channels eschew the sensational and ghoulish?
Careless media, puzzled reader
IN Media Practice | 2008-06-19
Was the victim a farmer or not? Was he killed or did he become victim of a stray bullet?
How private treaties influence reporting
IN Media Business | 2008-06-17
The Times of India was careful to leave out the name of its Private Treaty partner while reporting a worksite accident in Bengaluru.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-06-16
Shivsangram Sanghatana founder Vinayak Mete was on June 14 relieved of his post in the Maharashtra unit of the Nationalist Congress Party in connection with the attack on Loksatta Editor Kumar Ketkar¿s residence on June 5. State NCP chief Arun Gujrathi who announced Mete¿s removal from the post said that..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-06-16
Aaj Tak continues its efforts to solve the Aarushi murder case in the garb of news. On June 15th night it used another flat in the same complex where the Talwar family live to reconstruct what might have happened, trying to show that Krishna could be innocent. As a viewer asks, is..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-06-14
According to Television Audience Measurement (TAM), news channels scored 9 points for the telecast of the Noida twin murder case as compared to 7.5 points for the IPL match between Mohali and Hyderabad on May 23 - the day Aarushi¿s father was arrested for his alleged role in the murders,..
IN Media Practice | 2008-06-14
As with all `eye-views’, this book is a mélange of the good, the bad and the ugly, `big names’ rubbing shoulders with the less heard of…
IN Media Freedom | 2008-06-13
Saamana¿s feature made fun of Rane¿s state of mind and his status in the new party. A caricature alongside showed him in a bridal attire.
IN Digital Media | 2008-06-13
In its Indian avatar, a surprising number of videos on the website are pornographic and explicit in their title and content.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-06-12
The Bombay High Court on June 10 rejected the plea for anticipatory bail by two Nationalist Congress Party leaders in connection with the attack on the house of the editor of Loksatta newspaper, Kumar Ketkar. Justice V C Daga refused to give anticipatory bail to Tanaji Shinde, General Secretary of..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-06-12
India TV is sore that dubious broadcasts by the channel called India News are being laid at its door. It has complained to the minister for information and broadcasting about this. A pornographic MMS purportedly of murder victim Arushi Talwar, was aired on `India News¿, but the National Commission for..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-06-11
The Hindustan Times redesigned its editorial page and mocked at would-be critics in a somewhat juvenile question and answer strip running down the left of the page. It thought it scored with a piece by Amitav Ghosh on his latest novel: "And having Amitav Ghosh is not dumbing down, silly!"..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-06-11
CNN-IBN did something like an 8-minute story on Balaji telefilms incorporating the Arushi Talwar murder into one of its serials which is on air. And as the case with all such efforts to be critical, it committed the same offence as the perpetrator it was criticizing, repeatedly running footage of..
Spin doctoring In Andhra Pradesh
IN Books | 2008-06-11
Monitoring of two newspapers -- Eenadu and Sakshi -- provides documentation of how single-mindedly the Congress party is using its chief minister’s family newspaper to tarnish the TDP’s Naidu.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-06-08
If wrap around ad jackets on daily newspapers were bad, the half jackets are worse. You cannot discard them, because one half of the jacket—the back page--has news on it. And it makes reading the real front page more difficult. The Hindustan Times now has half jackets obscuring the front..
NCP in a tight spot after attack on Ketkar¿s home
IN Media Freedom | 2008-06-08
The attack exploded the myth that Sharad Pawar¿s NCP has his firm grip on its affairs at least in Maharashtra.
‘All the problems have been solved. Now let’s build a statue’
IN Media Freedom | 2008-06-06
This is the piece on the Maharashtra government’s decision to install a massive statue of Shivaji off the coast of Mumbai, which sparked an attack the Loksatta editor’s house.
IN Media Practice | 2008-06-06
Vaid is guilty here of obscenity, says the Indian police, but then is his punishment commensurate with his crime?
IN Media Practice | 2008-06-06
What do a bunch of journalists do when they organize a retreat for themselves to discuss writing? They end up trying their hand at fiction.
Is this what women want to read?
IN Media Practice | 2008-06-06
Does a woman’s magazine only have to be about jewellery, lingerie, cosmetics, cooking and sex?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-06-06
Kumar Ketkar, Editor of the Marathi daily Loksatta, escaped unhurt after a mob of around 70 people, calling themselves activists of the Shivsangram Sanghatana, attacked his home in Thane on Thursday. Six people were later arrested. The activists, who threw stones at the house and damaged furniture and fittings, were..
IN Media Practice | 2008-06-04
The Times of India, Ahmedabad ran a series alleging that a newly appointed police commissioner had links with a Dawood man. It then ran an sms poll asking whether people wanted him to continue as commissioner.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-06-03
Following the appointment of new people to the posts of Chairman Prasar Bharati, and DG Doordarshan in the last couple of months, the secretary in the ministry of information and broadcasting has now been transferred back to her home state. Just a coincidence, or more of the election year syndrome..
The Pioneer mourns for Hindu king
IN Opinion | 2008-06-02
The paper went on and on making a fool of itself, forgetting that the people of Nepal are still Hindu and if the monarchy goes, that fact does not change.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-05-31
Why has the government replaced one temporary director general for Doordarshan with another, particularly when the new appointee already has a post in All India Radio? Unfathomable are the ways of the Information and Broadcasting ministry in an election year...
IN Media Practice | 2008-05-31
Do we, citizens of this country, actually need protective laws to save us from the ugliness of media?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-05-28
The double murders of 14 year-old Aarushi Talwar and the family domestic help, Hemraj consumed news channels. While most unquestioningly used the information provided to them by the police, some channels went to the extent of manufacturing their own take. Like the Hindi channel, India News, which touched new lows when it..
IN Opinion | 2008-05-26
Was someone sulking at the Hindustan Times? Or does not the paper comment immediately on a Congress defeat?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-05-26
It¿s not often that news channels apologise for off-the-mark exit polls and give credit to competing channels for their accuracy. But CNN-IBN did just that. Rajdeep Sardesai , editor-in-chief, CNN-IBN, acknowledged that his channel¿s exit poll for the Karnataka Assembly elections carried out in conjunction with CSDS and Deccan Herald ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-05-25
The news of the recent murder in Mumbai of Neeraj Grover, creative head of Synergy AdLabs and a producer of Kya Aap Panchvi Paas Se Tez Hain, the popular quiz programme being currently aired on Star Plus, gave rise to selective use of information. While all news channels ran with..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-05-22
Reporters, photographers and TV channel crew lay siege at the gate of the Narayanhity royal palace Thursday, waiting to record embattled Nepal King Gyanendra¿s "last exit" from it after reports that the royal couple were departing ahead of a critical meeting when his crown would officially be taken away from..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-05-22
The Pakistani media underplayed the fourth round of the composite dialogue between India and Pakistan that concluded with the signing of an agreement for consular access to prisoners. The Daily Times and The Nation noted the relaxing of visa conditions by both countries as did the Urdu press. They highlighted..
IN Digital Media | 2008-05-22
Readers might find the entries of Duane Hopkins, a first time director, who blogs about his experiences at Cannes, of particular interest.
Television engendered development
IN Media Practice | 2008-05-22
In Chhattisgarh villages Kalyani clubs based on a bi-weekly television programme are transforming lives.
IN Regional Media | 2008-05-22
Begun by a local scribe in November 2007, the service has close to 60,000 subscribers at present, some of whom have also begun to send news leads to the provider.
BBC’s South Asian staff on warpath
IN Media Practice | 2008-05-21
The off-shoring involves new contracts for the London-based journalists who have been told to accept redundancy or relocate to their countries of origin in South Asia.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-05-20
Reporters Without Borders has called for action from the authorities to protect women journalists from attacks by the Taliban as well as Religious fundamentalists, warlords and local politicians in Afghanistan. A 22-year-old presenter on the local public television station, Herat TV, was stabbed in her home in Herat on 15..
IN Regional Media | 2008-05-20
Few now remember Tendulkar¿s contribution to Marathi journalism even though he worked in Mumbai¿s newspapers and other periodicals for a considerable length of time.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-05-15
A four and a half year study of Western media has found that tropical diseases which affect many more people are rarely covered by them. During the study period, a scholar at Bordeaux University found 113 articles on tropical diseases in ten media outlets, compared to over a thousand that..
IN Opinion | 2008-05-13
Another reason for the diminishing of the editorial¿s relevance is the inability to tell what is important and what is not.
IN Media Practice | 2008-05-11
Cricket’s new avatar calls for a different selling pitch which replaces nationalism with glamour, regional nuances, and the pleasure of watching good cricket.
IN Media Practice | 2008-05-11
Fifty six percent of editors surveyed believed the future would be free newspapers, And only 45 per cent thought journalism’s quality would improve.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-05-11
9x is offering two first class return air tickets to Singapore to anyone who will fill a 30 query questionnaire on everything the channel wants to know about its viewers or potential viewers. Above all, does the viewer belong to a category likely to be prized by advertisers? ..
IN Regional Media | 2008-05-11
Delhi dailies were prone to give it prime coverage, but the coverage given by regional editions and dailies turned out to be less predictable.
IN Regional Media | 2008-05-11
Marathi daily Lokmat crunches the numbers and finds that the Maharashtra government did not work hard enough to spend its allocations.
IN Media Business | 2008-05-09
Aspiring to be the first national daily from Pune, the new paper draws its editor and most of its editorial content from a Delhi-based media consultancy firm.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-05-07
India figures on a new Impunity Index, prepared by the Committee to Protect Journalists. It gets on the Index because of five unsolved murders of local reporters. Among them is Prahlad Goala, who was run down by a truck and then stabbed in 2006 after writing about timber smuggling in..
IN Media Practice | 2008-05-07
Bare-bodied, protesting Indian taxi drivers evoked a contradictory as well as alliterative response from the Australian media.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-05-04
Three journalists launched books in Delhi under the Penguin imprint over the last ten days, but the one Penguin India pulled out all stops for was Shobhaa De’s " Superstar India." Its British chief executive led the gush, though he is not always to be seen at Penguin launches. The cocktails..
Jackie Chan, latest media victim?
IN Media Practice | 2008-05-04
Media reports that he brought his own mineral water and refused to eat Indian food on a flying visit to Chennai had the kung fu star fulminating.
IN Opinion | 2008-05-03
A journalist is good at reporting facts; he is not a therapist. Accepting this limited role needs humility.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-05-03
First the UPA government changed rules to remove Prasar Bharati Chairman M V Kamath from office. Now it has broken established tradition by making this too a post for a retired IAS officer. Previous chairmen have been journalists. Arun Bhatnagar, Sonia Gandhi’s man for the wound-up National Advisory Council, is..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-05-03
On World Press Freedom day (May 3) this year the focus is on China. At least 30 journalists and 50 cyber reporters are currently held in Chinese prisons for reporting facts or peacefully expressing their views. ..
Sri Lanka--A rapid downhill course
IN Media Practice | 2008-05-02
Verbal and physical attacks, harassment, restrictions on access and vilification of media personnel have become a common feature in the lives of journalists.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-04-30
Pakistan¿s information ministry has forwarded letters from two Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) supporters to an English newspaper and asked it to print them to rebut an article criticizing party leader Asif Ali Zardari. The author of the article in The News says that this is unprecedented. (IANS) ..
IN Media Practice | 2008-04-30
So far, the contestants have been a pretty game lot. The charm could wear off if that changes, and if SRK loses his touch.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-04-27
Shashi Tharoor wrote a farewell column in the Hindu on April 27 announcing that he was ending his seven year association as columnist. He did not say why. Could it have something to do with the Times of India having arrived in Chennai this month, another paper for which he..
Land struggles: does the media care?
IN Media Practice | 2008-04-27
Native resistance to big projects and resulting displacement does not have news value any more, unless it happens in a state where a communist party rules.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-04-24
The airing of Pakistani television channels by cable operators in Kashmir has been banned by India’s union information and broadcasting ministry. The banned channels include PTV, Geo television, ARY and Aaj, which were all free to air. Until today Kashmir was the only place in the country where you could..
What would have missed if you had read only one newspaper?
IN Media Practice | 2008-04-23
Tibet-China coverage--Part II. The Hindustan Times and Times of India had coverage from most angles, the Hindu and Indian Express did not.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-04-21
Karan Thapar’s Hindustan Times column is a completely unabashed platform for writing about his own TV programme on CNBC TV18. On March 20 he wrote some cute stuff taking credit for having started the chain of events which led to Arjun Singh pitching Rahul Gandhi as prime minister...
IN Media Practice | 2008-04-21
The Deccan Chronicle’s ownership of the Deccan Chargers was reflected in its coverage of the IPL matches involving this team.
Are they telling it like it is?
IN Media Practice | 2008-04-20
Tibet-China coverage--Part I. The Hindu and the Indian Express were narrower in their breadth of coverage and less inclined to give all sides of the story.
IN Community Media | 2008-04-20
The woman on the radio was speaking ¿slum¿ Tamil, unlike the anglicised Tamil common on the FM channel.
The Oracles of English TV News
IN Media Practice | 2008-04-17
Barkha Dutt invites a young Tibetan activist on her 9 pm bulletin and goads her on to reveal if they will indulge in self-immolation or violence.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-04-16
President Bush¿s National Security Advisor, Stephen Hadley, repeatedly confused Tibet with Nepal while appearing on ABC¿s "This Week". "If countries are really concerned about Nepal, we shouldn¿t have this sort of non-issue of opening ceremonies…" he said. Asks the South Asia Journalists Forum, he really doesn¿t know that Nepal and..
Free again, Pakistan media looks ahead
IN Media Freedom | 2008-04-16
As a new government seeks to amend PEMRA, the media promises continued vigilance.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-04-14
On April 14 the Hindu Readers Editor K Narayanan took note of his readers’ complaints on the paper’s Tibet coverage and listed some of his own. However he thought the angles given to stories and their display were not to be questioned, that was editorial privilege. The Hoot will published..
IN Media Practice | 2008-04-14
Who cares about the aquifer, stupid? All we want is a hole deep enough for a kid to fall into. You heard Marketing, 30.91 metres.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-04-14
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi ascended a specially constructed dais in a golf cart at a simple function to mark the launch of the Chennai edition of the Times of India. He said the paper’s name has pleased his ears for a long time as it denotes nationhood. After..
IN Opinion | 2008-04-13
It is amazing that an issue of great importance was dealt with pop wisdom and throwaway lines.
IN Media Practice | 2008-04-11
An African journalist asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh whether there was sufficient interest in India about Africa since there was nothing in the Indian newspapers to reflect it!
IN Media Practice | 2008-04-11
He founded the India Abroad newspaper, the Indo-Asian News Service (IANS), the Indian American Foundation (IAF) and the Indian American Center for Political Action (IACPA).
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-04-09
An Indian labour court has awarded compensation of about Rs.5 million to American journalist, Laurinda Keys, sacked by the Associated Press (AP). It said that she was covered by Indian laws because AP had a base in this country. The judgement is significant as it upholds the rights of a..
IN Media Business | 2008-04-09
Y.S.R Reddy’s family newspaper Sakshi lays bare the nature of investment in the Telugu media.
IN Opinion | 2008-04-09
I firmly believe that the impact of just one long edit will be more than that of two or three short ones.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-04-08
On April 7 Deshbandu, a forty-nine-year-old daily from Chattisgarh launched its national edition in Delhi. The function boasted an array of politicians from across the political spectrum. Chattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh said it was satisfying to see the trend of national dailies opening editions in regional capitals being reversed...
IN Media Practice | 2008-04-07
It might have helped if reporters had remembered that Hafeez Hussein and Khalid… were, first and last, fellow citizens of a free republic, innocent till they were proven guilty,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-04-07
MJ Akbar, the man who launched Sunday, the Telegraph, and Asian Age, is now all set to launch a new political fortnightly. Seema Mustafa, his deputy at Asian Age is believed to be joining him in this venture. ..
IN Community Media | 2008-04-07
The "English for Fun" radio programme started by the Bihar government is a hit among students in the state. It covers nearly six million primary school students.
IN Digital Media | 2008-04-06
This was no casual write-up, it was a well laid out, cleverly argued and excellently researched piece supported by graphs and tables.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-04-03
Self Styled farmers¿ leader Mahendra Singh Tikait¿s unsavoury casteist remarks on the UP Chief Minister, Mayawati should not come as a surprise. He is known for his patriarchal and feudal ways. Several years back he told a woman journalist who had come to interview him : "Tu ghar jaa aur..
IN Opinion | 2008-04-03
The dumbing down is not just in form, but also in intellectual content.
Survival tricks of Telugu TV channels
IN Media Practice | 2008-04-03
The channels are leading a wave of religious revivalism purely because religion and culture can also be packaged and sold.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-04-01
TOI is coming (to Chennai) on April 14. Hoardings have sprung up in the city announcing the launch date. Advertisements released in a Tamil daily offer subscriptions at the rate of Rs. 299 a year or Rs.170 for six months. Prospective subscribers will also get either a trolley bag or..
IN Media Practice | 2008-04-01
The young woman who won this year’s Chameli Devi Award describes what it is like to report on excruciating poverty and come back feeling inadequate and defeated.
BusinessTV analyst gets Supreme Court notice
IN Media Practice | 2008-04-01
Barely a month ago, former Sebi chief M Damodaran had ticked off media personalities for "talking up" and "talking down" stocks.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-03-30
For a change both the Hindu and the Pioneer agreed in their news judgement: both led on March 30 with the CPM Congress at Coimbatore. Thereafter the similarity evaporated: the Pioneer talked of the CPM¿s "confounding political double standards." The Hindu gave full and serious play to every criticism Prakash..
Media, judiciary barriers crumble
IN Media Practice | 2008-03-30
Fifteen apex court judges participated in a workshop attended by over 100 court reporters from all over the country.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-03-29
The young Afghan journalist Sayed Perwiz Kambakhsh who has been sentenced to death for distributing ‘blasphemous’ material by a court in Mazar-i-Sharif, has been moved to Kabul ahead of his appeal being considered. His transfer to Kabul has given rise to hopes that his appeal will not be influenced by..
IN Media Practice | 2008-03-28
The 24x7 coverage seemed almost like a repeat telecast of the now-famous Prince rescue.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-03-27
G Krishnan, CEO of TV Today network, said on a panel at FICCI-Frames 2008 on March 25 that the news on the TV channels was degenerating everyday, but added that "in order to catch maximum eyeballs, you have to show sleazy news". Exchange4media..
IN Media Practice | 2008-03-27
Outraged at the Judge’s praise and sympathy for R K Sharma, Delhi journalists ask, what about the deprivation of Shivani’s life?
Getting facts and implications wrong
IN Media Practice | 2008-03-27
Getting the facts and implications of the Pay Commission payouts right was beyond the competence of most of our esteemed national dailies.
IN Regional Media | 2008-03-26
Billed as the first all colour internationally designed Telugu newspaper in 23 editions, Rajshekhar Reddy’s family launched Sakshi in Andhra Pradesh
Sans style, sans content, sans perspective
IN Opinion | 2008-03-24
The sensible thing from a commercial point of view, would be to outsource edits to an edit writing company that mass produces edits.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-03-23
Headlines Today has decided to promote itself by lampooning its counterparts. A strange advertisement now being aired on the channel ridicules NDTV, Times Now and CNN-IBN as ‘blah blah’ channels. Deviating from the more serious ‘Experience Truth First’ and ‘Whatever it Takes’, Headlines Today’s new tagline is, ‘Refreshingly Different’. What..
Real life Batra vs fictional Patel
IN Law and Policy | 2008-03-23
An American judge rules in favour of an Indian lawyer seeking to sue NBC for ‘libel in fiction’ committed by its legal series "Law and Order".
IN Opinion | 2008-03-22
A response to ‘Chicken Soup for Free?’ by Suneetha B, carried on the Hoot in December.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-03-21
China has named some 62 websites for violating regulations in broadcasting on-line audio and video programmes and said they will face penalties. Under new regulations, website operators must get a license before airing audio and video content. 25 websites have been banned until they get authorization. (Xinhua)..
IN Media Practice | 2008-03-21
There is not much to differentiate between the Indian and US media so far as sensationalism, motivated reporting and hatchet jobs are concerned.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-03-19
On March 18 the army took control of public Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation (SLRC) television. The army and police sealed off all roads leading to the station in the morning, preventing more than 200 staff from getting to work, after employees threatened to strike in protest against a series of..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-03-19
Reporters Without Borders has called on heads of state and government to boycott the opening ceremony of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing because of what it called "the Chinese government¿s mounting human rights violations" and its imposition of a news black out. "China has not kept any of the..
Blogging in Sanskrit on US campuses
IN Digital Media | 2008-03-19
In the past two years, blogging in Sanskrit has emerged as a popular online activity.
IN Opinion | 2008-03-19
See how the recent Tibet incidents have been reported in various sections of the media on March 17.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-03-17
Headlines on Tibet on March 17 were more or less similar in the Indian Express, the Hindustan Times, Times of India and Asian Age. They referred to ‘Peoples War’ (HT and IE) and the spread of violence and cultural genocide (Asian Age, TOI). Only the Hindu said ‘Lhasa returns to..
IN Media Practice | 2008-03-16
It was the sort of story where editors urge their reporters to keep turning up angles, to feed popular interest.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-03-15
Full page ads devoted to political leaders are alright when the party or a particularly devoted party acolyte is paying for them. The ads congratulating Sonia Gandhi on ten years as Congress President were in that category. But what about Mayawati’s full page ads commemorating BSP founder Kanshi Ram¿s birthday,..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-03-15
The Hindustan Times group was ahead of the rest of the press in reminding us that Sonia Gandhi had completed 10 years as Congress President. Mint did a particularly colourful two-page splash, with an article by Vir Sanghvi who was billed as being the journalist with most access to her...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-03-13
Rahul Gandhi’s speech during the Budget debate got generous airtime on Dorrdarshan on prime time news. It was certainly worth catching: while General Secretary No 1 plodded manfully through his written speech, his mother listened expressionless, and party acolytes including Priyaranjan Dasmunshi vigorously thumped desks. ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-03-13
Arnab Goswami on Times Now: No, your channel is not going to let go of the Scarlet Keeling case just yet, that’s a promise...
Client No. 9 and his media enablers
IN Media Practice | 2008-03-13
What came under critical scrutiny, along with Spitzer himself, was the role of the press.
Radio jockeying grabs the young
IN Media Practice | 2008-03-13
"We receive at least two CVs every alternate day. The number of people aspiring to be a radio jockey is mind-boggling"
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-03-12
When the governor of New York resigned one caught it on BBC World. Then one flipped channels to CNN-IBN. They hadn’t heard the news: their news item, just unfolding, showed anchors speculating that he would resign. ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-03-12
NDTV ran a special programme called India’s Future with the Brookings Institution, on March 12. The title was not the only strange part. In the edited version one of the four panelists never spoke. You saw a smiling woman in long shots, you never found out who she was. Liquat..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-03-11
The Speaker of the Madhya Pradesh assembly has asked the state government to ensure safety of journalists in the state. He was referring to an attack on a journalist in Sehore district. After he reported a scuffle between Sehore district collector and the driver of BJP MP Ram Pal Singh of..
IN Opinion | 2008-03-11
Rudrangshu Mukherjee of the Telegraph objects to Darius Nakhoonwala’s uncivil language on this website.
IN Opinion | 2008-03-10
Since edits have to be written regardless, when nothing of major consequence happens readers are served up space-fillers.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-03-10
The change of guard at Asian Age where M J Akbar¿s place as editor has been taken by the proprietor Venkatt Ram Reddy, is going to mean changes for the positioning of the two papers. The Asian Age will now become the North Indian brand of the group, and Deccan..
Dow Chemicals’ real intentions
IN Regional Media | 2008-03-09
As villagers living on its periphery stepped up their protests against its 100-acre R & D Centre, the multinational resorted to a hectic PR campaign. (Pix: A village outside through whose land the chemical plant runs.)
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-03-05
In 2007, 37 media and broadcasting proposals were cleared by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board, a much higher number than in previous years. Among the applications to have got the FIPB approval in 2007 were Malaysia-based South Asia Entertainment Holding for picking up to 20 per cent FDI in Sun..
IN Law and Policy | 2008-03-05
The Government of India has asked the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India to examine the issue of government entities entering into broadcasting activities. The latter has produced a consultation paper and invited comments from the public. Extrac
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-03-04
Rapid expansion has its pitfalls. Business Standard launched editions in Hindi and Gujarati in a space of a few weeks, but it is obviously taking longer to streamline systems. How else does one account for a Gujarati ad on page one of its English edition (March 3)? ..
Nellie revisited—in more ways than one
IN Media Practice | 2008-03-04
Except for the first few paragraphs the write up on NDTV is a rehash of an earlier article written for Tehelka.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-03-02
Aaj Tak and Headlines Today came up with some silly play acting in their Budget telecast. Anchors dressed up as farmers, city folk, home makers, etc. on Aaj Tak, with Deepak Chaurasia in a dhoti, sitting on a charpoy enthusing about the loan waiver. Yet another anchor beamed at us..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-03-02
Mr Chidambaram is a minister with a very short fuse. He walked out of two interviews in the past two days, one with the editor of Business World, another with Raghav Bahl of CNBC TV 18. The first was apparently asking him why the Budget was such a big deal..
IN Opinion | 2008-03-02
So many editors waste time being seen on TV instead of poring over the documents like the old timers used to.
Unconscious biases pervade the coverage of Pakistan
IN Media Monitoring | 2008-02-29
It is clear that the over riding trope that the coverage offers is of Pakistan being a failed state and a country in the grip of a civil conflict
Why the US Elections are hot news in Kerala
IN Regional Media | 2008-02-28
Muslims, who constitute 50 per cent of all non-resident Keralites, take a keen interest in US politics and its implications for Muslim nations.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-02-28
Economic Times launches its Hindi version, and promptly writes about itself in Brand Equity, a long story about how right its timing was, how brilliantly its Gujarati edition is doing, etc. etc. Self promotion may not have been invented by the Times Group, but it is certainly being patented by..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-02-27
Karan Thapar may have an exclusive contract with CNBC TV 18 and CNN IBN as an anchor but that doesn’t seem to preclude his advising a rival news channel! INX has announced that he will advise their news channel News X, its top editorial slot recently vacated by Vir Sanghvi...
IN Opinion | 2008-02-26
The worst edit came from the Telegraph. Usually sensible, it gave in to the bee that resides in its proprietor’s bonnet.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-02-25
People’s March editor P Govindan Kutty, in judicial custody in Thrissur for 66 days since his arrest on December 19, was released on bail on February 23, 2008, on a bond of Rs. 100,000 and two sureties of equal amounts. He was charged for anti-national activities mainly on the basis..
Lending hate campaigns a platform
IN Media Practice | 2008-02-24
At the height of the campaign, the TOI group¿s Maharashtra Times allowed Raj Thackeray to justify and expand upon his hate campaign in a long piece titled `"My stand, My fight¿¿.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-02-23
The Congress party-backed Jaihind TV channel stands accused of insulting party leader and Defence Minister A.K. Antony. A political satire aired by it last month showed him and veteran leader K. Karunakaran fighting with swords. Antony¿s aides wanted to find out if this was the work of Congress leaders opposed..
IN Community Media | 2008-02-23
The development of community radio in India is going to have an international effect when it really gets going.
IN Media Practice | 2008-02-23
It was a moment when one felt grateful for the omnipresence of the media which is often criticised for its biases and flaws.
Restoring freedom to the media in Pakistan
IN Media Freedom | 2008-02-23
A new Hoot study describes the dimensions of the problem, even as victorious leaders of the Pakistan People’s Party and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz commit themselves to lifting restrictions on the press.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-02-21
Sun TV continues to manage the fallout of its break up with the ruling party in Tamilnadu. It will now have to move out of the DMK offices and pay a monthly rental of Rs 22 lakhs for alternative accommodation. And it is relocating the news departments of its regional..
The Supreme Court won’t let go
IN Law and Policy | 2008-02-21
The Chief Justice insists on an apology even as journalist’s counsel says apex court’s permission was sought before the sting.
Guidelines to monitor TV channels
IN Law and Policy | 2008-02-21
The government specifies the role state and district monitoring committees will play.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-02-20
Both Asif Ali Zardari and Nawaz Sharif have said in their post election press conferences tht restoring media freedom is a key objective. Zardari has said he will remove the PEMRA ordinance which was being used by the current regime to clamp down on the media. ..
IN Opinion | 2008-02-19
But please don’t give a further jolt to our already battered profession here.
The secret realm of business TV
IN Opinion | 2008-02-19
At least one influential business TV anchor, in his newspaper column last Monday morning, "guess"d that Reliance Power shares would "possibly settle around Rs 500-550 in the near term".
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-02-18
Opposition parties in Tamil Nadu on Sunday criticised the state government for arresting cable operators of Sun TV, owned by Maran siblings, Kalanidhi and Dayanidhi, the estranged grandnephews of Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi. The city police Saturday arrested hundreds of Sun TV cable operators. (IANS)..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-02-18
Economic Times is to launch its Hindi edition on Tuesday. And the HT-Mint arrangement with INX to produce business news for News X is off. The new owner of Wall Street Journal, Rupert Murdoch, did not approve of the TV venture which would have given competition to his own Star..
Pakistan: An election without coverage?
IN Media Freedom | 2008-02-17
As Pakistan goes to the polls coverage of election rallies, live call-ins, live talk shows, and live coverage of protests is prohibited. And PTV’s own coverage of rallies is selective and misleading.
IN Opinion | 2008-02-17
In the public eye, the media has started becoming the real villain, especially TV. The Raj Thackeray affair has got everyone asking: what¿s wrong with these TV clowns?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-02-15
IANS reports that senior cabinet ministers voiced concern over the media reporting of the Mumbai violence which, they felt, sparked panic and led to a mass exodus from the city to Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. The ministers spoke at a cabinet meeting presided over by the Prime Minister a day..
The apology: TV captured it best
IN Media Practice | 2008-02-15
The two-week run up on television to the ‘Sorry Day’ was marked by discussions on whether the apology was indeed necessary.
IN Community Media | 2008-02-13
Now that community radio policy has been reformed, now that licenses have been approved, now that channels are being set up… now what?
Arab States impose curbs on satellite TV
IN Media Freedom | 2008-02-13
Over the opposition solely of Qatar, the home of Al-Jazeera, information ministers of the 22-member Arab League voted in favor of the document.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-02-11
We are used to the Times of India’s narcissm, but the Sunday Times on Feb 10 took the cake. First there was the wrap around page 1 with its hype on Lead India, the TOI’s self-appointed mission to find us leaders. The story took up all of page two, and..
Saving the rhino or saving the minister?
IN Media Practice | 2008-02-11
The IANS reporter in Guwahati was silent on the demand for a CBI enquiry by the NGO.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-02-09
When the police at Jabalpur railway station recently arrested a child beggar, handcuffed him, and made him stand outside the police station, he suffered an epileptic attack. A Sahara Samay reporter came to his rescue. He not only helped him to recover from the attack, he also rescued him from..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-02-09
Navrang, Dainik Bhaskar¿s Saturday supplement on Bollywood, has a small column on its back page called Golmal, contributed by readers, which focuses on goof ups in Hindi films. Those who have a sharp eye for these things send them in, and earn a byline for their pains. Sample: a character..
How not to write on foreign topics
IN Opinion | 2008-02-09
Not only are Indian leader writers out of practice, they forget that the reader may know even less.
Pervez gets 85 per cent airtime on PTV
IN Media Freedom | 2008-02-07
There is a clear bias in favour of President Musharraf¿s allies in state TV’s election campaign coverage
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-02-07
Four Hindi financial dailies will roll out by the end of this year. Only one of them has made its plans public: the CNBC TV 18-Jagran joint venture. Of the other three two are Hindi verisons of existing business dailies, and one is from the stable of a leading Hindi..
IN Community Media | 2008-02-07
Chief editor Samanvaya explains that a reporter must have three qualities, "She should be enthusiastic, zealous and honest."
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-02-06
A short film meant to encourage condom use among key populations has become a hit on YouTube, with a four-star rating, and over 600,000 views.The film, ‘Protective Cover’, was produced by Alliance India Andhra Pradesh as part of an intervention targeting sex workers in Telangana and Rayalseema districts. ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-02-06
We have our OBC, dalit, muslim, and brahmin vote, they have their white, black, Hispanic, and Asian vote. Election calculations on US TV on the night of the Tuesday primaries were not so very different after all. Caste here, race there. CNN actually had graphics showing the vote in each..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-02-04
With the broadcast bill in limbo, the government is planning fresh legislation to put all existing broadcasting guidelines in an overarching framework. The Broadcasting Validation of Guidelines Bill could be tabled in the next session of parliament. It is meant to systematise different guidelines for uplinking and downlinking and does..
IN Community Media | 2008-02-04
Ever since its launch in December last year, ¿Appan Samachar¿ has become popular in over a dozen villages in the district.
IN Media Practice | 2008-02-02
"If we need to open out books to the finance ministry then we will...." Letters from the dramatis personae that are doing the rounds.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-02-02
Mint, the financial daily, has set itself up as a model of transparency. On its first anniversary it told us how it had done so far in terms of circulation, advertising, and the accuracy of its reporting. It present detailed pie charts of mistakes made by the paper, and by..
IN Opinion | 2008-02-02
One of Sen’s past employers, the Hindustan Times, sacked an editor last year. We did not see him head for the minister for information and broadcasting.
IN Opinion | 2008-02-01
Father of Indian tabloid journalism, former owner and editor of Blitz, the trail-blazing newspaper, is no more
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-01-31
The management of the St Aloysius School in Mumbai has filed an FIR at the Bandra police station registering a complaint against the crew of a TV channel that was attempting to stage a shot using their school children. The idea was to show auto rickshaws excessively loaded with kids...
IN Opinion | 2008-01-31
The Indian Express had been pushing for an interest rate cut. Then when it didn¿t happen, it freaked out.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-01-30
A Headlines Today anchor wisecracking about George Bush’s speech on January 29: " A lame duck going quack in his State of the Union address…" Is he confusing a news anchor’s role with that of Jay Leno? ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-01-30
Barkha Dutt and Vinod Dua of NDTV have accepted state awards this year, but not many know that Prannoy Roy, big daddy of the same channel, declined it a few years ago, right after the UPA government came in. ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-01-27
Since it has become almost certain that Vir Sanghvi is parting ways with INX media, the senior journalists whom he hired will be put in a spot. One who was all set to join from the Times of India is said to be quickly retracing his steps. Most of them..
Should journalists accept state honours?
IN Media Practice | 2008-01-27
Given India¿s deeply patronage-laden system it is obvious that someone, somewhere in that system made a studied decision to honour certain individuals and not others. (Pix: ndtv.com)
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-01-23
The company law board has held as null and void the share transfer from United News of India to Media West owned by Subhash Chandra. In its 41-page order, the CLB said: "It is an admitted fact that in the UNI, notwithstanding that there is no restriction on the number..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-01-23
Hacks are showered with goodies when they go on a trip with the PM, and China was no different. A dazed newbie describes the flow of whiskies, brandies and canapés. And the take home gifts of Lindt chocolates, parfum, Johnny Walker and Benson and Hedges in the loaded Air India..
IN Media Practice | 2008-01-23
The Congress has reportedly decided to discontinue publication of the daily that was started in Lucknow Sep 9, 1938 by Nehru.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-01-21
Two English news channels gave awards for politician of the year, NDTV to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, and CNN-IBN to finance minister P Chidambaram. You would think that by any yardstick a Dalit politician achieving a clear majority in a UP election after so many years would be the most..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-01-21
On a Sahara news show a woman was reporting from Bundelkhand. She wanted to show that people have been eating grass to stave off death and hunger, so she focused her camera on a woman who had been eating grass. The woman was clearly uncomfortable, but our reporter has been told --poverty sells. "Aap kya..
Scrutiny of private treaties builds up
IN Media Practice | 2008-01-20
The Times Group pioneered this trend, and others are eager to follow.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-01-20
A viewer has written in to say that it was positively irritating to watch the way the prime minister was treated on the NDTV awards show. He had to stand by while Srinivas Jain decided to ask Rajnikant some questions, and tried to persuade Shah Rukh
IN Opinion | 2008-01-18
This was the first sentence of the edit and there was really no need to go on but space, like vacuum, has to be filled.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-01-17
The TV reporter accused of faking a sting operation against a Daryaganj school teacher has moved a Delhi court against the channel which suspended him saying that the police did not present the original unedited tapes in court when the case was heard. He also says the offending sting was..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-01-17
Raghav Bahl, managing director of the Network 18 group which owns CNBC-TV 18 cites the example of a reviewer on CNN-IBN, the channel they part own, lambasting a film made by his group as an example of editorial independence. A smart way to win brownie points if you ask us...
Countering the displeasure of Allah
IN Media Monitoring | 2008-01-16
In 2007, fundamentalist ire in Pakistan against sinful media picks up steam, beginning with no incidents in January and ending with 23 in December alone.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-01-12
Around August-September last year the Hindustan Times in Bhopal saw an unprecedented instance of a resident editor appointee being resisted by the staff. Some journalists of the paper¿s Bhopal edition sent a memorandum to the management in Delhi protesting the appointment of Neeraj Mishra. Mr Mishra has finally exited the..
Can election coverage in Pakistan be fair?
IN Media Monitoring | 2008-01-12
Why Pakistan¿s media are not free to provide proper coverage of the legislative elections scheduled for 18 February.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-01-11
The President of India¿s salary has been doubled. Bhupendra Choubey on CNN-IBN wants to know whether she deserves to get Rs one lakh a month. Considering that he and some of his other fellow anchors across channels get at least a few times that figure a month, we find that..
Wisdom recycled from television
IN Opinion | 2008-01-10
Excellencies, considering your edits were all based on TV wisdom, none of you wrote even a line about the commentators?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-01-10
The International News Safety Institute at Brussels has protested against a Sri Lanka Army official labeling journalists as traitors. In a January interview with the state-controlled daily Dinamina, a Sri Lanka Army Commander reportedly said that the media¿s "treachery" was hampering the military¿s fight against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil..
Caught between nationalism and fair reporting
IN Media Practice | 2008-01-08
The oxymoron of ‘fair sports coverage’ is on stark display during this crisis in the contest between India and Australia.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-01-07
The rest of the media and the country may have been exercised about the umpiring at Sydney, but Star News was exercised, ostensibly on Deepika Padukone’s behalf, over Yuvraj Singh being out. Its "Top story" throughout Sunday morning was on the couple, whom the anchors fantasized about, even as red..
Engaging the Media: A Rough Guide
IN Media Practice | 2008-01-07
Many development professionals want to work with the public media, but very few know how to get it right.
IN Media Practice | 2008-01-07
This Asia Pacific Resource Book comes out at a time when both the media industry and the global humanitarian sector are undergoing rapid change,
IN Opinion | 2008-01-06
What position should the media take when human rights and security interests collide?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-01-06
The Hindustan Times’ photographers who played a commendable role in ending the molestation of two women outside a Mumbai hotel on New Years Eve, have now identified the 14 men accused of molesting two American Indian women on New Year¿s Eve as those responsible for the outrage. An act of..
IN Community Media | 2008-01-05
"When we hear on the radio that another village’s problems have been solved, we will also make an effort to do something about our own situation."
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-01-04
Globalisation meant media expansion which meant an explosion of jobs for journalists. But now globalization has other implications for the media market here. The managing editor of the Hindustan Times is currently in New York recruiting journalists from there for his group. An NRI returnee himself like Mint editor Raju..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-01-02
The Hoot is happy to note that the media is no longer being coy about naming one of its own when they are up to no good. When IANS put out the story about the Aaj Tak reporter who was drunk and mowed down an ice cream vendor on New..
DGP dialogues with Naxals, through a newspaper
IN Media Practice | 2008-01-02
Editor of ¿Chhattisgarh¿, Sunil Kumar, the brain behind the series, said a dialogue between the two sides had to be initiated to end the violence.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2008-01-01
Six new Indian media stocks made their debut on the bourses in calendar year 2007, of which three gave substantially higher returns over their issue prices. These were Global Broadcast News Ltd (GBN), Shree Ashtavinayak Cinevision Ltd which produced the runaway hit Jab We Met, and Pyramid Symira, which gave..
IN Opinion | 2008-01-01
Not one newspaper was willing to blame the Gandhi family¿s leadership for the Congress defeats in Gujarat and Himachal.
IN Media Practice | 2007-12-30
Now the fake Khurana sting has triggered a credibility crisis in the world of spycams, secret recordings and phone tappings.
An Editor is arrested in Kerala, but no one notices
IN Media Freedom | 2007-12-30
The arrest and the consequent developments raise a number of disturbing questions.
IN Opinion | 2007-12-28
She could bat deftly with interviewees across the world, never at a loss for words even when faced with the toughest questions.
IN Opinion | 2007-12-28
Off and on through the evening, the bleakness in the scenario there came through from the testimony of this one man.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-12-26
The Economic Times is apparently getting ready to launch a Hindi edition, which will make it the first financial daily to be bilingual. The Times Group opted out of the regional language race in the late 1990s, now it is reinvesting in the regional press, starting with its acquisition of..
IN Media Practice | 2007-12-26
Letter to the Hoot: Is it civilized on the part of the Media to resort to such means to ‘sell’ the dead ?
IN Media Practice | 2007-12-26
I wouldn’t have felt so sore about this if Westland had been a fledgling, stand-alone publisher launching their first book.
IN Books | 2007-12-24
Publishers make a far more enduring contribution than journalists--they contribute to the intellectual life of a nation.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-12-24
During a panel discussion the day before the Gujarat election results were to be announced, a Times Now news anchor asked activist Teesta Setalvad what she felt Modi’s chances would be? "I’m a journalist, I can’t predict results," she said. "But you are one of Modi’s strongest critics, why are you..
Gujarati press in raptures over ¿trader of votes¿
IN Regional Media | 2007-12-24
Divya Bhaskar said it was Modi who was projecting himself as larger than life, but now he has truly emerged as larger than life.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-12-22
For Star News Teji Bachchan’s death was breaking news. Even as they ran the story they kept explaining who she was: Amitabh Bachchan’s mother, Harivansh Rai Bachchan’s wife, and so on. Abhishek Bachchan’s grandmother, and Aishwarya Rai’s grandmother-in-law, too,doubtless. Evidently the death of someone famous by association now has a..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-12-21
The Deccan Chronicle has an editor in Hyderabad and an editor in chief in Delhi who is M J Akbar. It has apparently appointed yet another editor in Delhi. What will he being doing? Proprietor Venkatram Reddy obviously knows, but his staff doesn’t. For that matter they do not know he’s been..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-12-20
A reader writes that the Kannada vernacular daily Vijay Karnataka has also begun to correct errors in the paper as a matter of policy. There is a regular column where readers point out the errors and the editor responds to them. This practice started on Nov 1st. ..
Do readers know what they want?
IN Media Practice | 2007-12-20
Content is a mix of what the reader wants and what he does not want…The reader, ladies and gentlemen, is not king; actually he is a nice hypocrite.
The suffering ‘Indians’ or ‘Tamils’ of Malaysia?
IN Regional Media | 2007-12-20
It is perhaps the sizeable Tamil population that has prompted publications to use Tamils as synonymous with Indians,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-12-15
The Editors Guild of India has described as "deadly" the direction of the Delhi High Court to the government that a three member committee including a police officer be formed to pre censor all sting operations. The Court said this while ruling on the Uma Khurana sting. Coming from the..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-12-14
Pittala Srisailam, the editor of the online TV station Musi TV, is in jail after his arrest in Andhra Pradesh, accused of being a Maoist "courier," after he was arrested on December 4. He was on his way to interview a Maoist leader when he was arrested. According to Reporters..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-12-14
If you already thought the line between news and showbiz was getting fuzzy try this:"Seeking young, hungry, reporters/journalists who chase stories to star in a new documentary TV series for a major cable network about emergency rescue operations. Must be age 25-45, outgoing, charismatic, engaging, passionate…" This from a production..
Concluding too much from too little?
IN Media Freedom | 2007-12-14
Fifty-seven percent of Indians give a "good" performance rating to public news organisations in BBC¿s poll, compared with 39 percent globally.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-12-10
Media houses lose no time at all in discovering the advantages of cross media ownership. Aaj Tak winning a television academy award enabled the new tabloid Mail Today to carry quite a few column inches touting the TV channel owned by the majority owner of the paper. ..
IN Media Freedom | 2007-12-07
The report pointed to the growing use of spin and growing culture of secrecy and mutual distrust between the government and the media.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-12-07
The Times of India has taken credit for a government decision to now exempt India’s service chiefs from pre embarkation security checks at domestic airports. The paper pointed out last month that while even the top brass of the forces were not exempt from frisking Robert Vadra, Sonia Gandhi’s son..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-12-07
With Bennett & Coleman about to launch Ahmedabad Mirror, it was just a matter of time before DNA responded. And it did by launching DNA in Ahmedabad before TOI could launch its compact. After all, advertising is a 1-2 game and it would have been a shame if TOI walked..
IN Media Practice | 2007-12-07
Two recent anti-trafficking campaigns by MTV and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime perpetuate the image of the sex worker as the agency-less trafficked woman,
IN Media Practice | 2007-12-07
Bishan Singh Bedi gets interviewed and mentions Harbhajan Singh is a chucker – headlines!
Guwahati violence and the media
IN Media Practice | 2007-12-02
A section of media projected the incident simply as an unprovoked attack on the Adivasi demonstrators by the residents of Guwahati.
IN Media Practice | 2007-12-02
This angst of the industry is reflected in two commercials that have been aired in the last month, during the cricket series.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-12-02
Gomantak Times is the latest Goan newspaper to plagiarise editorials. Published on November 10, its editorial deals with global warming and has been plagiarised from an article written for RIA Novosti, a Russian news agency. Pen Pricks reproduces it on its blog. ..
Indo-Malaysian self-assertion via Internet
IN Digital Media | 2007-12-02
The Internet kept up a flow of information for all those concerned about perhaps the first organised call for equal rights by Indians in Malaysia.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-11-30
When the folks at the Times of India spend energy on something other than promoting their own products or campaigning for their own interests, you have to give them a pat on the back. Even though it is based on government reports they’ve done a good job of presenting the..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-11-29
Should the Telegraph have carried a front page picture of an adivasi girl running naked down a Guwahati street after being stripped by ethnic rioters? It used black strips to conceal part of her nudity but her face was only slightly pixelated. Three readers from Tezpur university say in a..
IN Media Practice | 2007-11-29
In Malaysia, temples are razed to the ground and we learn about it first from the International Herald Tribune. Does any Indian newspaper send its reporter? (pix: Prime Minister Badawi)
IN Opinion | 2007-11-27
Track columnists who write regularly on the media through the Hoot. Links to recent columns by Amita Malik, Shailaja Bajpai, Poonam Saxena, Gurbir Singh, Ammu Joseph and Sevanti Ninan
IN Media Practice | 2007-11-27
Liberal values are the hallmark of all major Indian English newspapers – except when they clash with the ideologies of the parties that they support.
IN Community Media | 2007-11-26
What were insipid tabloids repeating month-old news from Indian publications just a couple of years ago have become glossy, 60-page papers that are a mine of information on all things Indian in the continent.
IN Opinion | 2007-11-26
In an era where we are constantly talking of crass competition, there is this newspaper group which has initiated a real time effort in reaching out to the progressive Muslim.
IN Opinion | 2007-11-26
Were the press balanced they would equally hound Mulayam Singh because, and this is not condoning carnage, he has a personal criminal record, Modi doesn¿t.
Tehelka’s sting expose: an Inoculum Effect?
IN Books | 2007-11-26
This article hypothesises about a theoretical interpretation called Inoculum Effect on the probable impact of such sting operations.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-11-26
The Hindu¿s journalism excites its readers less than in its crossword puzzles do. On Nov. 26 the paper¿s Readers Editor describes a series of reactions when the paper mistakenly carried the previous day¿s clues with one of its crosswords. One reader found time to complain on the day of his daughter¿s..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-11-26
Zubair Ahmed Mujahid, a correspondent of the national daily Jang, was shot at and killed by a man on a motorcycle on 23 November in Mirpur Khas, in the southern province of Sindh in Pakistan. He wrote a weekly column called "Crime and Punishment" in which he often criticised landowners..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-11-26
Indian journalists are always being lectured to about the superior reporting standards of western journalists, but try this. The San Francisco Chronicle had this gem in a November 18 report by Larry Habegger on the monkey menace in Delhi. "Other monkeys ransacked the apartment of Priyanka Gandhi, the daughter of..
The media’s role in Kerala’s healthcare setbacks
IN Media Practice | 2007-11-23
Has the incessant anti-vaccination campaign carried out by a section of Malayalam media led to a drop in immunization coverage?
Is it really broadcasting by the community?
IN Community Media | 2007-11-22
After years of struggle, community radio is finally happening in South Asia. But is everything that goes by the name really community radio?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-11-20
The Daily Mail, Delhi’s new tabloid, has run into predictable resistance from the market leaders. The TOI and HT will not carry its ads, so smaller papers are the delighted beneficiaries. And newsagents in some areas are not stocking the new paper yet because of threats from the big boys...
IN Opinion | 2007-11-19
Not even a month has elapsed since the The Tehelka issue on the violence in Gujarat.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-11-19
The I&B Ministry continues its spree of ordering channels off the air. On November 14 it directed two news channels – Zee News and IBN7 – to apologise for airing shows on ‘onscreen kissing’, where censored Bollywood movie clips were compiled and shown. The channels have been directed to scroll..
Geo TV hints at options outside of Dubai
IN Media Freedom | 2007-11-19
Geo is one of the two private Pakistani channels that have been ordered to stop uplinking their news programmes from Dubai. The other is ARY TV. Asked what kind of options he has, Mir said, "We have options within Asia."
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-11-17
Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda has announced annual awards for journalists worth Rs.3.7 million and also gave a grant of Rs.2.5 million to the Chandigarh Press Club on the occasion of national press day here.The chief minister said that by announcing the awards for journalists, Haryana has become the..
IN Media Freedom | 2007-11-17
President Musharraf is believed to have leaned heavily on the Dubai Government to pull the plug on Geo TV, which is uplinked from Dubai. The latter succumbed to the pressure late last night.
IN Opinion | 2007-11-14
The point is not, however, whether Mr Bhattacharjee thinks of pests and press in the same breath. It is whether any provocation is big enough in a democratic system to call a newspaper a pest.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-11-14
While it is understandable that all corporates Reliance down should be sending Diwali goodies to journalists, what should one make of Mr Vilasrao Deshmukh and his wife¿s card and gifts. A coffee maker (how thoughtful for the scribes sure need some coffee), an expensive sari, and dry fruits; all gift..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-11-13
The arrest of two scribes in Kurnool in Andhra Pradesh was being seen as further proof of chief minister Y S Rajsekhara Reddy¿s allergy to the media.They had bribed a local functionary to sanction houses in the names of a state minister and others under the Indiramma scheme. While the media calls..
IN Opinion | 2007-11-13
As edits go Nandigram was a sitting duck. Everyone took a shot at it and everyone missed the point, deliberately or otherwise.
IN Media Practice | 2007-11-12
How did they take a story as dramatic and unforgettable as that of reporter Daniel Pearl, and reduce it to a story about his pretty wife?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-11-11
The Pakistan government ordered the expulsion of three journalists working for the Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph. The paper carried an editorial last week in which it said, ""In the old parlance, General Pervez Musharraf is ¿our sonofabitch¿". The reference is to a quote from former US President Lyndon Johnson...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-11-10
For the press in Pakistan it is now a daily ding-dong battle with the state police. On Saturday afternoon local police raided the Peshawar Press Club in their bid to arrest the Pakistan People¿s Party provincial president who was addressing a press conference. The police were evicted by the journalists, following..
IN Media Freedom | 2007-11-09
Today, when Benazir Bhutto was due to leave Islamabad to attend a rally in Rawalpindi, there was no way of knowing which areas were cordoned off and which were still accessible. And without TV we are completely unaware about the world exploding just
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-11-09
Pakistan¿s media establishments are going about doing their job despite the crackdown. People have taken to buying satellite dishes and the over 65 mn mobile phones are acting as a source of information. Many news organizations have started sending mobile phone messages. Some newspapers have seen their circulation increase, while..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-11-09
IANS reports that the Pakistan¿s media watchdog has denied asking cable operators to block private TV channels. A spokesman of Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) said that police were taking action against cable operators on the directives of official authorities. Pakistan government ordered cable operators to block transmission of..
IN Opinion | 2007-11-09
Was it a six men army against the lone woman in the race?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-11-06
An Indian collaboration with Foreign Affairs to produce a strategic affairs quarterly is coming from the stable of Sakal, the Marathi daily. APCA, the media software company that runs newspapers in Nepal and Mauritius on a turnkey basis, will be producing the editorial package for the journal. It will be..
IN Media Practice | 2007-11-06
Although Tamilnet’s stand vis-à-vis Tamil nationhood and its bias towards the LTTE is clear, it remains a preferred news source for three reasons.
IN Media Practice | 2007-11-06
The fact that Ravana¿s religious side had to be introduced in a news story with some surprise reveals more than just ignorance.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-11-04
JD-U legislator Anant Singh, a known muscleman in Bihar and four of his henchmen were arrested on November 1 for attacking media people. Singh¿s men beat the journalists, hurled stones at them and fired warning shots in the air to dispel those who had gathered outside his house to protest..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-11-04
For the second time in a fortnight transmission of all private television channels in Pakistan was blocked by the government. An official of the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) gave the order on telephone at around 4 p.m. Just a week back a similar order was given when the..
IN Media Practice | 2007-11-04
The first few hours after the imposition of Emergency in Pakistan became a speculative free for all, backed by stock footage.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-11-01
When edit page writers take strong positions, it might be a good thing for the reader to know about the author¿s own interest and background. Business Standard forgot to mention that Cyril Shroff is a partner at a big Indian law firm. Shroff wrote a strongly argued piece in its..
IN Media Practice | 2007-10-31
Even as Tehelka revives Gujarat 2002, winds of change are sweeping the Muslim community that need media attention. The Hindustan Times has been running a series celebrating the arrival of the New Muslim who abhors Sachar crutches or government doles.
IN Media Practice | 2007-10-31
A major bungling in the recommendation for admission in medical colleges by Bihar govt. was exposed through the effective use of RTI by a journalist.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-10-31
Is Thomas Friedman the world¿s most influential columnist? Nandan Nilekani repeatedly made that assertion while introducing him at a lecture he gave in Delhi. He added for good measure that Friedman had done more than our entire diplomatic service in shaping the world¿s image of India.Hype? Maybe, but we won¿t..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-10-30
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati may have run an election campaign which did not depend on media support, but now she is wooing the media like anybody else. Not only do media houses in UP get huge advertisements from the state government, but also the Chandigarh Press Club, built from..
Reliance Power sues Statesman for Rs 1000 crore
IN Media Freedom | 2007-10-30
A series in the run up to Reliance Power’s IPO has attracted a defamation suit. The Bombay High Court declined to order restraint on further publication and the series continues to run.
IN Regional Media | 2007-10-27
For sixty years the Congress Party at the Centre and in the states has demonstrated an inclination for media repression.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-10-27
What do people think of the Tehelka expose? If the posts on Rediff.com are any indication Tehelka is perceived as the villain, not the people it has exposed. Several posts have been removed for abuse by the site, but there is enough vitriol still on display to show that minority..
IN Statistics | 2007-10-26
DEMOGRAPHIC Census: http://www.censusindia.net/ Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation: http://mospi.nic.in/ National Sample Survey Organization: http://mospi.nic.in/mospi_about_nsso.htm http://mospi.gov.in/nspb_m.htm ELECTORAL Election Commission of India: www.eci.gov.in JUDICIARY Directory of Courts in India with links: http://goidirectory.gov.in/judi.htm Supreme Court of India: http://supremecourtofindia.nic.in/ Website of Supreme Court and 21 High Courts and benches: http://www.indiancourts.nic.in/sitesmain.htm COMMISSIONS Directory of National Commissions: http://goidirectory.gov.in/committees.htm 2nd Administrative Reforms Commission (ARC): http://arc.gov.in/ Central Electricity Regulatory..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-10-26
Tehelka, Aaj Tak, and Headlines Today were full of righteous horror and indignation at Narendra Modi’s complicity in the Gujarat carnage. But that did not stop them from using their expose to rake in the moolah. The volume of advertising had to be seen to believed. No wonder they kept..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-10-26
The ministry of information and broadcasting is set to spend Rs 800 million on its answer to the NDA’s India Shining. The advertising campaign is aimed at publicising the government¿s initiatives in the agriculture, rural development, education, infrastructure and healthcare sectors. IANS..
IN Opinion | 2007-10-26
The Chief Minister said it was pressure from media and those who kept the candles lit said a thank you to the media.
Tehelka’s election-time tinderbox
IN Opinion | 2007-10-25
Headlines Today assumes the totally out-of-character role of a platform for politically charged investigation.
China gags Tibetan blogs and Dalai Lama news
IN Digital Media | 2007-10-24
China has begun a massive public relations exercise in its southern neighbour Nepal, inviting groups of Nepali journalists to Tibet so that they can write about the region¿s development and prosperity under Beijing¿s control.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-10-21
Given the reputation it has for using its media to fight its commercial battles,eyebrows rose when the Times of India raised its voice against the parliamentary standing committee’s stand on an internet issue. First a second lead story, then an edit to protest the proposal .The committee is resisting reducing..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-10-20
On a day when the police force in three states – Delhi, Bengal and Punjab – had been indicted by courts, Aaj Tak’s special report at 8.30 pm was Yash Raj Ki Rani, on the flogged-to-death story of the romance between Rani Mukherjee and Yash Raj Films scion Aditya Chopra...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-10-20
West Bengal CM has admitted that his action against the police chiefs was because of the media hounding his government. Quite an admission of cause and effect. ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-10-20
What was the comment on a FM radio channel that set off mob violence in Siliguri? It has become a media convention to self censor in such cases, so nobody reported either the remark or the name of the offending channel. The channel was Red FM owned by a consortium..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-10-20
For once one could forgive TV channels for the twist to news. At the ceremony for the Indian cricket team at Wankhede stadium, only the Hindi channels and Times Now, immediately pointed out how the cricket bureaucracy overshadowed the victorious players. Barring captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the players were all..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-10-20
All newspapers and TV stations in Manipur remained shut for the third day on October 13 after yet another threat from an outlawed group. On Wednesday the People¿s Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak sent out a press release but another faction of the outfit imposed a ban on its publication and..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-10-19
Politicians know how to take care of journalists who matter to their constituency. Minister for Civil Aviation Praful Patel has taken some twenty journalists from the Vidarbha region which includes his constituency Gondia, on junket to Dubai. ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-10-19
When Sunita Williams comes visiting TV channels tie up with schools to capture her interactions with schoolchildren. And sometimes you get the rare combination of a school and channel which have the same owner. While asking Wiliams questions the Headlines Today reporter took care to keep the name of Vasant..
IN Opinion | 2007-10-19
Amita Malik, Shailaja Bajpai, Poonam Saxena, Gurbir Singh and Sevanti Ninan
When the PM and Sonia ate crow, publicly
IN Opinion | 2007-10-19
With that avian breakfast ended the useful life of the UPA government. Surprisingly, it was the Times of India, that said it all.
IN Law and Policy | 2007-10-19
Broadcast bill Proposed Broadcasting Bill Part I - http://www.thehoot.org/story.asp?storyid=Web5917640125Hoot51613 PM2240&pn=1§ion=S3 Part II - http://www.thehoot.org/story.asp?storyid=Web5917619227Hoot13444 AM2247&pn=1§ion=S3 Part III - http://www.thehoot.org/story.asp?storyid=Web5917617140Hoot34323 PM2255&pn=1§ion=S3 Part IV - http://www.thehoot.org/story.asp?storyid=Web5917617140Hoot35505 PM2256&pn=1§ion=S3 Broadcasting code on Anvil Part I - http://www.thehoot.org/story.asp?storyid=Web59176397Hoot13333 PM2161&pn=1§ion=S3 Part II - http://www.thehoot.org/story.asp?storyid=Web5917627180Hoot120411 AM2163&pn=1§ion=S3 Part III - http://www.thehoot.org/story.asp?storyid=Web5917627180Hoot120811 AM2164&pn=1§ion=S3 A Draft of the Proposed Broadcasting Services Regulation Bill, 2006- http://www.mib.nic.in/informationb/POLICY/BROADCASTSERVICESREGULATIONBILL.htm Useful articles..
A new look for the Hoot, and renewed resolve
IN Opinion | 2007-10-19
Indian media needs a watchdog more than ever, and it needs one that looks sharp. We hope visitors will quickly learn to navigate the new Hoot and make it a daily habit.
IN Law and Policy | 2007-10-18
Sections effecting journalism & Journalists 1[1. Short title, extent and application (1) This Act may be called the Official Secrets Act, 1923. (2) It extends to the whole of India and applies also to servants of the Government and to citizens of India outside India.] 3. Penalties for..
IN Law and Policy | 2007-10-18
Right to Information Act, 2005 The link to the following website contains the following information on Right to information. 1. Bare act 2. Procedure of requesting information 3. Exemptions 4. Role of centre, state and local bodies Right to Information act, Government of India http://persmin.nic.in/RTI/WelcomeRTI.htm A tabular study of existing..
IN Law and Policy | 2007-10-18
Indian Penal Code, 1860 Section 124A: Sedition According to the section of IPC , anyone who by words or expression of any kind brings or attempts to bring or provoke a feeling of hatred, contempt, or disaffection towards government established by law is culpable under the section for imprisonment from..
IN Law and Policy | 2007-10-17
Article 19 1’ A, Bare act http://www.constitution.org/cons/india/p03019.html Notes- 1. The freedom of expression is part of the fundamental rights guaranteed to a citizen of India, under part –III of the constitution. 2. The Indian Constitution, while not mentioning the word "press", provides for "the right to freedom of speech and expression" (Article 19(1)..
IN Law and Policy | 2007-10-17
Contempt of courts amendment act, 2006- http://indiacode.nic.in/fullact1.asp?tfnm=200606 The Contempt of Courts Act, 1971 List of amending act ..
IN Law and Policy | 2007-10-17
The Copyright Act, 1957 13. Works in which copyright subsists- (1) Subject to the provisions of this section and the other provisions of this Act, copyright shall subsist throughout India in the following classes of works, that is to say - (a) Original, literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works, (b)..
IN Law and Policy | 2007-10-17
The legal ready reckoner contains relevant facts, information and commentary on the following legal areas relevant to media. Copyright Defamation Contempt of court Freedom of the Press Indian Penal Code Right to Information Official Secrets Act, 1923 Broadcast bill It has been put together by Deepti Bharthur, based on earlier work by Vishal Parikh ..
IN Opinion | 2007-10-17
All the major papers had a ball. They also proved my point that sometimes it is so much easer to write an edit than breathing.
IN Opinion | 2007-10-16
The Congress is more worried about Mayawati than the nuclear deal. No edit writer mentioned this.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-10-16
Has competition begun to take its toll on the Indian Express? The paper is shrinking its Mumbai office to a bureau, shifting it office from Parel to Express Towers, and posting the desk staff to Delhi, from where the Mumbai edition will now be handled. End of a chapter for..
Six Pakistani journalists booked on terror charges
IN Media Freedom | 2007-10-15
If the charges are proved, the journalists could face the death penalty or life imprisonment.
A defamation verdict from Kerala
IN Regional Media | 2007-10-13
The case was a high profile one because those who appeared in it as prosecution and defendants were tall figures in Kerala’s public life. M N Vijayan (left)died soon after the verdict.
Why did Sammal Dhurve hang himself?
IN Media Practice | 2007-10-12
This is a particularly juicy story, and I can just imagine how it would have been covered.
IN Media Practice | 2007-10-12
BBC News measured the 17 times he had used words like "we," "us," and "our" in seven sentences.
IN Media Practice | 2007-10-11
So what should one conclude about the message from NDTV India’s new fictional pulpit?
IN Opinion | 2007-10-02
Most edits were top-class in that they were well-informed, balanced and served the purpose of paying homage to a great Indian.
Why the Penpricks expose was anonymous
IN Media Practice | 2007-09-30
"The media in Goa is either owned by corrupt petty crooks or the mining biggies. While the former are vindictive, no one dare take on the latter."
IN Regional Media | 2007-09-30
Why did it pick on a nameless Professor? The rendezvous was duly filmed and telecast, costing the man his career.
IN Opinion | 2007-09-27
Rahul Gandhi has been elevated within the family firm. Leader writers were not only not critical, they were positively kind,
IN Opinion | 2007-09-25
The average Brahmin whom Outlook contacted intrigues me. Does he exist, or is it an easy, lazy way in which the idea of public opinion is used,
IN Law and Policy | 2007-09-22
Is investigation into the conduct of a retired CJI contempt of court? Is it an attack on the institution of the Supreme Court?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-09-20
Even without legislating broadcast regulation it is possible to penalize offending news channels. The government has now banned Live India TV for a month, following the fake sting which it broadcast. We’ll wait to see if it sobers up those who sting
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-09-20
The Union Ministry is increasing its allocation for countering Pakistani propaganda. The largest sum allocated by the Centre for a state TV network of Doordarshan is going to DD Kashir. The sum of Rs 300 crores is meant to counter what the government says is stepped up propaganda on PTV..
IN Opinion | 2007-09-19
Edits or leaders on Sethusamudram flowed like water from a well functioning tube-well, mostly saying the same thing over and over again.
IN Regional Media | 2007-09-17
With DMK launching its own propaganda organ, Sun TV is moving towards greater credibility and objectivity in its news.
Waiting for the tsunami to strike
IN Media Practice | 2007-09-15
Did a tsunami, even small, hit Indonesia after the earthquake on 12th September? TV whipped up a scare, and then dropped the story.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-09-12
Hindustan Times’ Metro page on September 12 carried a picture of a young couple entwined at India Gate lawns. They probably never imagined that a picture of them would end up in a newspaper. The girl’s face is clearly recognisable. The paper not only did not think it was an..
Goan blog stings a local daily
IN Media Practice | 2007-09-12
Increasingly blogs are keeping a sharp eye on the mainstream media. Here is a whopper from one of them, called Penpricks.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-09-10
That media has become immensely paying is borne out by the news that the second and third highest salary earners in India are Sun TV CMD Kalanithi Maran and Joint MD Kavery Kalanithi, whose annual remuneration was Rs 23.26 crore each in 2006-07. They are second only to Mukesh Ambani..
Fantasizing about media impact
IN Opinion | 2007-09-08
Can a newspaper campaign alone change a bus driver’s behaviour? Not any more than a newspaper alone can bring down a government.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-09-08
Just reporting the news straight, it seems, is boring. So here is more editorializing in a news headline, from the Indian Express, September 7, 2007. "To please party, CM put on anti-US hat", with reference to West Bengal CM Buddhadeb Bhattacharya thundering against the nuke deal. Criticism is implicit in that headline, the IE..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-09-08
It is ironical that I and B minister Das Munshi has backtracked on the Content Code without holding broadcasters to a firm timeline on coming up with a code of their own. Had he done so, public opinion would have been on his side. In a poll on the sa
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-09-05
A lower court in Lucknow has awarded jail terms to three journalists and two publisher-printers for publishing a defamatory article about an IAS officer in 1994. The papers involved were the Delhi edition of the Pioneer and its sister publication in
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-09-05
The Times of India first lead on the terror strike in Pakistan begins like this: "For decades, the Pakistani establishment has nurtured the monster of terror. Now, it seems to have turned on its erstwhile patron with a vengeance." Talk of editorializ
RTI exposes vendetta by union minister
IN Media Practice | 2007-09-04
In its reply, Coal India admitted that the transfer was based on the reference from a VIP, but was silent on the name.
IN Opinion | 2007-09-04
Does it ever occur to leader writers that the reader may have learnt to discount their opinions as being predictable and one-sided?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-09-03
If you want to know beforehand the result of "Indian Idol", watch TV channels in Nepal. Thanks to a young cop in Kolkata of Nepali origin becoming a finalist for the first time in Idoløs history, Kantipur, Nepaløs biggest private media house has turn
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-09-03
The Bangladesh government is re-examining existing laws to reduce government control and grant autonomy to the state-run radio network Bangladesh Betar and Bangladesh TV (BTV). The move comes six years after the Bangladesh Television Authority Act (B
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-09-01
Vogue magazine is starting an Indian edition which will have an ad rate of Rs 4 lakhs per page. Its MD says they expect a print run of 50,000 a "real" 50,000 that business associates can come and see for themselves, with a visit to the printing press
IN Opinion | 2007-08-30
So many fans, so few edits. Only four major papers wrote on the BCCI-ICL wrangle.
IN Opinion | 2007-08-30
Not many would cavil with journalists being called a decapitated avian species known more for succulent legs and poor heads.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-08-30
NDTV’s soon to be unveiled lifestyle channel has done a deal with the UB Group for committed advertising for five years worth Rs 100 crores, in return for which the Kingfisher logo is likely to be woven into the channel identity. The channel, NDTV Go
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-08-30
The latest venture in critiquing the media is coming out of Punjab. A Ludhiana trust has announced that a quarterly magazine called Media Critique will be launched from Chandigarh on August 31, by a minister in the Punjab government. A former cabinet
A journalist who gives voice to the voiceless
IN Opinion | 2007-08-30
As P. Sainath receives the Magsaysay award in Manila on August 31, his former comrade congratulates him.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-08-27
Warnings to the media from members of the interim government in Bangladesh and from the military that have resulted in widespread self-censorship, particularly among broadcast outlets. The channels were asked to stop televising footage of violence un
Missing links in the Broadcast Bill
IN Law and Policy | 2007-08-27
There is still no sign that the Ministry recognises the need for an authentic public debate on media regulation, and the draft legislation in particular.
Media trial in the era of telelitigation
IN Media Practice | 2007-08-27
The media transforms sensational trials, with celebrity defendants and victims, into telemediated forms. How far removed is such telemediation from reality?
Nepal bans exit polls for coming elections
IN Media Practice | 2007-08-22
The Election Commission said any kind of opinion poll or survey that can influence voters has been banned till the elections are over.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-08-22
TV channels are being launched with alacrity by political parties in the Southern States. In Karnataka Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy’s wife is launching an an "independent" Kannada television channel this week. In Chennai, Mega TV, a Tamil televisi
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-08-21
The Hoot has taken note before of NDTV plugging Lenovo during its news telecasts by prominently displaying the make of the computer used by anchors. Now its getting a bit much. On 21 August NDTV Profit had anchors at the news centre and in Mumbai sha
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-08-21
The latest crisis in Parliament seems to have been triggered by Aziz Haneefa of India Abroad and Rediff quoting US ambassador Ronen Sen’s allegedly off the record remarks. Sen’s statement as read out in Parliament does not say that he did not refer t
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-08-20
When asked to choose between the party line and its own convictions lately expressed in print on the desirability of the nuclear deal with the US, the Hindu leader and op ed writers quickly caved in. On Monday the paper’s lead edit ticked off the gov
Can news reporting get any worse?
IN Opinion | 2007-08-19
Letter to the Hoot. A snake in an MLA`s house in Karnataka became live, breaking news.
IN Opinion | 2007-08-19
Editors are important not just for what they write but also for what they don`t.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-08-15
Outlook.com carries an account of how Hyderabad Urdu papers Siasat and Munsif reported the attack on Taslima Nasreen on August 10. Both referred to her as Gustakh-e-Rasul, or one who insults the Prophet and voiced regret that she was not more severel
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-08-15
Outlook’s 60 years of Independence edition features India’s heroes and villains, including Bal Thackeray in a rogue’s gallery that also includes Gandhi’s assassin. The article, was accompanied by a caricature of Thackeray dressed up as Adolf Hitler.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-08-13
The Royal Government of Bhutan ordered the Bhutan Information, Communication and Media Authority to block a site www.bhutantimes.com in June. This site was a popular forum of discussion in Bhutan. The government has not withdrawn its decision despite
The watchdogs are only watching Bollywood
IN Opinion | 2007-08-13
Letter to the Hoot: That`s why Americans live in a better world. Their media holds the politicians` feet to the fire.
IN Opinion | 2007-08-13
But what of just letting it go by. What about not being in the celebration business?
IN Opinion | 2007-08-13
Does every line of a condemnatory edit have to contain at least two adjectives and one epithet?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-08-12
Journalism of Courage now generates its own page three! When it isn’t ticking off the Left for its anti-Americanism, the Indian Express is inviting their leading lights, and half the cabinet for its journalism awards show in the capital. And now it
IN Media Practice | 2007-08-09
Headlines Today`s live telecast was on for more than an hour, showing visuals of the police van carrying Dutt along the Mumbai-Pune highway.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-08-09
CNN-IBN journalist Sanjeeb Mukherjea wrote a satirical fan mail about Sivaji the Boss in his blog on the CNN-IBN website, which has other bloggers fuming about racism and bad taste. His mimicking of Tamilian pronunciation of English, and his we-Aryan
IN Media Freedom | 2007-08-08
Threats and counter threats from opposing groups within a militant outfit and directives from the state government have made life hell for the media here.
Non-stop music in Bhubaneshwar
IN Regional Media | 2007-08-08
Radio Choklate is currently the only regional FM channel in Orissa and has been strongly emphasizing its `local` flavour and fervour.
IN Media Practice | 2007-08-08
The sale of 125-year-old Dow Jones overshadowed a very interesting war of words between the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-08-08
On the evening of August 7 CNN-IBN was telling its viewers that the Pakistani spokesperson had denied that Dawood was in Pakistani custody, or that he was in Pakistan at all. Headlines Today was telling viewers that a D Company informant in Karachi&n
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-08-06
The Rajasthan Patrika which describes itself as a newspaper with a soul has instituted a Concerned Communicator Award. Advertising professionals are invited to make an advertisement on any social issue. The first prize? Eleven thousand US dollars. Wh
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-08-03
NDTV India’s managing editor Dibang will no longer be managing editor of the channel according to an internal memo from the Roys. He will go back to reporting from the field, allegedly at his own request, and three people will handle the executive ed
IN Opinion | 2007-08-01
Since the Hindu has not used my letters I summarize here points made in the hope that this discussion can reach a wider forum.
Purring about the 123 Agreement
IN Opinion | 2007-08-01
In different words, the Hindustan Times said the same thing, as did the Indian Express which has been the lead drummer for the deal.
IN Media Practice | 2007-08-01
What ordeal is the Deccan Herald talking about? Haneef was in jail for 26 days. How long have the accused in the 1993 Mumbai blasts been in jails?
IN Regional Media | 2007-08-01
A Muslim NRI entrepreneur gains control of a 120-year-old newspaper owned by the Roman Catholic church in Kerala.
Going the way of other market leaders?
IN Opinion | 2007-08-01
Only occasionally, if at all, does The Telegraph display the chutzpah and character that separated it from the other newspapers.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-08-01
When a journalist wins a major award the responses can be quite telling. The Hindu claimed P Sainath on page 1 and forgot to mention that his reporting was first nurtured by the Times of India. The Times claimed him and made a mention at the end of t
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-07-28
‘ Viruddh’ on Sony is about a media tycoon. Now the proprietorøs daughter, played by Smriti Irani, is changing the way papa ran the paper. She wants an end to the tabloid journalism that was the hallmark of the paper, focusing on private lives of fil
Implications of the draft Broadcasting Bill
IN Law and Policy | 2007-07-26
It spells significant departures from the status quo, and a sharp increase in government control over all broadcasting.
IN Media Practice | 2007-07-26
The ideas contained in Kalam’s views or advice to the media encompassed a classical model of mass media and national development.
IN Opinion | 2007-07-24
Here the paper gave itself away. It avoided using the key words, impartiality and neutrality.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-07-21
The sacking of the editor of Delhi’s largest circulated paper and the second or third most read English newspaper in the country, is not news. Chaitanya Kalbag’s exit from the Hindustan Times on July 20 did not merit newspaper or TV coverage. Compare
IN Media Practice | 2007-07-21
Tributes to Prakash Kardaley, a Right to Information campaigner who taught many journalists in Pune and elsewhere, to use the Act.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-07-21
The Hindustan Times has effectively sacked its editor-in-chief Chaitanya Kalbag who came to the paper from Reuters last September. Proprietor Shobhana Bhartia has written to departmental heads to say that they will report to her and to the managing e
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-07-20
NDTV 24X7øs advertising skills have scaled a new high or low, depending on which side of the editorial fence one straddles. Sometimes the channeløs anchors tend to refer to a laptop while reading the news. Normally unobtrusive, these essential tools
Shekhar Gupta’s in-house missive
IN Opinion | 2007-07-20
When one is but a mortal, the truth that necessarily "involves us all" even when staring at us, has a peculiarly wanton habit of eluding oneself.
IN Opinion | 2007-07-17
Some journalists, even when they write an obit, like to talk about themselves.
IN Opinion | 2007-07-15
Being in the interviewee’s hotseat is now more of a comedy of errors than an ordeal.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-07-15
If you had any doubts about Barkha Dutt’s clout in the media world consider this: she wrote a column for the Hindustan Times which the current editor in chief thought was a plug for the TV channel she works for. He wrote her to that effect whereupon
IN Digital Media | 2007-07-14
The second wave of the Internet is throwing up a whole new range of business opportunities that will open up fresh avenues for organizations.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-07-12
Business daily Mint carried a letter from Indian Express editor Shekhar Gupta to his employees as a story in the paper, and the entire letter on its website. The letter was about IE revenue losses when the media industry is growing at a healthy pace.
CPM faction battles the media in Kerala
IN Regional Media | 2007-07-11
The confrontation between Mathrubhumi and the CPM is actually an offshoot of the severe group rivalries in the Kerala CPM.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-07-10
Footage taken by a Hungarian bystander of the capture of the men who tried to ram a Jeep into Glasgow airport was shown on the BBC. Passengers are heard expressing their shock and screaming as police drag a semi-naked man away from the wrecked jeep.
IN Community Media | 2007-07-10
A washerman in Jharkhand has been bringing out a handwritten weekly newspaper for the past 20 years.
Strain index: a new readability formula
IN Opinion | 2007-07-10
If writers take the Strain Index seriously, their prose will become short and crisp; and media language will become more readable.
IN Opinion | 2007-07-10
Not one leader-writer mentioned the obvious: Lal Masjid is the Pak equivalent of Operation Bluestar and the students` mentor, Abdul Rashid Ghazi, is the equivalent of Bhindranwale.
IN Opinion | 2007-07-04
The Express wrote three edits, and and may be driven to more sounding off before it gets some relief.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-07-03
Sri Lanka plans to bring back a tough criminal defamation law that was scrapped five years ago. Local newspapers said that the government discussed the re-introduction of a criminal defamation act. Junior Justice Minister Dilan Perera said he present
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-07-03
The Federation of Nepal Journalists alleges that eight Delhi-based employees of Nepal One Television was forced to resign due to threats and pressure from the television management on 12 June, only weeks after the television channel strike for better
IN Media Practice | 2007-07-03
Unfortunately, most of our mediamen lack a working understanding of the relations between soil, water, forest and water conservation.
100 media workers killed in first half of 2007
IN Media Freedom | 2007-07-03
After Iraq, the countries where most journalists were murdered in the first half of the year were Afghanistan, Haiti and Philippines.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-06-28
A recent episode of Ek Ladki Anjani Si on Sony Entertainment TV had a sequence in which the distributor of a magazine is on phone to the chairperson of the publication, demanding a cover story on a doctor and threatening to stop distribution if it is
Mainstreaming socially relevant themes
IN Media Practice | 2007-06-28
The current breed of leading women actors are not just confining themselves to portraying stereotypes.
Editorial & political correctness
IN Media Practice | 2007-06-23
By any yardstick, editors in the past have not used the open letter option to interfere in a democratic process.
IN Opinion | 2007-06-23
But how to address sources? And what does the form of address on-air tell us about the relationship that the journalist shares with the source?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-06-23
Most areas in Arunachal Pradesh are unable to access both All India Radio and Doordarshan, because they are jammed by the more powerful Chinese transmitters that are used to air Chinese radio and television programmes to the residents of the Arunacha
IN Opinion | 2007-06-22
Imagine, for instance, if a political journalist would tell us that she is the most trusted face of the Indian political scene.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-06-17
The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this week that in addition to Rupert Murdoch’s bid to take it over, there was evidence that the Financial Times of London was also seeking a partner to make a takeover bid for the WSJ. What seems remarkable in
News television and political upheaval in Pakistan
IN Media Practice | 2007-06-17
With its no-holds-barred broadcasts, Pakistani mediaøs new revolution may actually be a cause and not effect of the current crisis.
IN Media Practice | 2007-06-17
Rajni has had a love hate relationship with the media including a unilateral media boycott in the late 1980s to protest his so-called arrogance.
IN Media Practice | 2007-06-14
A reconstruction from available accounts of how a film maker fought and won a copyright case against a leading TV channel.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-06-14
The day after the Bangalore Mirror was launched, the paper carried a picture of the Chairperson of Bennett, Coleman and Co., Indu Jain, presenting a copy of the paper to Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. What message, we wonder, does that send to the reporters o
Raking it in from coaching centres
IN Media Practice | 2007-06-14
The media has to share some of the blame for the heightened role commercial coaching has acquired in middle class aspirations.
IN Opinion | 2007-06-14
If there is a photo enhancement technique that should be banned in newsrooms it is this business of flipping.
Newspaper circulations climb despite Internet
IN Media Practice | 2007-06-14
Newspaper circulations worldwide rose 2.3 percent in 2006 with Indian sales increasing most with 12.93 percent.
Mayawati and the media’s caste bias
IN Regional Media | 2007-06-12
He (Kanshi Ram) had said, `Dalits don`t trust the upper caste media. To strengthen your movement, you must yourself become the media.`
Media justice: activism or elitism?
IN Media Practice | 2007-06-05
Jessica and Priyadarshini may become a cause for this `civil society`, but not those majorities falling on the other side of the caste/class order.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-05-30
Some media houses are versatile. Tehelka has now decided to auction Indian art in London as its contribution to explaining the growing importance of India to the world. Or so we are told by IANS. Editor Tarun Tejpal is also organising a summit on the
IN Media Practice | 2007-05-30
Around 400,000 Muslim teen girls in the US were looking for a lifestyle. magazine in keeping within their value system.
IN Digital Media | 2007-05-30
The paper quoted extensively from Orkut to give its readers first-hand information about the victim unlike most of the other dailies.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-05-29
Do the capital’s photographers move around in a gang, or are they collectively susceptible to persuasion from the same quarters? What explains why three Delhi newspapers chose to photograph at St Thomas’s School in New Delhi for the annual photo op o
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-05-29
We understand that Indian Express editor Shekhar Gupta thinks there is synergy between his NDTV 24x7 TV programme Walk the Talk and his newspaper. But a two part op-ed spread over two whole news pages for his interview with actor Sanjay Dutt makes yo
Nehru’s tryst with press curbs
IN Media Freedom | 2007-05-29
On Jawaharlal Nehru’s death anniversary we revisit his record in shaping free India’s policy on the freedom of the press.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-05-26
Reporters Without Borders welcomed the reappearance of the independent Kabul Weekly newspaper on news stands after an absence of several months due to financial difficulties. The press freedom organisation provided financial support to the weekly. It
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-05-26
UP Chief Minister Mayawati told the media what she thought of them at her first press conference in Delhi. She answered one question by telling the the questioner that he did not know how to ask a question. On another occasion, she remarked, "Aap gha
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-05-22
The most striking item on the backpage of the Hindu on May 21 related to the picture of an attractive girl called Vidya Ram and a 3 column story on how she had topped her batch at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. The story told
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-05-22
Authorities in Bangladesh have obstructed the proper distribution of the May 2007 issue of Himal. The issue has been released for distribution only after the pages containing the editorial "Khaki Politics in Dhaka" and the article "The Dhaka Regimeøs
Making hay as the Sun shines no longer
IN Regional Media | 2007-05-22
With DMK preparing to start its own TV channel, is it becoming mandatory for political parties to own a television channel?
IN Media Freedom | 2007-05-22
The Madurai incident raises many issues, but they not really have anything to do with the concept of press freedom.
Pak media also blames MQM for Karachi violence
IN Media Practice | 2007-05-15
Was this Karachi or Baghdad, asked The News, drawing a comparison to the unending spiral of violence in Iraq.
Needed: a policy on Web attribution
IN Opinion | 2007-05-15
The issue that editors need to discuss and inform the readers about is what is the appropriate way of using information available on the Web.
IN Regional Media | 2007-05-15
It is perhaps difficult to document exactly how Sun TV swung the DMK`s electoral fortunes, but it is easy to recall how it attempted to.
After Mayawati does mainstream media matter?
IN Regional Media | 2007-05-15
Despite refusing to feed itself into the media machine that is believed to be essential to disseminating political information, the BSP won.
IN Media Practice | 2007-05-14
There are fears that Murdoch will change the basic personality of the Wall Street Journal as he did with the Times, London.
Women¿s health on the AIRwaves
IN Media Practice | 2007-05-14
AIR’s 14 radio stations in Madhya Pradesh ran a 15 to 20 minute episode daily on the issue of women`s health.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-05-14
Rahul Gandhi and his dimples were in evidence all through the UP election campaign, on as many TV channels as could get the footage. Now that the prince has not triumphed, he is nowhere to be seen. The explanations on TV are all coming from Kapil Sib
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-05-13
PTI reports that a newspaper in Pasadena, California, advertised for a journalist based in India to report on the city government and political scene of Pasadena, and hired two at a combined annual cost of $ 20,800. The paper proposes to record and p
IN Opinion | 2007-05-13
Everyone got the UP election wrong. But no one said sorry.
IN Opinion | 2007-05-11
The problems that arise out of such a newsroom is that the reporter has to exchange his pen for managerial responsibilities.
IN Opinion | 2007-05-11
Depending on how far they were from the scene of action, newspapers took different stands on DMK succession battle.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-05-11
When it’s a big news day anchors dress for the occasion. At seven am on counting day in UP, on NDTV both Barkha Dutt and Nidhi Razdan saw fit to turn out in red, and on CNN-IBN later in the morning Sagarika Ghose was in shocking pink, with husband Sa
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-05-07
If Minister for Information and Broadcasting Priya Ranjan Das Munshi is to be believed, many TV reporters are exploited by their channels and paid not salaries, but by vouchers. On World Press Freedom day the good minister was in his element, lambast
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-05-07
A newspaper’s TV columnist took a swipe at the Rai-Bachchan wedding in her column. On the morning it appeared there was a call from ABCL asking for her contacts. Then arrived a letter from senior Bachchan asking for blessings for the couple, and a go
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-05-02
Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp is seeking to buy Wall Street Journal publisher Dow Jones & Co Inc for about $5 billion, in a deal that would make the media mogul a major player in global financial news. Dow Jones said on May 1 that its board of direc
In the end, mandatory platitudes
IN Opinion | 2007-05-01
It was an edit that might have been written two weeks ago and dusted off for use. I shall not quote from it.
IN Media Practice | 2007-04-30
On May 1 defence minister A K Antony will inaugurate the studio complex of a Congress-backed Malayalam channel.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-04-27
Shobana Bharatiya, Rajya Sabha MP nominated by the UPA government and proprietor of the Hindustan Times has clout with the current rulers. The government last fortnight changed the rule debarring foreigners from becoming editors of Indian newspapers.
IN Opinion | 2007-04-27
Is the business press called upon to educate and socialize them into being humans with stories of literature, music, and arts?
Court hearing against UNI transfer
IN Media Practice | 2007-04-24
The Delhi High Court has fixed May 31 to hear contending arguments on the petition, saying the suit cannot be dismissed without hearing both the parties.
Where are your glasses, dear editors?
IN Media Practice | 2007-04-24
No one asked, what will happen to the 9000 villages that were to receive water out of the Narmada water that is allocated for `municipal and industrial use`.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-04-24
According to a publicity mailer, India TV has overtaken NDTV India in channel share of Hindi speaking markets, with 13 per cent channel share to NDTV India’s 12 per cent in Week 15. Says a lot for the uses of dubious stings in establishing a channel.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-04-24
David Halberstam, whose book about the missteps of American leaders in Vietnam, "The Best and the Brightest," became a classic, was killed in a car crash on April 23rd. Halberstram won the Pulitzer in 1964 for his Vietnam coverage for the New York Ti
IN Opinion | 2007-04-24
If you want to behave like a tabloid, act like a tabloid, serve it like a tabloid, be a tabloid. Reach for ’em pockets and pay up.
Getting it right with Community Radio
IN Community Media | 2007-04-18
Technology and specialised training of grassroots workers pave the way for relevant content creation.
IN Opinion | 2007-04-18
Leader-writers are often happy to shoot from the hip. They just need the right ideological opportunity.
IN Opinion | 2007-04-14
When the PM raps judges on their knuckles, one expects the main newspapers to take note. Not all did.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-04-09
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 Guw
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-04-09
Taliban militants killed an Afghan journalist April 8th after the government failed to meet the rebelsø demand to release their two captured commanders, local media reported. Journalist Ajmal Naqshbandi was kidnapped along with Italian journalist Dan
IN Opinion | 2007-04-09
What would a new channel offer that would be any different than what the existing channels offer? And that is the problem today.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-04-06
The NE Television journalist, Afrida Hussain was physically assaulted by security persons of the Guwahati Medical College Hospital when she was there to interview a group of hospitalized women. The women were the protesting wives of missing United Li
IN Opinion | 2007-04-04
Not one opposed reservations for OBCs per se, yet all papers assumed that there is some merit in the case that the OBCs donøt need reservation.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-04-04
Uzbek militants with suspected links to al-Qaeda killed the brother, father, uncle, and cousin of Urdu-language Inkishaf reporter Din Muhammed at his home in South Waziristan. Three other family members were also abducted. It is not clear whether Muh
IN Opinion | 2007-04-01
To report correctly, accurately, and ethically is the difficult part; øtis easier to thump chests and wag tails.
IN Media Practice | 2007-03-31
In the midst of the mayhem, it`s important to stop and think of the media`s role because a lot of the blame can easily be slapped on those covering the game.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-03-31
India TV may have used scurrilous sting operations to gain visibility but it is now respectable enough to attract foreign investment. Rajat Sharma’s channel has attracted an investment of $11.5 million from FUSE+Media, an affiliate of leading interna
IN Opinion | 2007-03-28
If there is an abiding principle that ought to be a journalistic touchstone, it is moderation.
IN Opinion | 2007-03-27
All major newspapers wrote at least twice and one wrote thrice. Clearly, editors are human also. But as the edits showed, they are not experts in cricket.
IN Media Practice | 2007-03-26
Several stories related to the conflict in Sri Lanka remain untold by the Indian media, including the situation of the embattled media in Sri Lanka.
The Indian media’s Pakistan obsession
IN Media Monitoring | 2007-03-26
Contrast the sporadic attention in the Indian press to Bangladesh events, to the detailed coverage of events in Pakistan.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-03-26
Outlook magazine cover, March 19, 2007: The cover features a mock newspaper headline: India wins the World Cup. Cover line: Team India can make us proud. Outlook March 26, 2007. Cover picture Tendulkar out for a duck against Sri Lanka. Cover line: In
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-03-22
According to the Indian Readership Survey (IRS) Round 1 data for 2007 the top five dailies are Dainik Jagran, which despite a drop continues to be the leader with a readership of 1.7 crores, Dainik Bhaskar with 1.25 crore readers, Hindustan with a re
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-03-22
The Times of India carries a large box on page one to explain why it cannot give all its readers the latest news. Because it has such a vast circulation, and printing takes so much time! So what should you do? Go to its website to get the latest news
IN Media Practice | 2007-03-22
A corporate espionage case has thrown the spotlight on whether the media can use material that has been illegally accessed from a computer.
IN Media Monitoring | 2007-03-22
TV anchors in India quickly picked up on the belligerence and reflected it, editorialising freely in the process.
The commercial logic of content writing
IN Digital Media | 2007-03-22
Making a reader exit a page to earn revenue, and promoting repetition to gain search engine rankings, overturns all rules of conventional journalism.
IN Opinion | 2007-03-20
On Nandigram, only the Indian Express wrote sensibly. The others let the reader down.
IN Opinion | 2007-03-15
Would you want a guest architect or civil engineer working on your home for a day? Would you want a guest doctor giving you some medicines?
IN Opinion | 2007-03-12
The Telegraph pointed out uncharitably that in its 43-year history, the party never had a Muslim or Dalit in its politburo.
Rum, reggae and responsibility
IN Media Practice | 2007-03-10
This can`t be an Indian writing about another less developed nation, can it? It must be Tony Greig writing about an Indian tour, or Dean Jones in terrorist country.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-03-10
At least 195 show-cause notices were issued to TV channels in the last two years for telecasting obscene material and violating the programme or advertising codes, Information and Broadcasting Minister Priya Ranjan Dashmunsi told Parliament. He did n
Newspaper expose delivers results
IN Media Practice | 2007-03-10
Within ten days the general administration department issued an order urging officers to conduct a survey of vacant posts in their departments.
IN Media Practice | 2007-03-10
The liberal media celebrated the embarrassment to the Bush administration while GOP media fumed and fretted.
IN Media Practice | 2007-03-07
The relatively short-lived experience of the Times of India in having an ombudsman has given way to a functioning RE in the Hindu.
IN Opinion | 2007-03-07
‘By invitation’ should not imply sending the same stuff to all newspapers and letting them run it as something special.
IN Opinion | 2007-03-03
Rare is the finance minister who wins the leader writersø unqualified approval.
Letter to the Hoot: easy villains
IN Opinion | 2007-03-03
You think it`s just the scale of the horror of the incident that makes the media jump on it so happily?
IN Media Practice | 2007-03-03
Soft targets like films, film personalities or media personalities are easy to bully and push around.
IN Regional Media | 2007-03-03
Even at this juncture the media did not think it appropriate to persuade the business group to come out with facts or issue a denial.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-03-03
The Sports Broadcasting Signals Bill, 2007, providing for compulsory sharing of advertisement-free live sports broadcasting signals with all platforms of the public broadcaster on a revenue-sharing basis, has been introduced in the Lok Sabha. It seek
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-03-03
..
IN Opinion | 2007-02-26
It is indeed sad that someone at the newspaper that Sham Lal graced could not put together an obituary.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-02-26
Seeking a ruling on media freedom, a petition before Pakistanøs Supreme Court says that showing a court official taking bribe does not amount to contempt of court.Safdar Iqbal of Islamabad has pleaded that the Geo TV show "Gumnaam" did not criticise
IN Media Practice | 2007-02-24
When the business interests of a media baron conflict with interests of the public how relevant is the freedom of the press argument?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-02-21
On February 19, in the aftermath of the Samjhauta Express tragedy, Doordarshan News saw fit to run an endless stream of panel discussions on terrorism emanating from Pakistan, parading a succession of hardline commentators. In direct contrast, privat
Indian condom ads: missed messages
IN Media Practice | 2007-02-21
Condom ads seem to be failing in their basic function. Given their role in preventing AIDS, it becomes a dangerous failing.
IN Opinion | 2007-02-21
Please congratulate me, folks. This is my 100th column for The Hoot
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-02-15
In an article on "filmanthropists" the Los Angeles Times profiles a new trend of media big shots who are trying to make a difference with a small, personally realized documentary.They have deep pockets, issue-driven agendas, and are turning out full-
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-02-15
Journalists managing to ward off the sale of a newspaper is something to be taken note of. The Usha Martin Group, owner of Jharkhand’s leading Hindi daily, Prabhat Khabar, has decided not to sell the paper to one of its rival publications after emplo
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-02-15
President Mahinda Rajapaksa of Sri Lanka said on February 10 in a TV speech that he provided TV and a Radio licenses to the JVP (Peopleøs Liberation Front) as a way of recognising the support they rendered to him in the presidential election campaign
IN Opinion | 2007-02-15
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
Hair-raising medical reporting
IN Opinion | 2007-02-15
This translation, including the lead, had changed a 500 percent increase to a 500 times increase for the poor Hindi reader.
IN Regional Media | 2007-02-12
Contrary to the parochial view that newspapers have taken, the Sun TV network with interests in many states carefuly walked a tightrope.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-02-12
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 in t
IN Opinion | 2007-02-12
Regional newspapers take a parochial view when political interests of their own states are involved. No pretence there of national interest and all that blah.
Nimbus ordinance in bad taste: court
IN Law and Policy | 2007-02-08
Citing apex court rulings, Malhotra said it was the fundamental right of every citizen to view and listen the cricket match or sports events held in the country.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-02-08
The Supreme Court Wednesday issued notices to private Zee television channel and its scribe, asking why they should not be prosecuted for tricking an Ahmedabad court into issuing arrest warrants against President A.P.J Abdul Kalam, former Chief Justi
The Singur smokescreen: Part-III
IN Regional Media | 2007-02-08
The farmers` resistance was soon overshadowed by law-and-order issues and "mobilization" of public opinion.
The Singur smokescreen: Part-II
IN Regional Media | 2007-02-08
Glossing over the details of "consent" to acquisition and trivialising the farmers` protests has grave implications.
The Singur Smokescreen: – Part I
IN Regional Media | 2007-02-08
The coverage of the process of land acquisition in the mainstream English press obfuscates and falsifies ground realities.
TV channel faces government and ULFA wrath
IN Regional Media | 2007-02-03
Reacting to the threat NE Television declared that they would stand by their news.
TOI Kannada: Journalists as Translators
IN Regional Media | 2007-02-03
Kannada journalism has a history of its own and it will be regrettable if journalists are rendered as mere translators.
IN Opinion | 2007-01-31
..
Remember, Mohinder is a suspect
IN Media Practice | 2007-01-29
The near-fatal attack on Mohinder Singh has everything to do with what people have read and seen about Nithari barbarity.
Journalists defy militants’ diktat in Assam
IN Regional Media | 2007-01-29
Despite boycott calls by insurgent groups and their invective against mediapersons, Republic Day is celebrated…
Technology for community radio
IN Community Media | 2007-01-29
The innovative items at the Broadcasting Engineering Society`s Expo-2007 could soon revolutionize grassroots broadcasting.
Jaffna media situation grim in 2006
IN Media Freedom | 2007-01-29
Severe logistical constraints and the fear of reprisal have crippled journalism and the media
Supporting the state in Singur?
IN Opinion | 2007-01-29
A boycott in Nandigram of newspapers or of journalists belonging to some news organizations suggests a feeling of media disenfranchisement.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-01-26
India’s president went on a private FM radio channel to reach out to his countrymen on the eve of Republic Day. He made an appearance on the private radio channel Radio Mirchi 98.3 FM for an hour and chatted about his childhood, his philosophy and al
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-01-23
Local journalists have constituted an action committee to expedite efforts for the recovery of the resident editor of Daily Express Sohail Qalander and his friend Mohammad Niaz. They were kidnapped from Hayatabad on the night of Jan 2 and their vehic
IN Opinion | 2007-01-23
One strange aspect of the editorial responses was the ambivalence. One leader writer could not decide whether the fuss was justified or not.
IN Media Practice | 2007-01-22
A web-based initiative by a NGO could be a useful public and media resource on national water data and management practices.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-01-22
Even as the government has legislation pending to force private TV channels to share rights with the public broadcaster, Indian viewers are missing out on the current India- West Indies series. The latest clash over telecast rights, now in court, has
Letter to the Hoot: insensitive Zee News
IN Opinion | 2007-01-21
Should such questions be put to a child who has just lost her mother?
IN Media Practice | 2007-01-21
Reality shows represent a genre where several interests, including public opinion and economics, converge.
IN Media Practice | 2007-01-21
Media has to cloak its societal concern in sensationalism if sensationalizing matters will alone garner attention of those that matter.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-01-17
Over the past week, the interim Thai government has engaged in blatant attempts to muzzle the broadcast media, in particular by warning them not to broadcast messages by former Prime Minister Thaksin, and threatening repercussions for any failure to
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-01-17
Workers of TV Licensing, the body responsible for the collection and enforcement of a television licence in Britain, have voted overwhelmingly to strike against plans to move the work to Mumbai. In a Communication Workers Union-organised ballot, 94.6
Pakistan’s intelligence monster
IN Media Freedom | 2007-01-17
Today many Pakistani journalists fear their government’s intelligence agencies more than any Islamic militant.
IN Media Practice | 2007-01-17
The historic judgment and its media endorsement impart to the verdict the status of a national consensus.
Three cheers for the Supreme Court
IN Opinion | 2007-01-17
Only three newspapers amongst those reviewed discussed the possibility of a conflict between Parliament and the Supreme Court.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-01-08
The government is considering enacting a law that will make it mandatory for private broadcasters to share footage of important sports events with public broadcaster Doordarshan. The proposed Sports Broadcasting Signals (Mandatory Sharing with Prasar
IN Opinion | 2007-01-07
Had a Gandhian made the same point, rather than Ms Banerjee, would the matter have received different treatment?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2007-01-06
The government of Haryana has announced several sops for media persons in the form of reserved housing and higher insurance cover. Accredited journalists will be acknowledged as professionals for allotment of plots in urban estates developed by the H
Letter to the Hoot—think it over
IN Opinion | 2007-01-06
What is and should be the role of the media? Are we not forgetting the real affected to make way for dignitaries and their pictures?
Blogs on women and children in MP
IN Media Practice | 2007-01-06
This blog makes the effort to translate the Hindi news items into English or adapt it from Hindi edition and reproduce it.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-12-31
The South Asian Journalists Association points out that on at least three major U.S. media outlets, the story of Saddam’s execution was told by South Asian journalists. CNNøs Aneesh Raman was the first to announce to a U.S. audience that Saddam had
IN Media Freedom | 2006-12-31
Eighty one journalists killed - the deadliest year since 1994. Fifty six kidnapped, mostly in Iraq and the Gaza Strip.
IN Digital Media | 2006-12-27
Bloggers in India may be turning into a self-conscious and coherent force. But the shadow of censorship still hovers.
IN Regional Media | 2006-12-27
The government order sanctioning prosecution said the story showed Reddy in poor light and tarnished the image of the state government.
Assessing the media’s tsunami coverage
IN Media Practice | 2006-12-27
Some $13 billion was pledged as aid to cope with the tsunami aftermath. The world would have not responded the way it did without the media.
IANS retracts Nalini Singh slapping story
IN Media Practice | 2006-12-24
Singh said she had only pointed out to Rawal that her work was "irregular, unsubstantiated and not based on research."
British TV licensing to move to India
IN Media Practice | 2006-12-24
The move to India has been approved by the BBC, but has infuriated employees and unions.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-12-24
On Christmas Eve, a Nepal daily published letters from readers in answer to its "Question of the week: Who would you like to invite to have dinner with you this Christmas?" Only one reader chose King Gyanendra, others opted for were Maoist chief Prac
Forest rights and tribals? Yawn!
IN Opinion | 2006-12-18
One would have expected several newspapers to comment on this important piece of legislation, but only two did.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-12-17
The Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors has flayed the government for trying to control the press through a proposed regulatory authority with punitive clauses. (CPNE) rejected the formation of the proposed Press and Publication Regulatory Authorit
Faint intimations of democracy
IN Opinion | 2006-12-17
The last month has seen the appearance of political journalism for the first time in the United Arab Emirates.
Media-govt spat in Andhra Pradesh
IN Regional Media | 2006-12-16
Being a critic of the Congress government and a friend of Telugu Desam party, Ramoji Rao is doubly disadvantaged.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-12-16
Guess who the CNN Young Journalist Awards went to? To CNN-IBN’s arch rival NDTV. TV reporters from CNN-IBN were not allowed to compete. The ceremony saw a gushing female MC describe Rajdeep Sardesai as the Amitabh Bachchan of Indian television.
Role of media in recent dalit outrage
IN Media Practice | 2006-12-16
The media ignores dalits and their problems until they turn violent.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-12-13
Delhi and Mumbai are witnessing dizzying price wars in the run up to the launch in January of the Hindustan Times business paper. In Delhi you can order the new paper for less than Rs 300 rupees a year, even as the people who book the orders are paid
The nuke deal and newspaper biases
IN Opinion | 2006-12-13
The Deccan Herald was the only paper get within sniffing distance of the real issue, but it got to it so late that it had run out of space by then!
Khairlanji and the English press
IN Media Practice | 2006-12-11
Why this silence over such savagery? Surekha and Priyanka Bhotmange`s face and name should have become as much part of our consciousness as Jessica Lal`s and Priyadarshini Mattoo`s.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-12-07
Bangladesh Television (BTV) and Channel I will telecast live on December 10 the countryøs first Nobel Laureate, Muhammad Yunus, receiving the Peace Prize in Oslo. Bangladeshis are gearing up to watch the ceremony honouring the pioneering banker who p
Internet fuels jailing of journalists
IN Media Freedom | 2006-12-07
The Committee to Protect Journalists finds that one in three journalists jailed in 2006 is an Internet blogger, or online editor or reporter.
IN Opinion | 2006-12-04
The Telegraph wrote two edits in three days, because it was a chance to take pot shots at the Marxists, Brinda Karat in particular.
IN Media Practice | 2006-12-04
Every press conference tells you something about the guy who is being grilled and about the hacks who grill him.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-12-04
The Government controlled Nepal Television has banned the broadcasting of øPublic Hearingø, a weekly programme on contemporary issues of public concern regularly broadcast on NTV every Monday. It had conducted programs in more that 21 districts
Getting head to head with the men
IN Media Practice | 2006-12-02
Can traditions change? Will men ever get used to getting their sports update from women?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-12-01
Michael Grade, BBC chairman, is leaving to return to commercial broadcasting at ITV. India-born Chitra Bharucha is set to become the first woman to head the BBC, in an acting capacity. Vice-chairperson of the recently formed BBC Trust - which will ta
Missing girls in Madhya Pradesh
IN Opinion | 2006-12-01
Letter to the Hoot: Recent articles in the media have tried to give visibility to an issue which is prevalent yet neglected.
Visual Media jumps the gun again!
IN Opinion | 2006-12-01
Letter to the Hoot: None of the news channels offered a retraction of their earlier mistake or apologized for misreporting.
Questions that do not get asked
IN Opinion | 2006-12-01
Why doesn`t the media ask the MLAs to comment on such matters if there is time after commenting on the cricketers and their coach?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-11-29
Sanjay Dutt’s sentencing sparked a two-day frenzy on television news what with two favourite news staples converging in this story: crime and Bollywood. Zee News ran a dramatic reconstruction of what happened in court, CNN-IBN ran scenes from Lage Ra
IN Opinion | 2006-11-28
Al Jazeera English seems to have gone local only for the region where it has its birth. For the rest, we get the øoutsiderø.
IN Media Practice | 2006-11-27
It is a story not just about Pearl and Omar Sheikh but also about the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Pakistani spy agency.
Visual radio -- ahead of its times?
IN Digital Media | 2006-11-27
The venture partners have launched a vigorous marketing campaign extolling its virtues, but there are few takers as yet.
IN Media Freedom | 2006-11-27
The model of media control in the Musharraf regime has been to make examples of field reporters that would then scare others.
IN Opinion | 2006-11-27
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IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-11-27
Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee has said that MPs are increasingly disrupting parliament proceedings to gain media attention. Some political leaders had told him that they preferred disruptions to chances to take up genuine and popular issues be
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-11-23
The Daily Star reports that in a sudden move, the Election Commission in Bangladesh has banned journalists from entering its secretariat that is preparing to conduct the next parliamentary elections. The ban on the media -- unprecedented in the histo
Putting radio in non-literate hands
IN Community Media | 2006-11-23
Rural women who understand their own communication needs show how to take the newly cleared community radio policy forward.
Media response to Sachar report
IN Media Practice | 2006-11-23
Muslims do not lack media support but the latter today encourage emotional segregation that hardly helps Muslims share the Indian miracle
The paparazzi and Shweta Mahajan
IN Media Practice | 2006-11-21
The tip off or the inspiration for the television story came from a Mumbai tabloid.
IN Opinion | 2006-11-21
A journalist is a dissident of sorts, but one can only be a dissident in a land that one can call oneøs own. Migrants are not allowed that luxury.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-11-21
Star News screamed on November 20 that it was bringing viewers the top story of the day, Shweta Mahajan becoming a victim of domestic violence, at the hands of husband Rahul. First, it was a dubious story. Then, top story of the day, on a day when mi
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-11-21
The Hindustan Times Leadership Summit produced copy for several newspapers in Delhi, most of whom had the grace to attribute their stories to the event. But the Times of India as has been its wont even earlier, quoted Prachanda’s speech on that occas
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-11-18
Barkha Dutt, champion of tough terrain assignments, had us all gawking when she went to interview Brad Pitt about a fracas with the local community in Mumbai. She had a glamorous makeover, complete with shiny shirt and glistening make up. And Tara Sh
IN Media Practice | 2006-11-17
Al Jazeera International is the nearest media equivalent to setting a non-western cat among western pigeons.
Cabinet clears community radio
IN Community Media | 2006-11-16
At last India will give community radio licenses to community-based organizations registered for at least three years.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-11-16
A kidnapped child’s father, Adobe India CEO Naresh Gupta, is learning just how heedless the media can be. Even as they say that he asked them not to report so as to not endanger his child’s life, they turn up evidence that ransom calls were received
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-11-16
The Indian Express premises in Delhi’s Qutb Institutional Area were sealed on 15 Nov as part of the municipal corporation’s drive against establishments violating zoning norms. The paper did not mention itself in its report, and except for Hindu and
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-11-13
The first half of 2006-2007 has seen a rise in salaries in the media and entertainment industry in India. Thanks to expansion journalists can command some pretty fancy salaries. Business Standard reports a rise of 40.5 per cent in this sector with pr
Specious survey, dubious journalism
IN Opinion | 2006-11-13
What is the unit of comparison if one is writing of low-paid labourers in India vis-à-vis labourers in Dubai? One is told nothing.
Media in Andhra gets its own blog
IN Digital Media | 2006-11-12
Glance through the blog and you will get to know the spicy details, and even the secret affairs, of a newsroom.
IN Law and Policy | 2006-11-10
The judicial activism of TV channels is a problematic phenomenon.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-11-10
An article on kashmirnewz.com alleges that the J&K government’s level of tolerance for stories critical of the CM in Kashmir is ønegligibleø. A local news agency which released a news item critical of Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad On 2.10.06 ha
IN Opinion | 2006-11-10
It was the Saddam verdict that caused a flutter in the dovecotes. The issue was whether or not it smacked of victorsø justice.
US media reacts to GOP humbling
IN Media Practice | 2006-11-09
The Washington Post reminded Democrats that they had won but not because voters had necessarily agreed with their program.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-11-08
The National Readership Survey Council which put out NRS 2006 caused a lot of heartburn with erroneous data. Now that has been corrected and one beneficiary is Nai Duniya which has gained almost four lakh readers after the revision. The NRSC called i
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-11-06
When you join the studio audience of NDTV’s We The People you fill a form in which you provide contacts of others whom you think might like to do the same. You are also asked what your political inclination is. This could work both ways, de
Legislature, judiciary and the media
IN Law and Policy | 2006-11-06
The Supreme Court is concerned about trial by media and the honourable Speaker is concerned about the judiciary’s objections to stings.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-11-05
US military publications are calling for the resignation of Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld days before the countryøs mid-term elections. Editorials in the latest editions of the Army Times, Navy Times, Air Force Times and Marine Corps Times say he
Creating an atmosphere for ragging?
IN Media Practice | 2006-11-05
The media seems to be all for bringing ragging to book but there are undercurrents of ragging indulged by the media itself.
IN Media Practice | 2006-11-05
If public opinion were the criterion to convict or acquit a person, the courts might as well put advertisements in the media inviting it.
Lots of media, little journalism
IN Opinion | 2006-11-05
Malaysia, almost a single-coalition democracy, allows for journalism. UAE does not.
Media and maternal mortality in M P
IN Media Practice | 2006-11-04
Increased coverage meant increased visibility for the issue and more public statements on maternal and infant deaths.
IN Opinion | 2006-11-04
Only a few newspapers chose to write about the developments in Bangladesh and the two great exponents of foreign policy kept quiet.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-11-04
Here’s a nice, catty mailer from Business World: Rumours say that our competitor is no. one in the category of middle-aged dog lovers who own bathtubs and are living in seaside towns facing parks that have at least nineteen flowering
Ram Jethmalani ko gussa kyon aata hai?
IN Media Practice | 2006-11-04
The era of 24 X 7 media and networked public opinion has initiated trial in the public domain negating due process of law.
Letter to the Hoot: The Mattoo sentencing
IN Opinion | 2006-11-01
Is justice only for the higher ups or those who are "blessed" enough to get the apparent media Midas touch?
The perils of becoming a good story
IN Media Practice | 2006-11-01
Press coverage began with interest and enthusiasm but increasingly the Blank Noise Project carries implicitly the baggage of the media that has covered it.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-11-01
The Al Jazeera Network has finally announced 15th November 2006 as the launch date for Al Jazeera International, the new English-language news and current affairs channel. Heaadquartered in Doha, the channel describes itself as being uniquely positio
IN Digital Media | 2006-10-30
Launched just a fortnight ago, it is the first crawler based search engine for India and India-related content.
IN Media Practice | 2006-10-30
Sanghvi`s style is inimitably his own: ask rude questions inoffensively, or tough ones fleetingly with no intention of pinning the person down.
IN Opinion | 2006-10-28
What makes this piece of first person experience and reportage galling is the racism and colonial suppuration that oozes out of the piece.
IN Media Practice | 2006-10-27
It was a different Bush talking to newsmen and he spoke a different language. He stopped short of admitting that Iraq was a major mistake.
IN Media Practice | 2006-10-27
Dalits make their presence visible in the national media whenever some caste atrocities occur. Else they become invisible.
Open access journals work in India
IN Digital Media | 2006-10-26
The open access policy has resulted in more than a half a million article downloads in a month from all the journals.
IN Opinion | 2006-10-25
Which was more important? Pranab Mukherjee being moved out or Shivraj Patil not being moved out?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-10-25
The Times of India has been awarded the 2006 World Young Reader Newspaper of the Year prize by the World Association of Newspapers. The paper was also awarded the World Young Reader Prize in the Newspapers in Education category, which honoured its ef
IN Law and Policy | 2006-10-25
How will the courts in Britain decide on a libel case whether a particular report was in public interest or not?
IN Opinion | 2006-10-23
When journalists refer to a piece of reportage as sting, it is not clear which of the three variations is being talked about
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-10-23
Oh dear, it seems to be too much to expect today’s reporters to know their Shakespeare, even on a babalog channel like NDTV 24x7. My News on October 22 saw Om Puri’s reference in Hindi to King Lear being spelt in the sub title as King Lair. As the Di
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-10-20
Since when does a foreign correspondent merely arriving to work in India become good enough reason for a prominently displayed interview and news feature? Does that confirm that TV correspondents are automatically presumed to be celebrities? Check ou
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-10-20
On October 20 Star News covered the case of the doctor run over deliberately in Gurgaon the previous day as live breaking news, even as he was lying in a hospital ICU. The camera had a close up focus on the patient as well as a longer shot. So now ho
Nudged by RTI, Jharkhand government acts
IN Media Practice | 2006-10-20
A newspaper’s persistence compels the State’s Law Department to move on a file pending for 40 odd months.
IN Community Media | 2006-10-18
The opening up will allow NGOs to apply for licences without a license fee and to carry five minutes of advertising per hour of broadcasting.
No right to information for J & K
IN Media Practice | 2006-10-17
Neither the State act passed in January 2004 nor the Central act are being implemented in J & K, almost three years down the line.
IN Media Practice | 2006-10-17
Television abounds in examples of how ritual, faith, wellness and stress management are marketed as a continuum.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-10-17
Headlines Today ran a sex special at 9 pm on October 17, a report on ‘what men want’, with the promos promising ‘foreplay/afterplay and everything in between.’ Anchor Zaka Jacob smirked through the show employing cricket analogies, while the visuals
Edging out an outspoken maverick?
IN Opinion | 2006-10-14
The government taking 30 per cent stake in Khaleej Times could mean changes in one of the few local newspapers to write critical articles on Dubai.
IN Media Practice | 2006-10-13
Twenty-first century media is going to grow very differently from media as we understand it.
IN Community Media | 2006-10-13
Janvani has 150 active barefoot reporters and 1450 less frequent correspondents who conduct community discussions through readers’ circles.
The Hindu responds on Kanshi Ram
IN Media Practice | 2006-10-13
The Reader’s Editor points out that the paper more than made up with its editorial and op-ed piece the next day.
IN Media Freedom | 2006-10-13
An international mission finds the Sri Lankan media highly vulnerable to threats, abductions and attacks committed by all parties in the conflict.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-10-13
On October 12 Star News was conducting a poll on its programme called Satyamev Jayate. Following what was obviously a curtain raiser on the film Jaaneman, to be released next week, it ran an sms poll on whom the readers thought Preity Zinta should pl
The Korean test: instant opinions
IN Opinion | 2006-10-11
Everyone wrote. They had to. But not everyone said anything that added to the Indian readersø understanding of the subject.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-10-10
The Delhi Aaj Tak channel spent much of 10th October on a Karwa Chauth trip. Their reporter went shopping for dupattas, saris, thalis, mehendi and bangles. And their news crawl ran messages all day long from all over the National Capital Region from
A letter to The Hindu’s Reader’s Editor
IN Media Practice | 2006-10-10
Surely The Hindu could have made space for Kanshi Ramøs death on its front page, and rustled up an obituary for him?
IN Media Practice | 2006-10-10
Between them, Doordarshan`s dutiful telecast and Patwardhan cinematic style shattered Sunday morning`s peace.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-10-09
Did television news use the occasion of Kanshi Ram’s death to assess his contribution to the creation of a rising Dalit political force? Not really. On every channel except Star News the BSP founder lost out to the North Korean bomb blast and other n
Clemency for the right reasons?
IN Media Practice | 2006-10-09
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Letter to the Hoot: Job hikes? Hardly
IN Opinion | 2006-10-09
Have you ever realised the consequences of The Times and the Hindustan Times coming together?
IN Media Practice | 2006-10-09
That a plea for abolition of the death penalty should originate in an act of terrorism shows how freedom of expression can be devalued by its misuse.
Media links from around the world
IN Opinion | 2006-10-07
Links to recent media related articles from the US, the Arab world, and from Nepal
How do you begin to be world class?
IN Opinion | 2006-10-07
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IN Opinion | 2006-10-07
Editorials on the Pakistan-ISI link argued that it was up to India to prove its case and not up to Pakistan to be answerable until then.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-10-06
The Delhi High Court Thursday extended till Dec 18 the maintenance of status quo on the transfer of equity in United News of India (UNI) news agency to Zee Television owner Subhash Chandra-controlled Mediawest Private Limited. The latterøs move to in
IN Digital Media | 2006-10-06
aAqua is a platform where farmers post their questions and get appropriate answers from experts within 24 to 48 hours.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-10-04
In Mumbai the Jains of the Times group started Mumbai Mirror when competition from Hindustan Times and DNA seemed imminent. Following news of Living Media starting a morning paper in Delhi, and in anticipation of DNA expanding to this city, they’ve d
The Balochistan coverage Part IV
IN Media Monitoring | 2006-10-04
While there was a broad consensus about Bugti’s killing in print and television media in India, there were a few notable exceptions.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-10-03
On Sunday October 1 during the live broadcast from Durban on DD National of Nelson Mandelaøs speech on the Satyagraha anniversary, a technicianøs voice came loud and clear over the telecast for maore than 45 seconds. øHello? Can you hear me?" "Feizal
The Balochistan coverage Part III
IN Media Monitoring | 2006-10-03
Kashmir represents the most obvious echo of Balochistan but in all the moral tub thumping it was seldom mentioned in the Indian media.
‘US media decline most visible in India’
IN Media Practice | 2006-10-02
Turnstall notes that American media have lost world audience market share, moral authority and leadership of the worldøs news agenda.
Media links national and international
IN Opinion | 2006-10-01
Links to articles on the media which appeared in September
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-10-01
The transfer of UNI shares to a Subhash Chandra owned company is suspended till the Dehi High Court holds a further hearing on October 5. A Bhopal based newspaper which put in a spoiler bid for UNI shares early last month had filed a petition saying
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-10-01
The Times of India has introduced an sms feedback on the columns it carries in the Sunday Times. Did you like this column? Yes or no? And what happens if you poll more nos than yeses? Your column gets dumped? What will they do next? Change their edit
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-09-30
The Big Fight on NDTV 24x7 (Sept 30) featured students from Pakistan as well as India discussing Indo Pak relations. The Pakistani students were expected to hold their own in a studio full of Indians—the panel, the audience and the Indian students. T
Inordinate interest in Balochistan—Part II
IN Media Monitoring | 2006-09-30
Indian media justly highlighted Pakistani shortcomings but India`s role in sustaining a symbiosis of suspicion and hate was seldom mentioned.
Inordinate interest in Balochistan—Part I
IN Media Monitoring | 2006-09-30
Media responses in India on Nawab Bugti’s death reflected India’s sense that Pakistan was being hoist on its own petard in Balochistan.
Trial by media: consider Arab conventions
IN Opinion | 2006-09-30
A curious phenomenon of court reporting in the United Arab Emirates is the absence of any names when the courts pronounce a verdict.
Letter to the Hoot: innovation from MP
IN Opinion | 2006-09-28
Dainik Jagran and Raj Express carry readers` voices to the chief minister in their Letter to the chief minister columns.
DD loses to PTV in Jammu and Kashmir
IN Regional Media | 2006-09-28
Poor terrestrial visibility of Doordarshan in the rural areas and blithe disregard of DD channels by cable operators, gives PTV the edge.
IN Law and Policy | 2006-09-28
So, a law minister shifts the responsibility of ensuring rule of law from the judiciary to the media. How original!
IN Opinion | 2006-09-28
A surfeit of events left leader writers confused about their relative importance, and not knowing what to say.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-09-28
DD will show "Jism" on its national channel on September 30. Airing this steamy Bipasha Basu and John Abraham starrer is doubtless the sort of thing our public service broadcaster is funded by tax payers money for. Its promotional release describes h
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-09-28
Opening sentence of an Economic Times report (28 Sept) on people opposing the death sentence for Afzal: "Liberals who display flippant approach towards international security and pusillanimous social workers on Wednesday came out in defence of Mohamm
The PM’s image manager draws flak
IN Media Practice | 2006-09-26
Parthasarathy responded by expressing surprise as to how a journalist could metamorphose into a bureaucrat at such a fast pace.
Kerala Govt hiring journos for PR
IN Regional Media | 2006-09-25
The idea is to use seasoned journalists to monitor, advise and feed the "bourgeois media" which often backed Achuthanandan in his fight with Vijayan.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-09-25
Karan Thapar is writing his Sunday Hindustan Times column on saying sorry. He begins with the Pope and then goes to give two other examples of great men who said sorry. Rajiv Gandhi and L K Advani. And who did they say sorry to? Karan Thapar. That’s
Letter to the Hoot: Selectively transparent?
IN Opinion | 2006-09-24
If transparency is given a go by for the sake of ideology and political affiliations, why can`t the media hold back news in the larger interests of the state?
IN Media Practice | 2006-09-24
The Law Commission wants the High Court to direct print and electronic media to postpone publication or telecast pertaining to a criminal case.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-09-24
Journalists in Pakistan have been having a rough time. While three TV journalists were baton charged in Lahore when they went to cover a religious rally of Sunni Tehrik on September 16, an ARY journalist who intervened was also beaten up. His camerma
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-09-24
A new editor at the Hindustan Times has meant that the place is agog with gossip. One concerns a veteran who has taken to coming to editorial meetings armed with notes on mistakes in the day’s edition, much to everybody’s surprise. Time to impress? A
IN Digital Media | 2006-09-20
Broadsheet and net reading are not comparable. The rustling, shuffling and crumpling experience of the broadsheet is unique.
IN Regional Media | 2006-09-20
A Kannada serial which handled complicated themes without succumbing to either glamorization or melodrama, comes to an end.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-09-19
The Hindu had an eyebrow-raising op ed piece on September 20 on the politics within the Indian Newspaper Society. It attacked the exclusion of newspapers like itself and other founding stalwarts of the society from the new executive committee, but st
IN Opinion | 2006-09-19
Sometimes, the messenger does deserve to be shot. Only the Business Standard discussed the role of the media in the Pope affair.
IN Opinion | 2006-09-19
Forget facts and consistency because both are inconvenient if you are covering the respective foreign ministries.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-09-19
If you go to moneycontrol.com it says you can ask one of its experts a question. Presumably it is a free service provided to popularise the site. But here is what actually happens. The answer to your question never does come but from the moment you a
IN Media Practice | 2006-09-19
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IN Media Practice | 2006-09-17
The new-age writer is smart enough to package his content in such a way that it strikes the right chord with the intended audience.
What the Pope said and what AFP filed
IN Opinion | 2006-09-17
The Pope in his wisdom uses an eminently unneeded example, and the correspondent picks it up and plays it up in a manner that is likely to cause the most harm.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-09-17
Free newspapers have liabilities.California Governor Arnold Shwarzenegger recently signed a bill making it punishable by law to pick up more than 25 copies of free, metro newspapers by an individual. The punishment extends to ten days in prison with
IN Law and Policy | 2006-09-13
Broadcast regulation excels in overreaching and getting nowhere.
IN Opinion | 2006-09-13
Letter to the Hoot: several newspapers missed the central point in the absence of Sonia Gandhi at the Vande Mataram celebrations.
The Internet and traditional newsmakers
IN Digital Media | 2006-09-13
Is the Internet making a shift possible in who gets to make the news? Is professional journalism turning amateur?
Malnutrition and media advocacy in Madhya Pradesh
IN Media Practice | 2006-09-13
Instead of targeting media as a broad structure, a dialogue was initiated with the identified journalists sensitive to social issues.
IN Law and Policy | 2006-09-13
The Broadcasting Bill fails to address the core technology issue of ‘convergence’ and is predominantly regulatory in nature.
IN Opinion | 2006-09-13
Sri Lankan journalists to take part in ethics training, and the media mission in Nepal meets political parties, Maoists.
IN Community Media | 2006-09-13
In a society where children are never consulted, mothers and fathers are looking at their children with new respect.
IN Regional Media | 2006-09-13
Jammu and Kashmir’s web presence reflects the complete failure of the official state information mechanism
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-09-10
Internet protocol TV has come to India and the company bringing it in cleverly became a sponsor at the Assocham Conference on the Broadcast Bill held last week. Though IPTV will be governed by the IT Act of 2000 and not by the Broadcasting Services R
IN Opinion | 2006-09-10
Leader writers in general dailies excel in peddling jargon, pomposity and simplification.
IN Books | 2006-09-09
Media research: Indian media coverage of Australia vs World XI. Did media bring out a distinct ‘us’ and ‘them’ syndrome in their reports?
Press accreditation fracas in Orissa
IN Regional Media | 2006-09-09
The newly amended accreditation rules for 2006 have laid down stringent conditions for journalists in Orissa to obtain and retain their accreditation.
Marathi Media On Pawarøs Supriya
IN Regional Media | 2006-09-09
The Shiva Senaø mouthpiece Samana said Supriya was the perfect choice for political leadership.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-09-05
Pakistan will streamline its mechanism for screening and blocking websites with objectionable contents. Ministry of Information Technology Secretary Farrukh Qayyum will preside over a body to examine contents of websites reported or found to be offen
Eenadu versus YS Rajasekhara Reddy
IN Regional Media | 2006-09-05
Two leading Telugu dailies are constantly engaged in a confrontation with the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh.
Media links from home and abroad
IN Opinion | 2006-09-05
Stories and media analyses from the past fortnight.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-09-04
The horrors of foeticide need to be constantly exposed to force an end to this criminal and inhuman practice. But even so the way India TV used its footage of foetuses floating in Udaipur lake was exploitative. It closed in on them endlessly, even as
The smoking Don – does it matter?
IN Media Practice | 2006-09-04
If entertaiment is used to promote a negative behaviour, it has much stronger influence and catches on real fast.
IN Opinion | 2006-09-04
The Pioneer took it squarely on the chin, The Hindu was indignant and full of adjectives and The Indian Express dwelt on the quality of Indian universities.
IN Regional Media | 2006-09-04
Instead of collecting evidence on the basis of the visuals provided by them, the police have chosen to harass and prosecute the journalists.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-08-31
The America print media gives little or no space to regional upheavals in Asia unless it affects them directly.Pakistanøs Dawn reports that the death of popular Balochi leader Nawab Akbar Bugti last Sunday and its aftermath merited very low coverage.
Painting the Tiger with new stripes
IN Regional Media | 2006-08-30
The article that informs readers that Pirabakaran spent amounts equal to what he spent on war on the orphanages, does not ask why such orphanages were required to be set up in the region.
IN Opinion | 2006-08-29
If it is "only" cricket, why bother to write an edit?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-08-29
For once Prannoy Gentleman Roy sounded like Karan Thapar, almost heckling the spokesperson for the Pakistani Government, Tasleem Aslam. On Monday night on NDTV’s prime time news Roy questioned her provocatively on Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti’s killing pro
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-08-27
Curiously enough NDTV’s special edition of Face the Music with Vir Sanghvi hosting Shahrukh Khan and Karan Johar had conspicuously few ads despite being an hour long show at 10.30 pm Saturday night. Each ad break was replete with in-house promos. Mak
Persistent Patwardhan and dogged Doordarshan
IN Media Freedom | 2006-08-27
The Supreme Court`s direction to Doordarshan to telecast Patwardhan`s film is testimony of the determination and perseverance of a few who constantly challenge the telecast policies of the public broadcaster.
Prasar Bharati and the broadcasting bill
IN Opinion | 2006-08-26
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IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-08-25
Home Minister Shivraj Patil said on August 25 that the conversation purported to be between Minister of State for Home Manik Rao Gavit and a criminal in Bulandshahar jail in UP never took place and the voice played out by a TV channel was not that of
The proposed Broadcast Bill — Part IV
IN Law and Policy | 2006-08-25
The authority of the Government overrides the authority of the broadcasting authority!
The proposed Broadcast Bill — Part III
IN Law and Policy | 2006-08-25
The act keeps offences punishable under this Act out of the jurisdiction of the courts, except upon a complaint made in writing by any authorized officer.
IN Media Practice | 2006-08-23
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-08-23
Doordarshan News’ treatment of the President’s Independence Day address had some of us squirming. His words were garbled and there was no lip synch. Dr.Kalam would deliver the words at least 5 seconds before their sound would catch up with his lips.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-08-23
Last week We The People (NDTV 24x7 ) discussed marriage and infidelity with Karan Johar and Shah Rukh Khan amongst others because of the subject of the film KANK. But Barkha Dutt forgot that infidelity has been there since TV invented the soap. Ekta
IN Opinion | 2006-08-21
Our leaderratti was effusive in its praise but missed the larger point: could the deal survive the speech?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-08-21
New Zealandøs media watchdog has ruled that a joke on Indian taxi drivers on a radio show was not racist. The joke, broadcast on Solid Gold FMøs breakfast show on March 27, involved an Indian, who on reaching heaven was asked by an angel, "Yes, what
Links to media news last fortnight
IN Opinion | 2006-08-21
Why templates for media development do not work in crisis states, how Chinese tech buffs slake thirst for US TV shows, and other stories
The proposed Broadcast Bill — Part II
IN Law and Policy | 2006-08-21
More jobs for the boys! The draft bill provides for government officials to man key functions of the authority.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-08-19
The Indian government has launched a television channel, called PIO TV, meant for the Indian diaspora that will now be able to connect with its motherland in real time. The channel will be available through the Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) pla
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-08-19
The Daily Star reports that a Dhaka court yesterday framed charges against 10 people accused in the journalist Gautam Das murder case. Faridpur bureau chief of Dainik Samakal, Gautam Das, 30, was brutally killed on November 17 last year. A Speedy Tri
IN Opinion | 2006-08-19
Why attribute such banalities to a "senior Congress leader" under conditions of confidentiality unless you are telling the reader something that is new?
The proposed Broadcast Bill — Part I
IN Law and Policy | 2006-08-18
The Hoot presents excerpts from the Broadcast Bill with comments on its key proposals.
Can commerce and public interest co-exist?
IN Law and Policy | 2006-08-17
If print media history provides any clue maximum dilution can be expected in the important area of cross media ownership.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-08-15
NDTV India did a random survey of members of parliament to see if they knew something about India’s history. What is the order of colours on India’s flag? What was Mahatma Gandhi’s full name? Who wrote the national anthem? Lots of blank faces around,
Security and media perceptions
IN Media Practice | 2006-08-15
Mainstream media, Indian and Western, have attacked the trend in politics to convert national security concerns into partisan gains.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-08-14
India’s Press Information Bureau is all set to webcast President A.P.J. Abdul Kalamøs address to the nation Monday on the eve of Indiaøs Independence Day and Prime Minister Manmohan Singhøs Independence Day address on Aug 15.The presidentøs address w
IN Opinion | 2006-08-14
Leader writers roundly criticised the finance minister, rightly so, but failed to deal with the real issues.
IN Opinion | 2006-08-12
The Arab press, which functions within largely totalitarian systems of governance, is displaying a curious phenomenon. It is in an activist mode.
Press freedom in Andhra Pradesh
IN Media Freedom | 2006-08-09
There were two unrelated instances last month in Andhra Pradesh concerning media which reflect poorly on the image of the government.
IN Opinion | 2006-08-07
How I love it when the slips of politically aligned newspapers start to show.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-08-06
NDTV and the Hindu sending people to Tehran to cover the country’s reaction to the UN Security Council deadline is a welcome sign of seriousness about foreign affairs coverage in the neighbourhood. But when three people go from the Hindu including th
IN Media Practice | 2006-08-06
The job cuts account for about one-third of the New York Timesø production workforce of 800, and narrower pages will mean less news.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-08-06
Chandan Mitra is not the first newspaper editor to also be a member of parliament. But he is possibly the first to pass off his own speech in the Rajya Sabha as a substitute for his regular Sunday column. (Pioneer, August 6.) The column therefo
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-08-02
Pakistanøs Daily Times reported that in a major PR exercise the new Information Minister Mohammad Ali Durrani has drawn up a list of 33 columnists, reporters and editors in the English and Urdru press and asked the governmentøs top spin doctors to wo
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-08-02
Instead of focussing on the major security lapse that allowed three young adults to come close to 7 Race Course Road, TV channels took the easy way out. Rahul Srivastava of NDTV 24X 7 admonished one of the girls while the camera lingered unneccessari
IN Opinion | 2006-08-02
How well-informed has the criticism of the government been on the amendments to the Right to Information Act?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-07-31
An interview with non-resident Indian MP Madhu Goud Yaskhi telecast on CNN has helped clear debts of around 10 farmers in Andhra Pradesh who had committed suicide. It was watched by an American music composer who then raised money in the US to clear
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-07-31
Mumbai Policeøs Anti-Terrorism Squad arrested Danish Khan, a reporter working for an Urdu daily for his alleged involvement in the serial blasts that rocked Mumbai July 11 Investigating officers suspected he knew the people behind the blasts and may
IN Community Media | 2006-07-31
The programme has firmly put the deep-rooted practice of dowry, and the question of women`s rights, on the family agenda.
IN Media Freedom | 2006-07-31
In dealing with the media, India backs off from repression when there is publicity and pressure. Those who doubt it should look at some examples from other democracies.
Such amazing editorial insouciance
IN Opinion | 2006-07-29
One clarifies that which is confusing, confounding, impure, muddied, or in a word that which is unclear. One does not clarify a mistake.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-07-28
As The New York Times struggles with falling circulation and lower profit margins it has cut its staff by 250. The paper also plans to reduce its width from 54 ’’ to 48" by mid-2008. The changes are to result in an annual saving of $ 42 million.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-07-28
A shocked father in Madhya Pradesh died of a heart attack after hearing that his two daughters had tried to commit suicide after being rejected in a TV contest. They reached Mumbai to get selected in Sa-Re-Gama, failing which they jumped into the sea
IN Media Practice | 2006-07-28
Madhya Pradesh has come up with the novel idea of using air waves to propagate AIDS awareness more effectively at little or no cost.
IN Digital Media | 2006-07-28
The development in this sector has been rapid in Orissa but most of the newspapers here treat online editions as part of their present publication business.
Indian TV hits nadir with Prince saga
IN Media Practice | 2006-07-28
Wasnøt this publicity lopsided? Didnøt channels go over the top?
IN Media Practice | 2006-07-28
Like Jessica Lal and Rajesh Kataria, Prince became subject of a television crusade because he was close enough to Delhi.
IN Opinion | 2006-07-25
The variations in the degree of sympathy for the Lebanese who are getting bombed are very interesting.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-07-24
The Indian Express known for its proximity to the NDTV network decided for the first time to tie up with CNN-IBN for the nationwide opinion poll on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Clearly the daily has decided to forgive the channel for poaching its s
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-07-24
The rescue of Prince received blanket coverage, but the facts varied, to put it mildly. The Hindu said he was five years old, TOI a three-year-old who turned four, and HT called him a six-year-old. The Hindu said the pit was 60 feet deep and 16 inche
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-07-23
Aaj Tak seems to be focusing on reinstating Rahul Mahajan, the son of late BJP leader Pramod Mahajan, booked recently for drugs, into the good graces of the party and the Indian public. It took a lead in covering his recent engagement exhaustively. A
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-07-23
The Pakistani government has taken 156 FM radio stations off the air, reported Dawn. The country’s regulatory authority, Pakistani Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA), said that the radio stations, many operating in the Pashtu speaking area
IN Opinion | 2006-07-22
India blocks several web sites, blogs, online censorship in Africa and Amnesty accuses US firms over China web censorship
IN Opinion | 2006-07-22
This selection too is not without dispute, with several newspapers carrying columns both for and against the various inclusions and omissions.
IN Opinion | 2006-07-22
Such ideas will not disappear or die down by banning websites. Instead their expression will allow us to take measure of these ideas and to adequately refute or support them as we may deem fit.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-07-22
The government said on July 21 that a concept note on the draft broadcast bill would be circulated soon to elicit the views of the media industry. The bill will not now be introduced in the monsoon session of parliament. It was stated that the intent
IN Opinion | 2006-07-20
Every time you want to light a candle you have to register in the blog with details regarding your name and e-mail address etc.
Will ‘caution’ help fight terror?
IN Media Practice | 2006-07-20
The columnist was clear. The authorities were creating an atmosphere of suspicion against a target group (read Muslims)
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-07-20
Artist Padmini Mongia, displaying her work at the Triveni Gallery in New Delhi, was stunned at a proposition she received from a reporter from Women’s Era magazine who visited her show. We’ll give you a three-page spread in our magazine, she said, bu
¿No media zone¿ on Burma border
IN Media Practice | 2006-07-18
The 24 Assam Rifles prevented local reporters assigned to cover counter insurgency operation in the state from entering
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-07-18
Without actually naming Narendra Modi, Swapan Dasgupta in his Pioneer column on July 16 informs us that there is a man available who can offer something more than weak-kneed response to terrorists, and the country needs him now. He makes it amply cle
Resurrecting the Media Council idea
IN Law and Policy | 2006-07-16
Possibly the most important pre-requisite of an effective media regulatory body is that it be taken seriously by the media industry.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-07-16
The Times of India has an impressive record of campaigning on its pages on matters that affect its owner’s personal or business interests. First there was the human rights campaign conducted when the Enforcement Directorate was targetting the la
IN Media Practice | 2006-07-16
After suffering seven terror strikes in a span of three years, if Mumbaikars are "resilient", is it a positive sign?
Should these editors be there?
IN Opinion | 2006-07-14
The issue was simple: should a prime minister whose writ does not run, stay on in office?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-07-09
The Maldives has decided to permit private parties to broadcast in the country and hopes to have it passed by the end of October this year in the Majlis, which is their General Assembly. So far 38 private parties have applied for broadcasting permits
Philippines: Watching the Watchdog
IN Media Practice | 2006-07-09
The local media in Davao City in the Phillipines has formed a body to monitor reportage on violence against women.
IN Digital Media | 2006-07-06
Fifty one per cent Indian users come from low-middle class. Checking blogs is the second most preferred online activity.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-07-06
A Delhi resident has filed an application under RTI asking to be showing the certificates of income submitted by free lance journalists to the Press Information Bureau each year, for renewal of accreditation. The latter has in turn asked the journali
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-07-03
Mumbai Samachar, a Gujarati language daily, has become Asiaøs oldest newspaper by completing 184 years of uninterrupted existence. Begun in 1822, it publishes a colour broadsheet plus a supplement, 16 pages of hard core news and eight pages of featur
IN Media Practice | 2006-07-03
Editors of the three American newspapers explained to their readers the deliberation that preceded the publication of the stories.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-07-02
The abduction and murder of freelance journalist Sampath Lakmal de Silva by an unknown group on July 2, makes him the fourth journalist to be killed in the last 16 months in addition to six media workers. None of the killings have been investigated
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-07-01
Sms from India TV, 28th June, 10.56 pm: two murder accused have reached India TV. The police is on its way. Reality TV at its best. Tune in to India TV…NOW! Follow up sms at 4.15 am 29th: The SSP has reached. Its reality television at its best. Tune
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-07-01
The New Indian Express’s language in its story about the actress at the Sabarimala temple is worth noting: "In what would remain as a permanent blot on the sanctity of the Sabarimala temple, Kannada actress-producer Jaimala on Tuesday confessed…" The
Letter to the Hoot: sloppy and misleading
IN Opinion | 2006-07-01
Not only does PTI provide incorrect information, it also misleads the reader by saying that that information came from the WB report.
IN Opinion | 2006-07-01
The Telegraph, never shy of mischief-making, has also quoted the city police commissioner taking pot shots at the CAB.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-06-29
The country’s leading multinational is getting desperate enough to resort to suggestive advertising. Hindustan Lever’s ad copy for LUX body wash: ‘A loofah is a great **X toy. Goes where no man has gone before. There is no such thing as too much **X’
IN Media Practice | 2006-06-29
The Public Service Broadcaster has never had a woman Director General in its 80 years of existence. Perhaps it is time for a change.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-06-27
The Indian Express had a wicked gossip item on June 26 about a panel discussion recording on reservation for one of the English news channels. Apparently one of the pro-reservation panellists turned to the big TV honcho anchor and said, "Isn’t it ama
Performing cartwheels for Mukesh
IN Opinion | 2006-06-27
It is not the task of a newspaper to bring investment or be a partner in the progress of a state.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-06-25
The Colombo-based Free Media Movement (FMM) has criticised the Sri Lankan government’s reinstatement of the Sri Lanka Press Council. The Council, established under a 1973 law, became dormant in 2002 after local media organizations formed an independe
IN Opinion | 2006-06-25
When important developments donøt attract comment from the leader writers, it is time to ask if the cat got their tongues.
Broadcasting code on anvil -- III
IN Law and Policy | 2006-06-24
Self regulation proposed for news and current affairs—code pronounces on impartiality, taste, privacy, minors, etc.
Broadcasting code on anvil -- II
IN Law and Policy | 2006-06-24
This Program Code is intended to guide the BSP and is designed to inform of the standards expected in television programming.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-06-24
The Delhi High Court has asked news portal cobrapost.com not to post on its site or transmit to other media channels details of a sting operation conducted on a diagnostic centre operating from a private hospital here. Admitting the writ petition fil
Broadcasting code on anvil -- I
IN Law and Policy | 2006-06-24
The Preamble, proposals pertaining to the scheduling and categorisation of programmes, and definitions.
IN Opinion | 2006-06-24
In an event as big as the World Cup is worldwide, there is a lot more to cover than just the sport alone.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-06-20
Is it an over active public relations firm, cozy friendships or just sheer coinkydinky? This week Lillette Dubey in her show on Times Now, By Invitation Only, interviewed designer/textile diva, Ritu Kumar. Meanwhile in the same week Tavleen Singh on
Asom media hits back at militantøs diktat
IN Regional Media | 2006-06-20
The meeting of journalists condemned the audacity of the outlawed outfit in issuing threats to media persons
Competition vs cross media monopolies
IN Opinion | 2006-06-20
When the media voices within communities are in the hands of the same people, the spectrum of opinion, political or otherwise, tends to become narrow.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-06-18
The Sunday Express on June 18th had a commendable researched piece on Parliament and Parliamentarians, in its weekend supplement, which dispels some unsubstantiated assumptions about who attends the Houses, who does not, and why attendance looks so m
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-06-18
Frontline has focused on Prasar Bharati in its June 16 issue, carrying an article titled øPushing Frontiersø by a special correspondent. This very flattering piece on DD and AIR’s contribution to public service broadcasting is accompanied by two adve
Are sports writers mere bloggers?
IN Opinion | 2006-06-18
Do sports writers attempt to shape public opinion or whether they write to reflect it?
IN Opinion | 2006-06-18
Flatulence as edit writing What do the editors do when their assistant editors for economics show off like this? Don`t they feel competent enough to dumb the copy down? You don`t say! Darius Nakhoonwala We got another taste of editorial flatulence last week when the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) raised the price of..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-06-12
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 | 2006-06-12
Shujaat Bukhari, special correspondent of The Hindu, was abducted at gunpoint in Srinagar but escaped although the kidnappers fired at him from close range. He said gunmen seized him from Residency Road in the heart of the city Saturday evening while
IN Opinion | 2006-06-12
Letter to the Hoot: The watchdogs of the society seem to watch only the high and mighty.
How free is the Russian media?
IN Media Practice | 2006-06-12
There are and can be other agencies besides the state which limit freedom of the press.
IN Opinion | 2006-06-12
..
IN Opinion | 2006-06-12
Edit writers have had as much trouble coming to terms with a petrol price increase, as our politicians have
The Magpie-Ladakhøs new weekly newspaper
IN Regional Media | 2006-06-12
..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-06-09
Star News displayed righteous anger at President Kalam’s Sukhoi caper. Its anchor and reporters thundered away that money was wasted on the airshow and the president’s flight, on a day when another MIG had crashed. Reporters doing piece to cameras fr
IN Opinion | 2006-06-08
Sanjay Manjrekar, former India batsman and Ten Sports anchor, brought up a moral question that the newspapers did not.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-06-08
The 100 page Indian daily newspaper is finally here, almost. On June 7 the Delhi edition of the Hindustan Times had 98 pages, with 33 full page ads.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-06-08
Kannadigas are getting somewhat overwrought at the prospect of the Times of India buying Vijay Karnataka. Quote from a letter to a Mysore blog: "why is there not a whimper, not a protest, not a contrarian voice at the grisly sight of a 168-year-old E
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-06-07
Grassroots OptionsA Kohlapur story
IN Regional Media | 2006-06-07
The news appeared in the Kolhapur edition of the Pune-based daily Sakal triggering the process of helping the poor family.
IN Media Practice | 2006-06-07
In the cause of objectivity, I tried to see if there were other editors, columnists and readers who were as upset as the Hindu was.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-06-04
The Times of India has taken to congratulating itself on page one. We said so! Nobody else said it! We said it was heroin and not cocaine! C’mon TOI. As the world’s largest circulated English broadsheet or whatever, you might try sounding less juveni
Right for Narayanan, wrong for Kalam
IN Opinion | 2006-06-04
Right for Narayanan, wrong for Kalam But then since facts, those damned inconvenient things, intrude, the edit conceded that technically, he is within his rights. You don`t say! Darius Nakhoonwala In India, everyone knows, the president is a non-executive constitutional officer. That, however, does not mean that he is a rubber stamp. Former..
Must ads contain sexual innuendos?
IN Opinion | 2006-06-03
Letter to the Hoot: Can`t they think of some clean and decent ideas to sell their product?
IN Digital Media | 2006-06-03
This report breaks many myths related to Internet usage. The first is about what people do on the Net. Porn is not the most popular activity.
IN Opinion | 2006-06-01
Along with the most comprehensive football coverage The Telegraph offers the ignorant reader large doses of opinion.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-06-01
Different yardsticks for different presidents? The Hindu’s editorial (June 1) ticks off President Kalam for presidential overreach, for pitting his " constitutional and political" wits against parliament and the cabinet. Contrast that with its high p
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-05-31
The Hindu carried a signed apology by N Ram for what it said was a sweeping and baseless statement about a Kirloskar product. The paper apologised for what it called an unwarranted assertion made in an Open Page article on May 21, 2006. Churumuri poi
IN Media Practice | 2006-05-31
The common man was missing from the media analyses of the United Progressive Alliance government’s two-year record.
If its Gujarat it must be communal
IN Media Practice | 2006-05-31
Deccan Chronicle displayed the tendency of the English press to sensationalise and communalize news relating to Gujarat.
IN Opinion | 2006-05-30
..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-05-30
MJ Akbar is no ordinary editor, as he likes to prove from time to time. Certainly no other general daily’s editor either here or anywhere else has headed a football club before. Akbar will be presiden of the newly formed executive committee of Kolkat
IN Opinion | 2006-05-26
..
IndiaVision: Between Politics and Professionalism
IN Regional Media | 2006-05-24
Both these parties have declared an unofficial war against the channel which, they accuse, had played a key role in ensuring their defeat.
IN Opinion | 2006-05-24
The football World Cup is barely two weeks away and the excitement is palpable.
IN Media Practice | 2006-05-20
If it wanted to do a real story on porn, not a C grade, sleazy wannabe, it should have focused on those who control these rackets and distribute the films.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-05-18
Amity School has been advertising furiously on all channels but perhaps more so on CNN-IBN and maybe there is a bit of quid pro quo going on here. A debate on the issue of reservations was conducted by the channel on the schooløs NOIDA premises
Contradictory editorial stance
IN Opinion | 2006-05-17
Letter to the Hoot: Between the Danish cartoons and the Da Vinci Code the Times of India changed its stance on freedom of expression.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-05-17
The Independent of UK got Irish rock star Bono as a guest editor and the Times of India took full credit for pioneering the idea. While it was not clear whether the Independent was inspired by TOI, the Times said, the UK daily’s guest editor format w
IN Opinion | 2006-05-17
It is as if sports writers went to a restaurant where they could order their story of choice from a reasonable variety of issues.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-05-14
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 A
IN Opinion | 2006-05-14
The Telegraph was choking with the effort to be nice, but the Hindu had a less of problem in dealing with the Left Frontøs victory
IN Regional Media | 2006-05-14
Party slogans and propaganda material have replaced what is conventionally called "news".
Letter to the Hoot—outsourcing homework?
IN Opinion | 2006-05-14
Such pieces are an insult to readers and there can be no excuse by the writer that she was only highlighting something that exists.
IN Media Practice | 2006-05-14
The liberal masquerade Though it bares media failure and under-performance, it has hardly been reviewed in mainstream media after it was published in January. Book review Guardians of Power: The myth of the Liberal Media by David Edwards and David Cromwell, published by Pluto Press, London and Ann Arbor. 2006. Paperback $15. Dasu Krishnamoorty Guardians..
A prayer for the next elections
IN Opinion | 2006-05-14
May the anchors realize that when most results come in by noon, or thereabout, they should stop saying "early days."
IN Digital Media | 2006-05-11
Digital entertainment has given us two things broadcast could not: personalisation and empowerment.
Vadodara—stoking communal sentiments
IN Media Practice | 2006-05-11
Professional ethics demand that, on such occasions, the media conducts itself with utmost restraint, not stoking communal tension.
IN Opinion | 2006-05-11
The reader has heard a lot of views on the burn-out issue. But what about some facts, just for a change?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-05-11
Tacitly acknowledging the role played by the media in ending King Gyanendraøs rule, Nepaløs new government has annulled the constricting media ordinance and other measures imposed by the royalty last year.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-05-11
Conservative media mogul Rupert Murdoch has decided to host a political fundraiser for Hillary Clintonøs senatorial re-election campaign to hedge his bets in a future scenario where the Republicans may not come back to power. When Hillary originally
IN Regional Media | 2006-05-08
Given entertainment industry dynamics, it is a matter of time before a free color television set becomes a marketing imperative.
IN Opinion | 2006-05-08
The more I read editorials, the more I wonder why those who write them are paid so much. Any blogger would do just as well.
IN Regional Media | 2006-05-07
As he gets set to conquer the rest of the country, Kalanidhi Maran is a man to both admire and fear.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-05-07
CNN-IBN’s poll eve discussion on Tamilnadu’s future was telling for the panel it put together. Out of five panelists from the state, four were Brahmins in a state where Brahmins constitute 2 per cent of the population. Doubtless the channel believes
The triumph of views over news
IN Opinion | 2006-05-07
..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-05-05
The Asian Age ran a page one second lead on the Bombay high court rejecting the Hindu’s plea, seeking to restrain the Audit Bureau of Circulation from issuing an ABC certificate to the Deccan Chronicle. It claims that the Hindu pleaded its business i
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-05-04
A man is dead, but The Economic Times cannot resist a pun. It announced Pramod Mahajan’s death with the following headline: Pramod loses the Mahajung, under an empty picture frame.
Sun—not a model for the media world
IN Media Practice | 2006-05-03
Nothing wrong in Kalanidhi Maran trying to emerge as India’s Rupert Murdoch provided he does not use unfair means to eliminate his competitors.
IN Opinion | 2006-05-02
Our papers are at the mercy of what they get from outside: other peopleøs opinions, biases, plain error and all.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-05-01
Reporters Without Borders has recorded at least 117 cases of physical attacks and injury including bullet wounds, inflicted on journalists by the security forces, while covering the pro-democracy demonstrations. It has said that journalists who were
IN Opinion | 2006-05-01
A dog`s breakfast When you have to write about Mughal-e-Azam in Pakistan, you know the edit writers are scraping the bottom of the barrel. You don`t say! Darius Nakhoonwala Last week was one of those weeks. There was, it seems, no big event to write about, other than the shooting of Pramod Mahajan...
Opinion polls or poll opinions?
IN Media Practice | 2006-05-01
The Hindu survey seems to be more scientific and methodical while the others only reflect the editorial policy of the publication concerned.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-04-29
The Deccan Chronicle says TV serials have replaced tailor’s catalogues in Hyderabad. The city’s men have apparently taken to asking for the kind of suits worn by a character in Kasauti. Tailors are installing portable TV sets for their workers to wat
The future of Hindi on the Internet
IN Digital Media | 2006-04-28
The spread of Internet in India today is constrained by the fact that it is based essentially on the use of the English language.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-04-27
Even a somber occasion is a good one to flaunt access, if you are so inclined. Malavika Sangghvi in DNA checking on Pramod Mahajan: " Am on the third floor of Hinduja Hospital, in the inner sanctum, where I am told no journalist has
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-04-25
Sun TV’s spectacular debut at the stock market has made Kalanidhi Maran a billionaire, and the wealthiest media baron in the country after TOI’s Jains, since he owns a much larger percentage of Sun TV’s stock than Subhash Chandra does of Zee. Sun als
IN Opinion | 2006-04-25
Noble enough, but the cons of having such small venues were immediately visible to the discerning reporter.
Statement of the Federation of Nepalese Journalists
IN Media Practice | 2006-04-25
The Federation demands immediate compensation to journalists and media institutions who have been subjected to illegal detention, torture and interference.
IN Opinion | 2006-04-24
When nothing happens, should edits still be written?
IN Media Practice | 2006-04-23
At last, during the Mahajan crisis, pesky reporters met their match. Vignettes from the 24 hour coverage
‘Indian Idol’ and regional dynamics
IN Media Practice | 2006-04-23
Hyderabad recorded its disappointment on the pages of the Hindu and Deccan Chronicle when Karuna lost the crown.
Press report leads to punishment for privilege issue
IN Media Practice | 2006-04-23
The committee members called as witnesses the editor of Mumbai Sakal, Sanjeev Latkar and the concerned correspondent J DPatil
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-04-23
M J Akbar’s Blood Brothers has been well received. The Asian Age, the newspaper Akbar edits, joined the chorus of praise: the Sunday Age devoted its entire cover page to an extract, with an intro lauding the book’s "sharp insight, sensitive subtlety
IN Media Practice | 2006-04-20
The media`s role in the Narmada drama was as biased as the conduct of Union Water Resources Minister who almost joined the ranks of protestors
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-04-19
The Free Press Journal reports that Vijay Darda, proprietor of the Lokmat group in Maharashtra and a Rajya Sabha MP, has used his MPLAD funds to erect a memorial to his father, build a road to his own house and fund educational institutions run by hi
IN Opinion | 2006-04-19
Firing at Mohammad Kaif over the BCCI’s shoulders
Media influence in Kerala elections
IN Media Practice | 2006-04-17
The CPM openly admitted that in Kerala this time they had to accept changes owing to media pressure.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-04-17
The Hindi news channels gave extensive but shallow coverage to Narendra Modi once he began his fast on the Narmada dam issue. The anchors simply had not done enough homework to cross question the CM effectively. However The Hindu scored. It
IN Opinion | 2006-04-17
Naive editorials were dished up, classical liberalism with more than an element of knee-jerk in it.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-04-15
For the Times of Indiaøs Hyderabad edition, Rajkumarøs death was just a law and order story. On April 13, it carried on page one a picture of arson in Bangalore with the caption "Actor Rajkumarøs Death Sparks Rioting in Bangalore". On page nine it ca
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-04-14
The Ramnath Goenka awards function attracted more page 3 glitterati than the media community though all of IE’s past editors were in attendance. Man about town Suhel Seth alluded in his opening remarks to compere Madhu Trehan’s recently coloured hair
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-04-14
Even people at the Indian Express were embarrassed at NDTV’s clean sweep of the broadcasting category of the Ramnath Goenka awards: five awards were won by the channel which hosts a weekly show by the paper’s editor. But the high powered jury was onl
IN Media Practice | 2006-04-14
The death of celebrities like Dr Rajkumar is from the media perspective an opportunity to fill telecast time and satiate its appetite for ratings.
"I love my country, but I hate the government"
IN Media Practice | 2006-04-13
In detention in Nepal, a journalist discovers how an autocratic state machinery treats some of the weakest members of society, arrested without any provocation.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-04-11
Cricket controversies on April 9 on NDTV 24c7 was all about Navjot Singh Siddhu, normally the co anchor of the show. Various people talked about him and did a take off on his Siddhuisms. Why do we need so much time on Siddhu in a show supposed to be
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-04-11
Two publication launches are on the cards. Reader’s Digest is starting a Hindi edition and looking for an editor. And Today, the evening tabloid from the Living Media stable is slated to become a morning paper.
IN Opinion | 2006-04-11
What happened in Guwahati this Sunday gave some much-needed ammo to our sports writers.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-04-10
Shobha De says she doesn’t like constant allusions to her glamour and looks when she has a professional profile. (Vir Sanghivi told us she was India’s leading columnist in Face the Music, NDTV 24x7.) If she doesn’t like the glamour tag wonder why she
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-04-09
The Times of India began the trend of featuring explicit material in the morning newspaper. Now arch rival Hindustan Times is competing in this department. On April 7 its colour weekend pages carried a feature on sex toys for women, with photographs
Updates from Nepal: more journalists arrested
IN Media Freedom | 2006-04-09
Two April 9 updates from the Media Alliance in Nepal on the situation in Kathmandu and Butwal.
IN Community Media | 2006-04-09
Community radio never caught public fancy. Until Raghav Mahato and FM Mansoorpur 1 came along.
If its such a dumb idea, why bother?
IN Opinion | 2006-04-09
If its such a dumb idea, why bother? Why do leader writers write on non-topics when there are so many better ones around? You don`t say! Darius Nakhoonwala Last week was one of those when leader writers fox me. Every one of them worth his salt (and his editor) said it was a bad idea,..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-04-08
The government’s announcement of more reservations in educational institutions was big news for the English TV news channels which ran discussions on the subject two days running, leaning on the side of opposing more reservations. It was practically
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-04-08
Readership figures have become fairly controversial but they still are a yardstick to go by. IRS Round 1 for 2006 lists top ten English newspaper readership thus: TOI, HT, Hindu, Deccan Chronicle, Telegraph, Mid Day, Deccan Herald, Indian Express, th
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-04-06
Citizen journalists are the latest rage in TV world. CNN-IBN set the ball rolling urging the public on its website to go forth and report. Now rediff.com is also appealing to its readers to become Citizen Election Reporters for the assembly elections
IN Media Practice | 2006-04-06
The wardrobe malfunction overkill shows that the media is letting down its original constituency by squandering space/time on the low doings in high places.
IN Media Practice | 2006-04-05
What the the Times of India in Hyderabad did on the day of Ugadi insulted the intelligence of its more rational readers
IN Opinion | 2006-04-05
An India-Pakistan contest notwithstanding, Davis Cup tennis is low priority amongst journos.
Revisiting some truths in the Radhabai Chawl case
IN Media Practice | 2006-04-05
A rejoinder to Dasu Krishnamoorty`s assertion that the media did not pursue acquittals in the Radhabhai chawl case because the accused were Muslims.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-04-04
If you really wanted to know who had been knocked out of the final three in the Indian Idol contest you just had to log on to rediff.com. Even though the results were yet to be announced on Sony on Tuesday night, the website posted the outcome of the
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-04-04
It is a very cosy media world. Hindustan Times editorial director, Vir Sanghvi, anchors a new programme on NDTV 24x7, Face the Music, and voila, a survey in the paperøs Sunday magazine, Brunch, rates Prannoy Roy as the most credible news anchor of In
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-04-03
A BBC mailer soliciting advertising for a forthcoming programme illustrates why interview programmes pick the celebrities they do. They have to be advertising draws. So Perschardt’s People, interviewing thirteen ‘distinguished’ people from the Asia P
IN Opinion | 2006-04-03
The Hindustan Times noted one-upmanship between Islamabad and New Delhi in taking credit for pushing for sub-continental peace.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-04-01
The film Being Cyrus has been produced under the banner of Times Infotainment Media Limited. That obviously has its advantages. It got lots of pre launch publicity in the paper and on the Times Group’s TV channels, a rave review from the Times of Ind
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-03-29
Times Now, the Bennett Coleman group’s news channel has given Economic Times an added boost. In its morning transmission the channel devotes a segment to discussing exclusives in the morning’s ET. While the reader might want an overview of the news i
The Hinduøs reader’s editor gets going
IN Media Practice | 2006-03-29
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IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-03-28
Raghav Mahto, who ran the Radio Raghav FM Mansoorpur 1 transmission from Mansoorpur village in Vaishali district for three years has a sudden spurt of fame in the media to thank for the closure of his pet project. The government sought a report on it
IN Opinion | 2006-03-27
For Indians the just concluded Commonwealth Games will be remembered for contrasting reasons.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-03-26
NDTV 24x7 did a story on a witness in the Nitish Kataria murder case, whose level of protection has been reduced. It changed his name but showed his profile several times in the course of the story, so that his build, face cut, the fact that he wears
Slamming the government, not Sonia
IN Opinion | 2006-03-26
The editors suspected that they were being taken for a ride but so unusual was the action that they felt they had to praise it as well.
IN Community Media | 2006-03-25
The station is supported by an engineering college and broadcasts for four hours each morning, with a similar rebroadcast each evening.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-03-24
That the Hindustan Times group is soft on the Congress Party is not a secret. Even so its lead editorial on March 24th morning was amazing. It was practically the only newspaper that gave Sonia Gandhi all the benefit of doubt and lauded her reputatio
IN Opinion | 2006-03-23
Advertising today is more than a vehicle for selling products. It shapes popular imagination.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-03-23
In the midst of all the clamour about a "second sacrifice" the best sardonic line came from Sagarika Ghose on CNN-IBN on India 360: "It was the ‘inner voice’ all over again." Indeed it was, and by replaying Sonia Gandhi’s resignation speech endlessly
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-03-22
On March 21 NDTV 24x7 had a report on the state of two zoos in the North East that any animal lover would thank them for. It focused on the neglect and cruelty dumb animals are subjected to at these institutions. The investigation was done by PETA th
You’ve gone back a long way, baby
IN Media Practice | 2006-03-21
For all the Wahidas, one thing has not changed: men are treated like of objects of interest while women remain sex objects.
Journalists in the Northeast fight back
IN Regional Media | 2006-03-20
Assam and Manipur have witnessed strong responses by journalists to attacks from militants as well as police and security personnel.
IN Media Practice | 2006-03-20
The New York Times thought Bush need not have travelled halfway around the world just to embarrass one of US’s most important allies against terrorism.
IN Opinion | 2006-03-20
It isnøt easy being an individual in the public eye, and the more the media support they receive the better it is.
Munabao-Khokrapar link--Indo-Pak monitoring Part IV
IN Media Monitoring | 2006-03-20
The rail link opening was covered with greater intensity and more positively by the Sindhi daily Ibrat, than by Nawai-e-Waqt
IN Opinion | 2006-03-20
The big boys who canøt resist a lamp-post didnøt even realize they had passed by a rather large one.
IN Media Practice | 2006-03-16
The multi-country, multi-media project included monthly five-minute video reports on each child for 10 months.
‘Meddling in Balochistan’—Indo-Pak monitoring part III
IN Media Monitoring | 2006-03-16
Balochistan became a byword for Indian interference in Pakistani affairs, mirroring a paranoia in India about Pakistani meddling in Kashmir.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-03-14
Two petitions have been filed in Madras High Court accusing two leaders of favouring TV channels. One alleges that Chief Minister Jayalalithaa is showering Jaya TV and AIADMK organ Namadhu MGR with state govt ads despite Jaya TV’s meager viewership.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-03-13
A "freelance journalist" covering the Mohali cricket Test had his accreditation for the media box cancelled by Punjab Cricket Association (PCA) officials following allegations that he was indulging in online betting. The betting charge was leveled ag
IN Opinion | 2006-03-13
The Telegraph said it would be a good idea to think of a different kind of a House altogether, election to which might be based on merit and not pedigree
IN Opinion | 2006-03-13
Sports journos have not made an effort to understand the changes in hockey rules, let alone report them fully.
Thai portal thrives on plagiarism
IN Media Practice | 2006-03-13
Check out Asian Tribune`s coverage of the Indian Northeast. Almost every story can be traced to one already published somewhere.
Negative reportage in Indo-Pak media
IN Media Monitoring | 2006-03-10
Indo Pak monitoring Part II: Both Amar Ujala and Dainik Jagran carried articles that highlighted negative aspects of Pakistan, unrelated to Kashmir or terrorism.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-03-10
The Delhi High Court Friday directed the implementation of the conditional access system (CAS) for viewing satellite TV channels across the country within four weeks. The judgement came following a bunch of petitions by companies that said they had i
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-03-10
An unnamed Indian TV channel tried to fake a Maoist attack last month. Its crew persuaded villagers to play marauding Maoists and a Royal Nepal Army unit to play along with the make-believe attack. But the plan went awry when a drunk soldier reported
Tamilnadu’s pre-election TV war
IN Media Practice | 2006-03-10
When Vaiko switched camps Sun TV thoroughly exposed him with its arsenal of file pictures from 2002, of his arrest under POTA.
Jagran and Nawai-e-Waqt stoke paranoia
IN Media Monitoring | 2006-03-08
The Jagran analysis reiterated an old idea that India is a soft state that panders to its minority community. Indo-Pak monitoring--Part I
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-03-07
The CIA has been conducting numerous interviews and polygraph examinations of US government employees in an effort to discover who had unauthorised contacts with reporters. They are investigating possible leaks that led to reports about secret CIA pr
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-03-07
The Malayala Manorama has won the UNESCOøs rural communication prize for its campaign - "Pala Thulli" (many a drop)- aimed at raising awareness about water conservation. Launched when Kerala was reeling from a severe drought, it urged people to take
IN Media Practice | 2006-03-06
A last-minute burst of editorials and editorial analyses, almost fissile in their tone, warned Bush against sealing the nuclear deal with India
Chappell vs. Ganguly, Act 12, Scene 983
IN Opinion | 2006-03-05
Chappell vs. Ganguly, Act 12, Scene 983 Instead of letting the curtain come down, this theatre of the absurd drags on and on and on. Introducing The Hoot’s new column on sports coverage! FROM THE STANDS S R Khelkoodkar After a couple of mercifully uneventful weeks, the Ganguly-Chappell row is back in the news...
Hip, Hip, Hurrah, murmur editorialists
IN Opinion | 2006-03-05
Instead of serving their readers well by presenting a balanced analysis of the event, leader writers joined the chorus of approval.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-03-05
The amount of space given by the Hindu to the launch of the redesigned Frontline was amazing. Lots of column inches on page one, and many more on the back page. Wonder if any reader will ask the Reader’s Editor just how newsy this event was on a day
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-03-05
How did everybody suddenly have the inside story on late Saturday morning on how tough the Indians had been in their bargaining with the Americans on the terms of the nuclear deal and on how it almost came unstuck? Because there was a briefing by the
The media and the nuclear deal
IN Media Practice | 2006-03-05
TV news went ga ga over Bush and the nuclear deal. As regards the street protests, both the print and television did not do much to put them in perspective.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-03-02
The Hindu’s reader’s editor has joined from March 1 and is doubtless behind the corrections and clarifications that the paper has begun to carry on the op-ed page. Its fun to discover how pernickety readers can be. A welcome corrective for sloppy jou
Remember the dead of the Radhabai Chawl?
IN Media Practice | 2006-03-02
The media campaigned on Best Bakery and will do so for Jessica Lal. But why did it not pursue acquittals in the Radhabai chawl case as doggedly?
IN Opinion | 2006-03-02
The three main financial dailies - I donøt count the Economic Times as one ever since it turned into a comic strip - took completely different tacks.
Indian media industry poised for huge growth
IN Media Practice | 2006-02-25
"The entertainment and media industry will grow by a cumulative 19 percent over the next five years"
Avian Flu : To cull or not to cull
IN Media Practice | 2006-02-24
Precaution was necessary, not scare-mongering. So what was the masked television reporter doing in and around Navapur hamlets and hospitals?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-02-23
According to the journo grapevine, The Hindu has just named two women as its foreign correspondents in Pakistan and Beijing: Nirupama Subramaniam in Pakistan, and Pallavi Aiyar in Beijing.
IN Media Practice | 2006-02-22
Many other newspapers and net news media followed the two liberal giants in exonerating the vice-president without waiting for details.
Muslim anger and Danish motivation
IN Media Practice | 2006-02-22
"I commissioned the cartoons in response to several incidents of self-censorship in Europe caused by widening fears and feelings of intimidation"
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-02-19
If you want a promotion and a pay hike in the Sahara group all entrants to the media group, including its editorial staff, have to sit for an exam. The three hour, compulsory exam tests your knowledge on the group and its leader, Subroto Roy aka Saha
IN Opinion | 2006-02-19
In deciding what to editorialise about and what to leave well alone, the timid and the political always get exposed
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-02-18
N.Ram of the Hindu, who was to speak on the øCorporate Influence on the Mediaø at the SAFMA convention this week focussed instead on how the paper had appointed a Readerøs Editor and on the increasingly tabliodisation of the Indian media. And Chandra
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-02-18
Talk of outsourcing stings. The sting CNN-IBN carried exposing a UP minister as a drug runner was done by the Detective Intelligence Guild, a loose collective of freelance investigative journalists who carry out sting operations for TV news channels-
Pre election advertisement politics
IN Media Practice | 2006-02-17
Ever seen a sting or expose on how governments spend money on meaningless press advertisements? You won’t.
Where are those missing faces?
IN Media Practice | 2006-02-15
Women constitute 52% of the world`s population yet make up only 21% of people featured in the news.
Good taste vs freedom of expression
IN Opinion | 2006-02-12
Good taste vs freedom of expression Just check out what Google throws up by way of offended Western reaction to the Iranian cartoon contest lampooning the Holocaust. You don`t say! Darius Nakhoonwala The story example of a butterfly flapping its wings in Peru and, through a series of apparently inter-connected events, causing a..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-02-09
India tops the list of ten most searched for items in January on NYTimes.com in January. The other items are: 2. China, 3 Larry David, 4. Diabetes, 5. Iraq, 6. James Frey, 7. Alito, 8. Iran, 9. Brokeback Mountain, 10. Sharon. Source: an NYT mailer.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-02-09
It wasn’t very smart of the Patna Times of India to have published the offending Danish cartoons, and it makes you wonder: doesn’t a multi edition newspaper have a common editorial policy for all its editions on an issue like this? Not surprisingly P
IN Media Practice | 2006-02-08
Free speech, though a basic value like faith, has limits which not only the state but also society imposes.
IN Opinion | 2006-02-06
The Hindu, which never seems to be able to make up its mind whether to be nice to him or nasty, also wrote cattily that the trademark humility was gone.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-02-06
The Indian Express deserves full marks for its series on the suicides of cotton farmers in the Vidharba region of Maharashtra. A painstaking investigation into the role of the banking system and the sorry state of agricultural credit. Have Indiaøs pi
IN Media Practice | 2006-02-04
The Washington Post thought that Bush’s speech sounded more subdued than triumphant, more realistic than grandiose.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-02-04
The advantage of a website is that bloomers can be removed. On Saturday morning Rediff .com had a home page headline, øMirwiazøs associate arrested in Delhi.ø It linked to a PTI story which said, øISI agent arrested in Delhi.ø It said a Pakistani nat
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-02-02
Viewers never had it so good: Times Now and CNN-IBN are following in the footsteps of Rajat Sharma’s India TV with a scoop a day. Times Now is using print media veterans to get hard stories, while its anchors are good looking novices for the most par
Assam’s newspapers root for Debojit
IN Regional Media | 2006-02-02
Assam’s newspapers root for Debojit The debate has gained momentum, after the competitor from Assam reached the final of the ongoing Zee TV`s Sa-Re-Ga-Ma-Pa show. Nava Thakuria Should media urge the readers to vote for someone? Even if it is about a television show, should newspapers openly carry an appeal to..
Moving away from Gulf oil and wars
IN Media Practice | 2006-02-02
British newspapers reacted angrily to the grim milestone in the war in Iraq with the 100th British soldier killed.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-02-01
Times Now is here, and has too many foot-in-mouth novices on board. First day they fumbled over the name of their own studio expert, Swaminathan Anklesaria Aiyar. Second day they called Renuka Chowdhury Renuka Chatterjee. What next?
IN Media Freedom | 2006-02-01
On the first anniversary of the crackdown on democracy in Nepal the International Federation of Journalists today used strong language.
Jayaøs motivation vs Sun TVøs monopoly
IN Regional Media | 2006-01-31
Jayalalithaa’s bill may be the outcome of local political rivalry, but the issue it raises of media monopoly has to be addressed in the larger interest of democracy.
IN Opinion | 2006-01-30
The leader writers could not decide who was more to blame for the Bihar dissolution fiasco.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-01-29
Foreign investments in Indian media continue to pick up steam. In the single largest investment in the Indian print media, the global private equity investor Blackstone Group is investing approximately Rs 1,238 crore in the Hyderabad-based Ushodaya E
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-01-29
The channel stars in the film. Not just by having reporters in the film use NDTV mikes, but by having its anchor Pankaj Pachauri mount a studio show that lends itself to the film’s story line. And whenever the gang watches TV in a dhabha in Rang De B
Man emulates immolation telecast
IN Media Practice | 2006-01-27
According to Khanøs statement, he decided to attempt the act after watching the self-immolation incident on TV.
Communication policies in the Nehru era
IN Books | 2006-01-27
The modernization paradigms pertaining to mass media were crystalised in communication scholarship emanating particularly from the US.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-01-27
Two women journalists got Padma Shris. Indian Express went overboard in tom-toming the fact that columnist Sucheta Dalal was honoured, suggesting that she could add the title to her name, whereas in fact the title is not supposed to be added to one’s
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-01-27
On every national holiday ONGC advertisements take over the major newspapers and you can tell which papers allow intrusive advertising and which don’t. This year a gas pipeline was permitted to sneak all over the paper, from page to page in the Times
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-01-27
In these days of competition it makes TRP sense to indulge in good PR. On the recently launched news channel CNN-IBN, while covering the launch of Upamanyu Chatterrjee’s latest book, the camera lingered on the face of the television critic of a leadi
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-01-27
At the Republic Day a launch of Making News, a book published by the Oxford University Press, panelist K.S Sarma, CEO, Prasar Bharati in his introductory remarks frankly admitted that he had hoped to enjoy an afternoon siesta after a hard morning att
IN Opinion | 2006-01-25
Leader writers frown as Congressmen fawn but it won’t make the slightest difference.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-01-23
The minister also reiterated to BBC that the UPA government would not allow private FM radio stations in the country to broadcast news and current affairs programmes for at least the next two-three years, with a fresh look at the issue after observin
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-01-23
India’s information and Broadcasting minister has said that the coming session of Parliament would propose the setting up of viewers forums on the lines of consumer forums, and empower them with a legal backing. The government would act on the advice
Stings landing more officials in jail
IN Media Practice | 2006-01-23
A 53.84 percent increase in the number of government employees who were convicted in 2005 for misuse of office is being partly attributed to TV sting operations.
IN Regional Media | 2006-01-23
Ahead of assembly polls Jayalalitha moves against Sun TV, taking over its cable distribution business in the state.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-01-21
While Barkha Dutt reins over NDTV sister Bahar is a new find for rival CNN-IBN. Her special report on the channel on the Asiatic lion showed that she shares her sister’s onscreen mannerisms and propensity for haranguing.
Letter from a Nepal under siege
IN Media Freedom | 2006-01-21
The telecast of Star News and Aaj Tak has been restricted, journalists have been arrested, videotapes seized and field reporting made extremely difficult.
Independent doubles interest in Jagran group
IN Media Practice | 2006-01-18
This is one of a series of foreign investors entering the growing Indian media and entertainment sector.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-01-18
The letters columns of the Hindu are witnessing an interesting debate on the appointment of a reader’s editor for the paper. While many readers applaud it for being the first to bring this accountability mechanism to India, others feel its first read
IN Opinion | 2006-01-16
"Q" sera, sera? As the lyric goes in the film "Sound of Music" Ottavio Quattrocchi must have done something good. But for whom is the question. You don`t say! Darius Nakoonwala The big news last week was the de-freezing of Ottavio Quattrocchi`s London bank accounts at the specific request of the Indian government..
Martyr in the cause of environment
IN Regional Media | 2006-01-16
His reports exposed the illegal activities of some forest officials who were hand-in-glove with the timber mafia.
Testing the uses of RTI in Jharkhand
IN Media Practice | 2006-01-16
Letter to the Hoot: Armed with the act, students of the Prabhat Khabar Institute of Media Studies are zealously filing applications in government departments.
IN Media Practice | 2006-01-12
Brinda Karat, Baba Ramdev, NDTV and the politics of family in investigative journalism
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-01-11
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
Making too much of media diplomacy?
IN Media Monitoring | 2006-01-11
When news people achieve star status some hubris can be forgiven, but it is safe to assume that Indo-Pak relations will be governed by other realities.
‘Regulating the Taste of People’
IN Media Monitoring | 2006-01-11
PEMRA`s edict demonstrates that the free flow of information remains as much of a chimera in the global village as it did in a pre-24/7 media era.
IN Media Practice | 2006-01-11
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IN Opinion | 2006-01-09
Spying on opponents is old as the hills. The trick is not to get caught.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-01-09
After getting parliamentarians of both countries together and journalists from the two Kashmirs together, the South Asian Free Media Association is now implementing its Punjab to Punjab initiative by a leading a Pakistani delegation of journalists an
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-01-09
The man who sells Chavanprash and Hajmola can also sell a business newspaper. The Economic Times which already pioneered a trend (not emulated by others) of using photographs unrelated to stories on its pages, now carries an endorsement by Amitabh Ba
Narendra Modi, Pravasi Divas, and Secularism
IN Media Practice | 2006-01-08
Rajiv and Indira Gandhi were forgiven their excesses but Modi still gets the secular media’s goat. Any association with him is to be derided.
IN Media Freedom | 2006-01-06
Violence still increasing: 63 journalists killed, more than 1,300 physically attacked or threatened. Cases of censorship up, cyber dissidents jailed.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-01-06
For a masterly description of how Hillary Clinton has reinvented herself. Political profiling that demonstrates that you can have access and use it to produce insightful journalism that does not pull its punches. Asian Age, Jan 4.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-01-05
The death of Gudiya was in the news as a continuum of the media agenda set last year. Amita Verma in the Deccan Chronicle drew attention to the future of Mateen, one year old son of Gudiya and Taufeeq. Will Mateen now provide a new agenda for talk sh
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-01-03
Was it Vir Sanghvi who wrote a column in Sunday HT asking the media to refrain from sensationalizing the fatwa against Sania and leave her alone? He might tell his own staff that, seeing how they played up the story of the MMS clip on Sania in HT cit
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2006-01-03
Let there be light said the Hindustan Times. And proceeded to tuck away on page six the story of the massacre in Bihar on New Year’s Day, with a brief on page one. Lead headline on page one? A Warm, Cuddly New Year. Even feel-good rival TOI had the s
IN Opinion | 2006-01-03
Carping about Rajnath Singh Nobody commented on what the BJP change of guard tells you about the Congress. You don`t say! Darius Nakhoonwala From a long term point of view the biggest story last week was the change of leadership in the BJP when L K Advani made way for a successor. Every..
IN Media Practice | 2006-01-02
If youøre experiencing a sense of deja vu, pity Mrs Sonia Gandhi. She had to answer almost identical questions from the two øømost respected TV journalist(s)øø…
IN Media Practice | 2006-01-01
I can remember the moment around two years ago when the word "settlements" was replaced by "Jewish neighborhoods" — or even, in some cases, "outposts."
IN Media Practice | 2006-01-01
What does it tell you about our society that secret cameras have become our preferred instrument of moral expose?
IN Media Practice | 2005-12-31
A wave of Islamist terror sweeps over Bangladesh`s press at year`s end.
IN Digital Media | 2005-12-31
2005 saw a change in the very semantics of the web and boisterous Web activity owing to new technologies related to Web 2.0.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-12-31
If you want a textbook example of a soft interview watch Rajdeep Sardesai’s interview of Sonia Gandhi on CNN-IBN telecast on Dec 30, to be repeated over the weekend. Beats Vir Sanghvi’s delicate handling of her in the past. Sardesai hands her with es
Self-importance and the real news
IN Opinion | 2005-12-27
Since leader writers are a self important bunch, most of them failed to comment on the real news of last week.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-12-27
No 1 sans competition Business World sends out a self congratulatory mailer saying that for the fourth year in a row ABC circulation figures put it on the top as India’s largest selling business magazine. The small print however tells you that its main competitors, Business India and Business Today are not..
Assam’s media ignores a new Sena
IN Regional Media | 2005-12-26
Till date no major newspaper of Assam had either published editorials on Asom Sena or analytical pieces on the development.
Here¿s Looking at You, Brother
IN Media Practice | 2005-12-26
`My Brother, My Enemy` is an experimental film set against the backdrop of the Samsung India-Pakistan Cricket Series in 2004
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-12-26
What happens when a reigning TV queen and an aspiring one are both given edit page space by the Hindustan Times? They choose to write on the same subject and one uses the space to swipe at the other. Check out Barkha Dutt’s column on Dec 26th and Sag
Bangladesh MPs urge tougher censorship
IN Media Practice | 2005-12-21
Members of the parliamentary standing committee have expressed grave concern over obscenity and vulgarity shown in movies.
Done nothing illegal, says Bahal
IN Media Practice | 2005-12-21
"What we have done is not illegal or unlawful and since we have not done anything wrong, people cannot target us for anything."
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-12-21
Advertising grew at 14 per cent in 2005 in India, and print media growth outstripped the growth in TV advertising. The latter was 11.4 per cent and the former 16.1 per cent. Of print media advertising 90.5 per cent was the share of newspapers. (ET/Ad
IN Media Practice | 2005-12-19
Our 36 months of filming threw up no answers. Only helped us see Jammu and Kashmir with a different lens.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-12-19
The CNN-IBN news channel was launched without fanfare last weekend. It is clear that NDTV 24x7 will get some competition, if the newcomer gets its distribution right. But from what has been on display so far it is not at all clear whether the viewer
IN Opinion | 2005-12-13
India and Russia are like spouses who separate after four decades of marriage.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-12-12
At Danik Jagran’s big splash Jagran Forum an unoffical master of ceremonies who even took the mike from time to time was IAS officer, Shakti Sinha, former prime minister Atal Bihar Vajpayee’s private secretary. Sinha is obviously very pally with the
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-12-12
Rediff.com’s story on Operation Duryodhan says that "54 members of Parliament were shown taking money for raising questions in Parliament", whereas only 11 were shown. The story was updated at 2;47 in the afternoon, and yet the error was not correcte
Grey areas in right to privacy issue
IN Law and Policy | 2005-12-10
Mathrani is not right for the simple reason that what was exposed, by way of publication in India Today, was in public interest.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-12-10
Anil Bhoyrul a journalist of Indian origin was found guilty of using his column in the Daily Mirror to earn profits from the stock market by highlighting firms whose shares he had bought and then selling them when the prices shot up. Others were also
IN Media Practice | 2005-12-10
If biggies like the Times of India and Hindu have plagiarisers on their staff, the regional media is not lagging behind. HERALD, says a reader, lifts edits from others.
Saurav, Parliament and the editorialists
IN Opinion | 2005-12-09
..
IN Media Practice | 2005-12-08
Not many bothered to question if he was really guilty or to find out what happened to the oil coupon that was allegedly given to the Congress.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-12-05
A sick Bachchan is an opportunity to milk for all its worth. Star India did just that, ran a Bachchan movie across three of its channels on Sunday (Dec 4) and spoilt the movie by crawling messages from Bollywood biggies across the screen for much of
IN Opinion | 2005-12-05
Bowled all ends up It is a great mystery as to who writes sports edits, the usual gang, or the sports editor? You don`t say! Darius Nakhoonwala Who writes edits on sports generally, and cricket edits in particular? The usual suspects or the sports editor? I have never been able to find out, but..
IN Media Practice | 2005-12-03
Indian papers, driven by the great forces of the market, have been dumbed down to the point where they are indistinguishable from any other consumer product.
Indo Pak mags excel in terror coverage
IN Media Monitoring | 2005-12-03
The Herald’s cover story disproved the notion that the contours of professional media in a democracy and dictatorship differ. Indo-Pak media perspectives on terror--Part III
Losing all sense of proportion
IN Media Practice | 2005-12-03
Even a Congressman would have been bored to death by the endless repeats of Venkaiah’s effigy burning or the destruction of arches by Uma supporters.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-12-03
Now the Pentagon is financing the production of upbeat articles on Iraq which are translated into Arabic and fed to the Iraqi press, says an NYT story reprinted in TOI. The PR firm which executes this has also paid a dozen Iraqi journos $100 a month
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-12-03
A first lead in the Hindustan Times (Dec. 2) reconstructs through colour illustrations the anatomical affliction that Amitabh Bachchan is suffering from. Are our so-called national newspapers losing it?
Nepal¿s ¿red¿ press thrives underground
IN Media Practice | 2005-11-30
King Gyanendra has muzzled Nepal`s independent media but the rebel propaganda machinery continues full steam from secret centres.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-11-30
With blogs around mainstream media had better be on its toes. A blogger has now pointed out the remarkably similarity in paragraphs in certain film reviews in the New York Times and those in reviews of the same films by the Hindu’s film critic. http:
The øFoxificationø of Indian TV news
IN Media Practice | 2005-11-28
All pretence of journalistic fairness was jettisoned as the news anchor on STAR News led the celebration of Lalu Prasadøs defeat.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-11-28
When a newspaper wants to campaign facts become irrelevant. Till today there is no evidence that Satyendra Dubey was murdered for speaking up against the contractor mafia. The only conclusive enquiry so far showed that he was killed by robbers. But t
So much hot air about so much hot air!
IN Opinion | 2005-11-28
Letter to the Hoot: Ultimately what came across was an over-hyped event centering on an old man and a large balloon, with a world record thrown in
IN Media Freedom | 2005-11-28
Things get worse for Nepal radio stations as BBC Nepali Service carries an exclusive interview with Maoist chairman Prachanda.
Exit Lalu, enter editorialists
IN Opinion | 2005-11-28
The surprise, after 15 years of very poor governance, is not that Lalu lost but that so many non-voters thought he would last.
Letter to the Hoot: callous NDTV
IN Opinion | 2005-11-26
Saurav Gangulyøs inclusion in the Test Squad rated a headline ahead of the confirmation of the killing of Mr. M R Kutty.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-11-25
Did the Indian Express receive "an outpouring of letters" about Manjunath’s murder (Nov. 25) or did it lift some of them from a couple of blogs? Indiauncut.blogspot.com claims it is the latter. It linked to the Express Op Ed page which carried the le
Pakistan’s Urdu media: volatile and severe
IN Media Monitoring | 2005-11-25
Indo-Pak media perspectives on terror, Part II. Unlike Pakistan`s English newspapers, different media standards seemed to apply to the Urdu press which caters to a far larger, mass circulation.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-11-25
The sharp collective reaction by TV news channels in Kerala to a change of the police officers in charge of a rape-in-guise-of-ragging case, embarrassed the government and led to a tactical retreat, at the CM’s intervention. After the channels went t
Indo-Pak media perspectives on terror
IN Media Monitoring | 2005-11-25
July showed that the media mindset of both Pakistan and India was to give more coverage to militant/terrorist attacks if they were associated with the west or with Kashmir.
IN Opinion | 2005-11-21
The real issue in the Khushboo case is not intolerance or free speech but whether men will marry non-virgins. Someone should ask women the same question, though.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-11-21
The Delhi edition of the Hindu on November 21 had a page one anchor on raids proposed on zari units in Delhi to liberate child workers. By the state labour department and by Delhi police. Bit odd why anyone should publicize a raid before it has take
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-11-18
The Malayala Manorama has launched editions from Bahrain and Dubai. It has put in place bureaus in these markets for appropriate generation of local content. The move also allows the Manorama to generate local advertising from these areas.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-11-18
Now that Jaipal Reddy has been replaced by Priyaranjan Das Munshi as information and broadcasting minister, can we ever hope for a decision on community radio? Bad enough that with Jaipal Reddy there a final decision on CR policy was deferred to a gr
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-11-14
One bonus of going to Srinagar is that you can get the Pakistani news channels, Geo and ARY. And they are very different from the Indian news channels in the impression they create. Less slick than NDTV or CNBC, less sensation-driven than Star News o
IN Opinion | 2005-11-14
The predictability and shallowness of editorial writing on Europe was demonstrated last week when everyone wrote about the French riots.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-11-11
What with Raja Bhaiyya, Abu Salem and other criminals making news on a daily basis, the media is beside itself with joy. The Raja of Kunda got a half hour programme on Zee News on Thursday, Abu Salem got a half hour special on Star News on Friday. An
Missing stories in Jammu and Kashmir
IN Regional Media | 2005-11-11
Almost every Army event and relief work carried out is a newsworthy event in J&K and senior Army officers and their spouses have become celebrities.
Akashvani Bangalore turns fifty
IN Media Practice | 2005-11-08
The Bangalore station was inaugurated on November 2, 1955 and in the 50 years since then there have been six distinct stages in the evolution of its programming.
IN Opinion | 2005-11-07
All the elements are there: a scam, a senior minister close to Sonia Gandhi, foreign payoffs, and, above all, the denials. Ah, the denials.
Delhi’s 29/10’: terror in the capital
IN Media Practice | 2005-11-07
The emphasis seemed to be on global solidarity rather than on reporting voices of the affected in that area.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-11-07
Headlines Today’s most frequent studio guests are journalists from its own group. It did not have anyone of its own to interview Andaleeb Sehgal. So its schoolboy anchor interviewed Deepak Chaurasia who had interviewed Sehgal for Aaj Tak. Chaurasia a
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-11-07
When Kaun Banega Crorepati on Star Plus got its first crorepati, Kotak Mahindra Bank was also a major beneficiary. Amitabh Bachchan signed a lot of cheques as the man in the hotseat got the answers right, held them up prominently each time, giving a
IN Media Monitoring | 2005-11-03
The war on terror is conflated with the war against nature and aid becomes a substitute for earlier commando-style raids against terrorists.
IN Media Monitoring | 2005-11-03
`Swords into shovels`: some North American media responses to the South Asian earthquake
IN Media Practice | 2005-11-03
Whether on the Delhi blasts, or on the train tragedy or on the Volcker report, most newspapers had a pusillanimous response.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-11-03
This hidden camera business is contagious. NDTV 24x7 is the latest channel to resort to it, with of course the tag exclusive never leaving the screen. It filmed a sub inspector of police demand repeated bribes from the family of a man who had committ
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-10-31
A tragedy is not the best occasion for clever headlines. But the Economic Times could not resist the temptation. Its headline the morning after the bomb blasts in Delhi said Diwali Diyas Blown Out. And the following morning: Delhi Blasts Its Way Out.
FM Radio – Rebuilding lives in Kashmir
IN Community Media | 2005-10-29
In the aftermath of the Kashmir quake, private broadcasters in Pakistan band together and use FM radio to help the victims stay connected.
Bad blood at the New York Times
IN Media Practice | 2005-10-29
The New York Post described the scene at the Times as all-out civil war. The gossip is that the Times used Maureen Dowd to disclose the publisher’s mind.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-10-29
The Hindu led with the Volcker report on kickbacks in the UN’s oil for food programme (Oct 29) but did a lousy job of explaining how the scam worked. The Hindustan Times, to its credit explained things quite clearly. The Indian Express must be feelin
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-10-25
How carefully journalists shield their own. Everybody splashed the story of the Supreme Court ordering those who had overstayed in government accommodation to vacate these. TOI, HT, Indian Express, Asian Age, Business Standard, ET all mentioned names
IN Media Practice | 2005-10-25
If we also exhibit similar madness it will be a matter of time before we find ourselves in the same boat as the American media
IN Opinion | 2005-10-24
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IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-10-22
Was it Vikram Seth’s mother’s 75th birthday or her 80th? You couldn’t be sure if you read the papers because they said different things. The Hindu said 80th, Indian Express and Times of India said 75th.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-10-22
A small clarification in the letters column on the edit page of the Times of India indicated that the paper’s gushing delight at having Vikram Seth edit the paper on October 20, the day his book "Two Lives" was being released, was not shared by the g
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-10-22
Controversial TV anchor Manoj Raghuvanshi has set up a media academy that claims to be the first institute in India to train students in sting operations. It offers a 3-month course in investigative TV journalism with a focus on conducting sting oper
IN Media Practice | 2005-10-22
Robin Jeffrey, biographer of India’s newspaper revolution, in conversation with Ashok Malik
The man who did not die on cue
IN Media Practice | 2005-10-22
Feeling almost cheated by his living, the news channels at hand flogged the story to death.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-10-19
On October 18th night, Jaya TV reported on Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar with unconcealed glee. While questioned by reporters in Sirkazhi (in Aiyerøs Mayiladudurai constituency) about the impending hike in LPG price, he said: Why should women
The Times of India plagiarises again
IN Media Practice | 2005-10-18
Yet another blogger posts evidence of plagiarism by the TOI, this time in the Bombay Times.
IN Opinion | 2005-10-17
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IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-10-14
Wired.com quoting the London-based Asharq al-Awsat newspaper says that al-Qaida had "vacant positions" for video production and for editing statements, footage and international media coverage about militants in Iraq, the Palestinian territories, and
David and Goliath – a virtual parable
IN Digital Media | 2005-10-14
If blogs are to be taken seriously, they should live up to the standards of accountability and reliability of the mainstream media that they so deplore.
Will news giants survive ¿citizen journalism¿?
IN Digital Media | 2005-10-13
The traditional news outlets cannot hope to dismiss these trends; they must start thinking of strategies to cope with this monumental change
IN Media Practice | 2005-10-13
Gupta and his peers have had to negotiate a long and winding road to reach their current heights.
Chauvinism that is both male and Indian
IN Opinion | 2005-10-13
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IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-10-13
Krishnan Guru-Murthy, the Channel 4 News presenter, was refused a visa to travel to Pakistan last Sunday to cover the earthquake because his parents were born in India. He spent several hours at the visa desk set up by the Pakistan high commission at
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-10-13
The government of Nepal has promulgated a new media ordinance that increases 10 times the fine on erring editors and publishers. It prohibits the media from criticising not only the king but his relatives as well. The government reiterated the ban on
IN Opinion | 2005-10-11
Making the catspaw the villain of the piece showed a reluctance to pin blame where it belonged
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-10-09
for the company’s pollution of the ground water in the area.Outlook gave a Speak Out award to Maillamma for her leadership in her community’s fight against Coca Cola in Plachimada, in Kerala. The same Outlook had let Coca Cola have the last word when
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-10-09
The backdrop to the Speak Out awards ceremony which marked Outlook’s tenth anniversary was a clenched fist. On either side if the fist was a hand, indistinguishable from the Congress party’s Haath. Presumably the two hands together were meant to sign
Katrina, Rita … and now Khushboo
IN Media Practice | 2005-10-09
After actress Khushboo’s comments on pre-marital sex came the press pictures of hotel party. There is no rest for Tamil Nadu’s moral police.
Decision on community radio postponed again
IN Community Media | 2005-10-06
A final decision on the contours of community radio policy for India has been referred to a group of ministers.
IN Media Practice | 2005-10-06
The real reason for Judith Miller’s capitulation is the absence of any guarantee that she would be released on 28 October when the term of the grand jury would end.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-10-06
Elton John, the London Philharmonia, Pakistanøs MTV award-winning band Strings and conductor Zubin Mehta will be part of worldwide performances throughout October, commemorating the Oct 10 birthday of Daniel Pearl, who was executed by terrorists in P
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-10-06
Indian Information and Broadcasting Minister S. Jaipal Reddy says he favours reviving the licence fee regime for radios and television sets. Alternatively, there should be a one-time tax to make Prasar Bharati, the autonomous official broadcasting co
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-10-06
Cross promotion on programmes is an insult to the viewer’s intelligence. While Sony carries the practice to intolerable lengths, others are learning from it. On Zee TV’s serial Kashish a pair of young friends are excited over the fact that they have
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-10-06
Nepali journalist Maheshwar Pahari, 30, who worked for the weekly Rastriya Swabhiman, died of tuberculosis on October 4. He was detained by security forces in a village in western Nepal’s Kaski district on January 2, 2004, and held under an anti-terr
The Left vs the people of India
IN Opinion | 2005-10-03
There is an internal battle going on within the CPM and last Thursdayøs nationwide strike was a show of strength by P. Karat and friends.
Information law: dead on arrival?
IN Media Practice | 2005-10-02
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IN Media Practice | 2005-10-02
The sole aim of a newspaper for the Mahatma was service. Conscious of the power of the medium, he believed in control and restraint.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-10-02
The afternoon paper ‘Today’ serialised the journal of an AIIMS doctor who committed suicide last year and left a note indicating discord with a senior doctor in his department. Today, is now reproducing pages from his diary to prove that he was menta
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-10-02
On September 29, the Delhi TOI on page three had the story, øFatherøs torture maims girlø about a woman and her two children who have been tortured. There were also two pictures identifying the victims. But a footnote said that the identity of the vi
CNN explores the ‘Path to Peace’
IN Media Monitoring | 2005-09-29
The two-hour special was silent on post-Independence riots. Perhaps the ‘path to peace’ with a Muslim neighbour requires a certain degree of amnesia about Muslims within India.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-09-29
Now a PIL against Outlook and India Today for their survey/story on sexual behaviour. The petitioner’s argument is that such surveys go against the ethos of Indian society. A division bench of the High Court has admitted the petition and asked the ma
IN Media Practice | 2005-09-29
The anger of the Hindu and the Pioneer has to be seen in the context of the possible damage that the vote would invite upon our energy security.
Community radio revolution in Uttaranachal
IN Community Media | 2005-09-26
Using amplifiers and stereo equipment, the groups narrowcast their programmes in their village communities in an attempt to build ølistening clubsø
UN Security Council expansion in Indo-Pak media
IN Media Monitoring | 2005-09-26
Indo-Pak monitoring: this myopic concentration on India in Pakistani media did not allow for in-depth analysis of the issues surrounding UNSC expansion…
IN Opinion | 2005-09-26
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IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-09-26
The PM is astounded. The financial newspapers reported him and the PMO holding non existent meetings over the rise in Sensex. Financial Express said the PMO held meetings with SEBI, RBI and IB, Business Standard went one better and said the PM himsel
Book review: photo journalism down the years
IN Media Practice | 2005-09-24
Though one misses Ansel Adams and pioneers like Margaret Bourke-White Koetzle`s vignettes provide insights into how photographs enhances reportage.
‘Big Time’: Indo-Pak magazine coverage of Indo-US relations
IN Media Monitoring | 2005-09-23
Farooq reiterates the Pakistani media argument that the deal will lead to nuclear proliferation, but diligently contextualizes the development.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-09-22
The Asian Age editorialised on the fake Salman tapes and without naming the Hindustan Times had a swipe at "corporate-controlled media" which picked on soft targets like Salman while ignoring the unholy nexus between politics, the underworld and big
IN Media Practice | 2005-09-22
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IN Media Practice | 2005-09-22
The The Mitrokhin masala Anyone who was part of the Bahadurshah Zafar Marg crowd at the time covered by the Mitrokhin papers knew where the KGB funds went. Dasu Krishnamoorty The Mitrokhin disclosures that shook the front pages of the country’s newspapers barely moved the editors. Maybe, as the Tribune said about "The..
IN Media Practice | 2005-09-19
This episode is significant for the way media-market collaboration makes and unmakes heroes in sports, and other areas of public life.
IN Opinion | 2005-09-19
The easiest edits to write are the ones on Indo-Pak encounters. Either you go ga-ga or you rant.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-09-19
It is nice to know that India TV is interested in building reputations, not just destroying them. On Saturday night it freaked out on a 1000 days of Narendra Modi. Live, breaking news, of course. The fulsome praise came from many quarters including M
IN Media Practice | 2005-09-17
An off-the-record meet between Cherie Blair and Indian women journalists was creatively interpreted by the British media contingent
Indo-Pak monitoring: the General’s visit—Part II
IN Media Monitoring | 2005-09-16
The incisive news package drove one message home: there was a disconnect between the military junta and the political opinion in Pakistan.
Dispelling the Spooks about Nukes’ --- III
IN Media Monitoring | 2005-09-16
Apart from syndicating articles and columns from western papers, Pakistan media strategically reprinted Indian media pieces critical of the pact.
Did IPS put out a plagiarised feature?
IN Media Practice | 2005-09-16
"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."
‘Dispelling the Spooks about Nukes’---II
IN Media Monitoring | 2005-09-13
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IN Opinion | 2005-09-13
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IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-09-13
The Times of India’s adversary reporting in Lucknow was rudely rebuffed by its own management. The latter did a supplement deal with the Mulayam Singh government on the occasion of Bill Clinton’s visit. Its top editors were quoted in the flattering s
IN Media Practice | 2005-09-10
The paper with the most aggressive advertising has proved to be the most disappointing.
Dispelling the Spooks about Nukes—I
IN Media Monitoring | 2005-09-10
Media representations in India and Pakistan of Indo-US relations. This part looks at media representations of the Indo-US defence pact.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-09-08
When the senior women journalists who run the Womenøs Press Corp in Delhi organised a lunch with Cherie Blair for their members, they decided they needed more star pull then they themselves collectively offered. So they asked Barkha Dutt of NDTV, who
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-09-08
Former cricket captain Mohamad Azharuddin has complained of being harassed by daily media bombardment ever since the police leaked the story of his being the target of the underworld.The man says the threat bothers him less than the chase by the medi
Indo-Pak monitoring: the General’s visit
IN Media Monitoring | 2005-09-07
Indo-Pak monitoring: the General’s visit Looking back, NDTV and Aaj Tak were indistinguishable in their attempts to turn the summit into an emotional spectacle. In 2005 the Hoot has done a fresh round of Indo-Pak media monitoring. We begin here with General Musharraf’s April 16-18 2005 visit, to be followed by an..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-09-07
In Mumbai Central, NDTV Indiaøs late night feed from Mumbai, anchor Rupali Tiwari when was interviewing Rishi Kapoor and Dimple Kapadaia, stars of the new Hindi film, Pyar Mein Twist, forgot to ask the stars about a possible stay order against the fi
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-09-07
After two years, Sarbjeetøs Singhøs family in his village finally received a letter from the prisoner facing a death sentence in Lahore. ButNDTV reporter Swati Maheshwari did not ask what he had written. Instead she asked the routine kaisa lag raha h
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-09-05
Bharat Ratna Lata Mangeshkar has complained of being mobbed and pushed around by the local press on a personal visit to Indore, her home town. She says the press descended on her without warning in unmanageable numbers, badgered her with questions, a
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-09-05
Even as the Press Council of India last week accepted a petition against the Malayala Manorama for allegedly tricking "thousands of people" in investing with a company the paper had reportedly backed, the paper sued both a rival newspaper Madyamam an
IN Opinion | 2005-09-05
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Letter to the Hoot—competition is good for readers
IN Opinion | 2005-09-04
Letter to the Hoot—competition is good for readers So far, these newspapers have not sacrificed their credibility to get the eyeballs. Good for the readers. Dear Editor, Mumbai, thankfully, is no more an one-newspaper city, thanks to the entry of Hindustan Times and Daily news & Analysis (DNA). Together, they have..
Information denial, the Junta way
IN Media Practice | 2005-09-04
The Information Minister even appealed to Myanmarese journalists to launch a counter-offensive against the media offensive of internal and external "terrorist destructive elements."
IN Media Practice | 2005-09-02
The most sensible comment came from the Boston Globe that recalled the Mumbai floods and said that the real name of the hurricane is not Katrina but global warming.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-09-01
Channel 7 was launched by the Jagran group touting the news edge it had because of Dainik Jagran’s unbeatable network of correspondents and stringers. But now it is doing what even India TV does not do: offering gifts to lure viewers to its news bul
Where have all the children gone?
IN Media Practice | 2005-08-31
Where have all the children gone? Children barely figure on the radar of the media. Their voices are missing even in reports and articles on issues directly related and relevant to them. "For the first time in human history, children are hearing most of the stories, most of the time, not from..
IN Opinion | 2005-08-29
When the judiciary clashes with the executive or the legislature, it is not hard to decide whose side to take. But the reasons have to be good, not the usual prejudices.
Frank, Fearless, Free and Readable
IN Media Practice | 2005-08-28
Frank, Fearless, Free and Readable Freebie dailies are not new but their growing popularity is. Globally they target niche groups and are cutting into the circulation of established newspapers. Dasu Krishnamoorty In the few minutes I waited for my daughter at the 42nd Street subway in Manhattan, I collected three, free newspapers: the..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-08-28
Lucknow is a city where hawkers dictate which days newspaper establishments should shut down. On Janmashtami (August 27) most papers publishing from this city remained closed because hawkers had let it be known that they would not lift the papers the
Letter to the Hoot: what is acceptable?
IN Opinion | 2005-08-26
I had never thought before about what this must have done to the friends and families of the those in the pictures.
Film as a confidence building measure
IN Media Practice | 2005-08-26
A short documentary conceptualized and made by child prostitutes, is one of the methods being used to sensitize them and raise their self-esteem.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-08-26
Information ministers from the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) will hold a two-day meeting at Kathmandu Aug 29-30 to discuss an action plan for the development of the regionøs media. The irony that Kathmandu has currently sus
Stretching the border of taste
IN Law and Policy | 2005-08-22
There ought to be a level playing field for the two principal arms of the media - print and electronic. If sexually explicit content is the issue, TV is certainly more guilty than newspapers.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-08-21
You can’t get better Sunday evening prime time entertainment than this. Aaj Tak ran an expose on irregular allotment of plots in Noida implicating chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav of UP. Yadav held a press conference to accuse India Today and Aaj T
IN Opinion | 2005-08-21
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IN Media Practice | 2005-08-21
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IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-08-21
Someone has finally gone to court to try and stop the Times of India and the Hindustan Times from publishing explicit sexual material in the morning newspaper. With the Indian Supreme Court having asked the government and the newspapers for responses
IN Media Practice | 2005-08-20
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Defying the militant diktat on Independence Day
IN Media Practice | 2005-08-19
After 1998, this is the first time journalists that celebrated Independence Day in the Guwahati Press Club complex.
Letter to the Hoot--editor-ustad Jugalbandi
IN Opinion | 2005-08-18
Letter to the Hoot--editor-ustad Jugalbandi If the editor was a connoisseur of music, the questions gave no hint. Shekhar Gupta’s Walk the Talk programme last week with Ustad Bismillah Khan was banal. It did credit neither to the editor nor to the Ustad. The questions were so commonplace that the answers could..
IN Media Practice | 2005-08-18
To transform media into one that promotes reconciliation requires us to look at the way media works.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-08-18
The 10 pm news on August 17 on Aaj Tak, Zee News, Channel 7, etc had to be seen to be believed. The most earth shaking event for them was the discovery in London of Aamir Khan’s love child. Not only was a Stardust story picked up and run, one channel
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-08-15
When is a selfless act just another opportunity for self promotion? When it becomes a news headline. To commemorate Independence Day Channel 7øs rank and file donated blood in a camp organised by the local Rotary Club. Inspiring as the act was, it be
Missing the trees for the wood
IN Opinion | 2005-08-15
When the pickings are easy, the leader writers miss the long term issues. Last weekøs editorials once again prove this.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-08-15
Swaminathan Aiyar wrote his Sunday column in the Times of India on August 14 on the energy bounty India could garner from shale oil. Unlike most of us hacks he has a more direct opportunity to influence policy: he could email a copy of his column to
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-08-15
When you are celeb you can count on cover story space to clear your name. Prasad Bidappa, on the cover of HT’s Brunch, gives a long first person account of his brush with law in Dubai and his stay in prison. And of course how the troublesome weed cam
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-08-13
Columnist Swapan Dasgupta in Pioneer described the Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee as a committed speaker who was biased towards the Left in his conduct in the House. The ruling UPA raised hell in response, but the Speaker said he wanted to trea
IN Media Practice | 2005-08-13
It is much easier playing the confession box than acting the watchdog
IN Media Practice | 2005-08-13
At the Hindu, the editorial writers at Chennai promptly rushed to contain the Khare damage. Its editorial the next day isolated the Congress party for blame.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-08-12
Journalists around the world are mourning the death in Iran of 68 journalists and media staff who were among the 94 passengers and crew killed in a military flight that crashed soon after takeoff in Tehran. The International Federation of Journalist
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-08-11
The Supreme court of Nepal has stayed the government move to cancel the license of Nepal FM 91.8 for broadcasting news. The judge’s ruling upheld the right of Nepal’s FM radio stations to broadcast news programmes and said the threat of withdrawal of
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-08-11
Irate investors of Integrated Finance Company Limited (IFCL) in Kerala are now planning to demonstrate before the Kottayam offices of the Malayalam Manorama on Aug 25, demanding refund of their money. The newspaper is supposed to be one of the promot
IN Media Practice | 2005-08-10
Trivialising news As if to do damage control, the same newspaper carried another report quoting Amitabh saying that he was annoyed with media reports. S R Ramanujan Do you know what was the most damaging fallout of the Mumbai rains that snuffed out at least one thousand lives in the state of Maharashtra?..
The market for Hindi eveningers in Jaipur
IN Books | 2005-08-10
The article sets out to explore the prospects of evening newspapers in mini-metro cities of India.
IN Opinion | 2005-08-08
Leader writers didnøt do themselves proud over the Mamata Banerjee affair, who had, for once, ample reason.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-08-08
The August 7 issue of Brunch, the Hindustan Times Sunday magazine, has a food column by editorial director Vir Sanghvi, on boarding school food, chiefly about how bad the food in his own school was. This is followed by a First Person column by
IN Community Media | 2005-08-06
FM radio rose to the Mumbai floods as no other media could. Will local relevance, FM`s strength, be the first casualty of the proposed FM expansion?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-08-06
Amitabh Bachchan is supposed to look jaunty in KBC 2 and rap with a younger audience. What we got on August 5 was a ho-ho-jolly-me Santa act in a leather jacket, by a distinctly older Bachchan who has shed his gravitas on the channeløs orders. Quite
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-08-06
Nepaløs information and communication ministry has ticked off the management of Nepal FM 91.8 for carrying Rajdhani Khabar (News of the Capital), and reminded them that information on the air must be limited to "entertainment." The letter said the mi
Letter to the Hoot: violating personal dignity
IN Opinion | 2005-08-04
Was the womanøs permission taken before showing her and her child in that condition to the entire world?
Singh for supper at the White House
IN Media Practice | 2005-08-04
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IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-08-04
When DNA from the Bhaskar stable finally arrived, it seemed too light. Literally. The thin paper made it difficult to handle. But a few day down the line they seem to have increased the grammage of the paper they use. With an initial thumbs down from
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-08-03
Zakka Jacob, one of Headline Today’s gelled-hair, teeny bopper anchors, asked Vir Sanghvi on a news show called Top Five, whether he thought the government’s explanations after the Mumbai crisis were "cover-your-ass tactics." Even seen-it-all Sanghvi
IN Books | 2005-08-01
The third and concluding part of the essay on Indian media representations of China.
Rain, fire, poetry and carping
IN Opinion | 2005-08-01
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IN Media Practice | 2005-08-01
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IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-08-01
Times Now, the news channel being launched by the Times group is scheduled to start by the beginning of September. Headquartered in Mumbai, the rains have delayed its launch slightly. Together with news the 24 news channel will also air two busi
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-08-01
On the day of DNAøs launch, Samir Jain, Vice Chairman of Bennett and Coleman and Company Lltd , accompanied by Bhaskar Das who now heads Times Response came to the DNA offices to congratulate Pradeep Guha, seen as the driving force behind this new ve
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-08-01
Sudheendra Kulkarni, formerly political assistant to BJP president L.K.Advani has rediscovered journalism, his original vocation, and perhaps a secular conscience. Writing in last Sundayøs Indian Express on the havoc caused by the Mumbai rai
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-08-01
Last weekøs attack by militants in Srinagarøs Lal Chowk area was headline grabbing stuff for Sahara Samay. Whe its assistant cameraperson Muzaffar Ahmed Bhatt was critically injured it became a tasteless opportunity for the channel to promot
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-07-31
Newsmagazines now make news for their cover story choices. Bombay floods? Gurgaon violence? Don’t be so predictable. Outlook’s cover story this week is on Rani Mukherjee. Doubtless a pleasant break from the real news. The magazine also saw some senio
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-07-30
It was billed as the first ever Magazine Summit, organised by INS and sponsored by Thompson Press. It was an event, so it required the now-mandatory glamorous hostess. Bizarre as it seemed for a journalistic event, it had Shefali Talwar in a black dr
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-07-30
India Today editor Prabhu Chawla was asked to moderate a session at the Indian Magazine Summit. People do not associate moderation with me, nor am I a modest person, he guffawed. Then he took the mike and launched into a long paean to his magazine In
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-07-30
The Hindi editorial staff of the Dainik Bhaskar are rapidly becoming second class citizens in their own paper. First an editor was dropped from the PM’s trip to make way for the political bureau chief of the new English paper DNA, now with the Delhi
IN Media Practice | 2005-07-29
Unless water-related issues are debated and resolved, water wars are inevitable. Enter the water journalist.
IN Regional Media | 2005-07-29
In a rare consensus, the media backs the Supreme Court judgment on the controversial IMDT Act.
Indian media representations of China -- Part II
IN Books | 2005-07-29
Perhaps these illusions of democracy, human rights, and moral capital sustain the media in its continuous comparisons with China.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-07-29
When DNA, the English newspaper from the Zee-Bhaskar stable launches on July 30, the Mumbai newspaper will be launched in Delhi so that none less than the prime minister can do the honours. The Bhaskar group launches new editions all the time, but wh
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-07-26
NDTV is appeasing its staff with higher salaries and perks to prevent them from being poached by CNBC and Rajdeep Sardesai, and other competition. Now those sops are telling on its bottom line. Its net profit in the first quarter of 2005-06 is down b
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-07-26
TV 18 which runs CNBC has meanwhile reported a 28 per cent increase in net profit for its first quarter of the new financial year. Growth in the 1st quarter this year is more than three times what it was last year. Business channel production costs a
IN Opinion | 2005-07-26
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IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-07-25
Last week, Harinder Baweja, editor, investigations, Tehelka was deported on arrival at Lahore airport despite having a seven-day visa from the Paksitani embassy in Delhi. The deportation orders issued by Pakistianøs Interior Ministry cited a previou
IN Media Practice | 2005-07-25
Media reaction was mixed and varied. While the doctor garnered a lot of coverage, he has failed to win a media consensus.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-07-24
Sponsored TV history can end up having a credibility problem. On July 24 NDTV telecast an episode of "Great Battles" devoted to the Kargil war. A programme which listed joint copyright as belonging to NDTV, the Ministry of Defence and Army Headquarte
The media’s hand in masking identities
IN Media Practice | 2005-07-24
How do we then identify those who adopt violence as their religion for perceived injustice to religion? Simply call them "Asians"!
‘Hindi-Chini Bhai-Bhai’: Indian media representations of China
IN Books | 2005-07-23
This essay looks at English language print media articles dealing with China as well as one internet portal`s response to the Chinese premier`s visit in April 2005.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-07-22
The Hindu carried a stunning front page photograph on July 21 of security personnel carrying away a dead jawan after a suicide bomb attack in Srinagar. His face is practically dragging on the ground. Readers reacted sharply, both applauding and attac
Right to information in Pakistan
IN Media Practice | 2005-07-21
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Right To Information Act - the final countdown
IN Media Practice | 2005-07-21
With ninety days left for the full implementation of the RTI Act, it is time for an update.
Mid-day sting op makes Marathi press sore
IN Media Practice | 2005-07-21
Mumbai eveninger`s botched sting operation against the Maharashtra deputy chief minister inflames the regional press.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-07-21
Rajdeep Sardesai’s new channel for CNBC has been raiding the Indian Express for its own recruitment, both in Delhi and in the regional centres. Some have left, but at least one wooed journalist has been quickly assuaged with a transfer and pay hike.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-07-20
There is always a scramble to be included in the Prime Minister’s press party when he goes on a foreign trip. So how did the PMO include the political editor of DNA when the newspaper hasn’t even hit the stands yet? By elbowing out the Dainik Bhaskar
IN Media Practice | 2005-07-18
With will, a newspaper or broadcaster can make itself professionally accountable.
IN Opinion | 2005-07-18
Manmohan Singh saying the Raj wasnøt such a bad thing after all set off a flutter in the dovecotes.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-07-18
When journos gossip these days they twitter about the fact that the Times of India has suddenly become a good newspaper again, willing suddenly, to invest in journalism. After beefing up news coverage it is now posting a corespondent in China. It is
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-07-16
It certainly helps being the daughter of Aroon Purie, CEO of Living Media. Koel Purie, a budding actress currently residing in London, was interviewed by Headlines Today in the aftermath of the London bomb blasts. There was a phone in, and the second
IN Media Practice | 2005-07-16
The contours of the discussion in the West are tied to defending the moral and political primacy of the West. The Arab media has almost universally condemned the attacks but is more reluctant to absolve the West of all responsibility.
"The IB uses reporters to plant stories"
IN Media Freedom | 2005-07-14
Ifthikar Geelani was falsely accused of espionage and jailed. What followed was a media-led witch hunt and a Kafkaesque trial, as he reveals in this interview with N P Chekkutty.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-07-14
Satellite TVøs sting operations have now become the subject of a movie. "7 1/2 Phere" starring Juhi Chawla and Irrfan Khan, while being more like the film Monsoon Wedding in other ways, takes a light hearted dig at sting operations. (IANS)
IN Media Practice | 2005-07-11
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The gray area of press privilege
IN Law and Policy | 2005-07-11
The WMD heroine of yesteryear dons a martyr’s halo but this case involving journalistic privilege is turning out to be as controversial as her pre-war reporting.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-07-09
Call it the Rajdeep effect. Even as their former star anchor is setting up a rival show, NDTV is handing out employee stock options and fat pay hikes to its staffers. Wisdom in hindsight seeing that Sardesai let it be known that one grudge he had aga
IN Opinion | 2005-07-09
On responses to Ayodhya and London, only KPS Gill made sense. The leader writers, bar two, waffled.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-07-07
whatever happened to the rule the media used to observe about not naming a rape victim? TV channels carry interviews with rape victims, their faces barely obscured. Imrana becomes a household word. And the Times of India puts the picture of a rape vi
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-07-07
The Indian Express, Lucknow edition, had a report on June 29th on page one which said that a district court on Tuesday rejected a writ petition against the swapping of premises of two colleges in Bhopal. This was an inset box for a page one lead stor
IN Media Practice | 2005-07-07
True, the media has to behave with a sense of social responsibility in covering the Ayodhya temple attack. But it should not mislead viewers.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-07-05
Coomi Kapoor reports in the Indian Express that the four TV channels selected to acoompany the PM on his trip to the USA include a channel called TV 9 from Andhra Pradesh. The others are Zee News, Sun TV (owned by a cabinet ministerøs family) and Kai
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-07-03
The Times of India changed from colour to black and white—the entire edition---on Sunday July 3 to match a black and white ad it carried across the bottom of page one. Something called the Ebony and Ivory Collection. What will it do next: become a pu
A leader that manipulates the reader!
IN Opinion | 2005-07-03
Letter to the Hoot: Did the reporter gulp down the version of the forest official over a cup of tea?
IN Opinion | 2005-07-03
No newspaper had the courage to discuss the Imrana issue from every angle. The majority took the safe womenøs right line.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-07-02
Mid-Day in Mumbai has filed a complaint with Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC) against the story that was carried in TOI on June 28, 2005, headlined ‘Small is big’. The complaint questioned the reference to Mid-Day circulation in this sentence: øsale
IN Media Practice | 2005-06-29
Flattening Thomas Friedman Thomas Friedman’s paean to globalization, The World is Flat, has its champions, but the book has left most critics distinctly underwhelmed. Dasu Krishnamoorty Thomas Friedman is familiar to Indian readers through his syndicated New York Times column which appears in many Indian newspapers. His latest book, The World Is Flat..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-06-27
A young woman from Chandigarh currently studying in France has been presented the Daniel Pearl prize for excellence in journalism. Her article on the plight of women from Punjab who were abandoned by their non-resident Indian husbands got her the pri
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-06-27
What happened to the old rule of not discussing a case that is in court because it is sub judice? On We the People on NDTV on the 26th night participants indulged in loud and free ranging speculation about what Pataudi did or intended to do in the bl
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-06-27
The Kerala government in now entering the entertainment industry. The Kerala Venture Capital Fund has acquired 40 percent equity in a privately owned production house. The Venture Capital Fund is a company promoted by the Kerala State Industrial Deve
A media minority – women journalists in Assam
IN Media Practice | 2005-06-26
Even as the print media flourishes in Assam, women journalists find themselves on the margins of their profession
Women, disability and films in India
IN Media Practice | 2005-06-26
Mainstream Indian cinema rarely addresses the issue of disability, and it is rarer still to find a film on the plight of the disabled woman.
IN Opinion | 2005-06-26
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IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-06-23
A just launched Nepali-language news blog Nepal Info at http://nepalinfo.civiblog.org says is trying to disseminate uncensored news without any political bias, which it is hoped will help counter tight censorship in the kingdom.The blogøs journalists
IN Media Practice | 2005-06-22
Every text has a context To what extent can headline writers, who have become a specialised tribe in some of the regional newspapers, take liberty with the headlines? S R Ramanujan A major criticism against the media is that it distorts news, takes quotes out of context and sensationalises the headlines. The charge..
Manipur press fights to safeguard its freedom
IN Regional Media | 2005-06-22
The code is intended for the safety of journalists as well as to safeguard the integrity of the news.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-06-20
The Delhi High Court has issued notice to Zee Telefilms on a suit by 20th Century Fox Film Corporation seeking a stay on the production and telecast of its proposed serial "Time Bomb" as it was allegedly a plagiarized version of a serial titled "24".
IN Media Practice | 2005-06-20
A radio programme for tsunami victims tries to motivate people to pick themselves up by the bootstraps, overcome their anxieties and pain, and take life head-on.
IN Media Practice | 2005-06-20
The Daily Star investigates BSF allegations and declares them unfounded.
IN Opinion | 2005-06-20
An avidly followed soap opera ends and draws very cautious comment
IN Media Practice | 2005-06-18
Monday was his hour of reprieve and joy shared spontaneously by the tabloids and not so readily by the broadsheets.
Anatomy of an ethnic clash---Part II
IN Media Practice | 2005-06-18
The Press decided to boycott the chief minister D D Lapang and the home minister Dr Mukul Sangma till they withdrew the cases and apologized.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-06-18
Ten years ago when Rupert Murdoch offered the former Doordarshan boss Rathikant Basu Rs 10 lakh plus a month to become his Indian CEO it seemed a mind-boggling figure. Little did gaping journalists know that one day newspaper editors would be offered
Untoo, the police and the press
IN Media Practice | 2005-06-15
Untoo, the police and the press Why did no one from the press attempt to get more information than was given out at briefings? Did any newspaper ask its people in Kashmir to make enquiries about anything connected with this case? Mukul Dube A report in the Pioneer of 26 February 2005 begins,..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-06-15
Why TV anchors turn to Mahesh Bhatt for soundbites on every conceivable subject is baffling. On June 14 Tonight at Ten on CNBC had a discussion on various aspects of the Pataudi-black buck case. And who should be called upon to comment besides Valmik
IN Media Practice | 2005-06-13
Why have newspapers like the Hindu and Indian Express which unstintingly invested editorial resources on probing Bofors now decided that it is a non issue?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-06-13
After over four months, Indian news channels finally made a comeback in Nepal as King Gyanendra headed for an international conference in Doha. Aaj Tak, Zee News, Star News and Doordarshan News are being aired in the country since Saturday night. (IA
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-06-13
The Chinese authorities have ordered all weblogs and websites in the country to register with the government or face closure. Commercial publishers and advertisers could be fined up to 1m yuan (£66,000) for failing to register, The Chinese informatio
Conning aspiring reporters in Meghalaya
IN Regional Media | 2005-06-12
Who or what is the Bharatiya Adarsh Samachar? Or the Adarsh Political Party which shares the same address?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-06-10
Outlook has been upstaged by the Times of India and must be feeling a little silly. Its cover story on Subroto Roy only hinted darkly about his illness, while saying that it was being described as fluctuating blood pressure, and never got an interrv
Letter to the Hoot: NDTV and TRPs
IN Opinion | 2005-06-09
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IN Opinion | 2005-06-09
Never have so many been so puzzled so much by so little.
Deep Throat sets off debate on sourcing
IN Media Practice | 2005-06-09
It`s worth reconsidering the entire nature of reportorial authority and responsibility. In other words, why quote anonymous sources at all?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-06-07
The Delhi Times of India put out a 68-page seventh anniversary issue of Education Times on June 6 with 13 full pages of advertising, 11 pages which had predominantly editorial matter and 44 pages either half or three quarters full of ads. It establis
The Banti-and-Bablification of news
IN Media Practice | 2005-06-06
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Advani-mania in Pakistani media
IN Media Practice | 2005-06-06
The News, which normally reflects the Pakistani establishment`s line, was more fulsome in its coverage of the Advani visit.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-06-06
The Free Media Movement in Sri Lanka has rushed to condemn the bombing earlier this month of a SUN TV relay station located in Vavnia as an attack on freedom of expression and media diversity. Sun TV however has denied reports that the station in Nor
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-06-02
If there was a cross promotion award for self serving media it should go to Sony Entertainment Television. Not content with promoting "Indian Idol" on "Jassi" It now has a mystery in the "Jassi" plot being solved by the CID investigative team. CID is
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-05-30
It has been reported several times that the wanted former Patna DM Gautam Goswami worked for Sahara. So why was NDTV 24x7 being coy about naming the group? On Sunday its news bulletin said he was working for a leading corporate house in Lucknow. Then
Letter to the Hoot—where do you stand?
IN Opinion | 2005-05-30
This pertains to your comment on how different editorials across newspapers carried the story of dissolution of the legislative assembly in Bihar.
IN Opinion | 2005-05-30
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IN Media Practice | 2005-05-30
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Letter to Hoot: Remaining above the fray
IN Opinion | 2005-05-27
The problem with editors is that they think they are infallible and "self-correction" is only for others.
IN Media Practice | 2005-05-27
The daily which is priced at one rupee covers wide variety of subjects relating to agriculture.
‘Media lacks critical analysis on GM’
IN Media Practice | 2005-05-27
News stories in the media of developing nations often lack critical analysis of the issues at stake and rarely represent the farmerøs view.
Sack of Bihar House: mixed media reaction
IN Opinion | 2005-05-27
Sack of Bihar House: mixed media reaction The Indian Express supplied the much-needed legal dimension to this saga of constitutional mockery. Dasu Krishnamoorty For fifteen years, Lalu Prasad Yadav, monarch of Bihar and saviour of secularism, dazzled the Indian media, often impairing their editorial vision. But as his electoral fortunes and rustic wit..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-05-27
Bangladesh’s state-run radio Betar has launched a new channel to ease traffic snarls in the capital city. It has installed a five-kilowatt FM transmitter for the new channel. The service is expected to play a significant role in keeping city dwellers
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-05-27
"Rape Workshop" (Balatsanga Pariseelanacamp), a street play against the backdrop of a few recent rape cases, took Thrissur town by storm on May 17, but the print media primly boycotted it despite being present. The Manorama said it was not interested
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-05-24
The BBCøs radio, television and Internet programming was disrupted after some 11,000 employees began a 24-hour strike on 23rd May over plans to cut 3,780 jobs to make savings of 355 million pounds, reports Xinhua. (IANS)
IN Media Practice | 2005-05-24
Were the pictures meant to humiliate the whole Arab world or embarrass the Bush administration or were they a unilateral declaration of the government by media?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-05-22
For Arun Shourie, currently under attack by the government over the Centaur Hoteløs privatisation when he was disinvestment minister, being consulting editor at the Indian Express comes as a most useful platform. He is able to garner enormous space i
IN Opinion | 2005-05-22
Why so little protest over the decision to reserve 50 per cent of the PG and professional seats in AMU?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-05-21
At the Best Bakery retrial last week a journalist with Doordarshan News produced in the court a video where prime eyewitness Zaheera Sheikh and her family are seen naming the accused. The programme called Zaheera ki Sachchai was telecast by Doordarsh
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-05-21
Aided by a strong growth in ad-spend, no less than a 100 new television channels are likely to be launched for India over the next three years. A large number of these channels will cover niche areas like infotainment and cater to specific regions ac
How a GM debate eludes the Indian media
IN Media Practice | 2005-05-21
Journalists either lack access to information about GM crop trials or don`t understand the issues at stake.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-05-19
A bill formally removing cross-media restrictions by allowing newspaper owners to run television channels has been passed by the lower house of the Pakistani parliament, three years after an ordinance was issued on the subject. The bill replaces the
IN Media Practice | 2005-05-19
The Newsweek fiasco led nearly every media critic to stress the imperative of respecting sourcing norms.
Journalist launches SMS news service in Goa
IN Digital Media | 2005-05-16
While the email based breaking news service would be free, the SMS service would cost Rs 100 per month.
IN Media Practice | 2005-05-16
So could we have some sensible, self-reliant women in our serials and advertisements, for a change?
IN Opinion | 2005-05-15
The paper attacked the Election Commission in the Laloo-Saptarishi affair.
IN Media Practice | 2005-05-14
How doe one create a public outcry without referring to the case and in particular the victim?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-05-14
M.J. Akbar’s gambit in publishing the The International Herald Tribune from Hyderabad with himself as editor seems to have paid dividends for the newspaper industry. It triggered a review of print media policy by a Group of Ministers in September 200
TV channel reporter’s Maoist links: Nepal army
IN Media Practice | 2005-05-11
The video the army played portrayed the Nepal1 reporter as being in the know about the ambush, and even pointing out the arrival of the three army vehicles to the gun-wielding Maoists.
Taking revenge against an editor!
IN Regional Media | 2005-05-11
The "revenge" by a proprietor against a reputed editor raises questions about the hold of the management over journalists.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-05-11
The Indian government on May 10 prohibited the transmission of four channels found telecasting objectionable programmes. In a statement, the information and broadcasting ministry said some cable operators had been found airing obscene content through
RTI Amendments imply more government control
IN Media Practice | 2005-05-11
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IN Opinion | 2005-05-08
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Whither journalism in Sri Lanka?
IN Media Practice | 2005-05-07
Sivaram’s death is a damning indictment of the future of media reform in Sri Lanka.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-05-06
Kanak Mani Dixit, outspoken journalist and publisher of Himalmedia, was prevented by immigration authorities in Kathmandu from boarding a flight to New Delhi on May 6 at noon. He was on his way to Sri Lanka to attend a conference. Dixit had not been
Letter to Hoot: Media ignores genuine role models
IN Opinion | 2005-05-06
People will soon lose faith in media if it continues its focus on Page 3 stunts and ignores newsworthy people
Oh journalism, where is thy sting?
IN Media Practice | 2005-05-06
Oh journalism, where is thy sting? The reason why sting operations are so popular in India is because of the appallingly low level of institutionalisation Reprinted from the Indian Express, May 6, 2005 Dipankar Gupta Why are ‘‘stings’’ so widely appreciated in India? Also, consider the following: stings do not really make reputations for..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-05-04
Police in Pakistan attacked journalists on World Press Freedom Day (May 3rd) in Lahore and Islamabad. During peaceful demonstrations in honor of World Press Freedom Day, approximately 50 journalists were injured when police baton-charged demonstrator
IN Opinion | 2005-05-02
Foreign dignitaries must not end their visit on a weekend because editorials about their great achievements miss the point altogether. Too much beer, you see.
IN Media Practice | 2005-05-01
The liberal media are caught in a dilemma because they cannot welcome Blair for the same reasons as they continue to denounce Bush.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-04-30
Delhi Times on April 30th has a lead story on the latest in breast enhancement, and a top of the page box on the various physical dimensions of a perfect pair of breasts. Some times you wonder whether the proprietors of this newspaper are so desperat
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-04-30
April 30, Delhi Age, inside the Asian Age. A photograph of a book launch, with a two-line caption. In those two lines the paper gets the identity of one of the people in the photo wrong, and spells the name of the author wrong. When you read a newspa
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-04-28
The Hindu of April 28 has a series of Jet Airways advertisements going right across editorial matter on the back page. This is significant: a pillar of the Indian journalism establishment succumbs to advertiser demands for striking positioning, even
øThe challenges of the online worldø
IN Media Practice | 2005-04-28
Rupert Murdochøs speech to the American Society of Newspaper Editors in Washington DC on April 13, 2005
DD, AIR asked to cut down social broadcasts
IN Media Practice | 2005-04-26
India`s state-run television and radio have been told to cut down on social causes and make money.
IN Media Practice | 2005-04-26
The Indian media strategy Whilst the Indian compliments towards our leader are much appreciated, we must be aware of what is behind this extra warmth towards him. Reprinted from: http://www.infopak.gov.pk/writeups/The_Indian_media_strategy.htm (Courtesy `The News`, April 21, 2005) Raania Ahmed Pakistani hawks or doves would no doubt agree that when it comes to being sensitive to..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-04-26
The Pune-based Sakal group of newspapers launched its Marathi tabloid for farmers called Agrovon on April 20 at an introductory price of Re 1. Targeted primarily at the landowning farmer, it consists of 16 pages with latest news and views, covering r
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-04-26
Why did Prabhu Chawla decide to interview Preity Zinta on Seedhi Baat on Aaj Tak? Do you promise to speak nothing but the truth, he asked, followed by, what is the secret of your success? Is there anything disgusting that will make you want to give u
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-04-26
Om Thanvi, the secretary general of the Editors’ Guild has resigned alleging high-handedness by Guild president M J Akbar in drawing up the invitation list for the breakfast with Musharraf. While Akbar invited his Asian Age colleague Seema Mustafa wh
IN Opinion | 2005-04-23
Peacemaker Musharraf? The Hindi papers took a realistic view of the Musharraf visit while the English editorials were gooey and treacly. But it was the columnists who stole the show. You don`t say! Darius Nakhoonwala The moment, it has been said, produces the man. In a like manner, a meeting between Indian and Pakistani..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-04-23
Nepaløs supreme court has asked the government to explain a February 2, 05 directive banning FM radio stations from broadcasting news. The order was issued in response to a writ petition filed the day before by radio journalist Binod Dhungel, member
IN Media Monitoring | 2005-04-22
In reporting the summit, TV channels turned cheer leaders, focus on individual milestones, and forget to step back to take a measured, long view.
Civil, accommodating, yet firmly nationalistic
IN Media Monitoring | 2005-04-22
That was the tenor of discussions on the two state broadcasters when Singh and Musharraf met in New York, though PTV did insert an irrelevant riot clip from Kashmir.
IN Media Monitoring | 2005-04-22
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Europeøs press balk at new Pope
IN Media Practice | 2005-04-22
While most of Europeøs political and spiritual leaders welcomed the election of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as the next Pope, most of the continentøs newspapers have reacted with unconcealed dismay at the choice of the hard-line German theologian as th
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-04-22
The Indian government is contemplating the establishment of an autonomous authority to regulate content on television channels, Information and Broadcasting Minister S. Jaipal Reddy told the Lok Sabha in a written reply on April 21, but did not give
Nepal king bares his heart to Time
IN Media Practice | 2005-04-20
The state-run Rising Nepal daily focused on the king`s contention that the coup was conducted to bring peace in a country racked by a nine-year-old insurgency, and that it was supported by the masses.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-04-20
Rajdeep Sardesai’s departure from NDTV and his subsequent announcement of a journalist-driven channel is a consequence of Prannoy and RadhikaRoy’s policy of offering shares to their employees on preferential basis when the company went for an IPO, bu
IN Opinion | 2005-04-17
Why do India newspapers characterize every agreement with China as historic?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-04-16
TV anchors are attaining the cult status in India that they have in the US. NDTV’s scrip dropped by 11 percentage points following the announcement that Rajdeep Sardesai was quitting. The share price of TV 18 which Sardesai is joining rose by 9 perce
IN Media Monitoring | 2005-04-16
Officials of both countries wanted to use the media to get their point of view of across and the Fourth Estate, instead of following an unfettered line of thinking, acquiesced.
Expect Musharraf to be realistic on Kashmir
IN Media Practice | 2005-04-16
Say the Pakistani journalists who have arrived in India ahead of his visit adding that the atmospherics are radically different from four years ago.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-04-14
Star Plus may have begun cross promotion of its serials but Sony Entertainment Television has left it far behind, with energetic cross promotion across its shows. As Jassi-turned-Jessica is launched at a fashion show in "Jassi Jaise Koi Nahin", in at
IN Media Practice | 2005-04-12
Besides an inevitable price war, the launch of new newspapers will also see unveiling of innovative marketing techniques to grab advertising revenues.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-04-12
The Indian government has set a September 2005 deadline for TV channels telecasting within India to restructure their equity and comply with the existing norms. Under the uplinking policy announced in March 2004, the Indian holding in TV channels is
IN Opinion | 2005-04-10
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IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-04-09
The Dainik Bhaskar-Zee combine has announced that the editor of their new Mumbai newspaper will be Ayaz Memom, national sports editor of The Times of India and former editor of Bombay Times. Looks like the Times will have trouble hanging on to its pe
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-04-08
In presenting what could be the photograph of the year, the opening of access between Kashmiris on both sides of the Line of Control, the Indian Express won hands down among newspapers in Delhi, for its photograph, headline and display. The Hindu, w
Rooted through music: Radio binds diaspora
IN Books | 2005-04-08
Indian language radio services help the Indian communities living abroad remain in touch with their roots.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-04-06
GEO TV, the Pakistani TV network run by the publishers of the ‘Jang’ daily, is preparing to launch its entertainment channel in India soon, according to Imran Aslam, President, Independent Media Group. However, he said he could not say when because
Terri leaves America to reflect
IN Media Practice | 2005-04-05
TV has played a role in turning Terri Schiavo’s vegetative state from a family tragedy into a national issue and in conditioning the minds of the viewers.
Supreme Court pulls up Prasar Bharati
IN Law and Policy | 2005-04-04
The Supreme Court Thursday pulled up Prasar Bharati for not implementing the Prasar Bharati Act by not giving an opportunity to its employees to exercise their option to remain with the government or the corporation.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-04-04
When editors interview film stars their priorities are no different from any headline-seeking reporter. Shekhar Gupta on Walk the Talk with Aamir Khan on NDTV 24x7 brought up the break up of the latter’s marriage, persisted in probing though Khan sai
IN Law and Policy | 2005-04-03
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IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-04-03
The Maharashtra Times’ hijacks the teaser ad put out by the Bhaskar Zee combine on hoardings across Mumbai,and its parent Bennet, Coleman & Co. gets sued for Rs 100 crores. We can expect plenty of hi-jinks in the countdown to the battle for this
Yes sir-yes sir, three bags full, sir
IN Opinion | 2005-04-03
The US sale of F-16s to Pakistan showed how pro-US the press has become. It was almost as if the editorials had all been orchestrated to say the same thing.
Tamil Tigers start a satellite TV channel
IN Media Practice | 2005-03-30
For a group that had hardly 40 members in 1983, it now has all the trappings of a sovereign government. The newly set up television channel will be another step in that direction.
Letter to the Hoot: taken in by an email
IN Opinion | 2005-03-30
Based on this extract, it appears that Mr.Kalam fell for an old hoax circulated on the Internet dating back to the year 2000.
IN Media Practice | 2005-03-30
Laxman hit by a vicious bouncer? That gives us space for at least three ads, and five if heøs retiring hurt.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-03-30
Kaun Banega Crorepati is set to reappear from August, and will be slotted on weekends on Star Plus. KBC 2’ will be an advanced version of the earlier format, enabling the audience to play along. This feature will allow the channel to give the viewer
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-03-30
The Deccan Chronicle launched in Chennai on March 28 with an invitation price of Rs 1 which could trigger a price war in this city. The Hindu sells for Rs 3.25 on weekdays and Rs 4.50 on Sundays in Chennai. The Times of India is scheduled to begin pu
IN Opinion | 2005-03-27
If the old Bill was so bad, why was this not pointed out then?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-03-26
Sunita Narain, Editor of the Science and Environment Fortnightly "Down to Earth" has been chosen for the Media Foundationøs 2004 Chameli Devi Award for an Outstanding Woman Mediaperson.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-03-25
The Times of India carried a front page story on March 25 on the hike in the price of cooking gas on account of the implementation of value added tax. And how much is the hike? Rs 6 per cylinder. Such an extortionate amount for Times of India reader
øNew fundamentalism sweeping mediaø
IN Media Practice | 2005-03-25
"Television network executives and editors are trying to follow the audience rather than lead the audience."
Covering the Singh-Musharraf meeting
IN Media Monitoring | 2005-03-23
The questions asked by the anchors of their correspondents reporting from New York gave an indication of what each thought was the most important point of focus for the talks.
IN Media Practice | 2005-03-23
The festival, which included talks by filmmakers and academics, was organised by the International Association of Women in Radio and Television
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-03-23
The Bangladesh High Court has ordered a reporter jailed for publishing incorrect stories about a judge.The reporter was awarded two months in jail and a 2,000 taka (about $32) fine on charges of contempt of court. Six other journalists were fined 1,0
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-03-23
Journalists in Bhubaneshwar protested on March 22nd against an attack on two television scribes a day earlier. K.C. Naik, the in-charge of the Lingaraj police station in Bhubaneswar, allegedly attacked journalists Alok Mohanty and Bhabani Mallik of O
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-03-23
Bihar don Pappu Yadav attends Parliament from Tihar jail as an MP, speaks during Zero Hour, and lambasts the media, claiming that he is being hounded by newspapers. He asks the Speaker to rein in the media, and the honourable Speaker tells him I unde
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-03-20
Rajat Sharma who heads India TV and Suhaib Ilyasi who was executing the stings on Bollywoodøs casting couch for his channel, apparently disagree on the future of this dubious enterprise, according to IANS. Sharma wants to stop the sex-related exposes
Donøt come into my parlour: US
IN Opinion | 2005-03-20
The Modi visa episode plunged leader writers into a primordial confusion.
IN Opinion | 2005-03-18
Why isn’t the media correcting itself and calling Aishwaryaøs bluff?
North East governments not media-savvy
IN Media Practice | 2005-03-18
In a region that has some 30 rebel groups with demands ranging from secession to greater autonomy and the right to self-determination, journalists are sometimes at the receiving end.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-03-18
A blogger has been granted a daily White House pass for the specific purpose of writing a blog. He can now attend the daily press "gaggle." Heøs the editor of fishbowlDC, a blog about the news media in Washington. The White House press secretary, sai
IN Digital Media | 2005-03-14
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IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-03-13
Two newspapers, the Hindu and Hindustan, carried commentary on the 13th morning decrying India TV’s explicit expose of MLAs caught in sexual liaisons. Both writers received smses a few hours later from India TV blithely alerting them to another sex-r
IN Opinion | 2005-03-13
The Congress muscled in on Tushar Gandhiøs commemorative Dandi March without realising what it was really about.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-03-12
Journalist JB Pun Magar was released on March 11 after three days in captivity. According to news reports.Magar called his office while in captivity to say that he was being held by Maoists, but now questions whether his abductors were really members
IN Law and Policy | 2005-03-12
This bibliographic essay surveys secondary literature on the freedom of speech clause in the Indian Constitution.
Regional Training Workshop for radio
IN Regional Media | 2005-03-10
A regional training entitled øPublic Health Reporting in Radio Using Digital Technology Training Workshopø is being organized in Kathmandu, Nepal in April 2005.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-03-10
JB Pun Magar, the staff reporter of Himal Khabarpatrika fortnightly Magazine has been abducted by Maoist rebels while on assignment to cover the anti-rebel uprising in the district of Kapilbastu, 200 km southwest of Kathmandu. Pun Magar is a serious
IN Media Freedom | 2005-03-08
Police have released senior journalist, Kanak Mani Dixit, after detaining him for about four hours.
Kanak Dixit’s last letter to the Hoot
IN Media Freedom | 2005-03-08
On a recent trip to India, Dixit reiterated criticism he has voiced in recent articles written for Indian and other international media. Plainclothes security personnel were waiting for him when he returned to his home on Monday evening.
Media, masses, government, all ignore rural issues
IN Books | 2005-03-07
A study on media coverage of developmental issues in the three new states reveals public as well as media apathy towards the plight of people living in rural areas.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-03-07
With the increasing cases of cyber crimes in Bangalore, the government has served a notice to 531 cyber cafes across the city directing them to maintain details of their clients records, including the name, the address, the log in and log off time of
A gender sensitive code from Pakistan
IN Media Practice | 2005-03-07
A comprehensive bi-lingual code of ethics from Pakistan specifies guidelines to ensure a positive and fair portrayal of gender issues in the print media.
Happy Birthday to a 10-year-old
IN Digital Media | 2005-03-07
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IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-03-06
In the first week of March the Nepalese government directed editors of four weeklies to replace the word "Maoist" with "terrorist" or face punishment. The Ministry of Information and Communication also issued a new notice banning media from publishi
To kill a meddling journalist: Why not--it’s risk free
IN Media Freedom | 2005-03-05
Those who murder journalists do so with impunity. For the murder of 17 media workers in 11 countries this year no one has been brought to justice.
Real victims of crime reporting
IN Media Practice | 2005-03-04
The media’s ‘freedom of expression’ often infringes on the rights of those undergoing a trial.
Media watchdog in the Philippines
IN Media Practice | 2005-03-02
The Philippine Centre for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) is a non-profit independent media agency, specialising in investigative reporting.
IN Law and Policy | 2005-03-02
India gears up to set up a regulatory authority to monitor television content
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-03-02
P Chidambaram is extremely touchy about the kind of press he gets. Having called off all interviews on budget day he proceeded to pick and choose the next day, favouring CNBC over NDTV and some pink papers over others. CNBC ‘s exclusive featured some
IN Opinion | 2005-02-27
Letter to the Hoot: Since when has having sex inside a closed room between two consenting adults become a crime?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-02-27
The Filmfare awards, parented by the Times of India group, gave four awards to Hum Tum, including best actress and best director. The film’s central character is a cartoonist for a leading English newspaper. Before its release the TOI ran a cartoon s
IN Opinion | 2005-02-27
Purring pussycats This is what happens when a paper wants to be friendly to the government. The reader gets cheated. You don`t say! Darius Nakhoonwala The Economic Survey for 2004-05, the rail Budget and the 12th Finance Commission`s report were presented on February 25 and 26 respectively. When the government started publishing it in..
Book Review: The mobile media boom
IN Digital Media | 2005-02-24
What is the value of a book that will be outdated before you can say Nokia?
IN Media Freedom | 2005-02-24
Twelve instructions that the media in Nepal are expected to follow, followed by reviews of what appears in the press.
øFamily tear-jerkers are dying on Indian TVø
IN Media Practice | 2005-02-24
Filmmaker Vinta Nanda, whose new film "White Noise" deals with the hypocritical world of Indian television, says the era of tearful family soaps is over.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-02-24
The Kathmandu District Administration Office (DAO) has summoned the editors of four Weekly newspapers on Feb. 23 for clarification. Those summoned are Navaraj Timilsinha editor of Prakash weekly, Gopal Budhathoki editor of Sanghu weekly, Kabir Rana e
Media’s Coverage of International Affairs — Part II
IN Books | 2005-02-21
India’s coverage of ‘international’ news needs to go beyond North America, Europe and the Middle East. In-depth, comprehensive reporting on international issues is needed.
IN Opinion | 2005-02-21
Bus Karo! While people-to-people contact is all very well, the real edifice to build is trade and investment between India and Pakistan. Our weekly column on what the edit pages carry You don’t say! Darius Nakhoonwala Last week, the Pakistani Army which, along with its sibling the ISI, substitutes for the Pakistani State, finally..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-02-21
Everyone knows that advertisers have their own logic. But what logic could there be in an anti-dandruff shampoo ad showing Preity Zinta cooing, `sab kuch utaar doongi and tantalizingly slipping off her spaghetti straps on, hold your breath, Cartoon
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-02-21
On February 17 the Indian Express carried a front page item on actor Vijay Raaz’s arrest in Dubai on charges of carrying drugs. The photo accompanying the story was of his rather distraught-looking wife and young daughter sucking her thumb. Surely an
Media monitoring report of post tsunami coverage
IN Books | 2005-02-19
The Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation’s news coverage of tsunami relief operations was reviewed in respect of the period 1-7 January, 2005.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-02-19
Aren’t snippet columns in newspapers, especially those titled Inside Track and Chinese Whispers, supposed to be about bits of gossip picked up on the beat?Do mentioning bits and pieces out of recently published books count? In Inside Track (Indian Ex
Prasar Bharati CEO unveils ambitious global plans
IN Media Practice | 2005-02-16
Prasar Bharati is doing a global tender for the worldwide distribution of Doordarshan television and All India Radio (AIR) channels.
Media coverage of foreign affairs — Part I
IN Books | 2005-02-16
India’s coverage of ‘international’ news needs to go beyond North America, Europe and the Middle East.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-02-13
Ekta Kapoor of Balaji Telefilms has reportedly decided to take a page from her own life - her fantastic climb to the position of a television tycoon - and turn it into a soap on the STAR One channel. Kapoor has said that Kannu in øKannu Ki Kismat Mei
Gushing over Mr Aiyar’s peace pipe
IN Opinion | 2005-02-13
Very few newspapers took note of the new phase in India’s energy diplomacy. The ones that did, went gaga, differing only in degree.
IN Media Freedom | 2005-02-11
Reporters Sans Frontiers estimates that the crackdown on press freedom could put 1000 journalists out of work
Apex court warns against øtrial by mediaø
IN Media Practice | 2005-02-09
"We deprecate this practice and caution the publisher, editor and the journalist who are responsible for the said articles against indulging in such trial by media when the issue is subjudice."
IN Media Practice | 2005-02-09
When that element of competition was gone, following the ban in question the quality of our movies plummeted by the day.
Grassroots journalism in Chittoor
IN Community Media | 2005-02-09
Rural women, mostly Dalits, handle all the reporting, writing, editing, layout, artwork, photography and even circulation.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-02-09
Mickey Mouse makes his debut in Hindi Telugu and Tamil as Walt Disney Television announced that it had started beaming a 24-hour cartoon channel in these languages. IANS
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-02-09
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has filed two more cases related to the Tehelka tapes that exposed corruption in defence deals, bringing the total number of cases to seven. The first case was registered under the Prevention Of Corruption Ac
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-02-09
STAR TV airs a spot on how the print medium destroys trees, showing verdant tropical rain forest, and urging you to choose electronic over print. Scribes point out that while newsprint is made from scrap paper and recycled rags and bamboo, most camer
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-02-09
On the 29th of January the Times of India carried an explicit article on male erogenous zones in Delhi Times inviting "ladies" to discover how to get men turned on. Several readers were not amused. One has written to the Press Council, whereas a grou
IN Opinion | 2005-02-06
On Nepal every newspaper and columnist sounded exactly the same. You read one, you read them all. The reason, I suspect, was editorial laziness.
Dhaka media slams Indian decision on SAARC
IN Media Practice | 2005-02-05
Bangladeshøs media Thursday decried Indiaøs decision to stay away from the SAARC summit.
Redefining Development Journalism
IN Media Practice | 2005-02-03
Development journalism needs to adopt an action-oriented approach to help the country overcome challenges like poverty and illiteracy.
IN Opinion | 2005-02-03
What saves it from being over the top is the characters he puts at the centre of his unsparing critique. They are credible, nuanced, and essayed with finesse.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-02-03
The BBC is not impartial. It has a pro-European bias, according to an independent report commissioned by the British Broadcasting Corporationøs board of governors. "While we have found no evidence of deliberate bias in BBC coverage of EU (European Un
IN Media Practice | 2005-01-31
Does so much growth signify an industryin the pink of health? Or one in which expansion is becoming both a technological necessity and a matter of surviving the competition?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-01-30
The Hindu had a page on story on January 30 on the crash landing of Venkaiah Naidu’s helicopter and said in passing that alleged Naxals also blew it up. The headline derived from the landing, not the blowing up. The Hindustan made the blowing up a se
IN Opinion | 2005-01-30
The Express rejected the idea and the Hindustan Times could not make up its mind. Our new column on the leaders newspapers write.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-01-27
What do you get paid for being willing to change the colour of your masthead? ONGC booked its page one green splash on the Times of India, Economic Times, Asian Age, Hindustan Times and Indian Express on Republic Day for anything ranging from Rs 30 l
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-01-25
NDTV India has taken mindless commodification of news to a new depth. When broadcasting a "special" on actress Parveen Babiøs life ( and death ), it allowed the actressøs fans to offer their "Shraddhanjali" by merely sending an SMS. Even the dead are
What drives `mainstreamø mediaøs response to the North East?
IN Media Practice | 2005-01-25
This decline affects not just the ignoring of NE India, it also includes the blotting out of rural, peripheral and tribal India.
US ad campaign in Pakistan for bin Ladenøs capture
IN Media Practice | 2005-01-25
The advertisement campaign was launched in the Pakistani newspaper Jang Jan 7 and is now being expanded to the broadcast media
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-01-25
The 22 January elections in the Maldives was marked by a striking absence of press freedom. Control over both public and private media wielded by President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, his family and supporters was a flagrant violation of Article 25 of the
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-01-25
On the same programme Varadarajan said at one point that the interim report is not likely to be very different from the final one. And at the end he said Laloo made a mistake in making the report an issue now. He should have waited for the final one
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-01-25
On Jan 24 Tonight at Ten on CNBC discussed Laloo Yadavøs use of the Justice Bannerjee report on the Godhra train fire with Chandan Mitra of the Pioneer and Siddharth Varadarajan of the Hindu in the studio and former chief election commissioner James
Letter to the Hoot—mumbo jumbo in the Hindu
IN Opinion | 2005-01-21
The article promotes the view that Vastu is a science, whereas it is not recognised as such by the scientific community.
IN Media Practice | 2005-01-21
National award-winning filmmaker Joshy Joseph questions the media’s tendency to sensationalize in his film ‘A Day from the Life of a Hangman’
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-01-21
If you thought Bennett, Coleman and Co. Ltd’s core business was publishing, you were wrong. Its director of finance defines it as selling media solutions, to explain why the Times group has embarked on yet another innovation that leaves the competiti
IN Opinion | 2005-01-21
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The seer and the media verdict
IN Media Practice | 2005-01-19
The increasing ubiquity of TV and print media poses a constant challenge to the judiciary in negotiating the tight rope of administering justice.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-01-18
Mediaah.blogspot.com, the media blog which runs primarily on chutzpah, has reappeared after some months of absence, proclaiming that it is the only fearless and independent media commentator around.
Indian media must go global: PM
IN Media Practice | 2005-01-15
"We need our own CNNs and BBCs - a global Indian channel with a global perspective and reaching out to a global audience."
Court allows Indian Express appeal against Patkar
IN Media Practice | 2005-01-15
The Delhi High Court Thursday dismissed a lower courtøs order that had restored a criminal defamation complaint filed by Narmada Bachao Andolan leader Medha Patkar against the Indian Express in 2000.
Nepalese øKaun Banega Crorepatiø is a hit
IN Media Practice | 2005-01-15
In Nepal, the mantle of Bachchan has been donned by Tulsi Ghimire, an Indian actor-director
IN Regional Media | 2005-01-15
Sun TV got the CD recorded by the Special Investigation Team probing the murder of A. Sankararaman, citing "unknown sources."
Tsunami: unprecedented Western media coverage
IN Media Practice | 2005-01-15
It can be argued, cynically perhaps, that this was not really an exclusively Asian tragedy at all, hence the intense coverage.
Media intrusions into aborginal reserves
IN Media Practice | 2005-01-15
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IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-01-15
The US has launched a month-long advertising campaign in the Pakistani media announcing financial rewards for information leading to the nabbing of key terrorists believed to be in the region. The US State Department has run advertisements in Pakista
Where have all the science writers gone?
IN Media Practice | 2005-01-10
Hardly a handful of major newspapers in India have weekly pages or sections devoted to science. From across the border, science writers in Pakistan seem to have similar experiences.
IN Media Practice | 2005-01-10
Can so many business news channels can survive? Can the market absorb this sudden rush of news channels?
Right to Information confined to government
IN Media Practice | 2005-01-10
Right to Information confined to government? To be meaningful, the Bill will have to open all cupboards of vital information, private and public. That includes the media, which does not publish all the information in its possession. Dasu Krishnamoorty Besides unraveling skeletons in government cupboards, newshounds constantly expose corruption in the corporate sector..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-01-10
All on the same Sunday: Karan Thapar in HT says the Brits are far more generous than Indians who had coughed up only Rs 308 crores till Jan 5, for tsunami victims. Indian Express runs a lead story on Indian generosity citing Rs 403 crores donated in
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-01-06
Indian journos have sometimes found themselves in uncharacteristic roles but becoming sasuma to British royalty is one that is hard to beat. As columnist Tavleen Singh’s son gets set to marry Princess Gabriela, Singh will be the envy of celeb chasers
IN Media Practice | 2005-01-06
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After øIndian Idolø, itøs time for øNepal Starø
IN Media Practice | 2005-01-03
"Nepal Star" is being organised by Nepal One, the Indian TV channel headed by Nalini Singh
Letters to the Hoot: TOI coverage of the tsunami tragedy
IN Opinion | 2005-01-03
In raising this very important question of when one can attend a party again didnøt the newspaper highlight for us again what its real concerns are?
IN Media Practice | 2005-01-03
Nepal`s first gay weekly highlighting issues affecting the country`s burgeoning gay community will hit the stands in the third week of January.
Ham radio to the rescue in tsunami-hit Andaman
IN Community Media | 2005-01-03
"The phone links had disappeared, so I started using my radio set to connect with people in mainland (India) and giving information about people in Port Blair."
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2005-01-03
The Sakal group of newspapers is planning a 16-page, tabloid-sized newspaper aimed specifically at the rural farming community, according to agencyfaqs.com. The paper will try to fill the information gap experienced by the rural farmer in Maharashtra
Has bad taste swamped TV news?
IN Media Practice | 2004-12-30
Do these incidents signify the death of privacy and the triumph of bad taste?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-12-30
From the Bible to Baywatch, the Times of India has spared no effort to make the Tsunami catastrophe colourful for its readers. Note its masthead and page one boxes on December 30. It also tells you which stars had a brush with tragedy. All of which d
IN Media Practice | 2004-12-30
Can CNN, BBC get away with this corpse show in ‘sensitive’ Manhattan?
Letter to the hoot--no correction or apology
IN Opinion | 2004-12-29
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The Independent publisher to buy stake in Dainik Jagran
IN Regional Media | 2004-12-29
The publisher of The Independent and the Belfast Telegraph is on the verge of buying a stake in Indiaøs leading Hindi daily Dainik Jagran.
IN Regional Media | 2004-12-29
One of the brightest examples of successful and effective grassroots journalism is Gaan Maati Khabar
Pak media shows tepid interest in talks
IN Media Practice | 2004-12-29
None of the newspapers or television channels in Pakistan carried the secretary-level talks as a lead story.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-12-29
The Indian Express is going the way of the Times. The back page of its colour section on December 26 was devoted entirely to pictures of scantily clad women.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-12-22
Jagran was at the forefront of the campaign for foreign direct investment in the print media when the BJP was in power. Today, two years and a quarter after the policy revision, it has got a foreign investor. Independent News & Media, the UK-base
Letter to the Hoot – questions were poor
IN Opinion | 2004-12-22
I was rather surprised to see the quality of questions that were put forth to Mr. Aakar Patel.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-12-22
Given their reputation, the Kerala Chief Minister thought it necessary to serve whisky to journalists in the capital city even as his bureaucrats were presenting them with his achievements in his first 100 days as CM. The majority of gathered scribes
IN Regional Media | 2004-12-22
To understand how contagious journalism has become you have to come to the stomping ground of Rajasthanøs two leading Hindi newspapers.
IN Regional Media | 2004-12-22
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IN Regional Media | 2004-12-22
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Patel defends decision on photographs
IN Media Practice | 2004-12-20
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Letters to the Hoot—media voyeurism
IN Opinion | 2004-12-19
If this isn’t a disgusting display of voyeurism, then what is?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-12-17
On December 15 the Indian cabinet passed a much improved right to information act, incorporating several recommendations made by National Advisory Council of the UPA which includes Aruna Roy and Jean Dreze of the right to information campaign. Two re
IN Media Freedom | 2004-12-17
Attacks and threats are still a way of life for scribes in Nepal.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-12-14
Actress Smriti Irani suddenly taking on Narendra Modi on the issue of minority bashing in Gujarat is a bit much. Only recently on her talk show on Sab TV, Kuch Dil Se, she grilled a woman who had converted to Christianity to the point of being offens
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-12-11
Was it ethical of the police to release a video grab of the Kanchi Shankaracharya breaking down during interrogation to the press? Was it ethical of the Asian Age to carry it and then say in the caption in its own defence that Nakkeeran had also publ
IN Media Practice | 2004-12-11
The common woman has good reason not to get worked up about the issue of violence against women. A response to Ammu Joseph`s article.
In Defence of Communalism Combat
IN Media Practice | 2004-12-11
As a columnist Tavleen Singh is proving to be just the opposite of what she used to be as a journalist
Vijay Karnataka and Kannada Journalism Part-II
IN Regional Media | 2004-12-11
Kannada newspapers like Prajavani and Kannada Prabha are seen as left-of- the centre whereas Vijay Karnataka is perceived as a right-of-the centre newspaper.
IN Media Freedom | 2004-12-11
Following the worst-ever attack on scribes in Kerala’s history, journalists agreed to a judicial enquiry, and even attended a press meet by the man who catalyzed the attacks on them.
IN Media Practice | 2004-12-08
The challenge before the media is to move beyond clubbing what happens to women with routine crime briefs, on the one hand, and sensational stories, on the other, to cover "the greatest human rights scandal of our times".
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-12-05
Between aggressive advertising and tabloid derring do the front page of the Delhi Sunday Express on December 5 was a trifle indigestible. Even if the Marie biscuits advertised right in the middle of news stories are usually easy to digest.
IN Media Practice | 2004-12-05
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IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-12-05
The BBC admitted on November 3 that it was fooled by øelaborate deceptionø about Dow Chemical’s responsibility in the 1984 Bhopal disaster. BBC World television said on Friday that an interview it ran with a man it identified as a spokesman for Dow C
Alternatives to mass market escapism
IN Media Practice | 2004-12-05
Stories from the real India jump out of the cine-reel at the 35th International Film Festival of India, held at Goa
Letter to the Hoot—Missing protest
IN Opinion | 2004-12-04
Gang rapes and custodial rapes make news, but not vociferous protests against them.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-11-30
After years of impending conquest, the Times of India it seems is finally ready to take the plunge in Chennai. Agency faqs reports that a date has been set for May next year for the launch of its edition here. With the Deccan Chronicle also poised to
Biased coverage of J&K polls in Pakistan
IN Media Monitoring | 2004-11-30
Pakistan’s coverage of the Kashmir elections revealed the partisan role of some newspapers in reporting developments in Jammu and Kashmir.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-11-27
Now there is a new way of refuting gossip. Get your version printed as a Sunday cover story, no less, in the Times of India. Sushmita Sen, talking to Malavika Sanghvi refutes the rumour that she is having an affair with a certain industrialist. And g
Indian Democracy: Neighbour’s envy, India’s pride
IN Media Monitoring | 2004-11-27
India’s Lok Sabha elections generated widespread response in Pakistan, with the media lamenting the lack of democratic norms in their own country.
Letter to the Hoot: Kannada journalism
IN Opinion | 2004-11-22
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Letøs improve on the Press Council
IN Law and Policy | 2004-11-22
Let`s improve on the Press Council The proposed Media Council needs to emulate features of similar bodies abroad to make it more responsive to the public than India’s existing Press Council. Ammu Joseph "Insofar as the role of the Press Council is concerned, its prime objective is to awaken the press to the..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-11-22
Mid-dayøs website, chalomumbai.com reported how two men had been arrested for downloading porn and other movies on their cellphones via DVDs. It goes on to mention the relevant sections of the law under which these men had been booked. And then, at t
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-11-19
What makes one newspaper go beserk over a story which everybody else barely reacts to? On November 18th the Times of India thought the shoot out with militants at a spot close to where the PM was scheduled to speak was a bigger story than his visit t
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-11-17
Bharatiya Janata Party president L.K. Advani addressed the media in Amritsar on November 14 only after laying down the pre condition that reporters would not ask questions on the Uma Bharati controversy. Uma Bharati was removed as the BJP general sec
Virtual Crime: How safe are you in Cyberspace?
IN Digital Media | 2004-11-17
The nature of cyber crime and the necessary legislation required to counter it, depend to quite an extent, on the psychology of its users
Lacklustre TV for Oriya viewers
IN Regional Media | 2004-11-17
Lacking in infrastructure, talent, and sponsorship revenues, a full-fledged, professionally managed, complete Oriya channel is still a distant dream for Oriya television viewers.
Manufacturing joint counter-insurgency operations
IN Media Practice | 2004-11-17
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Vijay Karnataka and Kannada Journalism Part-1
IN Regional Media | 2004-11-08
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‘A drama of so-called elections’—Indo Pak monitoring Part ll
IN Media Monitoring | 2004-11-08
The biases tend to emerge in the coverage of Jammu and Kashmir and especially in the commentaries and articles on the Kashmir issue.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-11-08
The Hindustan Times reminded us in a editorial, in case we hadn’t noticed, that it was not just reporting news but also making it with its Leadership Initiative. While the event was duly reported by other newspapers with varying degrees of prominence
Indian elections through a Kashmir prism
IN Media Monitoring | 2004-11-04
Indian elections through a Kashmir prism Kashmir-related stories dominated the India coverage in the Pakistani newspapers in the first fortnight of May, the Indian elections per se came second. This is the second set of articles in the Hoot on how newspapers in India and Pakistan report on each other’s countries--- A..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-11-04
The US media might consider outsourcing coverage of the next US elections to NDTV. The news organisation went all out in its coverage, giving, on Wednesday morning, a more efficient state by state picture than either CNN or BBC. Indian news channels
The ‘Reel’ and the ‘Real’ woman
IN Media Practice | 2004-11-01
Though there has been visible progress, women’s image in the media still remains a negative and sexist one. A view from Bihar.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-11-01
If the judges donøt add zip to their act Indian Idol could end up being a big yawn. Khan, Nigam and Malik are too earnest, dull and straightfaced. What this show needs is to get across someone like Veer Das from Zoom to spice up the proceedings.
IN Media Practice | 2004-10-29
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IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-10-29
Maldives’ cyber-dissident Fathimath Nisreen, who was detained on 13 August in the wake of a pro-democracy rally, has been released but transferred to Feeail island south of the capital to resume serving a five-year sentence of "banishment." Nisreen,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-10-29
Hamid Karzai is re-elected in Afghanistan and the Time of India refers to him as "Kabuliwala." Has it no sense of propriety at all? Or of the connotations the word Kabuliwala has in India?
IN Media Practice | 2004-10-29
Four days from the election day, John Kerry is leading George Bush 149 to 126 in endorsements and in terms of circulation 17.7 million to 11.6 million.
Southern Africa strikes a blow for gender equality
IN Media Practice | 2004-10-26
The Gender and Media summit marked the culmination of the first phase of a remarkable process that has been under way in southern Africa over the past two years.
IN Media Practice | 2004-10-26
Ignored so far by the major media, a small storm has been gaining in strength with its eye in these flawed voting machines.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-10-26
The New York Times reports that transcripts of 3,200 telephone calls released under the Freedom of Information Act and posted on the State Departmentøs Web site, show just how chummy some journalists were with Henry Kissinger in the 1970s. Unknown to
Electronic media’s parallel democracy
IN Media Practice | 2004-10-23
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IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-10-23
For a glowing review try Kishore Singh’s generous piece on two books by Dr Alka Pande in the Business Standard. Glowing book reviews are always suspect, but here the praise scattered through the review is as much for the author and her two books.. "T
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-10-23
Rediff.com has taken credit for a prediction on its site in 2000 which said Veerappan would be nabbed and shot. It was not a particularly close prediction. And the Indian Express is taking credit for editor Shekhar Gupta having motivated STF officer
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-10-20
Its curious that Veerappanøs wife reportedly pointed to the media and screamed that they were to blame for her husband getting his comeuppance. Nobody asked her why she thought so. Predictably there has been blanket coverage for two days running, and
IN Media Practice | 2004-10-20
US Poll Debate Skirts Issues A look at the history of presidential debates will unravel how they are designed to keep an entire world of alternative view out of their orbit. Dasu Krishnamoorty Major American media have failed to project issues closely related to the November 2nd election, issues that are agitating..
IN Media Practice | 2004-10-18
Media imagination ran riot from the day she was sentenced. What escaped the media in its frenzy was the issue of proportionality.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-10-18
The Musharraf government has brought pressure on ARY TV to remove the popular talk show Views on News hosted by Dr Shahid Masood. Recently Masood broke the story that Amjad Farooqi, the main culprit in the assassination attempt on General Musharraf i
IN Media Freedom | 2004-10-17
The real issue before us is the urgent need to review the Censorship laws under the Cinematograph Act as well as the functioning of the CBFC
Don’t glorify terrorists, Pak govt tells media
IN Media Practice | 2004-10-15
"Terrorists want to live by the media. Don’t play into their hands,’’ Pakistan Information Minister Sheikh Rashid said in Peshwar.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-10-15
US and European law enforcement agencies have seize independent online news service Indymediaøs web servers, which has led to the closure of more than 21 of the more than 140 Indymedia web sites worldwide since October 7. None of the agencies involve
What does the rural newspaper revolution achieve -- Part II
IN Media Practice | 2004-10-12
The indiscriminate nature of local news does not encourage purposeful reporting on the development needs of local areas, and their populations.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-10-12
The editor of a local English daily in Srinagar called Rehmat and two others have been were arrested last week under the Official Secrets Act for allegedly passing on classified information to Pakistan. The arrest of the trio comes on the heels of th
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-10-12
The Doordarshan telecast of the cricket match which India lost at Bangalore Displayed amazing capitulation to the sponsor. Its special programme Fourth Umpire not only used the same commentator as the one who figures in Fair and Lovely’s advertisemen
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-10-09
Is CNN pro-Bush? Following the second presidential debate it interviewed a Republican governor with a leading question suggesting that the Republicans must be relieved at the way the second debate had gone. After the gentleman gave a long spiel on ho
What does the rural newspaper revolution achieve?
IN Media Practice | 2004-10-09
Have district editions created a public sphere? Or have they merely created a daily bulletin board which people read to see if their names are mentioned?
Savage attack kills Bangladesh editor
IN Media Freedom | 2004-10-06
The journalists’ leaders also announced a series of protest programmes. The programmes include wearing of black badges and hoisting of black flags for seven days.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-10-06
Pakistan’s information and broadcasting minister told a four-member media delegation from Bangladesh that Pakistan and Bangladesh need "close cooperation in the media sector to defend religious and cultural values that the two countries had in common
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-10-04
After Vir Sanghvi started the trend, editors now think they should be interviewing actresses. Shekhar Gupta has done Madhuri Dixit, Preity Zinta and Rani Mukherjee on NDTVøs Walk the Talk before he interviewed Aishwarya Rai this Sunday, and later in
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-10-04
In the absence of a watchdog, TV channels get away with violating basic ethical norms. On Sunday October 3, during its programme Hello Control Room, Sahara Samay showed a rape victim in Orissa whose face was purportedly obscured. But her features wer
Sharper journalism in China invites state reprisal
IN Media Freedom | 2004-10-02
Investigative reporter Wang Keqin has earned a reputation as "Chinaøs most expensive reporter" because of the price that has been put on his head as a result of his writings.
Community radio in Uttaranchal
IN Community Media | 2004-10-02
Since May 2004, five community radio groups here have been engaged in a research initiative looking at grassroots media and poverty.
IN Media Practice | 2004-10-02
Jassi fits into a stereotypical feminine mould-- loyal, devoted, adjusting, sweet, other-oriented and anxious to please. She does not question the values of the fashion industry that she is part of.
Media and census data: a response
IN Opinion | 2004-10-01
Far from being the villain, within 24 hours the national media thoroughly exposed the hoax and forced these "experts" to withdraw their own analysis.
The Muslim growth rate and the media
IN Media Practice | 2004-09-28
Significantly, the copy was less sensational than the headlines in almost all the papers
IN Media Practice | 2004-09-27
What should have been a family affair was laid bare at prime time, for the country to witness
IN Media Practice | 2004-09-27
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IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-09-27
The North East is simply not on the mainstream media’s radar. On September 22 when a helicopter crash killed a Meghalaya Minister and two MLAs, it figured as a front page brief in the Times of India. But in the Pioneer, Hindustan Times and Asian Age
IN Media Practice | 2004-09-27
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IN Opinion | 2004-09-23
Letter to the Hoot-- the public deserves an explanation about what is it that these channels consider news these days
Letter: activists are not amused
IN Opinion | 2004-09-22
A Child rights activist objects to advertising depicting child labour
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-09-22
Did the outcome of the last elections put TV channels off poll forecasts? Not a bit. Star News ran its first pre poll survey even before the parties had selected their candidates in Maharashtra. And cautioned several times during the programme that t
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-09-22
Here’s what you end up watching when there are too many sports channels. A long sermon on Ten Sports on the vaccines made by Poonawalla Industries. Why? Because they also breed racing horses, and figured on a celebratory programme called The Winning
IN Media Practice | 2004-09-19
We’d like to welcome our viewers back to this specially exaggerated edition of EmpTV’s 25-hour-a-day Breakneck News.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-09-19
The European Court of Human Rights said the privacy of Princess Caroline of Monaco was violated by the publication of photos of her and her family. The World Association of Newspapers and the World Editors Forum have called on the German government t
IN Media Practice | 2004-09-15
A libellous and judgemental Tamil press repeatedly crosses the line in reporting on women in the dock.
Indo-Pak news monitoring, Part III
IN Media Monitoring | 2004-09-12
Analysts in the Dainik Jagran and Dainik Bhaskar debate implications of Indo-Pak détente.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-09-10
The Punjab government in Pakistan has banned a new daily paper, the Islamabad Times, before it could bring out its first issue. The ban is thought to be a move against the editor Masood Malik who had angered President Pervez Musharraf three years ago
‘Bhagya’ will enrich scribes in Assam
IN Regional Media | 2004-09-10
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IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-09-08
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Homosexual victim exposes the Delhi press
IN Media Practice | 2004-09-08
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IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-09-05
Pantene shampoo’s latest advertisement is located inside a church, with two women in skimpy dress in the pews. Glimpses of stained glass windows and all that. One admires the other’s hair and puts her hands together and prays for hair like that. The
IN Media Monitoring | 2004-09-05
While the major part of the coverage was positive, there was also an element that indicated the mistrust between the two countries.
Assam media changes its attitude to Ulfa
IN Regional Media | 2004-09-03
After the Independence Day blasts which killed civilians, the press in Assam turns against the Ulfa.
IN Media Practice | 2004-09-03
The media’s indulgence towards a rabid communal politician such as Uma Bharti is nothing new.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-09-03
To mark Jassi’s birthday, Sony Entertainment Television has tied up with the postal department to get a picture of its prime-time princess on envelopes and even a mention of the ‘Jassi Jaisi Koi Nahi’ slogan on cancellation stamps, according to excha
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-09-03
When terrorists release videos these pose ethical dilemmas for news organisations on whether to use their footage, particularly if it is violent. On August 31 NDTV actually carried footage of one of the Nepali hostages in Iraq being shot.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-09-01
Indian Express proprietor Vivek Goenka’s big show for his grandfather’s centenary received a big front page splash in the Express. But if you read between the lines it becomes clear that the biggies failed to show up. Prime Minister Manmohan reported
Hanging sparks theatrics in Indian state
IN Media Practice | 2004-08-30
After the media overkill of the hanging of Dhananjoy Chatterjee, which spurred a rash of play time hangings by children in West Bengal, popular folk opera plans to exploit the story.
India bans TV channel in the Northeast
IN Media Freedom | 2004-08-30
A day before Indiaøs Independence Day, the Manipur government asked the Information Service Television Network (ISTN) to shut down transmission with immediate effect.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-08-30
Following the TV ads put out by American war veterans’ groups against US presidential nominee John Kerry on his Vietnam war record, which 43 percent of the country saw according to Gallup, the Democratic Party presidential nominee slipped in th
IN Media Practice | 2004-08-27
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IN Media Practice | 2004-08-25
Nafisa Joseph provided fodder for the sensation seekers
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-08-25
Athletes during the Olympics have been stopped from posting personal journals online. Athletes, the judges have said, are not journalists and should leave that job to the media. They can however take to the Net once the Olympics are over.
Internet censorship in Maldives
IN Media Freedom | 2004-08-22
The Maldives government moved to combat political dissidence by cutting off the South Asian nationøs Internet links last week
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-08-22
In which city would you expect a clone of the New Yorker to spring up? Few would guess Moscow. Yet the city has just seen the launch of a magazine called Novy Ochividets or New Eyewitness bearing an uncanny resemblance to the New Yorker, from the car
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-08-20
Phone call received by a journalist from the Grand Hotel in Delhi: "Hi! We are inviting you to enjoy a whole year of free fine dining at our hotel in Vasant Kunj." Now that’s generous.
Media monitoring: Discovering Pakistan
IN Books | 2004-08-20
Unprecedented journalistic access during the March-April period of cricket diplomacy produced a rush of goodwill stories on Pakistan in Indian newspapers.
Coverage of elections 2004 -- Part III
IN Books | 2004-08-18
The media appears to have followed media opportunities created by political parties, especially the BJP.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-08-18
Financial news service Reuters Group PLC has announced that it plans to eliminate up to 20 editorial positions in the United States and Europe and hire up to 60 replacements in India in a move aimed at cutting costs.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-08-15
Reporters Without Borders has urged legislators in Pakistan to vote against a governmental bill (the Defamation Amendment Act 2004) that that could aggravate the repression of journalists by raising the penalty for defamation to a year in prison and
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-08-15
The Aøchik National Volunteers Council (ANVC) has banned sale of The Meghalaya Guardian in the three Garo hill districts of Meghalaya from Saturday. The members of the Shillong Press Corps will meet on Monday morning to discuss the matter. The bannin
Coverage of elections 2004 -- Part II
IN Books | 2004-08-15
From a national and regional party perspective, 7 national parties completely dominated TV news channels with 85 per cent of the total election coverage.
IN Media Practice | 2004-08-15
In India, "hard-sell" is that much easier. The lack of laws regulating advertising ensure unscrupulous manipulation of the target audience.
Letter to the Hoot: The grip of the Left
IN Opinion | 2004-08-13
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IN Media Practice | 2004-08-13
This kind of media selectivity suggests that victims of terrorism have no families to be interviewed.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-08-13
The latest Audit Bureau of Circulation figures (for the period ending December 2003) has some notable omissions. One is the Indian Express group which has chosen to stay out of ABC, even as its Southern counterpart the New Indian Express is listed, a
Coverage of elections 2004 -- Part I
IN Books | 2004-08-13
A nine-week study sheds light on issues which dominated the TV discourse. Development score really low.
Tehelka exposes paedophilia in Goa
IN Media Practice | 2004-08-10
Indiaøs investigative paper did a sting on Goaøs worst-kept secret -- paedophilia or child-sex abuse along the stateøs tourist beaches.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-08-10
Doordarshan"s audience research wing studied the impact of DD’s rural development programmes on rural households. It then announced happily that 59 per cent of the rural audience in the country was watching its agriculture programme, and 48 per
IN Media Monitoring | 2004-08-10
Neither the liberal Times nor the conservative Wall Street Journal is rigid and doctrinal in the positions taken on important issues.
IN Media Practice | 2004-08-06
Neither the liberal Times nor the conservative Wall Street Journal is rigid and doctrinal in the positions taken on important issues.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-08-06
The Hindu outdid all others in its tribute to Henri Cartier-Bresson. Ever since its change in editorship last year the paper has rediscovered the power of news photographs which have changed its appearance dramatically. Witness its recent pictures of
Indian media’s cultural influence on Pakistan
IN Media Practice | 2004-08-06
The reality is that cable TV does not require a visa nor does it bend under the pressure of conservative and religious lobbies.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-08-03
On August 1 The Pioneerøs Sunday edition carried an extract of noted director Mrinal Senøs memoirs, Always Being Born, published by Stellar Publishers. The paper also carried alongside, a huge plug for the editorial director of the company, Jyoti Sab
Business channels spell business
IN Media Practice | 2004-08-03
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Booming media, exploited journalists in Assam
IN Regional Media | 2004-08-02
Newspaper editions are multiplying across the state but more than 60 per cent newspaper employees in Assam are deprived of basic minimum facilities.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-08-02
The Telegraph’s columnist Gouri Chatterjee wrote a column on how the media fawns over Suhel Seth and carries his opinions on everything under the sun. Shortly after it was published she discovered that her paper’s Sunday magazine was starting a new c
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-08-02
When it comes to chamchagiri with panache, there is no-one to beat Hindustan Times editorial director Vir Sanghvi. Accompanying prime minister Manmohan Singh to Bangkok for the BIMSTEC summit, his very first despatch was a front page paen on the new
Advertorials: Blurring the dividing line
IN Media Practice | 2004-07-31
Eight people in a sample of forty were able to distinguish between editorial content and advertorials
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-07-31
The Kozhikode offices of the Malayala Manorama and Chandrika were vandalised on July 28, reportedly by cadres of the Democratic Youth Federation of India. The Editors Guild has condemned the attack even as the local CPI(M) office denied that DYFI cad
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-07-31
Don’t look for Tata advertising in the Times of India or in the Economic Times, and don’t look for news about this industrial group in those newspapers, however big the news might be. On the 30th July morning every newspaper pink or white reported th
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-07-31
The Supreme Court has referred to a five-judge Constitution Bench two writ petitions filed by the Hindu editor and his colleagues as well as the editor of the Tamil newspaper Murasoli. These challenge the resolution of the Tamilnadu Assembly last yea
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-07-31
On July 28 Maninderpal Kohli confessed on NDTV to murdering Hannah Foster, certainly a first for Indian television. Doubts have been expressed however whether such a confession constitutes legally admissible evidence.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-07-28
Sharp, out of power politicians need a platform, and newspapers need an analytical opposition mind to dissect the government’s claims. So for the Indian Express and its one-time editor Arun Shourie it is a perfect fit. Weekly discomfiture for the Uni
Orissa media shuns development coverage
IN Regional Media | 2004-07-26
Oriya and English dailies in the State had devoted less than 4% and 2% respectively of their total space to coverage of social issues.
IN Media Practice | 2004-07-24
Are journalists in the business of grief-mongering? Are they perverse creatures on the prowl for morbidity and misery?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-07-24
Bad enough that the Times of India and the Pioneer reported on page one that a bureaucrat at the Indian Council for Cultural Relations was transferred for getting the spelling of Priyanka and Robert Vadra’s name wrong, without probing enough to find
Letter to the Hoot: just dead meat
IN Opinion | 2004-07-23
In the interests of gathering fodder for news, and in competing with rivals to be the first with øBreaking Newsø is not the media losing sight of basic human decency?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-07-22
Close-circuit TV cameras in the campus of Kirori Mal College in Delhi University caught students ragging on request from TV cameras on 16 July, reported the Hindustan Times. Since last year Hindu College has banned the entry of TV cameras for this re
A science communication success story
IN Media Practice | 2004-07-21
Two thirds of them wrote stories in different formats in the regional Tamil language and the rest in English to suit the requirements of different media.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-07-21
The family tussle over Priyamvada Birla’s will is big news for every newspaper except the Hindustan Times, which is owned by K K Birla. When R S Lodha, the beneficiary of the will, filed for probate every newspaper carried it prominently on page one
IN Media Practice | 2004-07-21
The tyranny of newspapers has gone on for too long for tolerance.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-07-19
Exchange4media reports that the Hyderabad-based Deccan Chronicle Holdings Ltd (DCHL)is looking for private equity of Rs 200 crore, and has appointed ICICI Securities Ltd (ISec) to look out for parties interested in picking up the equity. It adds that
Yesterday’s news, HIV and the print media
IN Media Practice | 2004-07-19
It is precisely this increasingly advertisement-driven and commercialised media that must also play a crucial role if global attempts to defeat AIDS are to succeed.
Women in Journalism —Then and Now
IN Media Practice | 2004-07-17
They were literally given the crumbs from the newspaper table, while senior male colleagues hogged the prime beats
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-07-15
Months after being pilloried by the British Government for its controversial expose the BBC now stands vindicated by the Butler Committee report. It upholds the BBC’s contention that the British Government "sexed up" intelligence data to make a case
"We dedicated the women’s page to rape"
IN Media Practice | 2004-07-15
Colleagues and subordinate staff view blue films and porn sites on their computers, which are left to embarrass them on start up.
IN Media Practice | 2004-07-15
Telugu and Kannada journalism have at least a 30-year history of recruiting women journalists even if they have been very few.
On muster rolls in the Hindi heartland
IN Media Practice | 2004-07-12
In Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh the concept of women journalists with permanent jobs still does not exist.
Language media vs English media
IN Media Practice | 2004-07-12
Women journalists are worse off in the regional language media compared to those in the English press
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-07-10
Everybody interviews the Finance Minister on Budget Day but CNBC evidently thought that Raghav Bahl’s interview with P Chidambaram was special. On Saturday morning, July 10, two days after the Budget, it was still rerunning it.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-07-10
Yubraj Ghimire, editor of Samaya, a Nepali language weekly, is one of the two journalists who have declined to accept medals announced on Kingøs birthday on July 7. " Since I have always written critically about of the lack of transparency in the ent
Poorly paid, Insecure in North East
IN Media Practice | 2004-07-09
Poorly paid, Insecure in North East There was no upward mobility both in terms of promotion and pay scales. And special facilities for women journalists in terms of maternity leave etc, are mostly non-existent. Extracted from Status of Women Journalists in India, produced by the Press Institute of India, under the aegis..
IN Media Practice | 2004-07-09
Changing trends in international factual coverage on British terrestrial television
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-07-08
Mr Laloo Yadav’s playing to the gallery leads the media to give a comic touch to whatever he does. Even the sober Hindu could not resist a coloured graphic of a toy train to augment his picture when he presented the Railway Budget.
Sexual harassment in newspapers
IN Media Practice | 2004-07-07
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RSF slams rising media abuse in Sri Lanka
IN Media Freedom | 2004-07-06
Warning that "threats against journalists in Eastern Sri Lanka have reached alarming levels," the RSF has asked the government and international community to protect them.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-07-05
Mukesh Ambani, Chairman of the Reliance Group of Industries, received an Asia Society award in Washington in the third week of May. For reasons best known to the Times of India and Nita Ambani the July 4 Sunday supplement of TOI had a cover story gus
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-07-04
The current front runner among the National Progressive Alliance’s candidates for a replacement for Deepak Chaurasia of DD News is Rohit Bansal who was at Financial Express with Sanjaya Baru, media advisor to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Chaurasia
IN Media Practice | 2004-07-04
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IN Opinion | 2004-07-04
Letters to the Hoot-- such a grave injustice does not so much as even find a passing mention in these newspapers
Khulna: a killing field for scribes
IN Media Freedom | 2004-07-04
Thirteen journalists have been killed in Khulna, and in the last one year, 66 journalists were repressed in one way or another.
Journalists debate media stereotyping
IN Media Practice | 2004-07-03
Women activists and experts concurred that the portrayal of women is similar across South Asia.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-07-02
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
Media and NGOs: a coalition is needed
IN Media Practice | 2004-06-30
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IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-06-30
Humayun Kabir, editor of the Bangla-language daily Janmabhumi, is the latest to be killed in the southwestern city of Khulna in Bangladesh. Kabir, 58, was a veteran journalist and the president of the Khulna Press Club. Local journalists call Khulna
Implications of the Herald Tribune entry
IN Law and Policy | 2004-06-30
National media acquire extra clout over national government by forging links with international media.
The rural newspaper revolution
IN Regional Media | 2004-06-28
Rural India is developing the newspaper reading habit. And rapidly becoming discerning.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-06-26
CNBCøs Tonight at Ten anchor has a problem with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Judging by the questions she asked guests on her show, she thinks the PMøs low visibily style could be his "Achilees heel", that his mild manner is his weakness, and that
IN Opinion | 2004-06-24
Television channels have been performing cartwheels to win young audiences. Mass media dominance is achieved by herd-like devotion to the latest trend.
IN Regional Media | 2004-06-24
Caste discrimination in the newsroom? Rubbish, say most upper caste journalists in Uttar Pradesh. It’s all over, say backward caste journalists.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-06-22
Even the dead do not escape the commercial instincts of the Times of India. On June 22 the paper produced a bright blue box on the old couple who were murdered in Basant Enclave in South Delhi. It bragged about the fact that they were so addicted to
Survey on status of women journalists
IN Media Practice | 2004-06-22
Journalists were employed like daily wage labour, signing a muster at the end of the month to get a pittance of Rs 1500 to Rs 3000 as wages
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-06-21
A reader wrote to the Hyderabad edition of the Times of India recently berating the paper for its trivialization of news, for ignoring issues, and so on. The Time reprinted the letter, and in a rejoinder at the bottom suggested to the reader that he
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-06-21
The Hoot does not recall journalists during the earlier dispensation routinely referring to the PM as Atal. So why does Sheela Reddy in Outlook keep calling the new PM Manmohan?
Tehelka’s letter to the Indian prime minister
IN Media Freedom | 2004-06-21
It is in the highest interests of the country that justice is not only done, but seen to be done, for Tehelka and First Global.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-06-19
The CBI arrested the director of the Lucknow Doordarshan Kendra when he was allegedly accepting a bribe from a serial maker, reports the Times of India on June 19.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-06-16
Krishi Darshan, the age-old rural development and farm programme on Doordarshan is becoming very versatile indeed. On June 16 the programme began with sugarcane farming, but then went on to a lady sporting what looked like a string of pearls, who anc
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-06-16
Sometimes Indian serials carry the business of willing suspension of disbelief a mite too far. In Karishma Kapoor’s maiden TV venture ‘Karishma’ on Sahara Manoranjan when a lead character undergoes plastic surgery to enable a swopping of identity, he
Screening documentaries in Rajasthan
IN Media Practice | 2004-06-16
A film maker takes to the road with films disqualified from the Mumbai International Film Festival.
IN Media Freedom | 2004-06-16
Zamir Niazi was a one-man institution chronicling and crusading for media freedom and freedom of information in Pakistan. The void he leaves will be hard to fill.
IN Media Practice | 2004-06-16
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IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-06-12
The Times of India shed hypocritical tears over the fact that the glamouratti has stolen the show when the Olympic torch was in the capital, while PT Usha had been ignored. But guess whose photographs they carried along with that front page headline?
‘Dance of Democracy’: Sonia Gandhi’s ‘Renunciation’
IN Media Practice | 2004-06-12
A more rational analysis would perceive the combination of political shrewdness and strategy, of renunciation as a political ideal and weapon, and of personal fears and inadequacies that prompted Sonia’s decision.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-06-09
Midram Publications is attempting to make a freedom of speech issue out of the Information and Broadcasting Ministryøs stand that it has violated the syndication guidelines in publishing the International Herald Tribune from India without any governm
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-06-09
The Times of India on Sunday June 6 ran a four-column treatise on womenøs bosoms on page one of Delhi Times. It dwelt at explicit length on the kind of bosoms that are in, the kind that are out, what men prefer, and how an ideal pair of breasts shoul
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-06-09
When Satyendra Dubeyøs killers were finally arrested the Indian Express had a problem. The paper had run a huge campaign on the assumption that he had been killed by the contractor mafia that he had complained to the prime minister about. Interrogati
IN Media Practice | 2004-06-09
Women are slowing establishing themselves in journalism in Orissa
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-06-07
Ram Vilas Paswan hold his first press conference as Chemicals and Fertiliser Minister and distributes Casio digital diaries. At the first press conference as the Steel Minister he presents VIP suitcases worth Rs 1350 (the lady journos got smart purse
Sri Lanka¿s Media Caught in LTTE Crossfire
IN Media Practice | 2004-06-07
The killing of a veteran journalist last week sent out shockwaves among the beleaguered community.
Health and fitness, did you say?
IN Media Practice | 2004-06-07
Delhi’s leading dailies promote massage parlours and escort services by running luridly suggestive advertisements
Letters to the Hoot: news trivia and irresponsible journalism
IN Opinion | 2004-06-05
News channels freak out over Shahrukh Khan and the Gandhis and the Hindustan behaves irresponsibly
Abu Ghraib, Vietnam, and media amnesia
IN Media Practice | 2004-06-05
There are patterns and historical precedents for Abu Ghraib that have rarely been highlighted in the media.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-06-04
The Asian Age group is overtaking the Times of India in sheer audacity. It has begun publishing the International Herald Tribune in India out of Hyderabad, printed at the Deccan Chronicle press, with M J Akbar’s print line as editor. How was this pu
IN Media Practice | 2004-06-04
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IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-06-01
The Nav Bharat of Madhya Pradesh has served a legal notice on the company that publishes the National Readership Surveys, reports Exchange4Media. The newspaper’s contention is that by confusing its readership figures in NRS 2003 with those of another
Firefighting at the New York Times
IN Media Practice | 2004-06-01
It is unbelievable that The Times could not hear its own cries of war originating in accounts its reporters sent.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-05-30
A long piece by P Sainath in the Hindu on May 30 documented how much trouble the US has had using the plain term "torture" for what US troops did to their prisoners at Abu Ghraib. He draws on findings of the American media watch group FAIR to show ho
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-05-30
On the 30th afternoon, why was DD News running a play, for godssake? Crossed wires with DD Bharati?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-05-29
On March 28 the New York Times carried an obit of novelist Kamala Markandaya who died in London at the age of 79. Best known for her novel "Nectar in a Sieve" she is yet to be honoured with an obit in any major Indian publication except Outlook’s web
IN Media Practice | 2004-05-28
More on how the Pakistani media abdicated when the majority seceded from the minority in 1971.
Iraqi journalists abused by US soldiers?
IN Media Practice | 2004-05-28
Reuters makes revelations about the January torture of three of its employees in Iraq at the hands of the US military
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-05-27
Rediff reports that key ISPs including VSNL have blocked access to a web site, www.hinduunity.org on the basis of a request from the Mumbai police commissionerøs office. The site publishes inflammatory material against Islam. But one ISP, Sify, has n
Bangladesh Journalists targeted with death threats
IN Media Freedom | 2004-05-27
A youth front of the Al Qaeda issues death threats to journalists in Dinajpur while the police look the other way…
India’s post-election media circus
IN Media Practice | 2004-05-24
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IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-05-24
Watching the swearing in of the new cabinet was best done on Star News. No voice over, and they told you which party each prospective minister belonged to, which nobody else did. Zee News made a couple of major boo-boos, NDTV kept up excessive patter
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-05-24
NDTV’s Sunday night special titled ‘Meet Sonia Gandhi’ was a cut and paste job using their own programmes telecast earlier. Told you nothing new at all, and carried no interviews or assessments from anybody that were likely to offend Madam. You’d hav
Exit Polls 2004, what went wrong -- Part II
IN Books | 2004-05-23
There were at least four areas where the pollsters appear to be deliberately transgressing the basic principles of research methods.
Exit polls 2004: What went wrong and why -- Part I
IN Books | 2004-05-20
The exit polls on the average have given 68 more seats to NDA than it got and consequently 36 seats less to Congress and 32 seats less to Others.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-05-19
Rajat Sharma, formerly of Aap ki Adaalat on Zee and Aap ki Baat on Star News, is launching a news channel called India TV on May 20 in which Rs 70 crore has been invested to give it top of the line facilities. Sharma says he and his wife will own 74
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-05-19
Sonia Gandhi decides to step down and the Pioneer cannot conceal its bile. Its lead story "Whose Inner Voice" says that "apparently" it was not Mrs Gandhi’s inner voice but clarifications sought by President Kalam which prompted her re-think. No sour
Commerce, politics and caste in UP election coverage
IN Media Practice | 2004-05-19
Tongue fully in cheek, Awasthi says that upto 10% of ‘biased’ stories don’t hurt a paper’s credentials…
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-05-17
The Congress party says that it did do a lot of print and television advertising: only it chose to do it in the regional media, with 90 per cent of the party’s ad spend being in such outlets:in Meerut, Shimoga and Kutch. Between March 2 and May 10, s
IN Media Practice | 2004-05-17
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Abu Ghraib and after-A Pakistani view
IN Media Practice | 2004-05-17
Before we begin to lecture the world on human rights, we should examine our own sorry record and apologise for it, says a Pakistani scribe.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-05-15
Comment by a CNBC reporter at 10 Janpath: "In mixing freely with the people Rahul showed great courage." Shots of young man jumping over a security barricade. Now that is a new definition of courage.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-05-15
If newspapers the day after were lauding the ordinary voter’s rejection of India Shining, the Pioneer was not among them. It mourned the fact that the quality of governance had progressively ceased to matter to India’s voters and said the result wou
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-05-15
The Times group’s devotion to masthead art is turning into a major circus. The Economic Times’s banner headline, Keh Do Na, You are my Sonia was matched by the Times of India’s King Cong, Queen Sonia. ET featured Sonia in nautch girl clothes, being h
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-05-15
On Friday night the politicians on Rajdeep Sardesai’s studio panel on NDTV 24x7 were taken aback at his efforts to make news on his show. Will you invite Mr Amar Singh’s party to join your government, he asked Ambika Soni of the Congress. Will you n
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-05-15
Alas, the news sometimes cruelly overtakes recorded shows. On Question Time India Edward Luce of the Financial Times was praising the stability of the stock market after its initial jitters when Naidu was voted out. By the time the programme was air
IFJ assesses press freedom in Sri Lanka
IN Media Freedom | 2004-05-15
In its latest report on press freedom in South Asia the International Federation of Journalists finds Sri Lanka a cause for worry
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-05-13
Rajdeep Sardesai on NDTV 24x7 on counting day, about the BJP’s fortunes: "They are winning in the small states, but that is not India."
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-05-13
Anyone who watched Aaj tak on the morning of May 13 noticed how very long it took them to change the seat totals when the Congress began to overtake the BJP. Figures on all the other channels kept changing, but they would not budge. Finally, around 1
The media and the verdict of Election 2004
IN Media Practice | 2004-05-13
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Journalism survives but journalists endangered
IN Media Freedom | 2004-05-10
The IFJ press freedom report 2003-4 says South Asia is dangerous for journalists, but they have persisted, undeterred
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-05-10
In touching pursuit of its quest to entertain its readers, the Economic Times on May 10 converted India’s Parliament House into a gambler’s roulette in its graphic above its mast head, with a banner headline which said Last Call, Gentlemen. And of c
American media on the abuse of Iraq prisoners
IN Media Practice | 2004-05-09
Different takes from the fourth estate in the US: has the media been in denial over the abuse in Iraq?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-05-08
You could call this globalised journalism. A CNBC-TV18 journalist in New Delhi posts a request on the mailing list of the South Asian Journalists association in New York, asking for the name of a senior journalist in Calcutta who could be interviewe
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-05-08
A member of the Sangh Parivar in Shirdi is planning a digital channel for 90 million television households repors the Indian Express. øøThe channel is not going to be a commercial venture but will be guided by the objectives of Dev, Desh and Dharma,
IN Books | 2004-05-05
Any scientifically designed survey can go wrong drastically if errors occurring in interpersonal communication and observations are not taken care of.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-05-05
Justice V N Khare set a precedent of sorts last week when he became the first Chief Justice to take his opinions to the press, immediately upon retirement. He made himself available to no less than six TV news channels, airing his views on his own co
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-05-05
Subroto Roy of Sahara likes to surround himself with Bollywood stars, starting with Aishwarya Rai and Amitabh Bachchan. Now he is aspiring to stardom himself, and has possibly become the first Indian media baron to star in a music video which has bee
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-05-03
Jammu and Kashmir minister Muzaffar Beg and National Conference leader Omar Abdullah waited politely for Aaj Tak anchors Prabhu Chawla and Ashutosh to finish congratulating themselves during a programme called Kyon Sune Aapki. Ashutosh said the cold
IN Media Practice | 2004-05-03
The Friendship Series in Pakistan spawned coverage in the categories of ‘brotherhood/goodwill’ hype, and the political mileage sought to be derived by the BJP.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-05-01
On 28 April Aaj Tak telecast live portions of a speech by Atal Bihari Vajpayee at a rally in a UP town, and about half an hour later portions of a speech by Sonia Gandhi at a rally in another UP constituency. The anchor analysed the two and came to t
IN Media Practice | 2004-05-01
The newspaper report cleverly combines the sources and techniques of journalism and fictional narration to ‘establish’ and pronounce judgment on ‘what really happened’.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-04-29
A Supreme Court ruling has laid down that media establishments must set up committees to deal with sexual harassment. Many media houses have complied. Sahara Samay not only has not, but recently told the press in Mumbai that the company’s existing sy
Snivelling about Sehwag’s wedding
IN Opinion | 2004-04-29
Letter to the Hoot: surely it canøt be the mediaøs case that it has an inalienable right to intrude on peopleøs private moments
Media boom in Orissa, at election time
IN Regional Media | 2004-04-28
Elections for the Parliament and Assembly seats are being held simultaneously in Orissa after 33 years, making it the perfect launching pad for at least ten new newspapers.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-04-26
The Times of India front page headline in Mumbai on April 23rd, "Great scramble for Muslim vote begins", refers to Kishenganj in Bihar as "the only Muslim-majority constituency outside Kashmir". The Hindu had recently profiled two constituencies in K
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-04-26
Some hacks were not amused when Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshitøs media manager, Pawan Khera, alerted a whole bevy of journalists via SMS at 5a.m of the daily campaign programme of her son Sandeep Dikshit. What’s worse, the SMSøs just kept arrivi
Letter to the Hoot: media and the judicial process
IN Opinion | 2004-04-25
Can/should the media affect the judicial process?
Letter to the Hoot: spare our ears
IN Opinion | 2004-04-25
Why are Indian ads on television so loud?
Using comics for development communication
IN Media Practice | 2004-04-25
Engaging local activists and artists to create the comics therefore makes sense, in getting across information to grown-up readers…
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-04-24
Why blame the quick-on-the-draw electronic media? Even local paper Greater Kashmir headlined the incident in a bold red typeface. The Abdullah camp went blue in the face trying to point out that the attack was not a close shave but merely one of the
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-04-24
TV Today has decided that it’s better to pay your employees better than to lose them to the competition. The company recently gave across the board hikes to its editorial and technical staff, ranging from 100 per cent to 140 per cent. G. K. Krishnan,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-04-24
Violence in the Kashmir Valley is not news any more unless victims of a fatal attack either reach double figures or a VIP has been targeted. So when a grenade was lobbed at former chief minister Farooq Abdullah’s convoy in Budgaum on April 18, it evo
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-04-24
In the run up to the 14th Lok Sabha elections, getting a press interview with Mehooba Mufti, president of the People Democratic Party, is not easy. There was a time when she was just a telephone call away. But today trying to buttonhole her for five
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-04-24
Eyebrows were raised in the Kashmir valley when the Hindu published on April 10 an account of a PDP rally which put the number present at 40,000. Other journalists present say the estimate is a gross exaggeration and wonder if the figure has somethin
Theory and practice of election forecasting
IN Digital Media | 2004-04-24
An overview of forecasting methods, their perils and the pollsters’ track record so far.
IN Regional Media | 2004-04-22
The island state with an 82 per cent literacy rate is attempting an opinion-building exercise with low cost and low-key campaign strategies.
IN Media Practice | 2004-04-21
Asiya Jeelani, a young journalist working with a human rights monitoring group in Srinagar, was killed on April 20 when a landmine blew up her taxi.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-04-19
Poll predictions have been published so far by Star News, Outlook, Zee, India Today/Aaj Tak/Dainik Bhaskar, Express/NDTV/Gulf News/Amar Ujala, and Week-TNS. Of them, the last gives the highest number of seats to the Congress and allies, and lowest at
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-04-19
The character Preity Zinta plays in the film Lakshya is called Romilla Dutta and is a television journalist in Kargil. Some have taken this as a compliment to NDTV journalist Barkha Dutt’s professional stardom. Not surprising then that Dutt allowed t
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-04-19
The Pakistani media has turned its ire on its cricketers. The Nation which has no love for India said the defeat was a calamity, and that India’s pathetic record of losses had been interrupted courtesy the Pakistan team. Dawn said the last rites of P
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-04-19
Our leading Hindi newspapers are now specialising in English written in Devnagari. The first lead headline in the Dainik Bhaskar of April 19 is called "Powerful personaliteej." Other English words in the headlines on page 1: micro-management, vote,
TRAI invites comments on radio paper
IN Law and Policy | 2004-04-19
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has issued a consultation paper on Private FM radios, inviting comments by 7th May 2004
Journalists join movement for democracy in Nepal
IN Media Practice | 2004-04-15
Democracy and journalism are mutually reinforcing, say journalists in Nepal who are out on the street with protestors.
A network of Asia-Pacific journalists on water issues
IN Media Practice | 2004-04-12
The Asian Development Bank is trying to create a network of journalists to circulate news stories related to water issues in the region.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-04-11
Aaj Tak viewers the other day almost fell off their chairs upon encountering the channel’s new darbari chat show format. India Today chief editor Prabhu Chawla in a silk achkan, quizzed politician Arun Nehru, both of them reclining against bolsters a
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-04-11
The Asian Age’s Bofors "scoop", timed to impact the elections, has come in for so much flak that the senior editor of the paper who went to Stockholm to do the story felt obliged to point out on page one on April 11 that her stories had indeed contai
IN Regional Media | 2004-04-10
In the immediate vicinity of the Power Minister’s constituency in Doda is a population of 6000 people who have never seen a television because there is no electricity..
Press freedom is important, warts and all
IN Media Freedom | 2004-04-10
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IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-04-10
Indian Express editor Shekhar Gupta’s rather catholic choice of interviewees in NDTV 24x7’s Walk the Talk programme is now being extended to prematurely de-crowned beauty queen aspirant Lakshmi Pandit. Do we now assume that the transcript of her answ
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-04-10
Should the media be giving ideas to political parties to make controversies out of non-issues? At the daily briefing on April 7, the BJP was focusing on the Congress partyøs economic vision and on the state of the economy. At question time Star News
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-04-05
On April 4 the Sunday Express did not have an exclusive worthy of top billing on page 1. So what did it do? It put out a huge promotion for its forthcoming election coverage, with names and photographs of its correspondents on a map of the country, t
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-04-05
A quote from the Dalai lama, on May 3rd, World Press Freedom Day: "But I also think that media people should have "long noses", like elephants. They should look in front of things, on the side, but also behind. They should see everywhere and provide
"Speak up When They Try to Silence You"
IN Media Freedom | 2004-04-05
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Four Orissa editors in poll fray
IN Regional Media | 2004-04-05
For the leading vernacular dailies of Orissa, it is only a thin line that divides politics and journalism.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-04-02
So Lakshmi Pandit was forced to return her Miss India World crown. Did the media overplay the story? Aaj Tak for one sent around a press release taking credit for its big scoop: "It was an Aaj Tak story that forced Lakshmi Panditøs hand," it said, de
Letter to the Hoot—peddling stereotypes
IN Opinion | 2004-04-02
The article pits the "retrosexual" against the "metrosexual", who are "scrupulous about their grooming and are great consumers of menøs cosmetic products"…
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-04-02
We have it on the authority of Swapan Dasgupta in the Pioneer, accompanying Mr L K Advani’s on his rath yatra, that Narendra Modi is a leader for all seasons, and the man to watch, despite demonising by the media. His insults are for entertainment, s
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-04-02
The Gujarat Chief Minister’s abusive campaigning has created a dilemma for the media. Do you carry his insults and thereby expose the speaker or do you suppress them in the interest of clean debate in public life? When he said at the deputy Prime Min
Khabar Lahariya: When six women started a wave
IN Community Media | 2004-04-02
All in a day`s work: Travelling to Allahabad to get the paper printed, egging people to buy it, resisting threats from goons
What do our newspapers consider news?
IN Media Practice | 2004-03-30
The regional papers were much more acutely aware of the importance of the death of a man like V M Tarkunde.
IN Media Practice | 2004-03-28
Last fortnight a five-time Pulitzer Prize nominee made an ignominious exit from USA Today after it was confirmed that he had filed fictitious stories over two decades.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-03-28
Sometimes its difficult to tell. On March 28 The Sunday Express’s colour supplement Eye has glossy guide to summer, replete with commercial tips on products and places, complete with prices. Is this meant to be news we can use? Or is at least some of
Cricket vs kebabs: guess which won?
IN Media Practice | 2004-03-27
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IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-03-27
Khushwant Singhøs latest novel "Burial at Sea" has an inviting title that reviewers are finding irresistable. To date, two reviews panning the novel have both said that it deserves to be buried at sea.
An opportunity lost at the World Social Forum
IN Media Practice | 2004-03-27
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IN Media Practice | 2004-03-27
Why Arab and US viewers get contrasting pictures from Iraq
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-03-22
On March 22 Air Sahara began its flights from Chennai to Colombo, and Sahara Samay, Sahara India’s news channel, naturally ran a longish story. The reporter even managed to make the story sound like an advertisement: you just have to wait a little wh
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-03-21
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi has invited 23 journalists for a junket to London, to be hosted by Air India. The scribes will travel on Air-India’s maiden flight from Ahmedabad to London on Sunday and will stay in London for two days at the exp
Nepaløs insurgency drives journalists from their homes
IN Media Freedom | 2004-03-21
Journalists are displaced from their places of work and residence by both Maoist rebels and security forces.
Book review: War and the media
IN Media Practice | 2004-03-21
"War and the Media: Reporting Conflict 24/7" explore several important issues relating to media and conflict situations.
Letter to the Hoot: Times of India working overtime?
IN Opinion | 2004-03-19
Why is the Times of India promoting the BJP over the Congress?
Grim poll eve portents for Sri Lankan media
IN Media Practice | 2004-03-19
In the run up to the polls the media in Sri Lanka invites threats and intimidation, while its reporting is marked by biases.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-03-18
The International Federation of Journalists has condemned the Pakistan Government’s decision to place a ban on government advertising in the Nawa-i-Waqt group of publications. It affects over 11 publications of the group. The IFJ has called the decis
‘Karachi captured’: subcontinental cricketing wars
IN Media Practice | 2004-03-15
The cricketers are now the avatars of a nation’s sublimated violence that will be enacted on the playing fields of Pakistan.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-03-15
The Mayaram Surjan Foundation in Raipur has invited entries for an All India Journal competition for which it is charging an entry fee of Rs 500. Twelve awards are to be given and there is no mention of what these will consist of. Its entry fee certa
Letter to the Hoot: defending IIMC Dhenkenal
IN Opinion | 2004-03-15
When you mention the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC), you talk about both the IIMCs, one in Delhi and the other in Dhenkanal...
Indian sex workers – shifting portrayal
IN Media Practice | 2004-03-15
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Vijay Karnataka helps launch a regional party
IN Media Practice | 2004-03-15
Karnataka’s leading newspaper is energetically promoting the regional party launched by the newspaper’s owner Vijay Sankeshwar in the run up to the state elections.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-03-15
Okay so Indo Pak cricket is the next best thing after India Shining for our papers to live off. But even so the Indian Express devoting the entire front page on Sunday, every inch of it, to the first ODI victory is a trifle excessive, what?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-03-12
Deputy Prime Minister LK Advani should be grateful to the Pioneer. On March 12 the paper had a first lead on his Bharat Uday Yatra taking off from Kerala as well as a page one column by Swapan Gupta who is accompanying Mr Advani on his yatra. But no
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-03-12
Outlook’s pre-poll survey on the 2004 general elections appeared by March 7th on the newsstands. Asian Age chose to carry its results as a page one story on March 12th.
IN Media Practice | 2004-03-12
To avoid being taken for a spin journalists should start treating spin doctors for what they are: not news providers, but government workers running campaigns to get their bosses elected.
Reporting In times of conflict
IN Media Practice | 2004-03-09
To keep the Gujarat pot boiling is to impede the healing process.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-03-07
How much time did it take for the ONGC’s (Oil and Natural Gas Corporation) public issue to be oversubscribed? In under 15 minutes after the offer opened, according to the Indian Express. In less than 30 minutes said the Times of India. Within two ho
IN Media Practice | 2004-03-07
A magazine that represents an emphatic triumph of content over form has lost an editor.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-03-02
Business Standard (25 February) carried a picture on its front page of Infosys chairman N R Narayan Murthy and Hindustan Lever chief Vindi Banga addressing a press conference on the IIM fee issue. They were flanking Rama Bijapurkar, marketng expert,
IN Opinion | 2004-03-02
Old notions of national and mass no longer apply in a rapidly changing media universe.
IN Books | 2004-03-02
Representations of diasporic Indians in the UK and US in the Indian print media have a clear bias toward feel good stories regarding the diasporic community.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-02-25
Making a fuss in the media can produce prompt results at election time. Witness the BJP backtracking on D P Yadav being inducted into the party after TV channels ran interviews with the mother of the boy his son is alleged to have killed. And the Asi
IN Books | 2004-02-25
More on representations of diasporic Indians in the UK and US in the Indian print media.
Reassessing television ownership in the rural
IN Books | 2004-02-23
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IN Regional Media | 2004-02-23
Kerala’s media is guilty of giving undue coverage to the farce continually enacted by Karunakaran, Muraleedharan and Antony.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-02-21
Every time you think NDTV 24x7’s Night Out programme can’t get any more pathetic, it outdoes itself. The reporter outside the location of Raveena Tandon’s wedding caught hold of the actress’s dress designer and attempted to squeeze as much of out of
Lies, Damned Lies and Politics
IN Media Practice | 2004-02-21
The recent blitz of pro-government propaganda in the print media has the BJP wizards taking clever manipulation of statistics to a new plane.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-02-20
The Times of India reports that global media majors are looking at India for back office work. They will outsource IT services, since IT spending will increase in the areas of large scale systems consolidation following the Federal Communications Com
IN Books | 2004-02-19
An analysis of representations in the Indian media of the Indian diaspora in the UK and US.
IN Media Practice | 2004-02-16
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Malayala Manorama exposes Kerala’s men
IN Media Practice | 2004-02-15
Six women reporters of the paper travelled across the state unescorted, to experience at first hand the safety and security that God’s Own Country was offering them.
IN Community Media | 2004-02-13
A low- profile, but innovative and imaginative, farm journal is very popular among cash-crop growers in southern Karnataka and northern Kerala
The Indian Express and Pirzada
IN Opinion | 2004-02-13
Letter to the Hoot: Why is the paper finding excuses for an officer held for corruption?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-02-13
Eleven journalists based in the city of Rajshahi in Bangladesh have received death threats from an underground communist group. Janajuddha, (Peopleøs War), a faction of the Purbo Banglar Communist Party (PBCP), sent a letter calling the journalists
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-02-09
When corporates assume a citizenship role, they make sure they get due recognition for their noble contribution. Peter Mukherjea, Star TV CEO, is sending around a folder titled Star Care which enumerates all the public service initiatives the Star ch
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-02-09
The Hindustan Times carried a large advertisement with a picture of Rajiv Gandhi and the caption, "Tried, hanged, found innocent" . Who made the insertion? All it said was, "Issued, in homage, by those whose faith in him never wavered." Then came ano
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-02-09
The Pioneer has been campaigning for the regularisation of Sainik Farms, an unauthorised upper class residential area in Delhi, with many fancy houses. Its regularisation becomes an issue at every election. Perhaps it is just a coincidence that the p
The Ruling alliance’s fire power
IN Media Practice | 2004-02-09
As the new chief election commissioner noted at his first press conference, the NDA government is blowing tax payer’s money to promote its achievements
Press Council chief ticks off journalists
IN Media Practice | 2004-02-09
Press Council Chairman Jayachandra Reddy tells journalists to practice responsible journalism and fight for their own freedom
Journalism of exclusion and derision
IN Media Practice | 2004-02-09
In their coverage of the WSF meet, several mainstream papers tried to deride the Forum.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-02-06
Move over movie mag hacks, you’ve been upstaged by a star on your own turf. BBCNews.com says Preity Zintaøs first column for the site registered more than a hundred thousand page impressions, and the site was flooded with hundreds of emails from Ind
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-02-06
Notorious for neglecting follow ups, most Delhi newspapers stopped at saying that the Phukan panel had acquitted Defence Minister George Fernandes of charges of wrong doing in the Tehelka allegations. The Bofors judgement the same day ensured all cov
Why people relate to "Friends"
IN Media Practice | 2004-02-06
‘Friendsø which will end this summer after eight years, has been one of the few serials young American women truly identify with.
Why development coverage fails to have impact
IN Media Practice | 2004-02-03
Both development agencies and the media display the same shortcomings in tackling development coverage: little understanding of the root causes of the problem, a short-term approach and no follow-up.
Dilemmas facing the print media in Pakistan
IN Media Practice | 2004-02-02
Journalists in the country have to work within pressures, restrictive boundaries of semi-coercive laws and far-from-perfect working conditions.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-02-02
The Hindustan Times has started a 2-minute HT to counter the attention span deficit of its readers. On page 2 of the daily paper it offers one-para capsules of the day’s news. It takes up just half a page, the rest is ads.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-02-02
UTI Mutual Fund’s advertisement on its first anniversary is carried on the back page of the Hindustan Times as a normal ad. In the Times of India it appears all across an entire news page, top to bottom, in the middle of stories on the Dalai Lama, th
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-02-02
Dimpled Priety Zinta has a new vocation, and BBC online a new star columnist. Her first column on the BBC news website tackles the changing face of Bollywood and tells us why 2004 promises to be Indiaøs mainstream film industryøs biggest year. Not mu
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-02-02
Hindustan Times went all colour in its Sunday paper on February first, coyly describing it as "more colour." The Times of India carried a large red ad the very same day saying "Christopher Columbus, Edmund Hillary, Neil Armstrong—can you recall the
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-01-31
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IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-01-31
Sajid Tanoli, a reporter with the regional Urdu-language daily Shumal, was shot and killed on January 29 in Manshera, in Pakistanøs Northwest Frontier Province. He was killed after he wrote about an allegedly illegal liquor business run by Mansheraøs
Letter to the Hoot—Not the whole truth?
IN Opinion | 2004-01-31
What happened in Gujarat in terms of human lives lost or property destroyed is terrible and no sane person can condone it. But equally terrible is the event that triggered it.
A "bring your own film" festival at Puri
IN Regional Media | 2004-01-31
This is to take place on the beach at Puri. No entry formalities, no selection process, no hassles. Just land up with your films. Documentary. Fiction. Animation. Rushes. Rough cuts....
The BBC contemplates procedural changes
IN Media Practice | 2004-01-28
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IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-01-28
Indian FM radio companies may not benefit from the huge advertisement budgets of various political parties during the national elections. The information and broadcasting ministry has rejected an appeal by the private FM radio stations to allow airi
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-01-28
Two independent media specialty companies are using dollar bills to reach viewers for new TV shows. The New York-based Media Kitchen affixed 50,000 one-dollar bills with peel-off stickers stamped with the air date, time and channel of Traffic: the Mi
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-01-22
Tata Sons Limited, on behalf of VSNL, had filed a suit against 5 persons that were known spammers, sending unsolicited bulk commercial emails. In the first judgement of its kind in India, the Delhi High Court has restrained three of the Defendants fr
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-01-22
Should the Times of India have named the alleged rape victim from South Africa? (Jan 20.) To protests published in its letters column the paper responded that the woman had herself given permission to the South African media to use her name. The Time
Is Bangladesh becoming a journalists’ wasteland?
IN Media Freedom | 2004-01-22
Should not have all the journalist leaders visited Khulna and protested? What were the editors of widely-circulated dailies doing? Should they not have protested by carry blank spaces on their front pages?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-01-19
The Times of India and Economic Times think hard news on the weekends is strictly for the inside pages. Check out their Jan 18, Delhi editions. The TOI carried a tiny brief on the Noida violence on Delhi’s border which showed no sign of abating, with
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-01-19
So how would you like the editor of the paper you read served up today—brightly attired on TV being occasionally focussed upon at a movie awards do, or in yet another regulation photograph, gracing yet another function?
TRAI throws CAS ball back at consumers
IN Law and Policy | 2004-01-19
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IN Media Freedom | 2004-01-18
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Oneworld Radio South Asia launched
IN Community Media | 2004-01-16
As a platform for audio content exchange South Asia, Radio South Asia will enable organisations and individuals to download and broadcast audio programmes in South Asian languages to the communities they serve.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-01-16
When Kabul TV showed an Afghan woman singing for about five minutes it became a story for news organisations. Apparently it was the first time in a decade that public television had broadcast images of an Afghan woman singing, whereas Indian women ha
Bomb kills Bangladesh journalist
IN Media Freedom | 2004-01-16
Mr Saha was renowned for his vigorous writing on crime and his denunciations of gangs that operate in the Khulna region.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-01-12
Nina Pillai wrote in her column in the Indian Express about the wonderful time she had year-end partying in Dubai. She mentioned journalist Anita Pratap and her husband and son as guests who had flown to Dubai to join her. The comes Anita Pratap’s co
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-01-12
When the United Breweries group of Vijay Mallya launches a swimwear calender what sort of coverage does it merit? A colour picture each of Mallya and models and Mallya and Hrithik Roshan on the front page and back page respectively, of the Asian Age
IN Media Practice | 2004-01-12
Two and half years later, Indian media managers had learnt some lessons from the Agra fiasco and had a well thought-out strategy in place for the Islamabad summit.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-01-10
Taking advantage of the 12th SAARC summit being held in Pakistan, the Pak cable channel Geo TV aired two Hindi movies: the Sharukh Khan and Juhi Chawla starrer"Duplicate" followed by a classic Dilip Kumar movie, "Aaan." This is the first time that an
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-01-09
Although Islamabad had 700 journalists milling around covering SAARC, 270 from India, the media circus had some notable absentees. Apparently two Kashmiri journalists, including Basheer Manzar,editor of the Srinagar-based øKashmir Imagesø were refus
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-01-08
NDTV 24x7 ran a story on the Indian government’s decision to provide free HIV drugs to positive people only in the worst-affected states of the country and how those in other states feel this policy is unfair and discriminatory. But why did it slot t
Caught in Crossfire, Nepal Media Sends SOS
IN Media Freedom | 2004-01-08
Launched in Kathmandu last month, a hotline for journalists in distress is the latest effort to aid media persons facing an onslaught of illegal arrests, kidnappings, and torture by security forces and Maoist rebels.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-01-07
On Jan 7 Business Standard ran two corrections/rejoinders as news briefs. To its credit the corrections were carried on page 1, but should they not be identified as such?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2004-01-05
Just a query: why is the Aaj Tak correspondent covering the SAARC summit in Islamabad using a Voice of America mike
Letter to the Hoot—critiques of art coverage wanted
IN Opinion | 2004-01-05
If we get around to understanding Mediaøs relationship with Art, there will be enough for us to discover, to talk about and to share.
Letter to the Hoot: unpaid contributor
IN Opinion | 2004-01-05
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The Press must represent the public: Tejpal
IN Media Practice | 2004-01-05
"At the heart of the paper are two Cøs. Crusading, constructive journalism. We will not only expose, and knock those doing wrong, but also appreciate those doing the right thing."
Marathi newspapers wage a price war
IN Regional Media | 2004-01-05
While Lokmat and Sakal first played the price-game at Sangli, Sakal has reduced price recently in Kolhapur and Lokmat may soon follow the same strategy in Kolhapur.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-12-30
The Pakistan Telecommunications Company (PTCL) has asked FLAGTelecom -its international Internet transit provider - to block all pornographic and øobjectionableø websites on its backbone to Pakistan. PTCL started blocking adult sites and other objec
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-12-29
Indiantelevision.com reports that Annamalai University in Tamil Nadu is poised to become the first organisation to implement community radio by February 2004, followed by IIT Kanpur. (The scheme was announced in 2002.) The central government is repo
Aakash Channel awaits its comeuppance
IN Regional Media | 2003-12-29
The TV channel which was one of the major reasons for Ajit Jogi’s downfall is set to face uncertain times as pressure builds up for a takeover by the Bharatiya Janata Party’s men.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-12-22
Do readers care about circulation wars? Possibly not, but who cares. After a long campaign on page 1 to have the latest NRS findings made public, the Times of India finally gloated on Dec. 22 morning, top of page 1, that it was No. 1 in Delhi. Hindus
India: At last some strong screen women
IN Media Practice | 2003-12-22
After a long gap, viewers are feasting on films that have handled women characters sensitively and boldly.
The New York Times vs. the facts on the ground
IN Media Practice | 2003-12-22
To editorially hail a journalist convicted of fraud, and given to fundamentalist diatribes suggests that the research done by this venerable daily was somewhat inadequate.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-12-19
The Hindu and the Times of India both had reports on Chandrababu Naidu being given a presentation from Pramod Mahajan on how Rajasthan was won by the Bharatiya Janata Party. The Hindu suggests that Naidu will emulate the Mahajan model. The Times says
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-12-18
Do correspondents covering the rural development beat get less conveyance allowance than their other colleagues? The rural development ministry transported journalists to a press conference organised by CAPART, an autonomous institution under its aeg
IN Media Practice | 2003-12-16
The token mention in each article of the Maximovitch case has been more akin to the statutory warning on cigarette packets.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-12-14
The Times of India stopped carrying book reviews long ago. But it made an exception on December 14 when it carried a review of a collection of columns published on its pages by its own staffer Jug Suraiya, reviewed by its Delhi editor Bachi Karkaria
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-12-14
When the Iraq war was in progress Americans were bitterly critical of the fact that Iraq TV was showing images of captured American soldiers. After the capture of Saddam Hussein perhaps a medical check up was mandatory, but was it necessary to releas
Letter to the Hoot--Pulli Raja again
IN Opinion | 2003-12-12
The response, I am sorry to say, by D. Venkata Raghavan to the article by Ms.Jayashree on the øExploits of Pulli Rajaø is irresponsible.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-12-12
A couple of months before the elections in Chattisgarh Chief Minister Ajt Jogi set up a committee on media policy which decided on several generous concessions to the press: pensions for journalists, land for residential plots, land for media establi
The media’s role in the electoral process
IN Media Practice | 2003-12-12
The Deputy Election Commissioner says the media has a very major role to play in the electoral process.
Pakistan army silences the mediaøs big guns
IN Media Freedom | 2003-12-10
The authorities had told him General Musharraf was angered by his articles and that he should desist from writing against the general and the army.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-12-10
Business Standard associate editor Manas Chakravarty was sufficiently impressed by the automobile metaphors in the sex scenes in Annirudh Bahaløs novel, Bunker 13, (which won the author the Bad Sex Prize) to do a column on how different professionals
IN Law and Policy | 2003-12-09
The terms recommended by the Task Force for the second round of FM privatization are very generous to big broadcasters, but do very little to encourage non-commercial use of radio.
Letter to the Hoot—Pulli Raja’s exploits
IN Opinion | 2003-12-08
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IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-12-08
Vir Sanghvi’s food column in the Hindustan Times, "Rude Food" has now become the paper’s regular Sunday Magazine cover. With the arrival of another editor at HT Sanghvi will have lots of time to focus on food.
Election 2003—half baked analysis
IN Media Practice | 2003-12-08
If you look closely at the coverage it becomes clear that one thing journalists no longer do very much is to analyze the poll data carefully.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-12-03
What does DD News do when Arun Jaitley is smirking on late night television, presenting the BJP’s return sting on Ajit Jogi? It blanks out. Literally. Anyone who tuned in encountered a mysterious dark screen.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-12-03
The Pioneer carried a front page anchor on its editor Chandan Mitra’s first day as a nominated member of the Rajya Sabha—what he wore, the language he took his oath in, and what he said to the press afterwards. It informed us that he had promised to
Letters to the editor—Express expose and news channels repeats
IN Opinion | 2003-12-02
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Book review: An Indian view of Gulf War II
IN Media Practice | 2003-12-02
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Pulli Raja – Raising hackles in the South
IN Media Practice | 2003-12-02
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IN Media Practice | 2003-11-27
Does this new brand of journalism point to a lack of ethics in the media or is it the beginning of a different kind of ethics?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-11-26
Quoting slanderous allegations amounts to defamation according to Karnataka chief minister SM Krishna who is planning legal action against four newspapers for carrying allegations about his involvement in the stamp paper scam. These were made by a BJ
Traditional media, empowering messages
IN Media Practice | 2003-11-26
In India the hype created over ICTs has often overshadowed the remarkable changes traditional communication systems can bring in poor peopleøs lives.
IN Media Freedom | 2003-11-25
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The print media and the poorest districts of Jharkhand
IN Books | 2003-11-25
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IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-11-21
The weighty Hindu, for reasons best known to it, reproduced an entire article on Idaho potatoes from the New York Times News Service in the middle section of its edit page. Now that’s the sort of oddball piece you might encounter in the Asian Age, b
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-11-21
The Asian Age carries a front page story on Nov 21 saying that Sahara is pulling out of its association with Bobby Bedi’s ‘Mangal Pandey—the Rising’ because Aishwarya Rai has been thrown out of the project. Inside in Movie Age, the same Sahara perso
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-11-21
The Pioneer reporter who wrote a front page anchor date-lined Kabul (Nov 21) does not know that afghanis are Afghanistan’s currency, not its people. She repeats the mistake in practically every para of the story.
Harassed for backing adivasi cause
IN Regional Media | 2003-11-19
The CBI has taken over investigation of a case involving police victimisation of a television reporter in Kerala.
Second world press freedom ranking
IN Media Freedom | 2003-11-17
The United States and Israel are singled out for actions beyond their borders by Reporters Sans Frontieres
IN Regional Media | 2003-11-17
Among Punjab’s little magazines, Preetlari turn 70 with a woman editor at its helm.
In the Hindu case, its over to the Supreme Court
IN Law and Policy | 2003-11-13
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IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-11-13
The Reliance-owned mutual fund, Reliance Capital Asset Management Ltd has hiked its stake in TV 18 which operates the CNBC India business channel, from 1.45 per cent to 9.43 per cent. That is not the same as Reliance as a business house buying a medi
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-11-13
Pakistan’s Geo channel wanted to record a Big Fight type programme while Pakistan’s information minister was in Delhi, with the Indian information minister and him participating. The Indian minister agreed, the Pakistani one declined. Or so we hear.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-11-13
Vir Sanghi in the Hindustan Times calls Tamil Nadu chief minister Jaylalitha a fruitcake, (Nov. 9) suggests that she has lost it and gone too far with the action on the Hindu, and ends by suggesting that a room be found for her in a sanitarium. Has V
Small Screen Gets a Large Dose of Censorship in Sri Lanka
IN Media Freedom | 2003-11-10
President Chandrika Kumaratunga removed all the heads of state-controlled electronic media, and replaced them with her own men, triggering a total transformation of news bulletins.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-11-10
As Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga ousted three ministers and declared a state of emergency, the Indian media reacted with page one stories. However a group of sales managers participating in a sales conference in Colombo were completely o
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-11-10
TV funny man Shekhar Suman launched Carrry on Shekhar on SAB TV last week. Giving the comedian and his stand up routine extra support was Faces and Names, a chat show hosted by Vir Sanghvi. In a special one hour programme Sanghvi gave Suman a suitabl
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-11-10
If Matrix Revolutions is here can the urban-centric, entertainment-loving newspapers be far behind? And so it has come to pass that The Hindustan Times carried a review of the movie as a main edit page piece and in The Times of India senior journali
The Tamil Nadu assembly vs the Hindu
IN Media Freedom | 2003-11-10
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Capping a steady erosion of press freedom
IN Media Freedom | 2003-11-10
The arrests ordered of the top echelon of the Hindu are merely the spectacular capping of an insidious trend pursued by both the Central and state governments.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-11-06
Shah Rukh Khan and Sachin Tendulkar are happy, for a price, to star in TV advertisements making fun of the allegations of pesticides in Pepsi Cola, Aamir Khan and Rani Mukherjee do the same for Coke and Fanta. Pity the country’s top selling talent do
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-11-05
A Pioneer editorial on November 5 pours scorn on media coverage of the release of SAR Geelani, acquitted by the High Court in the Parliament attack case. It condemns the media for lapping up Geelani’s "seditious" statements on his release and for tre
Afghanistan—lots of press, little freedom
IN Media Practice | 2003-11-04
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IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-11-02
What stories did the Hindu, Hindustan Times, Indian Express, Times of India and Asian Age give most space to between October 25 and 31? The Afro-Asian Games, the assembly polls and Indo-Pak relations in that order, according to the Indian Express tab
The media’s record on SAR Geelani
IN Media Practice | 2003-11-01
As the December 13, 2001 Parliament attack accused S AR Geelani is acquitted by the High Court, it is instructive to revisit the reporting on his case.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-10-31
A story in the Times of India quotes an internal Railway Board memo saying that the world’s second largest railway network gets to know about train accidents from TV rather than from its internal information system. It notes that news channels start
Media Freedom Still a Distant Dream in Sri Lankaøs North and East
IN Media Practice | 2003-10-30
Despite last week’s launch of the first regional Tamil daily in the war-torn Eastern province, press freedom in the LTTE-ruled North and East still remains a mirage.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-10-30
The Indian Deputy Prime Minister was the soul of tact at the Ernst & Young award ceremony on October 29. He said that the ceremony was better than the one organised by the Economic Times last week, at which too he was the chief guest. And he kept
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-10-30
Star News has a programme called City 60 which features news from metros around the country. On the 29th night the presenter suddenly served up a long promotion for a new series of programmes on the National Geographic Channel which is part of the St
IN Media Practice | 2003-10-27
The New York Times acknowledges every day on page 2 mistakes that its reporters make and copy editors overlook.
Rays of globalisation or scorching sun?
IN Law and Policy | 2003-10-27
A staunch FDI opponent predicts that the new FDI deals signed in Indian media will hit small and medium newspapers badly and open the floodgates to foreign control.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-10-19
The same evening Star News carried a story about a call girl racket being busted in a Delhi hotel. It did not name the hotel but gave generous glimpses of its lobby in the story, and the reporter did her piece to camera standing in front of the hotel
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-10-19
Rajdeep Sardesai likes having the last word. While interviewing Pakistani journalist Naseem Zehra on the 17th for the X Factor on NDTV 24x7, he said she had denied the existence of the Lashkar when in fact she had done nothing of the kind. When she p
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-10-19
NDTV 24x7 did a live telecast of Mother Teresa’s beatification ceremony but did so much talking that no-one could hear the actual proceedings. They also had a link to Calcutta open at the same time, interviewing people, with Vikram Chandra in Delhi c
For Lucknow scribes happy days are here again
IN Regional Media | 2003-10-19
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IN Media Practice | 2003-10-16
She never needed to be propped up by the media whether print or electronic. She went about her work, and drew media attention like a magnet.
Pakistan Journos Hit by Feudal Backlash
IN Media Freedom | 2003-10-16
Journalists in Sindh are getting killed for exposing feudal crimes such as kidnapping for ransom, private jails of feudal lords, and cold-blooded murders of women.
Pakistan’s Journalists Protection Movement
IN Media Freedom | 2003-10-12
A report documenting attacks on journalists forces the federal government to order an investigation.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-10-12
Delhi Times on October 12 carries its usual page one photograph of a glamorous woman in a glamorous outfit. The caption tells you that Timsy Anand of Andaz sports a sequined georgette sari from Deepam Silk International’s Diwali collection. Knowing t
IN Media Freedom | 2003-10-12
India has far less Internet surveillance and censorship that many other countries in the world. Its society is admirably censorship-resistant.
Controversy mounts over Bangladesh Net spy plans
IN Media Freedom | 2003-10-12
Under the plan, Bangladesh’s 2001 Telecommunications Act would be amended to allow intercepted Internet communications and phone calls in judicial proceedings.
Geo rescues Pakistanis from PTV
IN Media Practice | 2003-10-12
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IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-10-09
Among those whom the CBI is investigating in the Madhumita murder case are two Lucknow correspondents of TV news channels. Both reporters were close to Amarmani Tripathi and are suspected to have tried to shield him by airing on their channels alibis
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-10-09
HinduUnity.orgøs Tamilnadu chapter is spreading the ingenious rumour that the Hindu has been bought by a Muslim from Brunei, or at least as much of the paper as is permitted under FDI rules. That according to the Hindutva crowdøs latest email campaig
IN Media Practice | 2003-10-06
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IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-10-06
The Economic Times calls its page devoted to political news The Political Factor, with the sub-title, for øconnoisseurs of the Indian political theatre.ø In a follow-up story on the assassination attempt on Chandrababu Naidu it gave the following cap
Goa Chief Minister takes on the media
IN Regional Media | 2003-10-06
Manohar Parrikar threatens four newspapers with defamation, the press says it is being muzzled, but also begins to introspect on its own role.
Rude encounters with Internet censorship
IN Digital Media | 2003-10-01
An Internet discussion group created by a militant outfit of the Khasi tribe in Meghalaya invited government censorship, which in turn triggered a ban on thousands of Yahoo! Groups.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-10-01
Another milestone in permitting intrusive advertising. The Financial Express of October 1 has a T-shaped J K Tyres ad on the back page actually cutting across two stories, between the headlines and the text of the stories! The Express Group is clearl
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-09-30
After the storm created by the revelation that the Times of India was charging for news published in some sections of the paper, the tiny legend saying ‘Medianet’ stopped appearing under stories in Delhi Times. Now one learns that the TOI has just st
Tehelka readies for a relaunch
IN Media Practice | 2003-09-29
Indiaøs vocal middle class may be rooting for Tehelka, the paper. Its governing class, unsurprisingly, is not.
IN Regional Media | 2003-09-29
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IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-09-27
We’ve heard of ignorant Northerners, but this one is hard to beat. A reporter writing in HT City of the Hindustan Times on September 27 refers to "The Humpy (sic) Tourism Festival" organised by the Karnataka Government.
IN Media Practice | 2003-09-26
A response to the paper’s 125th anniversary eve editorial.
IN Regional Media | 2003-09-22
Journalists here are joining heads to find solutions to problems that plague the media in Goa.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-09-22
The Pioneer front paged a long fulsome piece on Arun Jaitley at Cancun referring to 70 developing nations adoring him and his counterparts in 147 countries being charmed by his command of the English language. He was without doubt, said the article,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-09-22
The Madras High Court finally granted bail to Nakkeeran editor R R Gopal who had been detained under POTA. That makes him the first Pota detainee in Tamilnadu to get bail, reports the Indian Express.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-09-22
The Indian government has withdrawn its requirement that Indian entries for the Mumbai International Film Festival would require a censor certificate. The stipulation was withdrawn after 175 film makers announced that they were boycotting the film f
Because the collegium is supreme
IN Law and Policy | 2003-09-22
In one more contempt case, a high court chief justice grills a newspaper for exposing a judge’s background.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-09-19
The news that the Financial Times of London would be buying a 13.85 per cent stake in Business Standard merited front page briefs or stories in several general dailies across the country but was blacked out by The Financial Express. The Economic Tim
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-09-19
Even as Financial Times of London and Business Standard have closed a deal, Dow Jones, which publishes the Wall Street Journal, is talking to both the Indian Express and Bennet, Coleman and Co. about investing. Meanwhile both the strategic investment
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-09-19
It has taken ten years and cogitating by five governments for the first strategic foreign investment in Indian media to become a reality. The whole issue of FDI in print media was first sparked off when an MOU was signed back in 1993 between Business
IN Media Practice | 2003-09-19
A unique programme on Kairali TV locates missing people in the Gulf and unites them with their families back in Kerala.
Criminalization of the media in Bihar
IN Media Practice | 2003-09-16
A contract killer recently confessed to the police that he had invested his ill-gotten money in a Patna based local TV news channel.
Film makers announce boycott of MIFF 2004
IN Media Freedom | 2003-09-15
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-09-14
The last thing that former Ananda Bazaar Patrika group newspaper editors Vir Sanghvi and M J Akbar would have expected is that their old proprietor would be calling the shots in Star News. Both men have programmes on the channel which ABP owner Aveek
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-09-14
One reason why Star News did not continue its arrangement with NDTV for providing the news is that under the contract signed in 1998 editorial control rested with the latter. Following the Gujarat riots last year and NDTV’s controversial coverage, St
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-09-14
The Hindu celebrated the 125th anniversary of its founding with the prime minister as the chief guest. The state governor and the former Andhra Pradesh governor who is now chairman of the 12th Finance Commission were also present. Messages were read
IN Community Media | 2003-09-13
A paranoid government is getting ready to gingerly license 200 more FM frequencies when what is available is twenty times that number.
Briefing Document---Community Radio in India
IN Community Media | 2003-09-12
Briefing Document---Community Radio in India Edited Proceedings of an Internet Conference on The Hoot November 30, 2001 to February 10, 2002 Chapters 1. Community Radioa. The conceptb. An overview of issues in the Indian context 2. India`s experiments with community participatory broadcastinga. State sponsored projectsb. Civil society initiatives 3. International Scenario in..
Letters to the Hoot: sins of commission
IN Opinion | 2003-09-11
Headlines should not be flip about death, columnists should not be flip about people’s names.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-09-11
In a letter to the Deccan Chronicle on September 10 a reader expresses his disappointment over an Aaj Tak ad which shows people throwing away newspapers and wanting to watch the news only on Aaj Tak. He asks how a news channel can insult newspapers w
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-09-11
The wall between advertising and editorial has disappeared. On September 9 the Times of India carried a full page eulogy of the Samajwadi Party and Mulayam Singh Yadav. There were several items within this package, all laudatory. No explanation anywh
Nepal journalists rediscover life under fire
IN Media Freedom | 2003-09-10
After the ceasefire collapsed on August 27, 41 journalists were detained, three were missing, two abducted and cases were lodged against two others during the period.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-09-06
Kashmir Times Delhi bureau chief Iftikhar Gilani was harassed again while covering a Vishwa Hindu Parishad rally on September 3. Both by the VHP and by the Delhi Police. Gilani who was earlier falsely implicated in an Official Secrets Act case resul
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-09-06
Film maker Prakash Jha waited in vain for former chief minister Laloo Yadav to view his film Gangajal. The film cannot be released in Bihar because the ruling party threatens hooliganism in the event of its release. One of its protagonists bears the
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-09-06
Talk of sexing up the day’s news. The Times of India’s caption for a front page photograph of women students voting at a Delhi university election ran thus: Ballot babes scorch DU poll ramp. And this was in the main paper, not Delhi Times, on Septemb
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-09-04
The Times of India wrote a lead edit called Political Chic on the glamorous Mumbai celebrities who attended Mulayam Singh Yadav’s swearing in as chief minister of Uttar Pradesh. It suggested that the page 3 culture was now ready to move away from wha
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-09-04
The Dainik Bhaskar launched an edition of Divya Bhaskar from Mehsana on September one, claiming that within two months of the paper’s Ahmedabad launch it was already the highest selling Gujarati newspaper in nine districts of North Gujarat.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-09-04
The Economic Times announced on September 4 that is was allowing a chink of the real world into its upbeat product. A front page box announced a new feature: news you’d rather not read, on page 20. And what do you get on that page? A tiny box squash
An activist magazine completes a decade
IN Media Practice | 2003-09-01
I wish the day would come when there wouldn?t be the need for Communalism Combat.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-09-01
The Indian Express is feeling the need to do more than practice journalism of courage to establish its brand. Hence the music extravaganza in Parliament’s auditorium with the present and former prime ministers present, and a colour splash on page one
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-09-01
In the month of August the Discovery Channel has finally overtaken all other international channels in India. It climbed ahead of HBO and Star Movies, and is of course way ahead of Star World and Zee English, the music channels and the news channels.
Lessons from the Pakistan cable operators’ strike
IN Media Practice | 2003-08-31
Lessons from the Pakistan cable operators’ strike Cable operators across the country took Pakistani private television channels off the air to pressure the government into lifting the ban on Indian channels. By B. Muralidhar Reddy in Islamabad Nation wide agitations in Pakistan are rare. Protests in support of the demand for an..
Letter to Hoot: the Statesman sexual harassment case
IN Opinion | 2003-08-31
To suggest that my complaint is false is a comment on the West Bengal State Commission for Women, which does not accept any case unless a thorough screening is done.
IN Media Practice | 2003-08-29
Noor and her family were almost treated as Pakistani ambassadors to India.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-08-27
The Economic Times’s frequent use of funky pictures and headlines has prompted one Union minister to call the paper an ageing prima donna masquerading as a DJ. On August 26 the paper’s lead : `Blast in Mumbai, Bombshell in UPø equated a colossal huma
Prasar Bharati: assault on autonomy
IN Media Freedom | 2003-08-26
The dismissal of the director general of Doordarshan was arbitrary and mala fide and inconsistent with the letter and spirit of the Prasar Bharati Act.
The Internet under surveillance
IN Media Freedom | 2003-08-25
A report on obstacles to the free flow of information online by Reporters Sans Frontieres
United Nations Suspends Reporters Sans Frontieres
IN Media Freedom | 2003-08-25
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has suspended the Paris-based group Reporters Sans Frontières, which staged a protest during a meeting of the commission in March to protest over the decision to let Libya chair the commission.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-08-25
The late actress Smita Patil used to be a newsreader in Doordarshan when she was spotted by a film director and offered a movie role. Now it’s the turn of newsreader Nagma who went from Aaj Tak to NDTV and has now reportedly been propositioned for a
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-08-25
Simi Garewal’s show on Star World on August 24 featured various celebrities singing a tune. Vying for the most-tuneless honours were Nita and Mukesh Ambani singing a duet, and actor Abhishek Bachchan. Most tuneful of the lot was actress Sushmita Sen.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-08-25
Mani Shankar Aiyar took his time on NDTV on Barkh Dutt’s Sunday night show blaming the media for trivialising politics by only reporting the sensational. In what is a favourite theme with him, he cited several examples of constructive debates in the
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-08-25
With leading English language newspapers in India falling in line, intrusive ad positioning is fast becoming the norm. Look at the ads for Karishma—A Miracle of Destiny in the Times of India and the Hindustan Times, they are bunged right into the mid
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-08-25
The BBC must be the only public service broadcaster to have achieved the feat of triggering a controversy through its investigations which will result in the prime minister appearing before a judicial inquiry. The David Kelly affair is now being des
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-08-25
India Today editor Prabhu Chawla’s name has suddenly disappeared from the list of names of those in the running for the Rajya Sabha nominations. With Kuldip Nayyar finishing his term the journalists said to be in the running are columnist TVR Shenoy
IN Opinion | 2003-08-15
Colleagues of implicated Statesman staffer respond to the sexual harassment allegations.
Why was Noor dim in the Pakistani press?
IN Media Practice | 2003-08-13
In the wake of Noor Fatimaøs homecoming, Pakistani newspapers have yet to report the status of philanthropic contributions and establishment of trust funds for the countryøs children with holes in their hearts
Why are Delhi newspapers promoting ragging?
IN Media Practice | 2003-08-11
Newspaper coverage of this crime in Delhi University has been lazy, frivolous and irresponsible.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-08-10
We have it on the authority of the TV critic of the Hindustan Times that the show hosted by the paperøs editor on Star News, Vir Ke Teer, is one of the slickest, best-packaged and most heavily produced (whatever that means) programmes on the channel.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-08-10
The Sunday Express had a magazine feature called Freedom from Shortage, on August 10. It celebrated the fact that Indians no longer face shortages in automobiles, cement, telephone connections, banking facilities and LPG. Someone forgot to tell them
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-08-07
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IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-08-07
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IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-08-06
The Financial Times of London carried a poll result which shows that Britons trust the BBC more than Prime Minister Tony Blair in the recent battle between the broadcaster and the government. 59 per cnet said they trusted the BBC compared to 41 per c
Not scintillating, but different
IN Media Practice | 2003-08-06
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Letter to Hoot: so much ignorance
IN Opinion | 2003-08-06
Articles using science terms should be properly vetted before being published.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-08-06
The saases and bahus may be doing their bit for public service, but the plug for the World Health Organisation’s oral rehydration solution was s
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-08-03
On July 15 the Indian Express carried a special feature on the back page of all its editions, including all those of the Financial Express as well. It did not indicate that it was an advertisement, it had three articles and two boxes all talking abou
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-08-03
It is a measure of the media’s damage potential that at public functions people have started making a direct appeal to press persons. At the release of a study on midday meals in schools on August 1st actress Shabana Azmi observed that midday meals i
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-08-02
The Prime Minister made a major foreign policy speech in Parliament on July 31. Only two newspapers, the Pioneer and the Hindu, saw fit to report it on page one. The Times of India did not cover it at all, and the Asian Age made it a sidelight.
Mirzapur: micro media, minimal impact
IN Media Practice | 2003-07-29
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IN Media Practice | 2003-07-29
The newspapers report events not processes, say local development functionaries.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-07-29
In a media landmark for Gujarat Sardar Patel University in Vallabh Vidyanagar has received permission from Prasar Bharati and the state government to set up a radio station becoming Indiaøs first university to have a radio station of its own. However
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-07-28
The national film awards announced included one to Utpal Borpujari, the Delhi-based chief correspondent of Deccan Herald for being adjudged the Best Film Critic for 2002. Assamese newspapers promptly put his picture on page one, because he is from As
Sexual harassment alleged at the Statesman
IN Media Practice | 2003-07-28
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IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-07-25
Star India says the Times of India and India Today carried reports on them but did not carry rejoinders from Star stating the correct position. So it took out full page advertisements in leading newspapers reproducing the unpublished letters. Now if
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-07-25
The embedded journalist experiment in the recent Iraq conflict has inspired Indian TV journalists. The Hindustan Times says two private TV channels have asked the Ministry of Defense whether they can accompany Indian armed forces headed towards the C
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-07-21
If you did not know just how basic a requirement television has become for Indian families, check out the census findings in the latestIndia Today cover story. In Uttar Pradesh 6.4 million homes have TV sets but only two million have toilets.
Who is afraid of conflict of interest?
IN Media Practice | 2003-07-21
It sometimes seems as if educated Indians grew up without any consciousness of conflict of interest being dinned into them at any stage.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-07-19
So Vivek Oberoi fractured his leg during a film shoot. Granted it was a starry leg. But on the second day of the story did it merit three pictures and a diagram of the bones involved on page one of the Hindustan Times?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-07-10
Walter Cronkite, who ruled the American airwaves some thirty years ago, has decided at the age of 86 to become a syndicated columnist because he feels it is a critical moment in the history of his country and the world, and he has to contribute his
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-07-10
Star News is getting favoured treatment from the Government. It applied for uplinking six days before the deadline, and the date was extended by a week. It has asked for a waiver of the one year pre- condition for Press Information Bureau accreditati
IN Media Practice | 2003-07-07
What came first, the Harry Potter series’ success or the hype that made them successful?
IN Media Practice | 2003-07-07
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IN Media Practice | 2003-07-02
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Iraq: press freedom faces huge obstacles
IN Media Practice | 2003-07-02
The Coalition Provisional Authority has issued a nine-point list of prohibited activities for the media.
Documentary films on environment and development
IN Community Media | 2003-06-30
The Tata Energy Research Institute has produced seven documentary films for the use of those working on environmental issues.
IN Media Practice | 2003-06-30
By publishing this one-source version, the Times put its stamp of legitimacy on stories that promoted the interests of the Bush administration.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-06-25
Journalist Saeed Naqviøs television company, Third Eye Communications, was commissioned by Doordarshan to air nightly round- ups under a slot called World View when the war on Iraq was imminent, for Rs 5 lakh per programme. As the war ended, interest
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-06-15
Recently both current and former spokespersons of the Ministry of External Affairs have got plenty of publicity, and no it has nothing to do with Indiaøs foreign policy. Former spokesperson Nirupama Rao, singing in a concert featured in Outlook on it
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-06-15
The cover story in Business World on the ouster of managing director Sunil Alagh from Britannia Industries Ltd. could not have been more sympathetic if he had written it himself. Though the charges against Alagh are very serious the story tries at ev
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-06-14
President Abdul Kalam has yet to get a bad press on any issue. But on his recent visit to Bihar he left a lot of journalists feeling very miffed. They were ferried to the function they were supposed to be covering, but not allowed inside. Not very go
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-06-14
On June 5 the Hindustan Times printed a list of allegedly dubious institutions around the world and included the name of La Trobe University in Australia, which has some faculty specialising in India. When one of the latter protested and asked for th
IN Media Practice | 2003-06-14
The entire report suggests that the world has come to a standstill because two of NYTøs editors have left.
Freebies for obliging hacks –but you had better oblige
IN Media Practice | 2003-06-14
An interviewee I once thought a possible friend was completely put off when I returned the lovely designer dupatta she couriered to me.
IN Media Practice | 2003-06-12
Many comments in this booklet, naturally, strongly criticise this trend. Some point out that the facts of the case arenøt exactly clear.
IN Regional Media | 2003-06-12
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IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-05-31
Why are more and more TV channels urging viewers to send them SMSs in response to contests or as feedback? To promote interactivity and increase viewership and involvement with the channel. But also because it is a revenue stream for the channel. Tel
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-05-31
The South Asia Tribune based in Washington says that the Government of Pakistan has blocked its website for Internet users in Pakistan with immediate effect. Most users are getting the following message when they click on the site: "Gateway Timeout".
IN Media Practice | 2003-05-30
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IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-05-30
Star India beats Doordarshan in its zeal for Hindi-ising its fare. On May 24 it carried a dubbed version of "Bollywood Calling" on Star Plus. By dubbing the movie in Hindi, the entire charm was robbed and it became a parody rather than a comic film,
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-05-30
When will Indian newspapers learn to declare their interest when they write on an issue that affects them? The Times of India in Delhi go on carrying stories on the success of Radio Mirchi without telling us that it belongs to the group which owns th
Letter to the Hoot: Appalled by weblog article
IN Opinion | 2003-05-30
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IN Media Practice | 2003-05-30
A proactive media can pressurize policy makers and educate the public on major health issues that affect people.
Letter to the Hoot: Donøt resort to character assassination
IN Opinion | 2003-05-30
If you are honest, put your team to investigate the charges which have been slapped on Moihuddin Bhatt.
Pangs of conscience at the New York Times
IN Media Practice | 2003-05-30
The newspaper eats humble pie as its star feature writer fakes it. But is this excessive mea culpa a cover for its slanted reporting on Iraq?
Weblogs: a library of live autobiographies
IN Digital Media | 2003-05-23
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Living with Information Imbalances
IN Media Practice | 2003-05-23
Excessive Information about north India is at the expense of the northeastpart of the country
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-05-23
Radio listening has never been more lucrative. In Delhi last week the radio station was giving away free petrol in a tie up with Hindustan Petroleum, and a free Maruti Alto to those who could guess how many mirchis (chillies) there were in a car crui
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-05-23
Moonlighting is apparently no longer to be considered a birthright by those who work for Doordarshan. A cameraman has been suspended for travelling abroad extensively on a personal passport on behalf of private TV channels, while his official passpor
The life and times of a seized scribe
IN Media Practice | 2003-05-23
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Who’s afraid of conditional access?
IN Law and Policy | 2003-05-17
A wacky view of India’s coming tryst with set top boxes, pay per view and much else.
Permitting truth as a defence in contempt
IN Law and Policy | 2003-05-17
The Indian government decides to amend the Contempt of Courts Act which has resulted in several contrary decisions in the past. Truth will be a defence if it is in the public interest, but again, the court will decide what constitutes public interest
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-05-15
In the recent dowry case widely reported in Delhi, when the police went to the house of the bridegroom they took an Aaj Tak cameraman along. On May 12 the channel showed the police rudely waking up the sleeping groom, pushing him around, showed him g
Trivializing Protest: How the media covers rallies
IN Media Practice | 2003-05-12
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IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-05-11
Headlines Today is promoting India Today, but they might stick to keeping the promos between news bulletins, not putting them on the news. The I T cover story on the states was read out as a news headline, just before it hit the stands. What the surv
International News Safety Institute established
IN Media Freedom | 2003-05-10
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Media in Bangladesh ---penalised for speaking out
IN Media Freedom | 2003-05-10
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Letter to the Hoot-Indian mediaøs bias in Iraq story
IN Opinion | 2003-05-05
The media in India, as also in most other countries, was dominated by the leftist, anti-American school of thought.
Judgement Day-War and Peace Vs Censorship
IN Law and Policy | 2003-05-05
The Bombay High Court gave its final verdict in the matter of the censorship of the film "War and Peace".
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-05-05
Indian dailies continue to focus on themselves. In one week the Hindustan Times and the Times of India ran front-page stories on their own circulation battle, the Delhi Age had a front page report with picture on the launch of editor M J Akbar’s boo
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-04-28
The Times group launched Radio Mirchi in Delhi this week. And if you read the Times of India in the preceding week you could not have missed the impending launch. Almost every day in the lead up to the event there were news items on the launch to co
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-04-28
Geeta Anand, a healthcare reporter for The Wall Street Journal, shared in a Pulitzer Prize for explanatory journalism this month for a series of stories about scandals in corporate America. Her beat is covering biotech companies.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-04-28
Yet another innovation from the Times of India. Having added a comment as part of every major news story, it has now replaced the second edit on the editorial page with a double feature called view/counterview which gives both sides of an issue whic
Top fifty power people in the Indian media
IN Opinion | 2003-04-28
In its second edition, the Sunday Mid Day Media 50 is a registry of the men and women who in their view rule the Indian print, electronic and interactive media.
Let us not make gender an issue
IN Media Practice | 2003-04-28
Excerpts from an online chat with Bachi Karkaria, resident editor, Delhi, Times of India.
Letter to the Hoot—R R Gopal and POTA
IN Opinion | 2003-04-28
The episode raises the critical question of the transgression of the journalistic role.
The media’s objectification of the youth
IN Media Practice | 2003-04-28
The disconnect is not between the urban youth and the realities of India but between the media and the youth.
Free media needed for a democratic Iraq
IN Media Freedom | 2003-04-23
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IN Opinion | 2003-04-21
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IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-04-21
Midday has come up with a list of the 50 most influential men and women in Indian media. The top five are listed as Samir Jain of Times of India, Aroon Purie of India Today and Aaj Tak, Arun Shourie and Ravi Shankar Prasad, Union Ministers, Rupert/Ja
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-04-21
An editorial in Hindi Hindustan ( April 18) described Mayawati as the Bahujan Samaj Party supremo. The title is usually used for the party head, Kanshi Ram. Mayawati is Vice President of the party, while being chief minister of Uttar Pradesh. Is ther
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-04-21
The Times of India discovered Easter this year. Its masthead on Easter morning was decked out in clusters of brightly coloured eggs. Inside it told us that there was more to Easter Sunday than eggs and bunnies, and proceeded to do an Easter for Dumm
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-04-21
It is one of Delhiøs worst kept secrets that the Hindustan Times Sunday magazine food columnist Grand Fromage is the paperøs editor, Vir Sanghvi. The Big Cheese went all out to promote the paperøs recently published food guide, HT Cityøs Guide to Eat
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-04-21
The Indian Express promoted its Power Golf tournament thus on April 19: a story on the back page of the main paper, a front page feature on golf as a stress buster in Express Newsline, with a strategically placed logo for the tournament in the middle
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-04-21
Talk of cross media perks. India Today does a 3 page story on the new news channels.(April 28, 2003). Nice large picture of the Headlines Today team, more than twice the size of pictures of other channels covered. Swipes at all the others, has a cou
IN Regional Media | 2003-04-16
Events leading to the march of the coalition soldiers into Baghdad clearly proved that Pentagon was deliberately targeting Arab media.
Arab vs. American Media: command and control?
IN Media Practice | 2003-04-14
Events leading to the march of the coalition soldiers into Baghdad clearly proved that Pentagon was deliberately targeting Arab media.
How the German media covered the Iraq war
IN Media Practice | 2003-04-14
Reporters from ZDF and ARD did their reporting independently from Baghdad, not repeating what their British and American colleagues said, and remaining sensitive to their own home-audience.
Gag the Press: Draconian Laws in Pakistan
IN Media Freedom | 2003-04-13
The Sword of Damocles hanging over journalists is prosecution under the Blasphemy Law and the Defamation Law.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-04-11
31 years after Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward broke the Watergate scandal in the Washington Post, they have sold their original Watergate papers to the University of Texas for 5 million dollars.The university will get 75 boxes stuffed with the raw m
Are journalists in Iraq being deliberately targeted?
IN Media Freedom | 2003-04-10
The bland assurances from the Pentagon and other coalition spokespeople are no longer enough to dismiss these suspicions.
Letter to the Hoot—Credibility of the BBC at stake
IN Media Practice | 2003-04-06
A thoroughly professional outfit like the BBC is at the crossroads. The use of the pronoun "our" while reporting the deeds of their soldiers is inappropriate.
IN Media Freedom | 2003-04-05
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Not the finest hour for American journalism
IN Media Practice | 2003-04-05
When the time came for American editors, reporters, studio anchors and producers to stand up to the establishment, their feet turned to clay.
Dainik Bhaskar and the Iraqi Shias
IN Media Practice | 2003-04-05
It was evidently fed biased data which it published by applying the questionable doctrine of good faith.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-04-05
On March 30 the Chandigarh Tribune carried the news of the death of a Mrs Aggarwal, mother of a senior advocate at the Punjab and Haryana High Court, under the byline of its news service. Does the paper offer similar free death notice services to les
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-04-05
The Times of India is still celebrating its switch to full colour. It carried an entire page of photographs and a celebratory report on a glitzy Delhi function on the last weekend of March. Its style is certainly unique: how many leading newspapers i
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-04-05
The Los Angeles Times sacked a photographer for electronically manipulating a war photograph from Iraq. He used his computer to combine elements of two photographs taken moments apart, which amounted to altering a photograph, which constitutes a viol
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-04-05
Sahara Samay, the new news channel in Uttar Pradesh has given Praveen Togadia yet another platform to spread communal poison. On April 2 it telecast live a press conference in which he brazenly owned up to the Babri Masjid demolition and the Gujarat
Key people in Indian new media
IN Digital Media | 2003-04-01
A general list of names of those who are active on the Internet. In alphabetical order of first names.
The Times of India: conscience keeper or FMCG?
IN Media Practice | 2003-04-01
What its competitors lost in market share was less costly than what they lost by giving the Times the perceived legitimacy for its actions.
IN Media Practice | 2003-04-01
The Internet that has continued to give the most graphic and immediate picture of the war. The widespread use of video on the Internet provided its own images.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-03-30
The Indian government has decided to appoint an independent body to do a survey for the purpose of deciding free to air pricing of cable channels, once conditional access comes into force in July. Cable operators are demanding Rs.180 per month agains
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-03-30
Aakrosh, or Cry of Anguish, a 20-minute, Hindi documentary on the communal violence that swept Gujarat in 2002, has been denied a certificate by India’s Central Board of Film Certification. Reasons cited: it depicts violence, reminds people about th
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-03-30
Several English and Hindi newspapers had banner headlines shortly after the invasion of Iraq began saying that Basra had been captured. Nothing like that happened for several days after the headlines. That’s what comes of relying on western news. age
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-03-30
Indian journalists in Kuwait are discovering that if you are not British, Canadian or American, you are at a serious disadvantage in getting access to war hotspots. They have to seek accreditation from the U.S diplomatic and military authorities, are
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-03-30
The US State Department has urged the Arab media to give America a fair hearing on the war in Iraq, reports UPI. Complaining that the reporting of the war in the Arab media has been unfair and inflammatory, a spokesman said that the Arab press was e
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-03-30
The Al Jazeera website, which carries pictures not just of American POWs and dead British soldiers, but also many dreadful pictures of the fate of bombed Iraqi citizens, has seen a sustained hacking campaign. Its hosting company has terminated its co
IN Media Practice | 2003-03-29
Donald Rumsfeld’s interview to the American network, CBS exemplified the extent to which some Western channels associated themselves with the whole military operation.
IN Media Practice | 2003-03-24
Clearly coverage of the war can be thrilling as long as it does not involve, quote unquote, the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
Shock and Awe: Operation Iraqi Freedom and the media
IN Media Practice | 2003-03-24
The BBC World Service television presentation of the war indicated political opinions beneath the veneer of objectivity.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-03-23
The Prime Minister of Pakistan has directed the Ministry of Information to ensure a transparent and merit-based advertising policy which gives due consideration to the needs of the regional newspapers and periodicals. He has directed strict complianc
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-03-23
In calendar year 2002 news channels in India accounted for 11.30 per cent of total revenue from TV advertising despite enjoying just two per cent viewership, according to consulting firm KPMG which presented a status report on the entertainment indus
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-03-23
CNN footage of the advance of the7th Cavalry into southern Iraq, broadcast around the world, was made possible by a standard videophone system connected to a specially developed tracking satellite phone antenna, mounted on the vehicle roof. This ante
Writing for the Web Part IV---Designing Web pages
IN Digital Media | 2003-03-23
We move from online writing to designing web pages in this part of the guide to online journalism
Arun Shourie on the media and public discourse
IN Media Practice | 2003-03-23
Balanced journalism as practiced today amounts to neutrality between the arsonist and the fire-fighter.
IN Media Practice | 2003-03-23
One journalist killed, two wounded and three others reported missing
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-03-20
On day one of the US assault there was already indication that the reporters embedded in the US army could end up being crashing, patriotic bores. Try Walter Rogers of CNN, attached to the 7th Calvary, who told us that the soldiers in his unit felt d
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-03-20
On the day the war on Iraq began Doordarshan scrapped its regular evening news bulletin, believe it or not, and showed cricket. The news was shifted to DD Metro. A World Cup semi-final fetches loads of advertising. News does not. Public service telev
Wanted: a South Asian perspective on Iraq
IN Media Practice | 2003-03-20
The story in its neighbourhood, literally a short/medium range missile away, will be told by the foreign media.
IN Media Practice | 2003-03-17
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IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-03-17
Did the Times of India and The Hindustan Times pay for their film critic and editor respectively to fly to Deauville to cover the conferring of honorary citizenship on Amitabh Bachchan? And if they did not, what happened to the convention of saying
IN Media Practice | 2003-03-17
Its the new girls club. In the macho world of cricket these bat babes stand out like the Yana Gupta item number in Dum.
IN Media Practice | 2003-03-17
It undressed the finance minister, brought in cricket and Kareena Kapoor, and drowned itself in unbelievable verbal excesses
The Press Council raps the Ministry of External Affairs
IN Media Practice | 2003-03-17
Between 1999 and 2001, one regional newspaper had been included seven times in the media team accompanying the prime minister abroad.
Expose corruption, flee for your life
IN Media Freedom | 2003-03-17
A Pakistani journalist hounded by the authorities, seeks asylum in Canada.
IN Media Practice | 2003-03-17
The US may have the will to see Saddam become history, but it may not have the way, suggested CNN.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-03-13
Rozana, the daily news programme on DD Metro produced by Anuradha Prasad, gave her husband Rajya Sabha MP Rajeev Shukla a good three to four minutes of publicity on March 12, while talking about a new hospital in Uttar Pradesh.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-03-13
The Times of India took the credit on March 18 for the Prime Minister’s categorical statement in Parliament on Iraq. It said it was good to know that he read their editorials and acted on them. The Economic Times meanwhile lamented on the same day t
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-03-13
The Jharkhand assembly admitted a privilege motion on March 12 against an editor in Prabhat Khabar, Baidyanath Mishra, for an article in which he called legislators dalals (fixers) and described them as corrupt.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-03-11
On March 10, Afghanistan officially planted its flag in cyberspace, gaining legal and technical control of the dot-af domain for Afghan websites and e-mail addresses. It marks a symbolic break with the recent past. The Taliban ruthlessly suppressed u
Hunger, malnutrition, and the media
IN Media Practice | 2003-03-10
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IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-03-10
Mr Jaswant Singh gave Doordarshan a harder time this year than any FM in past years. He kept them dangling on the timing of the first post budget interview which is by tradition a DD prerogative, and never did get around to attending the panel discu
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-03-10
The management top guns at the Times of India seem to be on a byline trip. First it was executive director Ravi Dhariwal defending their Medianet venture on the edit page, then you had Pradeep Guha, who holds a similar designation in Mumbai reporting
Computerized community radio operations in Sri Lanka
IN Community Media | 2003-03-10
Uva community radio is utilising the most modern low cost digital production solutions for community broadcasting.
IN Media Freedom | 2003-03-10
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IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-03-04
Aaj Tak is labouring under the impression that Indian cricketers need a cash incentive to play better. In its indefatigable pursuit of interactivity it has launched a jackpot scheme which invites the cricket crazy to send in money, a minimum of Rs 50
The Dainik Jagran flip flop on Raja Bhaiya
IN Regional Media | 2003-03-03
After painting a negative picture of Raja Udai Pratap Singh over the Vasantha issue, the newspaper slowly changed its version.
IN Media Practice | 2003-03-03
As war looms over Iraq, the new media is changing the role of media in conflict.
The Role of the Media in Peace Processes
IN Media Practice | 2003-03-03
News reports provide citizens with important clues about the political climate surrounding the peace process.
IN Media Practice | 2003-03-03
The fun did not end there. His television channel interviewed the journalist and wanted him to psychoanalyse Mr. Vajpayee.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-03-03
Reporters Sans Frontières has asked the Tamil Nadu state government to stop harassing the editorial staff of Nakkheeran, the Tamil publication with access to Veerappan. Chinna Kuththoosi, a popular Tamil-language editorial writer, was interrogated fo
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-03-03
Kerala Chief Minister A.K. Antony is threatening to go to the Press Council to complain about the way the media reported last weekøs police firing at tribals in the Muthanga forest in Wayanad. The state government said only one tribal had been killed
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-03-03
The Kashmir Observer has protested that the Jammu and Kashmir State government has stopped giving it advertising and has delayed payments for ads already carried. The editor and publisher is the son-in-law of an All Party Hurriyat Conference leader.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-03-03
Doordarshan has done an amazing deal with World Sports Nimbus which restricts the World Cup footage that can be shown to one minute per news bulletin. So no matter how much viewers want to see of cricket news when India beats Pakistan, all you get o
IN Regional Media | 2003-02-25
The genesis of Mayawati-media tussle lies in the caste and class ridden psyche of journalists in Uttar Pradesh.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-02-25
Span, the American magazine funded by the US government, has been coming out for 43 years. Only now it has felt the need to come up with Hindi and Urdu editions. Post September 11, the need to strengthen its public diplomacy among Indian Muslims has
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-02-25
A journalist from the Economic Times along with a former Sify employee is arrested for blackmail. In reporting it ET says the other guy was a former Business Standard employee. And the Hindustan Times report cannot resist gloating, given its bitter r
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-02-25
In the February 23 Sunday Express section called Eye, there is a large Lakme ad on page 8, featuring model Feroze Gujral. Above it is a profile of the same person, headlined Full of Fizz in which she shares her beauty secrets, with a passing mention
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-02-25
The state government of Rajasthan has instituted the Indira Priyadarshini Media Puraskar, an award for women journalists in the name of the only prime minister to impose press censorship.That is not the only problem with this award: there simply are
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-02-25
On Saturday one executive director of Bennett Coleman and Co. Ltd writes on the edit page, describing their efforts to sell news space as an integrated media solution. On Sunday another executive director writes the front page report on the Filmfare
IN Media Practice | 2003-02-25
Commerce is behind the media’s uncritical promotion of Valentine’s Day, but shouldn’t we be protesting?
Letter to the Hoot: Where will it stop?
IN Opinion | 2003-02-25
Does not selling of editorial space amount to a newspaper selling itself?
The times, they are a-changing
IN Media Practice | 2003-02-25
The gradual introduction of small doses of poison into the body of this profession began a long time ago
IN Digital Media | 2003-02-18
Part Three of an online tutorial on writing for the Web.
Book Review: Science in Indian Media
IN Media Practice | 2003-02-18
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Protest against expulsion of journalists from Iraq
IN Media Freedom | 2003-02-18
The expulsion of 69 foreign journalists constitutes a clear breach of the right to freedom of expression, which includes the right to seek information.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2003-02-18
Over one weekend both Business Standard and The Hindu carried articles on tourism aspects of Hong Kong. Possibly others did too. Neither article stated clearly and upfront whether the trip had been sponsored by the Hong Kong Tourism Board though they
Indian media: toeing the government line on Pakistan?
IN Media Practice | 2003-02-17
Barring rare exceptions, there is a complete resonance between the Pakistan policy of the government and that of the media.
Gujarat, Kargil, and the demonizing of the Other
IN Media Practice | 2003-02-17
The two events conflate a recently dominant rhetoric of long-suffering, tolerant Hinduism now striking back whether in war or in riot. This connection seems to be missing in media commentaries.
IN Media Practice | 2003-02-12
The previously hermetically sealed capsules separating advertising and editorial have become more and more porous.
The Telegraph and the All Manipur Students Union
IN Regional Media | 2003-02-10
A paper misreports, a students union declares it banned, then the paper apologises, but only selectively.
Ethnic bias in Sri Lanka’s mainstream media?
IN Media Practice | 2003-02-10
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Letter to the Hoot: Why is Jaya Jaitly’s article on the Hoot?
IN Opinion | 2003-02-03
What is Jaya Jaitlyøs article, from the Indian Express doing on TheHoot?
Media Focus: Much ado about a name
IN Regional Media | 2003-02-03
A Kannada serial changes its title after it created a storm, but its amazing content bothers nobody.
IN Digital Media | 2003-02-03
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Bangladesh—Saleem Samad freed at last
IN Media Freedom | 2003-01-27
Tortured, accused of sedition, a documentary filming team had to endure a nightmare that is finally over.
Gilani & Badal, same difference
IN Media Freedom | 2003-01-27
Attempts to equate the two would blur the distinction between right and wrong
Is there an online journalism in India?
IN Digital Media | 2003-01-26
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IN Digital Media | 2003-01-26
This guide to online journalism covers aspects of writing for the web and designing web pages.
IN Media Practice | 2003-01-21
The interview was a classic example of the triumph of headline hunting over quality; of bias over balance.
Codes on plagiarism from around the world
IN Media Practice | 2003-01-20
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IN Media Practice | 2003-01-15
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IN Media Freedom | 2003-01-14
The Kashmir Times journalist describes what the past seven months inside jail have been like.
Gilani walks free, Tehelka Badal gets bail
IN Media Freedom | 2003-01-14
The Supreme Court granted bail to Tehelka reporter Kumar Badal in a poaching case, and the chief metropolitan magistrate of Delhi allowed the Government to withdraw an official secrets case against Kashmir Times correspondent Syed Iftikar Gilani.
Letter to the Hoot: Not speaking up for Tehelka
IN Opinion | 2003-01-08
The lack of a country-wide agitiation by journalists and concerned citizens in support of the fundamental rights of freedom of expression is depressing.
IN Media Practice | 2003-01-08
For the first time a community in Delhi experienced the actual exposing of corruption and bad governance caused by government personnel and politicians.
Letter to the Hoot—Dalit empowerment?
IN Opinion | 2003-01-07
The print media did not distinguish between empowerment and abuse of office in Mayawati’s case.
Why are our writers and journalists still in prison?
IN Media Freedom | 2003-01-07
A Bangladesh journalist protests the crackdown on writers and scribes in that country.
IN Media Practice | 2003-01-06
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War reporting and truth-seeking missiles
IN Media Practice | 2003-01-06
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Iftikhar Gilani: No safeguards in the Official Secrets Act
IN Law and Policy | 2003-01-03
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Letter to The Hoot: What is Togadia doing on TV?
IN Opinion | 2002-12-30
What kicks do the broadcast journalists derive by helping men like Togadia reach out to people?
Media, democracy and citizenship: Need for an alternative paradigm
IN Media Practice | 2002-12-30
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IN Media Practice | 2002-12-30
All the natural disasters in Orissa have had immense media coverage. So why does so little change?
Government crackdown puts Bangladesh media on guard
IN Media Practice | 2002-12-26
In Bangladesh, both the national and international press now opting for discretion rather than valour.
IN Media Practice | 2002-12-24
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IN Media Practice | 2002-12-24
If the profile is about someone balding and on the wrong side of fifty is sent away to the bottom of the fourth page.
IN Media Practice | 2002-12-23
Readers, listeners or viewers of the media can do what the publishing, broadcasting, or telecasting companies cannot do by themselves.
Try merging the mission and the product
IN Media Practice | 2002-12-23
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Conditional Access—a Hoot update
IN Law and Policy | 2002-12-16
On December 10, 2002, the Rajya Sabha finally passed an amendment ushering in conditional accessibility in the Indian cable system. A briefing.
Media Focus: Investigating Godhra
IN Media Practice | 2002-12-16
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Gujarat: A media overkill that missed the story
IN Media Practice | 2002-12-16
The changing patterns of community thought and behaviour went unnoticed, misread or blanked out.
IN Media Freedom | 2002-12-11
The situation of press freedom one year after the fall of the Taliban, 13 November 2001 13 November 2002
Samad, others, remains imprisoned
IN Media Freedom | 2002-12-09
An RSF update on the arrested journalists in Bangladesh
The Lok Sabha passes a loophole ridden bill
IN Media Practice | 2002-12-09
The Freedom of Information Bill 2000 is passed after a debate during which members of parliament dwelt on its shortcomings, but passed it nevertheless.
Media Focus: Celebrating whistleblowers
IN Media Practice | 2002-12-03
They are whistleblowers within the media, bucking the demand that the Fourth Estate fall in line.
Letter to The Hoot--- rape cannot be a private issue
IN Opinion | 2002-12-02
What I find problematic is the suggestion to the media to treat the larger issue of rape itself as private one.
Right to information website for Maharashtra<
IN Media Practice | 2002-12-02
Right to information website for Maharashtra These web pages seek to arm civic and social activists with the basic information they need to have to start harnessing the Maharashtra Right to Information Act. Prakash Kardaley Thanks to the relentless crusade by social activists led by Mr Anna Hazare, citizens..
Book review: handy guide to online journalism
IN Digital Media | 2002-12-02
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Media Focus----Practice makes perfect
IN Opinion | 2002-12-02
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Strange encounter of the fake kind?
IN Media Practice | 2002-11-26
In case of the Diwali eve Ansal Plaza shootout some reporters found it tempting to accept the loophole ridden official version.
Media Focus—Salman and the Voice of Truth
IN Opinion | 2002-11-25
With trembling fingers, Salman opened the autobiography and started reading, despite the dim light….
Rare, medium or burnt to a crisp? (Or how many females are there really in India
IN Media Practice | 2002-11-25
All those doomsday reporters from the foreign press are looking in the wrong place. Check out the Ekta Kapoor serials in which there are at least two women for every man.
Reporting on women in Panchayati Raj
IN Media Practice | 2002-11-25
The Sarojini Naidu Prize encourages reporting on the emergence of women in the public sphere in India’s villages.
A Marathi newspaper builds a hospital at Siachen
IN Media Practice | 2002-11-18
Various individuals and institutions, from grampanchyats to industries, banks, and educational institutions came forward to donate for the fund.
Village women turn broadcasters for Mana Radio
IN Community Media | 2002-11-18
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How genuine is press freedom in Pakistan?
IN Media Freedom | 2002-11-18
"We are providing journalists with an alternative forum to get their stories out, if they are not printed in Pakistan."
Media Focus—A new column on the Hoot
IN Media Practice | 2002-11-11
National Geographic is an unlikely vehicle for damning journalism but this investigation is powerful and chilling.
Letter to the Hoot--not a wasted opportunity
IN Opinion | 2002-11-11
All India Radio’s contribution to rural development, family planning, the polio campaign, agriculture, education, art and culture cannot be under estimated.
Problem or solution, take your pick
IN Media Practice | 2002-11-11
You donøt make it to the News Bar with a story on how tourists are beginning to return to Nepal this season. No, it has to be a plane crash.
IN Media Practice | 2002-11-11
Outlook magazine’s cover story on what women want, with a picture of a nude woman holding an apple, left readers wondering whether it was aimed to give what men want instead of what its title claimed.
The dumbing down of Kannada special issues
IN Regional Media | 2002-11-11
Deepavali Visheshankas, would cover literature, culture, and the creative arts, but this Diwali Udayavaniøs special issue resembled a gift hamper.
All India Radio---75 years of wasted opportunity
IN Community Media | 2002-11-02
Between its early hijacking by government and its imminent hijacking by commercial interests can we still create a relevant public space on Indian radio?
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2002-11-02
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Malayalam TV serial makers soften feminism for the market
IN Media Practice | 2002-10-28
Malayalam TV serial makers soften feminism for the market Malayalam TV serial makers soften feminism for the market In Kerala womens’ worlds are made and unmade every day on TV channels as mutually contradictory messages on womanhood are aired. M P Basheer "Stree is dead; long live Stree!" is the new mantra of Malayalam TV channels...
Kashmir¿s traumatized children create their own media
IN Community Media | 2002-10-28
Kashmir¿s traumatized children create their own media Kashmir¿s traumatized children create their own media Malavika Karlekar It was the glimpse into the minds of those 7 to 14-year-olds that brought home the reality of what it means to be a child in a conflict zone. Commenting on the human need to daydream, Bruno Bettelheim, one the world’s..
Pakistani media watches Indian media
IN Opinion | 2002-10-28
Pakistani media watches Indian media Pakistani media watches Indian media From Statesman, (Peshawar, Pakistan), October 24, 2002 By Sultan Shahin The Statesman published from Peshawar criticizes the dumbing down of the Indian media. It¿s the circulation figures and the television rating points, not the news that counts in the Indian media nowadays. The result is a sea change..
South Asia ranks low on worldwide press freedom index
IN Media Freedom | 2002-10-28
found guilty of "insulting" public officials found guilty of "insulting" public officials. The murder in July 2001 year of journalist Parmenio Medina was an exception in the history of the Costa Rican media. India is ranked below several Latin American, African and Asian countries including Indonesia, South Korea, Taiwan and Sri Lanka. It recorded 2650 violations...
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2002-10-28
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IN Media Watch Briefs | 2002-10-28
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IN Media Watch Briefs | 2002-10-28
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IN Media Watch Briefs | 2002-10-28
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IN Media Watch Briefs | 2002-10-23
Aaj Tak Booming Aaj Tak Booming Aaj Tak¿s latest publicity mailer claims that it now reaches 22.7 million viewers across the country, the highest viewership any news channel has achieved. Source? Television Audience Measurement (TAM) figures. It also claims that its three Sunday programmes Duniya Ravivar, Khel Ravivar and Desh Ravivar get substantially more viewership..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2002-10-23
Urdu¿s mixed fortunes Urdu¿s mixed fortunes Recent statistics including those of the Registrar of Newspapers for India show that the number of Urdu publications rose in 2001 but its readership base declined because the number of people who read the language is falling. RNI also says the circulation of Urdu newspapers fell to 5.1 million..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2002-10-23
Gore scores Gore scores Exchange4media.com reports that gory news gets soaring viewership on the news channels. When Zee News covered live a military operation to flush out terrorists from a house in Srinagar on September 24, its live four hour telecast registered an unprecedented viewership of over 7 per cent televison viwership rating in Delhi. ..
Gore scores Exchange4media.com reports that gory news gets soaring viewership
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2002-10-23
Gore scores Gore scores Exchange4media.com reports that gory news gets soaring viewership on the news channels. When Zee News covered live a military operation to flush out terrorists from a house in Srinagar on September 24, its live four hour telecast registered an unprecedented viewership of over 7 per cent televison viwership rating in..
Misunderstanding first person reporting on rape
IN Opinion | 2002-10-21
Misunderstanding first person reporting on rape Misunderstanding first person reporting on rape Letter to The Hoot: It is all too simple to throw a stone at Ambarish Mishra, but unfortunately Bombay is one big glass house. Throwing Stones Dear Editor, I appreciate the good work of "The Hoot", but I am astonished by Rahul Goswami¿s nine-page diatribe..
Jaya TV and Sun TV battle over Cauvery
IN Media Practice | 2002-10-21
Jaya TV and Sun TV battle over Cauvery Jaya TV and Sun TV battle over Cauvery The entire agitation has once again brought to light how news reporting is carried out by the leading channels in Tamil Nadu. Rema Nilakantan In a free society, ideological differences between people or groups of people are par for the..
Murder and kidnapping in Manipur
IN Media Freedom | 2002-10-21
Murder and kidnapping in Manipur Murder and kidnapping in Manipur His murder came five days after the kidnap of two correspondents in Imphal for the daily paper The Hindu and the monthly Eastern Panorama respectively. The Hoot Desk Things have been grim for some years now for journalists in Manipur but their plight escapes national attention most of..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2002-10-14
Subcontinental prizewinner Subcontinental prizewinner A young Indian woman with less than three years in journalism has just won a best reporter prize for the second year running in New York state. S Mitra Kalita who is Newsday¿s business reporter got a Newswoman¿s Club of New York award last year, and a Mike Hendricks Young Journalist of the Year..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2002-10-14
Amitabh effusion Amitabh effusion Amitabh Bachchan¿s sixtieth birthday became a media event that developed a momentum of its own. It was a celebration and critical judgement was totally absent. India Today¿s interview with the great man attempted to raise questions about his personal and business dealings which no-one else was asking. The..
Monitoring PTV in run up to Pakistan elections
IN Media Practice | 2002-10-11
During the fortnight there were two episodes of the News Night that focused purely on politics During the fortnight there were two episodes of the News Night that focused purely on politics. On September 2nd, Federal law minister, Khalid Ranjha (eight minutes forty-one seconds), PPP’s Syed Iqbal Haider (five minutes and six seconds) and Tehrik-I-Insaf’s..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2002-10-07
Blonde fiction Blonde fiction From CBS, ABC, CNN and the New York Post to the British tabloids, everybody delivered the sad news: Blondes are dying out. It was attributed to a WHO study but the organisation had done no such study. It was such a good story that nobody had bothered to check, while picking..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2002-10-07
Cops and media Why don¿t the Delhi police just invite the press in to watch their grilling of R K Sharma? First newspapers tell you exactly what their strategy will be to break him psychologically. Amazing that the police want to..
Letter to the Hoot--more on first person reporting on rape
IN Opinion | 2002-10-07
Letter to the Hoot--more on first person reporting on rape Letter to the Hoot--more on first person reporting on rape I believe its the style in which Mishra wrote that made all the difference. News story or short story? When I first read Ambarish Mishra¿s article in your site, I was digusted. I felt numb and couldnt react for..
IN Media Practice | 2002-10-07
Spare us, Sony Spare us, Sony Did the channel have to make the sportscaster repeat the ad slogans? And the dumbing down of cricket in evidence during its telecast of the Champions Trophy tournament matches makes one shudder at what Sony might have in store for us for the World Cup. Abhimanyu Radhakrishnan The recently concluded Champions Trophy Cricket..
Malayalam magazines drive women into purdah
IN Media Practice | 2002-10-03
Madhyamam alone, which has emerged the third largest newspaper in the state with six editions including one from the Gulf, org Madhyamam alone, which has emerged the third largest newspaper in the state with six editions including one from the Gulf, organized two debates on the promotion of purdah, and published more than 50..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2002-10-03
Unsung winner Unsung winner When the International Policy Network (IPN), headquartered at London announced the first winners of its Frédéric Bastiat Prize for Journalism, it was surprised to find that the fact of an Indian journalist sharing..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2002-10-03
Short-lived boycott Short-lived boycott A gossip item on the South Asia Tribune website says that a senior Pakistani journalist in Washington DC was told by a Pakistan Embassy diplomat to "get lost". He rallied other colleagues and they decided to boycott the Embassy and the new ambassador.But the latter took the advice of his predecessor..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2002-10-03
Marxist manhandling Marxist manhandling According to an editorial in the Hindustan Times the Marxist government in West Bengal is displaying frequent signs of paranoiia about the press. Towards the end of September members of the CPI(M)-backed coordination committee manhandled reporters when they went to the secretariat to cover the impact of an half..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2002-10-03
Falling reach Falling reach The latest Indian readership survey (1RS 2002) has not only triggered a war of claims between the Time of India and the Hindustan Times, it has also revealed a stagnation in the reach of the leading satellite TV entertainment channel. It says Star¿s reach is stagnating at 54million, the same as..
Letter to Hoot ¿First person reporting on rape¿
IN Opinion | 2002-09-30
Letter to Hoot ¿First person reporting on rape¿ Letter to Hoot ¿First person reporting on rape¿ Criticising TOI¿s Mishra <synopsis>This is in reference to ¿First person reporting on rape¿. </synopsis> While the objections raised here are indeed very valid, I think we have a lot to thank Mishra and the TOI for. Firstly, it is easy..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2002-09-23
Insensitivity pays Insensitivity pays Kathai alla nijam, the reality show on Vijay TV has been roundly criticised for insensitive and exploitative handling of child abuse and other domestic traumas. But viewers have been lapping it up. Not only does it receive somewhere near 20,000 calls per week, it also helped Vijay TV substantially increase its channel share vis-a-vis its rival..
IN Regional Media | 2002-09-23
Unused quotas and unspent funds constitute a criminal waste of educational opportunity for the most disadvantaged Unused quotas and unspent funds constitute a criminal waste of educational opportunity for the most disadvantaged. This is a critical right to information issue. Does the media do enough? The importance of right to information in education By Sandy Feinzig and Swasti..
The importance of right to information in education
IN Media Practice | 2002-09-23
Unused quotas and unspent funds constitute a criminal waste of educational opportunity for the most disadvantaged Unused quotas and unspent funds constitute a criminal waste of educational opportunity for the most disadvantaged. This is a critical right to information issue. Does the media do enough? The importance of right to information in education By Sandy Feinzig and Swasti..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2002-09-23
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IN Media Watch Briefs | 2002-09-23
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IN Opinion | 2002-09-23
Misusing the term ¿elitist¿ May I enter a protest at the use of the world `elitist¿ as a synonym for unfeeling/arrogant/bad, both by the website and by contributors? Misusing the term ¿elitist¿ May I enter a protest at the use of the world `elitist¿ as a synonym for unfeeling/arrogant/bad, both by the website and by contributors? As..
First person reporting on rape
IN Media Practice | 2002-09-23
Analyzing the Times of India story of the rape of a young girl on a suburban train, witnessed by its reporter Analyzing the Times of India story of the rape of a young girl on a suburban train, witnessed by its reporter. First person reporting on rape This report attempts to analyze the controversial press coverage..
Reposting A Libellous Message Is O.K. In Cyberspace, Says U S Judge
IN Digital Media | 2002-09-21
(Adapted from an article in the Cyber Law Journal by Carl S Kaplan) (Adapted from an article in the Cyber Law Journal by Carl S Kaplan) Reposting A Libellous Message Is O.K. In Cyberspace, Says U S Judge A trial court judge in California has interpreted a U.S. law to mean that a person who re-posts..
IN Opinion | 2002-09-16
More on the elitist mindset More on the elitist mindset This letter is to add to the most recent letter to The Hoot on elitist mindset. Elitism and forgetfulness This letter is to add to the most recent letter to The Hoot on elitist mindset. Let us add all the editorials and columns on "remembering Sept.11th" from..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2002-09-16
Pesky Indiatimes Pesky Indiatimes There is only one way of keeping the Indiatimes online shopping-mailing list out of your life ----pray that you never become one of its recipients in the first place.One day you might find your Inbox full of entreaties to buy a "Sex on the beach bottle opener" or a 15s¿ pack of..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2002-09-16
Celebration Time Celebration Time Just a week ago the top half of the front page of the Economic Times and an entire inside page was given over to fulsome reporting on the E T Awards for Corporate Excellence. Now apparently Delhi Times has completed eight years of existence so it naturally turned over its entire edition into a celebration..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2002-09-16
Stepmotherly treatment Stepmotherly treatment How does Doordarshan figure in priority with the government of India, vis-a-vis private channels? You could try guessing from the fact that at Doordarshan¿s anniversary function Sushma Swaraj, minister for Information and Broadcasting, made her speech and left the function saying she had to appear on a panel discussion on the eve of..
IN Opinion | 2002-09-16
Carrots for the loyal boys Carrots for the loyal boys Political leaders today tend to club the media into two categories: those who are with them, and those who are against. Reprinted from the Indian Express, September 16, 2002 CARROTS FOR THE LOYAL BOYS Coomi Kapoor Some time ago, I attended a seminar at the Press Club in the..
IN Media Practice | 2002-09-16
such an association of maulvis and madrasahs was there, we would have known it such an association of maulvis and madrasahs was there, we would have known it. It does not exist here." Mufti Siraj Ahmed, President, Rabeta Madaris-e-Arabiya, Manipur (affiliated to Darul Uloom Deoband) echoes the same observation, adding that neither the curiosity called AMMMA..
IN Opinion | 2002-09-16
camera has hardly been there to record the horror of a land torn apart, the issues have not been focused on enough, Rai added camera has hardly been there to record the horror of a land torn apart, the issues have not been focused on enough, Rai added. Not one to let Dasgupta have..
Linking A Diverse Country: Mailing Lists In India
IN Digital Media | 2002-09-15
Linking A Diverse Country: Mailing Lists In India Linking A Diverse Country: Mailing Lists In India By Frederick Noronha They¿re less glamourous than web-sites, at first glance don¿t seem as obviously useful as e-mail, and definitely not as luring as chat. Yet, the simple but priceless tool of mailing-lists, which comes from an earlier Internet era, has..
IN Digital Media | 2002-09-14
This article appeared in the Nepali Times This article appeared in the Nepali Times http://www.nepalnews.com.np/ntimes/august31-6-2001/computers.htm The palung story A computer and a radio tower in Makwanpur in Nepal get young people talking and planning—for their future, and that of their village. by Gaurab Raj Upadhaya PALUNG, Makwanpur - IT this, IT that. It is even in the UNDP’s latest..
Charkha: giving grassroots activism a voice
IN Media Practice | 2002-09-14
Charkha: giving grassroots activism a voice Charkha: giving grassroots activism a voice By Tarun Bose Those who work at the grassroots in India often wish they could make the issues that affect its majority more visible in the media. Charkha Development Communication Network was conceived and established on the 24th of October 1994 by Sanjoy Ghose,..
The public service broadcasting trust
IN Media Practice | 2002-09-14
The public service broadcasting trust The public service broadcasting trust Rajiv Mehrotra, Managing Trustee PSBT was born out of a felt need to create a new, sensitive, empowering and independent voice in the non-print media - a voice that was not driven by merely commercial imperatives, or of the emerging monopolies and nexus between big business,..
IN Media Practice | 2002-09-13
Take Our Media Ehtics Quiz Take Our Media Ehtics Quiz ..
"The press in nepal is not otherwise muzzled"
IN Media Practice | 2002-09-13
later, they mainly concentrated on descriptive news later, they mainly concentrated on descriptive news. In fact it was the much-maligned weekly tabloids that lived up to some level of journalistic principle. The local FM radio stations and the national state-owned Radio Nepal fed the public with an overdose of mournful shenai music all of this..
A magazine for the world of computer gaming
IN Digital Media | 2002-09-11
A magazine for the world of computer gaming A magazine for the world of computer gaming by Frederick Noronha Computer Gaming World focuses on computer-based electronic games, arcade games, console games and online games. Its main market is still the major metros, where there is wider acceptance of new technology and new lifestyles shaped by the Internet. Its..
IN Digital Media | 2002-09-11
(Adapted from an article in Online Journalism Review by J (Adapted from an article in Online Journalism Review by J.D. Lasica) Cyberspaces First Ombudsman The most popular news site in the world is apparently MSNBC. And it has now become the first of its genre of sites to appoint an ombudsman. According to its editor in..
Forensic examination a must in the digital age
IN Digital Media | 2002-09-11
(Reprinted with permission from the Indian Express, January 14, 2001) (Reprinted with permission from the Indian Express, January 14, 2001) Forensic examination a must in the digital age By Jaya Jaitly For the first time in India an inquiry commission has been set up based on material provided by videotapes. These have been made by so-called investigative..
Now a handy guide to using the internet in india
IN Digital Media | 2002-09-11
Now a handy guide to using the internet in india Now a handy guide to using the internet in india Book Review The Penguin Guide to Using the Internet in India Pratik Kanjilal Penguin Books Pp 289, Rs 195 The Internet movement in India started simply enough: a bulletin board service called Fidonet that provided basic e-mail and file transfer..
IN Opinion | 2002-09-10
Letters to the Hoot Letters to the Hoot flippancy in reporting ET awards in the Times of India, and lampooning Laloo on TV suggests an elitist mindset ET Awards For Corporate Excellence A Times of India report on the awards function made a racy read. But if I were an award winner, I would not care to preserve..
Marathi Media On Marathi Vs. English Language
IN Regional Media | 2002-09-10
Marathi Media On Marathi Vs Marathi Media On Marathi Vs. English Language By Prabhakar Kulkarni The 75th Marathi Literary meet held recently at Pune in western Maharashtra has focussed on a controversy regarding the very survival of the Marathi Language and literature as against the aggressive influence of the English Language. The state government¿s decision to let..
Jharkhand¿s oppressed dalits and the media
IN Regional Media | 2002-09-09
Jharkhand¿s oppressed dalits and the media Jharkhand¿s oppressed dalits and the media By Ramdev Bandhu For hundreds of years the dalits have been living with adivasis in Jharkhand. Many dalit castes are offshoots of original adivasi castes. In many ways the dalits of this region are more exploited, disgraced and condemned than the adivasis. But..
Media thrives in Chattisgarh-or does it?
IN Regional Media | 2002-09-09
Media thrives in Chattisgarh-or does it Media thrives in Chattisgarh-or does it? By Sevanti Ninan This month Jansatta, the feisty Hindi newspaper of the Indian Express group makes its debut in Raipur, the capital of Chattisgarh. That makes it the third newspaper to begin publishing here after this state was formed, and the second national..
Covering Land Alienation In Jharkhand
IN Regional Media | 2002-09-09
on Bhuinyaari Khoonthkatti land on Bhuinyaari Khoonthkatti land. Opposition group then visited the Aarogya Bhawan and gathered information about the case. When the Adivasi Students Association raise the issue of returning the land some opposition leaders issue statements in their support. But after that nothing much has happened. Once or twice editorials have been written..
Workshop on covering communal conflict
IN Media Practice | 2002-09-09
Workshop on covering communal conflict Workshop on covering communal conflict Bangalore, June 2002---A Report Jyoti Punwani In what seems to be growing into a trademark of workshops organized by the Network of Women in Media, the Bangalore workshop on `Covering Communal Conflict: Lessons from Gujarat 2002¿ left one with no time to breathe. At the end of..
Jailed Myanmar journalist wins world press freedom prize
IN Media Freedom | 2002-09-09
Jailed Myanmar journalist wins world press freedom prize Jailed Myanmar journalist wins world press freedom prize New Delhi, March 13 - The 2001 UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize was awarded to U Win Tin by UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura. The award was given on the recommendation of an international jury of 16 media professionals. U Win..
Film roles that pave the way for politics
IN Media Practice | 2002-09-09
Film roles that pave the way for politics Rema Nilakantan Tamil cinema produces a rash of movies where the male lead is a roughneck who cares about the poor. Such roles are a stepping stone for a career in politics. There are no two opinions about the fact that cinema has a cult following..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2002-09-09
Pesky Indiatimes Pesky Indiatimes There is only one way of keeping the Indiatimes online shopping-mailing list out of your life ----pray that you never become one of its recipients in the first place. One day you might find your Inbox full of entreaties to buy a "Sex on the beach bottle opener" or a 15s¿ pack of..
New press laws in Pakistan look scary
IN Media Practice | 2002-09-09
Editorial in The Daily Times, Lahore, 4 September 2002 Editorial in The Daily Times, Lahore, 4 September 2002 New Press Laws In Pakistan Look Scary The federal government has suddenly showered..
The US media in torment after 11 September
IN Media Freedom | 2002-09-08
· The cases outlined of corporate censorship, such as the sackings of the two journalists for comments considered outrageous, could lead to self-censorship and an absence of criticism in the press. The setting up..
Assessing The Role Of Television In The General Election 1998.
IN Books | 2002-09-08
the ads were good (120 respondents, 43% of the sample), while some people(78 respondents, 28% of the sample) rated the ads as the ads were good (120 respondents, 43% of the sample), while some people(78 respondents, 28% of the sample) rated the ads as excellent. This corroborates the finding that a large part..
The Media and Kargil Indian Institute of Mass Communications, 1999
IN Books | 2002-09-08
The Media and Kargil Indian Institute of Mass Communications, 1999 The Media and Kargil Indian Institute of Mass Communications, 1999 Information War Media A Victim Or A Tool? It is generally believed that truth is the first casualty of war. War exposes most starkly the gap between the rhetoric and reality that exists at the heart..
Kashmir, Human Rights And The Indian Press
IN Books | 2002-09-08
TABLE- II TABLE- II A comparative quantitative analysis of the official sources of news reports on Kashmir (1 December 1991-29 February 1992) Official Sources December January February ..
IN Opinion | 2002-09-07
Investigative Journalism Investigative Journalism These four articles appeared in the Pioneer in the section Foray on June 10, 2001 WITHOUT YOUR OWN RESEARCH NO TIP-OFF IS WORTH IT Vinod Mehta Investigative journalism has a nice, grand ring. Its practitioners in any newspaper or magazine office assume special airs and demand special treatment.Their output is seldom questioned since they..
IN Opinion | 2002-09-07
Media News BriefsMedia Briefs Media News BriefsMedia Briefs Worship in the Golden Temple to be telecast live worldwide By Satinder Bains, Indo-Asian News Service Chandigarh, Nov 5 (IANS) Sikhs in many countries will be able to watch live devotional services in the Golden Temple in the northern Indian city of Amritsar from November 14, thanks to Punjabi..
IN Law and Policy | 2002-09-07
FDI in News Agencies FDI in News Agencies Dasu Krishnamoorty In permitting 26 per cent FDI in print media the government has excluded news agencies, which will continue to be 100 per cent Indian owned. Our news agencies, PTI and UNI, and their language divisions, have managed to escape the notice of the pro-FDI lobby, but their turn..
Documentation On Contempt Issue
IN Law and Policy | 2002-09-07
an exhortation "get ready for the party" This indicates that the original caption was intended to convey that the article in q an exhortation "get ready for the party" This indicates that the original caption was intended to convey that the article in questionis a judgment on our integrity. This is amply proved from..
Covering Food Insecurity In Jharkhand
IN Regional Media | 2002-09-07
Covering Food Insecurity In Jharkhand Covering Food Insecurity In Jharkhand By Sudhir Pal Jharkhand, the 28th state of India is rich in all respects. Abundance of minerals. wide range of bio-diversities, water resources, fertile land, mountain valley all makes the Jharkhand most promising and potential state of nation. But this is only one side of..
IN Regional Media | 2002-09-07
Village reporters in Palamau Village reporters in Palamau For the first time, villagers from this area are participating in a community initiative and are getting to hear their own voices on the radio. VILLAGE REPORTERS IN PALAMAU By Nandita Roy Her face covered top down till her chin with the..
Reporting Gujarat:selective contextualisation and editorial amnesia
IN Media Practice | 2002-09-05
Reporting Gujarat: selective contextualisation and editorial amnesia Reporting Gujarat: selective contextualisation and editorial amnesia The media tore the whole turmoil out of its context and, as Johann Galtung says, focussed on the irrational without looking at the reasons for the unresolved conflicts and polarization. By Dasu Krishnamoorty The texts of journalists sizzled like the fires of conflict in Gujarat, unloading..
IN Media Practice | 2002-09-05
programmes were to come from Chennai on the 1st of April, three years later programmes were to come from Chennai on the 1st of April, three years later. To the average Chennaivasi AIR has been an old and voluble friend. From the chap who irons clothes in our street corner to my grandfather whose fondness..
IN Media Practice | 2002-09-03
In The Wake Of Shivani</headline> In The Wake Of Shivani</headline> <synopsis>The notoriety attending this high-profile case can have negative repercussions for Indian women in journalism: it strengthen the arguments of both conservative families and conservative media managements against women doing political reporting. </synopsis>Ammu Joseph As Shivani Bhatnagar continues to make news in a manner not anticipated by the..
"The Press In Nepal Is Not Otherwise Muzzled"
IN Media Practice | 2002-09-03
"The Kantipur incident seems to be an aberration, the result of unusual times when judgements of those in power go awry. Certainly, the mainstream press does not feel the heavy hand of government otherwise" says the much-interviewed editor of Himal, Kanak Mani Dixit, from Kathmandu. "The Press In Nepal Is Not Otherwise Muzzled" The massacre of the..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2002-09-03
Air borne reporting Air borne reporting IANS reports that the state government is arranging helicopters for reporters to cover the coming polls in Jammu and Kashmir. That way they will be able to have a full view of the election process, the government thinks. Some polling stations are at the elevation of 10,000 feet and beyond, others are..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2002-09-03
All are culpable All are culpable The Supreme Court of India has held that the Resident Editor, the Managing Editor and the Chief Editor are equally responsible as the ``Editor" of a newspaper or magazine for publication of any libellous material and they could be prosecuted for defamation whether or not their name are printed on..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2002-09-03
All are culpable All are culpable The Supreme Court of India has held that the Resident Editor, the Managing Editor and the Chief Editor are equally responsible as the ``Editor" of a newspaper or magazine for publication of any libellous material and they could be..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2002-09-03
..
IN Media Practice | 2002-09-03
Redefining What Makes News Redefining What Makes News Dasu Krishnamoorty A drought, worst since 1987, hit 321 of 593 districts in the country. Has any editor toured at least a part of this parched earth? Why should they? There is no conflict there. We read news in newspapers every day, watch it on the TV and..
IN Media Freedom | 2002-09-02
REPRESSION IN BANGLADESH REPRESSION IN BANGLADESH The Hoot Desk Things are not hunky dory for the press in Bangladesh. On the 29th of August the private TV channel Ekushey Television went off the air after it lost a court battle to retain its broadcast license. The Supreme Court rejected its appeal against a high court ruling cancelling its..
IN Media Practice | 2002-09-02
A MEDIA-INSTIGATED RIOT A MEDIA-INSTIGATED RIOT? The Hoot extracts two articles from Himal · The Paradox of the Nepali Mindset · The Press and Mr. Roshan¿s Non-Remark The Press and Mr. Roshan¿s Non-R by Shanuj VC There are no gatekeepers anymore... Things are no longer vetted by the press. They¿re vetted by the public. ...........................- Tom Rosenstiel, director, Project for Excellence in Journalism,..
MOURNING, AND THE MEDIA¿S BIAS
IN Media Practice | 2002-09-02
MOURNING, AND THE MEDIA¿S BIAS MOURNING, AND THE MEDIA¿S BIAS By Meena Kandasamy Recently, Chandra Bhan Prasad wrote an excellent article pointing out the absence of dalit journalists. He lamented that from a population of over 205 dalits there was not a single dalit with an accreditation card in the mainstream media. He vehemently emphasized that "the..
In an Indian catastrophe, only the Indian news channels deliver Indian news chan
IN Media Practice | 2002-09-02
In an Indian catastrophe, only the Indian news channels deliver Indian news channels In an Indian catastrophe, only the Indian news channels deliver Indian news channels captured live the terror in parliament, international news channels were busy with Usama. Live TV unmasks face of terror for Indian millions..
What They Don¿t Tell You on CNN
IN Media Practice | 2002-09-02
What They Don¿t Tell You on CNN What They Don¿t Tell You on CNN By S Raghotham Four instances of what CNN and Fox News told you after the World Trade Centre attacks, and what they did not tell you. Mainstream TV News, versus the truth, reported elsewhere. Ever since Sept 11, US television..
"Don¿t Justify Extremism" : Naidu
IN Media Practice | 2002-09-02
"Don¿t Justify Extremism" : Naidu "Don¿t Justify Extremism" : Naidu By Mohammed Shafeeq Indo-Asian News Service Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu has called for media support for his government¿s efforts to end Maoist extremism, saying violence cannot be justified in the name of any cause. Unhappy with journalists for projecting the extremist movement as a "socio-economic" issue, Naidu..
International journalists prepare to leave Pakistan
IN Media Practice | 2002-09-02
International journalists prepare to leave Pakistan International journalists prepare to leave Pakistan by Muhammad Najeeb, Indo-Asian News Service Islamabad, Sep 29 (IANS) Most international journalists who came to Pakistan in the hope of covering the U.S. retaliatory strike on Osama bid Laden¿s bases in Afghanistan are preparing to pack their bags and leave, as they feel nothing was..
The CNN footage posting and CNN¿s reply
IN Media Practice | 2002-09-02
The CNN footage posting and CNN¿s reply The CNN footage posting and CNN¿s reply CNN USING 1991 FOOTAGE of celebrating Palistinians to manipulate you (english) by Marcio 10:32pm Wed Sep 12 ¿01 I¿d like to add some ideas from here, down south The posting The ..
Newspaper readership up, magazine reading down in India
IN Media Practice | 2002-09-02
Newspaper readership up, magazine reading down in India Newspaper readership up, magazine reading down in India The National Readership Study (NRS) 2002, released on June 17, 2002 by the National Readership Studies Council (NRSC) mapping media trends in India, has revealed that while the readership of print media has grown by 10 per cent..
Prabhat Khabar : Expanding in Reach and Relevance
IN Media Practice | 2002-09-02
Prabhat Khabar : Expanding in Reach and Relevance Prabhat Khabar : Expanding in Reach and Relevance By Sevanti Ninan The Indian newspaper which broke the story of the fodder scam in Bihar eight years ago now has a new role as the voice of the state of Jharkhand. And it focuses squarely on issues which..
IN Media Practice | 2002-09-02
Editors¿ Choice Editors¿ Choice? So is United Airlines a lousy airline which loses your baggage and treats Indian passengers shabbily? Or it is a world class airline that gives very special treatment to those in a position to write about it? United Off to a Flying Start Hindustan Times 27..
Steering a family-owned Indian newspaper
IN Media Practice | 2002-09-01
Line (BL) Line (BL). At that time The Economic Times (ET) was the big competitor and they started a price war. We realised in the post-liberalisation era interest in business and economy news was on the rise. This decision has paid off and BL is growing steadily. Meanwhile, The Times of India (TOI) unleashed a..
Women back in Bollywood¿s scheme of things
IN Media Practice | 2002-09-01
Women back in Bollywood¿s scheme of things Women back in Bollywood¿s scheme of things by Subhash K. Jha, Indo-Asian News Service Mumbai, Nov 2 (IANS) Indian film "Asoka" stars actor-producer Shah Rukh Khan, but female lead Kareena Kapoor, who has been given equal footage in the movie, steals the limelight. Here¿s a marquee queen and probably the..
Mani Ratnam¿s Problematic Take On Adoption
IN Media Practice | 2002-09-01
hundreds of other Amudhas) and her biological child - with whom she has no wish to maintain contact, much less be reunited hundreds of other Amudhas) and her biological child - with whom she has no wish to maintain contact, much less be reunited. We leave the family there, ostensibly on their way home,..
"Don¿t Justify Extremism": Naidu
IN Media Practice | 2002-09-01
"Don¿t Justify Extremism": Naidu "Don¿t Justify Extremism": Naidu By Mohammed Shafeeq Indo-Asian News Service Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu has called for media support for his government¿s efforts to end Maoist extremism, saying violence cannot be justified in the name of any cause. Unhappy with journalists for projecting the extremist movement as a "socio-economic" issue, Naidu asked..
IN Media Practice | 2002-09-01
FDI in print ¾¾ ho hum FDI in print ¾¾ ho hum By TCA Srinivasa-Raghavan Who the hell cares? For the last ten years of economic reform, one topic has excited a great deal of excitement and concern - foreign direct investment (FDI). Sometimes, the amounts of concern and excitement expressed have been in inverse..
The Role Of The Media In The ¿War Against Terrorism¿
IN Media Practice | 2002-09-01
Third World Network Features Third World Network Features This article first appeared in Action (No. 239, November 2001), published by the World Association for Christian Communication (WACC). The Role Of The Media In The ¿War Against Terrorism¿ By John Pilger Some Western media corporations seem to have abandoned the ¿impartial style¿ in their news presentation,..
IN Media Practice | 2002-09-01
Author: PTI Or Powell Author: PTI Or Powell? A (Curious Mix Of A) Little of What Was Said, And All That Wasn¿t Part 1 By S Raghotham American Secretary of State Colin Powell testified before the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations on February 5 making his pitch for his department¿s 2002-03 budget. A PTI..
An Unseen World: How the Media Portrays the Poor
IN Media Practice | 2002-09-01
From Web World, UNESCO From Web World, UNESCO http://www.unesco.org/webworld/news/2001/011127_philo.shtml An Unseen World: How the Media Portrays the Poor By Greg Philo For over 30 years, numerous academic studies of how news flows between the developing and the developed world have reached the same conclusion: far from being two-way, news circulates in a deeply uneven and distorted manner...
IN Media Practice | 2002-09-01
Dhirubhai And The Media Dhirubhai And The Media Sevanti Ninan Cast your mind back: which Indian in recent memory has so overwhelmed the media with his death? What was the last time that both the hospitalization, and the subsequent death of an individual received live TV coverage, not just his funeral? It is..
Rural Cops In India Watch TV To Improve Their Skills
IN Media Practice | 2002-09-01
Rural Cops In India Watch TV To Improve Their Skills Rural Cops In India Watch TV To Improve Their Skills Hoot Editorial Team A police officer in Vadodara arranges for his men to watch the Discovery Channel¿s Medical Detectives while they are on duty. He thinks it amounts to informal training that will improve their knowledge of forensic..
Pakistan¿s media finds its wings clipped in the new millennium
IN Media Freedom | 2002-09-01
Pakistan¿s media finds its wings clipped in the new millennium Pakistan¿s media finds its wings clipped in the new millennium Press Freedom in Pakistan (May 2001- May 2002) By Mohammad Shehzad Green Press Pakistan has released its latest report on press freedom in Pakistan. It has logged almost every assault wreaked on the freedom of expression at national,..
Bangla journalist arrested under special powers act.
IN Media Freedom | 2002-09-01
From The News, Pakistan, 9 November 2001 From The News, Pakistan, 9 November 2001 http://www.jang-group.com/thenews/index.html Bangla journalist arrested under special powers act. Press Release In a letter addressed to the Home Minister, Altaf Hossain Chowdhury, Reporters Without Borders (RSF Reporters sans Frontières) asks for the immediate release of journalist Shaharier Kabir, detained for "possessing inflammatory information which can jeopardise..
How many journalists were actually killed in 2001?
IN Media Freedom | 2002-09-01
How many journalists were actually killed in 2001 How many journalists were actually killed in 2001? Press Freedom organizations came up with disparate figures for the number of journalists killed in the year just gone by. Thirty one says Reporters Sans Frontiere (RSF), 100 says the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), 53 says the International Press Institute..
Reporter¿s Sans Frontiere¿s Red Card to Five World Cup Participant Countries
IN Media Freedom | 2002-09-01
Reporter¿s Sans Frontiere¿s Red Card to Five World Cup Participant Countries Reporter¿s Sans Frontiere¿s Red Card to Five World Cup Participant Countries The World Cup is football¿s biggest celebration. We certainly don¿t want to spoil it. But we have to note that five countries which have qualified are major enemies of human rights, democracy..
IN Law and Policy | 2002-09-01
An edited version of the following article appeared on the op-ed page of the Business Standard, New Delhi on Monday 24th June, An edited version of the following article appeared on the op-ed page of the Business Standard, New Delhi on Monday 24th June, 2002, under the title, "Media in the FDI Arena: A..
Press Freedom Violations in Bangladesh
IN Media Freedom | 2002-09-01
Press Freedom Violations in Bangladesh Press Freedom Violations in Bangladesh BANGLADESH A journalist arrested for possessing "banned" publications In a letter addressed to the caretaker government chief, Latifur Rahman, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) called for the release of Mahmud Musa, journalist and writer, detained for possessing "banned" publications. RSF is pleased with the caretaker government¿s decision to..
Journalists¿ Appeal To The Authorities In The Iftikhar Gilani Case
IN Media Freedom | 2002-09-01
APPEAL ISSUED BY KASHMIR TIMES APPEAL ISSUED BY KASHMIR TIMES Iftekar Geelani, is New Delhi bureau chief of the Indian daily Kashmir Times and also correspondent for the Pakistani daily The Nation. He is also the son in law of Syed Ali Shah Geelani. Iftekar Geelani was arrested on June 9 and charged..
IN Media Practice | 2002-09-01
Useful Links Useful Links For Favours Received, article by Coomi Kapoor, Indian Express How the ruling establishment manipulates the media in India. www.expressindia.com/ie/daily/20000531/ied31043.htm/ Is There Room for Poverty in the Media? By P Sainath. www.cs.wisc.edu/'param/asha/info/404877.html ..
Buying children in Orissa : A valid way to focus on starvation deaths?
IN Media Practice | 2002-09-01
Buying children in Orissa : A valid way to focus on starvation deaths Buying children in Orissa : A valid way to focus on starvation deaths? The Hoot Desk Did the Hindustan Times¿ purchase of two children from Bolangir benefit the children or the Hindustan Times, asks a critic. The paper¿s correspondent says, sensationalising an..
IN Opinion | 2002-09-01
but nobody can deny that the timing of the persecution of First Global is suspicious but nobody can deny that the timing of the persecution of First Global is suspicious. It is hard to escape the nagging feeling that they are being punished as a warning to all those who would invest in Tehelka. If that..
The International Press Institute¿s Response To Pakistan¿s Ordinance
IN Media Practice | 2002-09-01
The International Press Institute¿s Response To Pakistan¿s Ordinance The International Press Institute¿s Response To Pakistan¿s Ordinance VIENNA: The International Press Institute (IPI), the global network of editors and journalists, after examining the draft Freedom of Information Ordinance 2000 of Pakistan, has recommended that the ordinance needs to be revised in accordance with international standards on access to information...
Kashmir: the view from Kathmandu
IN Media Practice | 2002-09-01
Kashmir: the view from Kathmandu Kashmir: the view from Kathmandu From Himal, June 2001 INDIA n PAKISTAN A dramatic turn of events in Subcontinental geopolitics has had Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee extending an invitation to Pakistan’s Chief Executive Pervez Musharraf to visit New Delhi, and the general has accepted it. It was overdue for..
IN Media Practice | 2002-09-01
An Interview with Ayaz Amir An Interview with Ayaz Amir By Mohammad Shehzad Ayaz Amir is known for his audacious and independent views on various national issues. He began his career in the Pakistan Army, and left to join the foreign services in 1973. He resigned in 1977 while posted in Moscow as second secretary during..
Censorship Lifted in Sri Lanka
IN Media Practice | 2002-09-01
Censorship Lifted in Sri Lanka Censorship Lifted in Sri Lanka News Daily News May 31 CENSORSHIP LIFTED Censorship on Military news has been lifted with immediate effect. President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga yesterday ordered the revoking of the Emergency (Prohibition on Publication and Transmission) Regulation No.1 of 1998. The censorship was imposed in May last year when the LTTE escalated..
IN Media Practice | 2002-09-01
Journalist As Pawn Journalist As Pawn From the News International, Pakistan, Internet Edition http://www.jang-group.com/thenews/index.html Worst fears confirmed By Rahimullah Yusufzai PESHAWAR: Exactly a month after his abduction, our worst fears have been confirmed with the announcement that Daniel Pearl is dead. It was tragic news on the eve of Eidul Azha, one of our major religious festivals. The..
IN Media Practice | 2002-09-01
Some useful links: Some useful links: www.transparency.de/documents/work-papers/martin-feldman/index-html www.humanrightsinitiative.org/RTI/rti1.htm www.epw.org-in/35-3536/comm4.htm ..
Film Magazines: Losing Their Punch
IN Media Practice | 2002-08-31
Film Magazines: Losing Their Punch Film Magazines: Losing Their Punch By Manjula Lal Some years ago, Cine Blitz had come out with a special April Fool¿s issue which said on the cover that ¿one of the stories in this issue is a hoax¿ - there were prizes for those who guessed it right. That..
Mushroom Growth Of Newspapers In Kashmir
IN Media Practice | 2002-08-31
Mushroom Growth Of Newspapers In Kashmir Mushroom Growth Of Newspapers In Kashmir By Kousar Bukhari in Srinagar Newspapers grow in number, but not in circulation. The mushroom growth despite a recession is baffling. SRINAGAR In a politically sensitive state like Jammu and Kashmir, the newspaper industry has gone under enormous changes, particularly in Kashmir valley, in..
When The Media Abdicates, The Government Abdicates
IN Media Practice | 2002-08-31
When The Media Abdicates, The Government Abdicates When The Media Abdicates, The Government Abdicates By Sevanti Ninan One arm of the government shuts down relief works in areas where famine conditions prevail pleading lack of financial resources. Another arm decides surplus foodstock will be given to people above the poverty line at subsidised rates to enable speedy offtake..
Indo-Pak Talks---We¿ve Reached The Summit But Can We See The Plain?
IN Media Practice | 2002-08-31
Indo-Pak Talks---We¿ve Reached The Summit But Can We See The Plain Indo-Pak Talks---We¿ve Reached The Summit But Can We See The Plain? By Shailaja Bajpai The papers have failed to provide the average reader with a comprehensive background to the Agra Talks. Nobody seems to think it is important for readers to understand the past. As the..
A Rude Splash In The Face Of Parched Village India
IN Media Practice | 2002-08-31
A Rude Splash In The Face Of Parched Village India A Rude Splash In The Face Of Parched Village India By Vasuki Belavadi Insensitive advertisements for Liril and Kinley raise the question of who will bell the feckless advertiser? The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI), entertains complaints regarding ads that are misleading, unfair or insensitive. But when..
The Nexus Between Politics and Journalism in Nepal
IN Media Practice | 2002-08-31
The Nexus Between Politics and Journalism in Nepal The Nexus Between Politics and Journalism in Nepal The following article is on the Net, in Media Forum Research at the following location http://www.jmk.su.se/global99/kiran/research/mediasituation.htm We reproduce a relevant extract here. MEDIA IN NEPAL: IN THE GRIP OF POLITICS INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM, ON WHOSE TERMS? By Kiran Subba Stockholm, Sweden - 07.03.99..
The Media And Devyani - Insensitivity In Covering A Tragedy
IN Media Practice | 2002-08-31
The Media And Devyani - Insensitivity In Covering A Tragedy The Media And Devyani - Insensitivity In Covering A Tragedy By Ammu Joseph Media coverage of the massacre of the royal family of Nepal continues to confuse and confound. A major reason for the constantly changing and contradictory reports may be the lack of transparency with which the..
IN Media Practice | 2002-08-31
India And The Monkey Man India And The Monkey Man BY NANDINI LAL An artist¿s rendition from the Indian daily the Hindustan Times, two versions of which were published May 16, 2001. (AP Photo/Hindustan Times) After Kargil and Kutch, India is back in the news again for all the wrong reasons. We are the certified jumping jackanapes..
IN Media Practice | 2002-08-31
Wah India - Funky Sizzle Wah India - Funky Sizzle Mannika Chopra For some, this magazine¿s approach is feisty, fearless and provocative. For others it¿s simply gossipy, risqué, sensation-driven journalism, with an editorial line that wears its regional chauvinism on its sleeve. Madhu Trehan speaks softly, rapidly. In a gravelly voice, Wah India¿s editor-in-chief apologises for appointments..
Student Porn Site Issue: Did The Media Display Enough Sensitivity?
IN Media Practice | 2002-08-31
Student Porn Site Issue: Did The Media Display Enough Sensitivity Student Porn Site Issue: Did The Media Display Enough Sensitivity? By Shailaja Bajpai Did the media display a sense of proportion in covering the case of the Delhi schoolboy who created a pornographic site? Did the boy¿s crime warrant such prominence in the media? Did it..
Bihar¿s Panchayat Elections: The Media Misses The Real Story
IN Media Practice | 2002-08-31
Bihar¿s Panchayat Elections: The Media Misses The Real Story Bihar¿s Panchayat Elections: The Media Misses The Real Story By Ajay Kumar Bihartimes.com Enthusiastic campaigning marked the elections The media highlighted only violence or fear of violence in the panchayat elections in Bihar and ignored the basic issues of the election such as strong democratisation at village level, high level of..
The Indian Media Takes On The Prime Minister¿s Office
IN Media Practice | 2002-08-31
The Indian Media Takes On The Prime Minister¿s Office The Indian Media Takes On The Prime Minister¿s Office By Sevanti Ninan The media is aggressively taking on perceived wrong doing. But sometimes the motivation comes from its own alliances and partisan sympathies. In India the Prime Minister¿s office is watching its flanks. It doesn¿t know where the next attack..
So What Were The Charges Against Sonia Gandhi?
IN Media Practice | 2002-08-31
So What Were The Charges Against Sonia Gandhi So What Were The Charges Against Sonia Gandhi? Sometimes newspapers decide what we should know and what we should not. Subramaniam Swamy¿s allegations against Sonia Gandhi were a case in point. We read about them day in and day out, without being told what the allegations were. At some..
IN Media Practice | 2002-08-31
Gunning For Ganguly Gunning For Ganguly By Shailaja Bajpai Of course you all know this but it bears repeating for reasons which will become abundantly clear in a moment. India beat, repeat, beat Australia in the 3-match Test series (2-1). India beat, repeat beat, the (un)official world test champions. By vanquishing the men ``who come from..
Insensitive Scoops And Devastated Families
IN Media Practice | 2002-08-31
Insensitive Scoops And Devastated Families Insensitive Scoops And Devastated Families By Sevanti Ninan A newspaper scoop on the unsolved case of a dead journalist raises serious questions about harming the reputations of those who have survived her, particularly her child. The more one scrutinizes crime reporting, the more evident it becomes that some guidelines are needed on..
Indians say no to "Temptation Island" on small screen
IN Media Practice | 2002-08-31
Indians say no to "Temptation Island" on small screen Indians say no to "Temptation Island" on small screen By Sumeet Chatterjee, Indo-Asian News Service A steamy reality show whose promise of sex and infidelity shocked even the U.S. has been dropped from the Indian small screen following objections from a mass of prudish viewers. Less..
Infowar: Laden Played it First, then America took over-- PART II
IN Media Practice | 2002-08-31
Infowar: Laden Played it First, then America took over-- PART II Infowar: Laden Played it First, then America took over-- PART II By S Raghotham Not only did the media not press the demand for evidence against Bin Laden, US TV networks went to some lengths to manufacture consent for the war Then started the American media blitzkrieg. The Evidence..
Infowar: Laden Played it First, then America took over-- Part I
IN Media Practice | 2002-08-31
Infowar: Laden Played it First, then America took over-- Part I Infowar: Laden Played it First, then America took over-- Part I By S Raghotham How Osama Bin Laden used leaks in the Press to throw American intelligence off the scent. The bloody war has just started, but information warfare, or Infowar, between Bin Laden and America started..
IN Media Practice | 2002-08-31
CNN Chief Orders Balance in War News-Washington CNN Chief Orders Balance in War News-Washington CNN Chief Orders ¿Balance¿ in War News In a memo, Rick Davis, CNN¿s head of standards and practices, said it "may be hard for the correspondent in these dangerous areas to make the points clearly," so he suggested language for the anchors: ¿We must keep..
Watching A Show, Or Watching An Ad?
IN Media Practice | 2002-08-31
Watching A Show, Or Watching An Ad Watching A Show, Or Watching An Ad? By Shailaja Bajpai Ekta Kapoor, producer of Kahani Ghar Ghar Ki and Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi on Star Plus, uses her daily soaps to promote her other productions as well. And the channel thinks this is perfectly acceptable. How far should..
Rejecting Foreign Direct Investment In The Print Media- pure Hypocrisy
IN Media Practice | 2002-08-31
Rejecting Foreign Direct Investment In The Print Media- pure Hypocrisy Rejecting Foreign Direct Investment In The Print Media- pure Hypocrisy Vasuki Belavadi If the Press in the country was bold enough to support every step in the liberalisation process, it must also be bold enough to allow the same in its house. Taking one stance when..
Goa¿s little-noticed experiences with the Right to Information
IN Media Practice | 2002-08-30
Goa¿s little-noticed experiences with the Right to Information Goa¿s little-noticed experiences with the Right to Information "...it is necessary that every Governmental action should be transparent to the public... every citizen should be able to get information from the Government..." --- The Goa Right to Information Act 1997 By Frederick Noronha SOME SWEAR the law opened up for them vaults that hid..
IN Media Practice | 2002-08-30
News News Daily News May 31 CENSORSHIP LIFTED Censorship on Military news has been lifted with immediate effect. President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga yesterday ordered the revoking of the Emergency (Prohibition on Publication and Transmission) Regulation No.1 of 1998. The censorship was imposed in May last year when the LTTE escalated its attack against Security Forces. http://www.lanka.net/lakehouse/ Editorial The Island June 1 WELCOME MEASURE It is good news that the government..
Steering a family owned Indian newspaper
IN Media Practice | 2002-08-29
Steering a family owned Indian newspaper Steering a family owned Indian newspaper N Murali of The Hindu interviewed on family owned media, journalistic values, commercial interests, the competition, price wars, and the entry of foreign media. He is the proverbial mystery man in media. And he reflects the strong and silent demeanour so typical of The..
IN Regional Media | 2002-08-28
Neglect Or Nexus Neglect Or Nexus? Vasavi in Ranchi How come newspapers in Jharkhand think that the rape of an adivasi woman by the worker of a non-governmental organisation, and the subsequent surrender of the accused, is not news? On June 6, when a man named Ranjit Singh surrendered in the court of the chief judicial..
Building Community Radio in Hospet
IN Community Media | 2002-08-28
Building Community Radio in Hospet Building Community Radio in Hospet By H.R.Krishnamurthy What happens when the programming of a radio station on certain time slots is handed over to the local community Developing viable Community Radio in Hospet, was an experiment that brought to light the problems and the opportunities associated with implementing community radio. The aim of the experiment..
Community Newspapers For Human Development
IN Community Media | 2002-08-28
Reprinted with permission from VOICES, October 2000 Reprinted with permission from VOICES, October 2000 Community Newspapers For Human Development By Vincent D¿Souza Seven years ago three people, including the author, sat down to plan neighbourhood newspapers for two well-known areas of Chennai City The Adyar Times and the Anna Nagar Times are the best-known examples of successful community newspapers..
IN Community Media | 2002-08-28
The Chameli Devi Award for An Outstanding Woman Journalist is presented every year by the Media Foundation The Chameli Devi Award for An Outstanding Woman Journalist is presented every year by the Media Foundation. The award for the year 2000 has been given to the Ujjas unit of the Kutch Mahila Vikas Sangathan for their..
Finding A Voice Through Alternative Video
IN Community Media | 2002-08-28
Finding A Voice Through Alternative Video Finding A Voice Through Alternative Video But Where are the Audiences? By Frederick Noronha Behind the camera, idealistic video enthusiasts want to give a voice to issues that affect India¿s fields and villages. But, the rich world of alternative video cinema is simply not visible enough to find an audience large enough to..
Ujala Jhadi A Newwpaper For Village Folk
IN Community Media | 2002-08-28
Ujala Jhadi A Newwpaper For Village Folk Ujala Jhadi A Newwpaper For Village Folk By Madhav Raghavan A rural newspaper in Rajasthan serves villages with news they can use, because even regional language papers often do not serve all the needs of rural readers. Do-gooders worry that the Coke-Pepsi war will foist these beverages upon rural folk..
Rural cops in India watch TV to improve their skills
IN Media Practice | 2002-08-28
Rural cops in India watch TV to improve their skills Rural cops in India watch TV to improve their skills A police officer in Vadodara arranges for his men to watch the Discovery Channel¿s Medical Detectives while they are on duty. He thinks it amounts to informal training that will improve their knowledge of forensic methods..
Media And The Narrativization Of War
IN Media Practice | 2002-08-28
Media And The Narrativization Of War Media And The Narrativization Of War By Subarno Chattarji Department of English, University of Delhi Mass media and television in particular have altered the ways in which we look at our world and the ways in which politics, wars, and history are projected and reconstructed. The media presents seemingly ¿objective¿..
Prime ministerial paranoia and press freedom
IN Media Freedom | 2002-08-28
Prime ministerial paranoia and press freedom Prime ministerial paranoia and press freedom The overreaction to the Time story is because most of India’s ¿trusted¿ publications appear to lack the courage and the leadership to expose truth or touch controversial subjects. PRIME MINISTERIAL PARANOIA AND PRESS FREEDOM Mannika Chopra At nearly six feet,..
IN Media Freedom | 2002-08-28
Censoring Peace Censoring Peace It is a strange world where nuclear weapons are believed to help prevent war and a film on peace is seen as a potential instigator of violence. CENSORING PEACE Ammu Joseph Promote pornography, censor peace. This appears to be the new credo of the Central Board of Film Certification, judging by two recent revelations of..
IN Media Freedom | 2002-08-28
Press freedom in Pakistan Press freedom in Pakistan This scribe reproduces some important events from the report that would help the readers understand to what extent the press has been free in Pakistan from May 2001-May 2002: Press Freedom in Pakistan (May 2001- May 2002) By Mohammad Shehzad Green Press Pakistan has released its latest report..
CBI response to Tehelka reporter¿s charges
IN Media Freedom | 2002-08-27
Badal is in Dansa jail in Ghaziabad, where he has been denied bail so far because, according to Bahl, the CBI prosecutor seeks Badal is in Dansa jail in Ghaziabad, where he has been denied bail so far because, according to Bahl, the CBI prosecutor seeks an adjournment whenever his bail hearing comes up. This..
Letters to the Hoot:The Hindustan Times and Parveen Babi
IN Opinion | 2002-08-27
Letters to the Hoot:The Hindustan Times and Parveen Babi What is the media trying to do? Add on the role of consultant psychiatrist to all its other activities? HT and Parveen Babi This refers to the interview "Parveen Babis private demons" (Sunday Hindustan Times, Delhi Edn. Dated August 25, 2002, p 15) by Sujata Anandan. Although the..
Assesing The Role Of Television In The General Election 1998 A Monitoring and Au
IN Books | 2002-08-27
Assesing The Role Of Television In The General Election 1998 A Monitoring and Audience Feedback Study Conducted by t Assesing The Role Of Television In The General Election 1998 A Monitoring and Audience Feedback Study Conducted by the Media Advocacy Group, New Delhi THE RIGHTS AND DUTIES OF CITIZENS DURING ELECTIONS: THE PUBLIC SERVICE CAMPAIGN ON..
A web-based thorn in Musharraf’s side
IN Digital Media | 2002-08-26
A web-based thorn in Musharraf’s side A web-based thorn in Musharraf’s side Last, week, Sehbai sent out alerts to journalists across the world to say that the Pakistan police had now registered a case against him for committing dacoity at gunpoint. A WEB-BASED THORN IN MUSHARRAF’S SIDE The Hoot Desk In February 2002, Shaheen Sehbai, editor of The..
CBI response to Tehelka reporter¿s charges
IN Media Freedom | 2002-08-26
CBI response to Tehelka reporter¿s charges CBI response to Tehelka reporter¿s charges The CBI refutes allegations made by Kumar Badal of Tehelka. The rebuttal, and the original letter, with specific charges. CBI RESPONDS TO TEHELKA REPORTER¿S CHARGES The CBI refutes allegations made by Kumar Badal of Tehelka. The rebuttal, as made to the Hindustan Times, and the original appeal..
A Net shadow for mainstream news
IN Media Practice | 2002-08-26
A Net shadow for mainstream news A Net shadow for mainstream news Each day, GVNews.Net "shadows" the global news output of The Associated Press, Reuters, CNN.com and The New York Times. The US based media watch initiative, Media Channel.org, has introduced a service which takes items in the mainstream news and offers diverse perspectives on it, some from..
National symposium on Gujarat Carnage and Media; A Report
IN Media Practice | 2002-08-26
National symposium on Gujarat Carnage and Media; A Report National symposium on Gujarat Carnage and Media; A Report Bangalore is fast becoming center for media discourse. Two seminars were held on media and Gujarat tragedy within a span of two months. National symposium on Gujarat Carnage and Media; A Report Prof.B.A.SRIDHARA Bangalore is fast becoming center for media discourse. Two..
Some International Codes of Ethics
IN Media Practice | 2002-08-25
adopted by Newspapers, News Agencies and Journalists of Bangladesh, 1993 adopted by Newspapers, News Agencies and Journalists of Bangladesh, 1993 1.It is the responsibility of a journalist to keep people informed of issues which influence them or attract them. News and commentaries have to be prepared and published showing full respect to the sensitivity and..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2002-08-24
Promoting Chawla Promoting Chawla Why does the Hindustan Times keep building up India Today editor Prabhu Chawla¿s TV appearances on Aaj Tak? What can the powers at be at HT possibly want from the politically influential Mr Chawla? Or are they just bowled over by his TV presence? ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2002-08-24
Reporting on ourselves Reporting on ourselves The Times of India more frequently than any other publication, covers events relating to its various enterprises on its news pages. Now it has come up with a slug for such news, called Times Experience. It covered the Celebrating a Thinker series of seminars organized by Indiatimes and IBM under such a slug. ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2002-08-24
No reviews please No reviews please The Association of Motion Pictures and TV Programme Producers has asked that film critics and trade journals be restrained from passing judgement on new film releases for a week after the release. The president of the association asked at a press conference who would go to see a film if..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2002-08-24
Denials all round Denials all round The Hindustan Times story involving Pratibha Advani, the daughter of the Deputy Prime Minister, on a grant of land in Uttaranchal at throwaway rates, turns out to have been false. The paper had the grace to deny it on the same page and with the same space that it..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2002-08-24
Selective news judgment Selective news judgment The fact that two cabinet ministers, Murli Manohar Joshi, and Omar Abdullah had taken objection to Narendra Modi¿s attacks on the Chief Election Commissioner was news for almost every newspaper, and front page news for three or four of them. But it was not news for the Pioneer which did not..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2002-08-24
Leading the charge Leading the charge The Pioneer has rushed to pick up the gauntlet against the Chief Election Commissioner. In a page one box, just under the paper¿s masthead, it quotes sources in the Election Commission to show that he has been reprimanded in the past by a high court, and dwells at..
Indians say no to Temptation Island on small screen
IN Media Practice | 2002-08-23
Indians say no to Temptation Island on small screen Indians say no to Temptation Island on small screen A steamy reality show whose promise of sex and infidelity shocked even the U.S. has been dropped from the Indian small screen following objections from a mass of prudish viewers. Less than two months after "Temptation Island" went on the..
Peripheral voices, central concerns: community radio in India
IN Books | 2002-08-21
Peripheral voices, central concerns: community radio in India Peripheral voices, central concerns: community radio in India It is not as if community radio, in the widest sense, has been completely absent in the long history of radio broadcasting in India. Though its form has varied over time and regions, instances of decentralized, rural and local..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2002-08-20
News judgment, HT style News judgment, HT style ON August 20 the Hindustan Times carried a story on L K Advani¿s daughter being given seven acres of land at a very cheap rate very close to Delhi, in Uttar Pradesh, for an organization she heads, by the former BJP government in UP. It was carried in the middle..
Throwing dirt in a late night soap
IN Media Practice | 2002-08-20
On both occasions, there was high moral indignation at the subversive nature of the TV camera which had gone where no camera h On both occasions, there was high moral indignation at the subversive nature of the TV camera which had gone where no camera had been before. Or should ever go. It was..
Responding to attacks on the media
IN Opinion | 2002-08-19
Responding to attacks on the media Responding to attacks on the media If the Government is increasingly hammering journalists in India, there has to be a sea change in the way we respond. Reprinted from the Hindu, August 18, 2000 UNDER SIEGE Sevanti Ninan BEING under attack is an occupational hazard for journalists, but that does not mean we..
Gujarat and the media: inconsistent secularism
IN Media Practice | 2002-08-19
Gujarat and the media: inconsistent secularism In Kargil the jingoism related to the motherland threatened by a devious and evil enemy, and large sections of the media were pro-government. In Gujarat there is a mythic construction of wronged Hindu majorities now wreaking vengeance for centuries of Muslim barbarism and the media is shocked at government complicity. GUJARAT AND..
IN Media Practice | 2002-08-12
The media reflects our values The media reflects our values We wait for The New York Times to carry a story informing the world of this incredible advance that has been made in India, in a frontier area of research, and then copy it from the NYT. THE MEDIA REFLECTS OUR..
No proof, no bail, Tehelka reporter rots in jail
IN Media Freedom | 2002-08-12
other accused (which they allege is the copy of the tape given to me other accused (which they allege is the copy of the tape given to me?) Why didn¿t the CBI release it to the public or produce it in court? They raided my residence and my office and recovered nothing related tot..
IN Media Practice | 2002-08-12
Page three needs more wackos Society journalism in India is dull because our self-serving, homegrown socialites are sadly devoid of genuine eccentricities. Among the Chatterati adds spice in the guise of fiction. PAGE THREE NEEDS MORE WACKOS Nandini Lal Delhi is discovering that skeleton-rattling makes sweeter music than the church organ or prayer bell. "Religion used to..
Sharper reporting on NGOs needed
IN Media Practice | 2002-08-12
Sharper reporting on NGOs needed Sharper reporting on NGOs needed There are many issues pertaining to and arising from the functioning of NGOs which are worthy of greater focus.We need more balanced and incisive media coverage of this sector. SEEN BUT NOT HEARD Lalitha Sridhar Non Government Organizations (NGOs) and their substantial contribution to the many endemic problems India..
Media and Environment in Uttaranchal
IN Regional Media | 2002-08-09
Media and Environment in Uttaranchal Media and Environment in Uttaranchal Even as media proliferates in the wake of statehood for the Uttarakhand region, its primary challenge is to engage meaningfully with issues that are related to the environment MEDIA AND ENVIRONMENT IN UTTARANCHAL Manjula Lal and Sevanti Ninan In a broad sense environment is the..
Myth versus fact: Southern coverage of Gujarat
IN Digital Media | 2002-08-09
' The standoff on Ayodhya (the VHP’s March 15 deadline, the Supreme Court ' The standoff on Ayodhya (the VHP’s March 15 deadline, the Supreme Court ' Mr. Balayogi’s death in a helicopter crash ' The daylight murder of SP MLA Manzoor Ahmad in Lucknow ' The Supreme Court verdict..
The Credulous And The Credible
IN Law and Policy | 2002-08-09
THE CREDULOUS AND THE CREDIBLE</headline> THE CREDULOUS AND THE CREDIBLE</headline> Did the media really get its facts right in Gujarat? Was everything that we read and heard and saw nothing but the unembroidered, uncoloured truth? THE CREDULOUS AND THE CREDIBLE Ratna Rajaiah "Yeh public hai, yeh sab jaanti hai, Yeh jo public hai." Song from "Roti" A lot of..
IN Regional Media | 2002-08-09
Once the state was created, the media was no longer required to hype the demand for a separate state Once the state was created, the media was no longer required to hype the demand for a separate state. It was required to pay a rather vital role in setting the agenda for the development of..
Bhutan gets a taste of Windows
IN Digital Media | 2002-08-06
Bhutan gets a taste of Windows Bhutan gets a taste of Windows Before now, the Bhutanese people could not perform basic computer tasks such as sending e-mails, saving files, using spreadsheets or writing documents because no native operating system supported them. From the South Asia-IT mailing list, s-asia-it@apnic.net BHUTAN GETS A TASTE OF WINDOWS For citizens of Bhutan, a kingdom nestled..
IN Media Practice | 2002-08-06
Kalam in Pakistani media Kalam in Pakistani media Our official venom-spitting machinery-the Pakistan Television (PTV) issued a subpoena to all state-certified `experts¿ and aired program after program on Kalam¿s nomination. Kalam in Pakistani media By Mohammad Shehzad The nomination of A P J Abdul Kalam (the czar of Indian nuclear program) to the president¿s office was not..
IN Media Practice | 2002-07-29
Insensitive Indian Oprah Insensitive Indian Oprah If there has been abuse already to the victims presented, the insensitive handling in this programme is nothing short of abuse twice over. B Jayashree Even a good idea can rub people the wrong way. There is always a drawback to emulating someone else¿s success. People will compare. So it was..
A cricketer, a reporter, and a cop
IN Opinion | 2002-07-29
A cricketer, a reporter, and a cop A cricketer, a reporter, and a cop Letters to Hoot: the Times of India¿s dubious scoop Only Celebrities Matter? In the second week of July, the Bangalore edition of The Times of India reported that the former Test cricketer Javagal Srinath was harassed by an inspector of a local..
Indian Express initiative in Pune on right to information
IN Media Practice | 2002-07-29
Indian Express initiative in Pune on right to information Indian Express initiative in Pune on right to information Reader Surendra Kaushik brings to our notice a glaring instance of a blatant violation of the spirit of transparency by our own Pune Municipal Corporation. (Reproduced from the page `express initiatives¿, The Indian Express, July 24, 2002) A wide..
Why conditional access remains contentious
IN Law and Policy | 2002-07-22
Why conditional access remains contentious Why conditional access remains contentious With the amendment bill which would have introduced conditional cable access withdrawn from the Rajya Sabha last week, and with cable operators in Delhi are threatening a blackout, cable TV reform remains contentious James Gordon New Media Consultant The ¿Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2002¿ which will amend the principal..
IN Law and Policy | 2002-07-09
FDI Policy For Indian Media FDI Policy For Indian Media This article tries to put some new ideas into the public arena so that a differentiated foreign direct investment policy can be defined for various categories of media. By Arvind Virmani The public debate on foreign entry into print media largely treats it as a broad,undifferentiated..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2002-07-08
Us too, why not Us too, why not? At a panel discussion in Delhi on July 5, when someone asked a hypothetical question on whether the Times of India would take a foreign partner if a foreign media company approached them, the bottom line of executive managing editor Dilip Padgaonkar`s long answer was yes. This is the..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2002-07-08
Express Growth Express Growth An advertisement in the Indian Express tells you that you should invest with the Indian Express Group where you are assured of consistent growth. How consistent? Well, for details, call the following numbers. And then it omits to give any phone numbers. Just in case someone actually decides to call? ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2002-07-08
Getting smart Getting smart Last year the whole country saw Karunanidhi being shoved around by the police on Sun TV. So the police are now smarter. Policemen in Chennai grabbed a Sun TV cassette which filmed a lathi charge on DMK workers, and confiscated it. When they returned it after "talks" the offending footage had..
The Media And Gujarat: A View From The South
IN Books | 2002-07-08
..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2002-07-08
Age bar Age bar The Hindustan Times, located just beyond Connaught Place in Delhi, has solved the problem of parking for employees by decreeing that those above forty can park inside the compound, but those below forty have to park outside! A wag wants to know if this applies to the proprietor¿s children. ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2002-07-08
Business as usual Business as usual While Star News and Aaj Tak covered Dhirubhai Ambani¿s death and funeral the way the BBC covered Princess Diana¿s death, (a reporter at each gate of his residence) CNBC the business channel carried on with their usual chats with businessmen most of the time on Sunday morning. And..
Survey Of Bangalore Based Kannada Newspapers
IN Books | 2002-07-08
Survey Of Bangalore Based Kannada Newspapers Survey Of Bangalore Based Kannada Newspapers Kannada News Papers covered PRAJAVANI VIJAYA KARNATAKA KANNADA PRABHA UDAYAVANI SAMYUKTHA KARNATAKA Period 28 February - 16 March 2002 This report is a random survey of the Gujarat Violence covered in the above said newspapers during the period mentioned above. The report focuses on how the Kannada Press responded..
Opening Up Indian Print Media To Foreign Investors
IN Media Practice | 2002-07-01
A Hoot Editorial A Hoot Editorial Opening Up Indian Print Media To Foreign Investors When the government finally announced on June 25 that it would allow up to 26 per cent foreign investment in the print media sector in India the decision capped one of the longest and most dogged campaigns over media policy..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2002-07-01
Anti-FDI Yashwant Anti-FDI Yashwant When the Indian cabinet met to decide on FDI in print, then finance minister Yashwant Sinha opposed it. Sushma Swaraj told journalists privately that this was because he was annoyed with her. She had been consistently critical of his economic policies she said, and Sinha was just getting back at her. ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2002-07-01
Sour grapes Sour grapes? Why is Outlook magazine’s two-page report on the entry of FDI so one-sided and patently erroneous? The magazine essentially spoke only to those who had opposed it, floated a rollback theory, and insisted that papers which had criticised the Government on Gujarat were being penalised. It ignored the fact that the pro-FDI..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2002-07-01
Crucial lobbying Crucial lobbying The media baron who swung the decision on foreign direct investment (FDI) in print media last week was the one who joined the battle last. Narendra Mohan, BJP Rajya Sabha MP and Dainik Jagran Chairman joined the pro FDI lobby only two years ago after UTI offered a relatively low price..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2002-07-01
Censoring Sun TV Censoring Sun TV Last year the DMK-family owned Sun TV’s news footage of former chief minister Karunanidhi’s being arrested caused a national furore. So now the Tamilnadu police are watchful. Recently, a Sun TV crew filmed a police lathi-charge on a protest by a group of DMK cadres. The police promptly confiscated the cassette..
IN Media Practice | 2002-06-20
AIDS and the Media AIDS and the Media This attitude in India, that it does not happen to us, is perhaps what makes people in the media too respond with certain insensitivity to HIV. AIDS AND THE MEDIA Kalpana Jain He died a few minutes before my last call to him on..
Print media survey on Gujarat coverage
IN Books | 2002-06-20
Print media survey on Gujarat coverage Print media survey on Gujarat coverage A network of women journalists presents its study of media coverage of the events in Gujarat in English, Gujarati, Marathi, Urdu and Hindi newspapers published in Mumbai. PRINT MEDIA SURVEY: COVERAGE OF GUJARAT EVENTS (FEB 28 – MARCH 15) The Network of Women in the Media, Mumbai (NWMM)..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2002-06-20
Squeamish Hindu Squeamish Hindu On June 19, Farooq Abdullah made the news with his petulant outburst about exiting from public life after he lost out in the Vice-Presidential race. Indian Express said in the headline itself, "Bitter over V-P fiasco, Farooq wants to quite `shitty politics`." But The Hindu couldn`t quite bring itself to say..
IN Opinion | 2002-06-20
Letters to the Hoot Letters to the Hoot With reference to No Kidding, and Charu Soni¿s criticism of article on Mani Ratnam. Letters to the Hoot With reference to No Kidding, and Charu Soni¿s criticism of article on Mani Ratnam. No Kidding This has reference to the article "NO KIDDING". In the name of Sex Education,..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2002-06-20
Grand wedding Grand wedding Rameshchandra Agarwal, proprietor of the country¿s leading newspaper Dainik Bhaskar, is celebrating his son¿s wedding in June. Invitees received an eight-page art paper booklet by way of invitation, containing poetry, illustrations and invitations to events in three locations, Bhopal, Goa and Delhi. And the paper¿s seniormost employees including editors were duly deployed in..
Newspaper readership up, magazine reading down in India
IN Media Practice | 2002-06-18
Newspaper readership up, magazine reading down in India Newspaper readership up, magazine reading down in India The readership base in India has grown from 163 million to 180 million, registering a growth of 10 per cent. Of the 180 million readers, as many as 48 per cent are from the nearly 6 lakh..
New Media and Journalism Links
IN Digital Media | 2002-06-13
New Media and Journalism Links New Media and Journalism Links Some important Links Journalism and the new media: essay Journalism and the information society. ... Heba Sigurdardottir Email address: hs61849@uta.fi. The future of journalism in the new media. ... www.uta.fi/'hs61849/jou4.html Indian Institute of Journalism & New Media, Bangalore, India www.shiksha.com/campus/iijnm.htm The New Media Curriculum Web Page A massive collection of journalism, new..
IN Digital Media | 2002-06-13
This article appeared in the Nepali Times This article appeared in the Nepali Times http://www.nepalnews.com.np/ntimes/august31-6-2001/computers.htm The Palung Story A computer and a radio tower in Makwanpur in Nepal get young people talking and planning—for their future, and that of their village. by Gaurab Raj Upadhaya PALUNG, Makwanpur - IT this, IT that. It is even in the UNDP’s latest..
Winners of Second Online Journalism Awards Named by Online NewsAssociation and C
IN Digital Media | 2002-06-13
Press Release Press Release Winners of Second Online Journalism Awards Named by Online News Association and Columbia University BERKELEY, CALIF., Oct. 26, 2001--The winners for the second annual Online Journalism Awards (OJAs) were announced today by the Online News Association (ONA) and the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism at the ONA annual conference in Berkeley This contest, which honors..
The right to know---a flawed debate
IN Media Practice | 2002-06-11
The right to know---a flawed debate The right to know---a flawed debate There is no law at present that requires the media to yield space or time to the citizens. They can deny space/time to citizens arbitrarily, falling back upon a news logic of their own. By Dasu Krishnamoorty The right to information bill has been knocking at the doors..
IN Media Practice | 2002-06-11
No kidding No kidding Our coffee tables are now the easiest place to find what our children do not get in school - lessons in sex which are anything but an education.</synopsis> By Lalitha Sridhar Is there anything in our social structure that prepares our children for the sexually explicit messages they see in mainstream Indian media?..
The Right To Know-A Flawed Debate
IN Media Practice | 2002-06-11
The Right To Know-A Flawed Debate The Right To Know-A Flawed Debate There is no law at present that requires the media to yield space or time to the citizens. They can deny space/time to citizens arbitrarily, falling back upon a news logic of their own. By Dasu Krishnamoorty The right to information bill has been..
The Right To Know :A Flawed Debate
IN Media Practice | 2002-06-11
The Right To Know :A Flawed Debate The Right To Know :A Flawed Debate By Dasu Krishnamoorty The first assumption can be attributed to the myth that the state alone is guilty of withholding information and that there are no other agencies concealing crucial information. Every advocate of the right to know appears to hug this popular notion...
Beating up journalists in Pakistan
IN Media Freedom | 2002-06-10
Beating up journalists in Pakistan Beating up journalists in Pakistan Editorial in The News International (Pakistan) 19 November 2001 It may just be a coincidence that the third Islamabad journalist who was mauled totally pointlessly, by an arrogant, out of his mind army major, in front of the Press Information Department, was someone who had irritated President Pervez Musharraf..
NDTV argues back: Dont shoot the messenger
IN Opinion | 2002-06-10
Media and Conflict Media and Conflict NDTV argues back: Don`t shoot the messenger CONFESSIONS OF A WAR REPORTER Taken from www.ndtv.com NDTV argues back: Dont shoot the messenger By Rajdeep Sardesai In the aftermath of the failed Agra summit (or `inconclusive` as the prime minister has chosen to describe it), the..
PRESS FREEDOM IN PERIL IN PAKISTAN
IN Media Freedom | 2002-06-09
PRESS FREEDOM IN PERIL IN PAKISTAN PRESS FREEDOM IN PERIL IN PAKISTAN By Mohammad Shehzad On July 5, 1977, the notorious military dictator General Zia dismissed the government of Z. A. Bhutto sending him to the gallows with the judiciary¿s help; suspended the Constitution abolishing the fundamental rights; closed down the publications that did..
BANGLADESH MEDIA QUESTIONS GENERALS TRANSFER ON EVE OF TALKS WITH INDIA
IN Media Practice | 2002-06-09
http://www.tehelka.com/currentaffairs/july2001/ca070401indo1.htm BANGLADESH MEDIA QUESTIONS GENERALS TRANSFER ON EVE OF TALKS WITH INDIA Major General Fazlur Rahman has been transferred along with two of his colleagues for his alleged..
IN Media Practice | 2002-06-07
http://www http://www.jang-group.com/thenews/index.html Worst fears confirmed By Rahimullah Yusufzai PESHAWAR: Exactly a month after his abduction, our worst fears have been confirmed with the announcement that Daniel Pearl is dead. It was tragic news on the eve of Eidul Azha, one of our major religious festivals. The tragedy was compounded by the fact that Pearl was young and..
Reporters Sans Frontieres red card to World Cup participant countries
IN Media Freedom | 2002-06-06
Reporters Sans Frontieres red card to World Cup participant countries Reporters Sans Frontieres red card to World Cup participant countries The World Cup is football`s biggest celebration. We certainly don`t want to spoil it. But we have to note that five countries which have qualified are major enemies of human rights, democracy and freedom. The World Cup is..
Uttaranchals dubious publishing boom
IN Regional Media | 2002-06-06
Uttaranchals dubious publishing boom Uttaranchals dubious publishing boom When so many people are rushing to print newspapers, booking a title calls for more than a little ingenuity. By Sevanti Ninan Did you know that Dehradun was a major publishing centre? There are eleven daily newspapers and no less than 84 weeklies coming out of here. If you look closer..
Covering Bihars wedding of the year.
IN Media Practice | 2002-06-06
Covering Bihars wedding of the year Covering Bihars wedding of the year. The focus of all these newspapers were the costly pandal, delicious foods and the cooks brought from different cities. They were less concerned about the expenditure incurred by this gala event. Ajay Kumar, Bihar Times "I haven`t seen any newspaper in my life time carrying such an..
IN Media Practice | 2002-06-05
A SRI LANKAN PERSPECTIVE A SRI LANKAN PERSPECTIVE Editorial from The Sunday Times, Columbo September 16 WAR ON TERRORISM? Though the simplest definition of terrorism ought to be "one who uses terror against another,¿¿ that basic definition doesn¿t come anywhere near capturing the essential meaning of terrorism in the world today. Terrorist acts leave not just physical debris, but also in..
Enemy Images on Pakistan Television
IN Media Practice | 2002-06-03
Enemy Images on Pakistan Television Enemy Images on Pakistan Television By I.A.Rehman Pakistan television reminds viewers of their enemy every day. For years now its main news bulletin has been presenting, prominently in the first half of the programme, an account of this enemy’s atrocities in the Muslim-majority part of Kashmir valley. The story may include the latest..
Reprinted with permission from the Indian Express, January 07, 2002
IN Opinion | 2002-06-03
· AFTER THE EXPOSE BENDS AND MEANS PIMPING IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST TELESCOPE / BOX POPULI PRIME TIME FOR RESURRECTION THE EXUBERANT MEDIA IS THE MEDIA A FORCE MULTIPLIER OR A NUISANCE? NONE SO BLIND AS THOSE WHO WILL..
Kashmir the view from Kathmandu
IN Media Practice | 2002-06-02
Kashmir the view from Kathmandu Kashmir the view from Kathmandu From Himal, June 2001 INDIA n PAKISTAN A dramatic turn of events in Subcontinental geopolitics has had Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee extending an invitation to Pakistan’s Chief Executive Pervez Musharraf to visit New Delhi, and the general has accepted it. It was overdue for the..
STD/ ISD/ INTERNET BAN IN JAMMU AND KASHMIR IN FOURTH MONTH
IN Media Freedom | 2002-06-02
STD/ ISD/ INTERNET BAN IN JAMMU AND KASHMIR IN FOURTH MONTH STD/ ISD/ INTERNET BAN IN JAMMU AND KASHMIR IN FOURTH MONTH By Kousar Bukhari There are still no signs of withdrawal of the ban on STD/ ISD and Internet facilities in Jammu and Kashmir state which was ordered on January 1 this year. The government..
IN Opinion | 2002-06-02
The Indian Express, May 11, 2002 The Indian Express, May 11, 2002 Press and Prejudice Shekhar Gupta It is difficult to recall when the last time the media got such bad press within the ruling establishment was. Narasimha Rao, I.K. Gujral and H.D. Deve Gowda never complained too much about the media, probably because they were more realistic..
Reporters Sans Frontieres Red Card to Five World Cup Participant Countries
IN Media Freedom | 2002-06-02
Reporters Sans Frontieres Red Card to Five World Cup Participant Countries Reporters Sans Frontieres Red Card to Five World Cup Participant Countries The World Cup is football`s biggest celebration. We certainly don`t want to spoil it. But we have to note that five countries which have qualified are major enemies of human rights, democracy and..
WITHOUT YOUR OWN RESEARCH NO TIP-OFF IS WORTH IT
IN Opinion | 2002-06-02
INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM These four articles appeared in the Pioneer in the section Foray on June 10, 2001 WITHOUT YOUR OWN RESEARCH NO TIP-OFF IS WORTH IT ONE MAN`S LEAK IS ANOTHER MAN`S PLANT JOURNALISM DOES NOT NEED..
Worship in the Golden Temple to be telecast live worldwide
IN Opinion | 2002-06-02
o Kabul`s English newspaper looks for new editor Worship in the Golden Temple to be telecast live worldwide Defeatist mindset, un-professionalism plague Indian media Delhi Implements the Right to Information Act ..
KASHMIRI JOURNALISTS UNDER FIRE, LITERALLY
IN Media Freedom | 2002-06-01
New York, May 29, 2002-The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the shooting of Zafar Iqbal, a journalist for the Sirinig New York, May 29, 2002-The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the shooting of Zafar Iqbal, a journalist for the Sirinigar, Kashmir-based English-language daily Kashmir Images. Iqbal, who was shot by three unidentified assailants this afternoon,..
IN Media Practice | 2002-05-30
Storytelling , BBC style Storytelling , BBC style Western guys and their allies are good, alright sometimes driven to doing bad things, but it is those other guys who need some tracking. By S. Kanthimathi A regular listener of the BBC World Service, Newshour, sooner or later will catch on to the agenda. It is simple. Western guys and..
IN Media Practice | 2002-05-30
Making Impact Making Impact ? Impact is a big thing at India Today. Just look at the masthead - which, luckily for them, most readers don`t - and you`ll see how high-powered it is. By Vijay Nambisan Very few of us are in this profession purely out of love. We may love it and care for what..
IN Media Freedom | 2002-05-30
Targeted in Kashmir Targeted in Kashmir Shot at on May 29th, Zafar Iqbal is the latest in a series of media victims in Kashmir. If one goes back to the last 13 years, it is amply clear that journalists have suffered much on account of not only being present in Kashmir but also making the world..
Kabul weekly reappears after five years
IN Media Practice | 2002-05-27
Kabul weekly reappears after five years Kabul weekly reappears after five years New Delhi, Jan 29 (IANS) Five years after being driven out of existence by the Taliban, the independent Kabul Weekly..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2002-05-24
Not even sports Not even sports? Major world sports events, you could earlier assume, would be carried on India’s national broadcaster Doordarshan. Now DD is isn’t even able to deliver that, any more than it is able to deliver crucial parliament debates to its viewers. It didn’t acquire rights to World Cup football and is just showing..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2002-05-24
Advertising or what Advertising or what? After India Today’s Impact features you have Outlook’s Spotlight. Neither make it clear that the copy on these pages is essentially advertorial. Spotlight features eight pages of copy on industry leaders, calling it the Gilt-Edged Club. The advertisements on the opposite pages. are from the same companies. And the copy..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2002-05-24
Nuke mongering Nuke mongering India’s leading news magazines chose to fuel the hysteria over nuclear war by bringing out on the same weekend cover stories on the subject. India Today painted a scenario of the consequences, Outlook chose to tell us about Pakistan’s tactical low yield nukes which it could deploy if it started to lose a..
IN Regional Media | 2002-05-24
The Naxals and the Press The Naxals and the Press Their image-building strategy is carefully calibrated. They issue press notes, send letters to the editors of newspapers, respond to articles that appear in the press, and sometimes explain their position and apologise for excesses. By Sevanti Ninan Naxalites in Chattisgarh surface regularly to interact with the press The less..
Media thrives in Chattisgarh---or does it?
IN Regional Media | 2002-05-24
Media thrives in Chattisgarh---or does it Media thrives in Chattisgarh---or does it? This month Jansatta, the feisty Hindi newspaper of the Indian Express group makes its debut in Raipur, the capital of Chattisgarh. By Sevanti Ninan This month Jansatta, the feisty Hindi newspaper of the Indian Express group makes its debut in Raipur, the capital of Chattisgarh. That makes..
Instant analysis on TV is nothing but fluff
IN Media Practice | 2002-05-16
Instant analysis on TV is nothing but fluff Instant analysis on TV is nothing but fluff When General Musharraf was making his famous speech to the world in January, it was being "analysed" by TV anchors as he went along. What was the hurry, guys? Want to solve the tangled Indo-Pak imbroglio in one hectic evening? By Manjula..
IN Media Practice | 2002-05-16
Ducking ABC Ducking ABC India`s biggest publications do not have their circulations listed by the Audit Bureau of Circulations. By The Hoot Desk India`s biggest publications do not have their circulations listed by the Audit Bureau of Circulations. The country`s leading publications have ensured that the Audit Bureau of Circulations` bi-annual exercise of publishing circulation figures has..
Press freedom in peril in Pakistan
IN Media Freedom | 2002-05-16
Press freedom in peril in Pakistan Press freedom in peril in Pakistan A journalist never knows who his enemy is. He never knows when and by whom he could be stabbed in the back - by the establishment, local administration, qabza group, drug mafia, criminal mafia, or any other mafia By Mohammad Shehzad On July 5, 1977, the..
Finding A Place For Themselves
IN Media Practice | 2002-05-13
Finding A Place For Themselves Finding A Place For Themselves By Sushmita Malviya Women in the metro cities may have touched the heights of mainstream journalism, but the situation of women journalists in the Hindi belt would have one believe that there is no such thing as a ¿professional woman journalist¿. Across most of..
Taming the press in Bangladesh
IN Media Freedom | 2002-05-13
Taming the press in Bangladesh Taming the press in Bangladesh The latest effort at taming the fourth estate is a bill to restrict the media from publishing reports about certain matters of parliament. By Saleem Samad In Bangladesh during the decade of democracy (1991-2001), the press experienced brutal violence leading to death and maiming. The perpetrators of the violence..
Patrika-Bhaskar competition leads to localisation, commercialisation in Rajastha
IN Regional Media | 2002-05-07
Patrika-Bhaskar competition leads to localisation, commercialisation in Rajasthan Patrika-Bhaskar competition leads to localisation, commercialisation in Rajasthan India`s newspaper revolution has been spurred on by rivalries such as the one in Rajasthan. And its most striking outcome has been localisation of dailies that used to publish only out of state capitals. By Sevanti Ninan Never underestimate the power of going..
18 journalists attacked by BNP and Jamaat-e Islami activists in Bangladesh
IN Media Freedom | 2002-05-06
18 journalists attacked by BNP and Jamaat-e Islami activists in Bangladesh 18 journalists attacked by BNP and Jamaat-e Islami activists in Bangladesh BCDJC and RSF ask the Bangladesh Prime Minister to do something about this post-election violence. Since the large electoral victory of the alliance which was built around the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, opposition journalists have been victims..
IN Media Freedom | 2002-05-06
From The News, Pakistan, 9 November 2001 From The News, Pakistan, 9 November 2001 http://www.jang-group.com/thenews/index.html SOMETHING MISSING by Kavita Menon The large number of foreign journalists who have descended on this country so uncomfortably close to the frontlines of the war in neighbouring Afghanistan is simply not large enough. That may seem like a strange statement to make..
Saarc Summit: Bangladesh Press Watchdog Joint Statemnnt
IN Media Freedom | 2002-05-06
Saarc Summit: Bangladesh Press Watchdog Joint Statemnnt Saarc Summit: Bangladesh Press Watchdog Joint Statemnnt Effort needed to ensure independent press among south Asian nations The press watchdog of Bangladesh welcome the summit of the heads of states of South Asia at Kathmandu, capital of Nepal during 4 6 January 2002. Also wish to..
JOURNALISTS PETITION FOR RELEASE OF WSJ REPORTER
IN Media Freedom | 2002-05-05
JOURNALISTS PETITION FOR RELEASE OF WSJ REPORTER JOURNALISTS PETITION FOR RELEASE OF WSJ REPORTER Daniel Pearl has been missing in Pakistan since January 23. Appeal to Captors for his Release. New York, January 31, 2002 - The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is distributing the following appeal issued today by a leading group of..
Mani Ratnams problematic take on adoption
IN Media Practice | 2002-05-03
Mani Ratnams problematic take on adoption Mani Ratnams problematic take on adoption The noted filmmaker has taken up the subject of adoption only to orphan it at the altar of commercial concerns. By Lalitha Sridhar Mani Ratnam`s newest film "Kannathil Muthamittal" (loosely translated, a kiss on the cheek) is anything but. The noted filmmaker has taken up the subject of..
Editors Guild Fact Finding Mission Report
IN Media Practice | 2002-05-03
Editors Guild Fact Finding Mission Report Editors Guild Fact Finding Mission Report As attempts have been made to shoot the messenger in Gujarat, a three-member team of senior journalists went to the state to investigate the role of the press. The complete report, without annexures. RIGHTS AND WRONGS Ordeal by Fire in the Killing Fields of Gujarat Editors..
IN Media Practice | 2002-05-02
Using Women, Unashamedly Using Women, Unashamedly By a correspondent Our modern media champions women¿s rights. Or does it? A woman¿s world seems to exist only on the face (and body) of it. Sex sells? Nah. That¿s old hat. They prefer selling sex now. And why, you don¿t even have to take a very close..
What Is A Good Womens Magazine?
IN Media Practice | 2002-04-27
What Is A Good Womens Magazine What Is A Good Womens Magazine? By Shefalee Vasudev Are women¿s magazines fulfilling mentors that enable us to become more capable women or do they make well-packaged "tokens" out of us? On a recent train journey back from Mumbai, I couldn¿t help noticing the undivided attention that the lady sitting next to..
IN Media Practice | 2002-04-23
Reporting on the enemy Reporting on the enemy Correspondents on both sides of the border describe what it is like to report from India and Pakistan. A saga of strict reciprocity and considerable frustration. By B. Muralidhar Reddy, Islamabad correspondent, The Hindu ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2002-04-23
Move it, woman Move it, woman The Moov ad on television is likely to get most women`s backs up: and they`re probably the product`s biggest users. A harried housewife is bombarded with requests from various members of the family, perfectly able-bodied individuals who could just as easily have run their own errands. Then comes the predictable twist..
IN Media Practice | 2002-04-23
Post Summit Introspection Post Summit Introspection The Indian Women’s Press Corp in Delhi had a discussion on what the relationship between the government and the media should be. What emerged was a series of observations on the drawbacks of both the government’s media handling, and the drawbacks of the media’s functioning, and its..
Insensitive scoops and devasted families
IN Media Practice | 2002-04-23
Insensitive scoops and devasted families Insensitive scoops and devasted families A newspaper scoop on the unsolved case of a dead journalist raises serious questions about harming the reputations of those who have survived her, particularly her child. The more one scrutinizes crime reporting, the more evident it becomes that some guidelines are needed on the way crime,..
Dateline North-East: Risky Business
IN Regional Media | 2002-04-23
Dateline North-East: Risky Business Dateline North-East: Risky Business To fully appreciate the conditions in which the media functions in the North-East, some standard terms have to be redefined. To fully appreciate the conditions in which the media functions in the North-East, some standard terms have to be redefined. Here is a glossary of some phrases journalists usually use in..
Scratched, but still in the groove
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2002-04-23
Scratched, but still in the groove Scratched, but still in the groove Those who were fans of A Date with You and Forces Request on All India Radio twenty years back will be surprised to learn that some things haven`t changed at all. . The same scratched western music records are still in the groove on..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2002-04-23
No relief funds No relief funds Catastrophes in this country normally see the media announcing relief funds with considerable promptness. The month long communal disturbances in Gujarat which have killed over 700, affected over a lakh people and seen many homes, businesses and properties destroyed, have not seen a single newspaper or TV channel start a relief fund..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2002-04-23
Bloodied hands Bloodied hands Post Godhra, hundreds of citizens were killed in police firing. Ministers holding important portfolios boasted in the media about the police killing in Gujarat, as if it was a norm. We saw Uma Bharti (in Big Fight, Rajdeep Sardesai-NDTV), Narendra Modi (interview with Sanjay Pugaliya-Zee News) and a minister in Gujarat cabinet (Khuli..
Why is a pogrom called a riot?
IN Media Practice | 2002-04-23
Why is a pogrom called a riot Why is a pogrom called a riot? Old journalistic usages have to be re-examined for the times we live in. Semantics became center stage again with George Bush`s use of the expression "collateral damage" to refer to civilian casualties in the war against Afghanistan. But while many of us in the..
No adivasi journalists in Jharkhand newspapers
IN Regional Media | 2002-04-23
No adivasi journalists in Jharkhand newspapers No adivasi journalists in Jharkhand newspapers The bottom line however is that there is a very important kind of journalism that is not getting done here, partly because of the absence of adivasis in the rank and file of newspapers and at the top. When the editor of Jharkhand`s leading daily hands..
Letters to Hoot: The Times of Indias response
IN Opinion | 2002-04-23
Letters to Hoot: The Times of Indias response Letters to Hoot: The Times of Indias response The Times says "the said content" does not reside at it’s site. LETTERS TO THE HOOT The Times of India responds This is with reference to your letter..
The ungreat Indian middle class and other stories
IN Media Practice | 2002-04-23
The ungreat Indian middle class and other stories The ungreat Indian middle class and other stories There are three things that the English liberal media in India abhors with a vengeance: majority Hindus, upper-caste Brahmins, burgeoning middle-class. There are three things that the English liberal media in India abhors with a vengeance. They come in no particular order and the..
IN Media Practice | 2002-04-22
A reporters dilemma A reporters dilemma A reporters dilemmaReporters Dilemma A reporters dilemma A reporters dilemma A reporters dilemmaReporters Dilemma Is there a way that we can report the brutality of communal riots and yet exercise ethical "restraint" which our unrestrained (and sometimes unethical) politicians often remind us of? If morality becomes a casualty..
Reporting Gujarat: what the Editors Guild found:
IN Opinion | 2002-04-22
Reporting Gujarat: what the Editors Guild found: Reporting Gujarat: what the Editors Guild found: While the team found the vernacular Press partly responsible for sowing the seeds of discord and helping the communal virus to spread fast, it had good words for the national Press and major TV networks Coverage on Gujarat carnage in both print and electronic media has..
IN Media Practice | 2002-04-22
Mourning and the medias bias Mourning and the medias bias The obscure media coverage extended to Vasant Moon`s death on April 1, 2002 is just another example of dalits being given inferior treatment Recently, Chandra Bhan Prasad wrote an excellent article pointing out the absence of dalit journalists. He lamented that from a population of over 205 dalits..
IN Media Practice | 2002-04-22
expected to conform to those notions expected to conform to those notions." He points out that it seems to people like him that the media has changed a great deal too. "There are different classes of media. One kind of class is dedicated. The other is into glamour and power broking. If you are..
To whom is the media accountable?
IN Media Practice | 2002-04-22
To whom is the media accountable To whom is the media accountable? It needs to be acknowledged that there are no effective institutional mechanisms which get invoked in bringing newspapers to their senses, if need be The answer to the question to whom is the media accountable is obvious. Since newspapers profess, -- and, profess assertively - that..
What Do Newspapers Mean To A Village?
IN Media Practice | 2002-04-22
What Do Newspapers Mean To A Village What Do Newspapers Mean To A Village? "If they start publishing potato, onion and garlic rates in newspapers every farmer will be interested in reading them" "If they start publishing potato, onion and garlic rates in newspapers every farmer will be interested in reading them." India`s newspaper revolution has ensured that these..
Domestic violence and the media
IN Media Practice | 2002-04-22
Domestic violence and the media Domestic violence and the media Day after day, the various channels churn out serials with doses of violence against women. While some portray subtle cases of abuse and violence, some others are alarmingly loud Day after day, the various channels churn out serials with doses of violence against women. While some portray subtle..
Covering Communal Violence: Some Norms And Lapses
IN Media Practice | 2002-04-22
Covering Communal Violence: Some Norms And Lapses Covering Communal Violence: Some Norms And Lapses Some norms of professional reporting juxtaposed with instances of what we saw of media coverage from the day the incident at Godhra occurred Extracts from RTNDA codes reprinted with permission from RTNDF website. COVERING COMMUNAL VIOLENCE: SOME NORMS AND LAPSES Television is a powerful medium..
Twelve ways the media misrepresents violence:
IN Media Practice | 2002-04-22
Twelve ways the media misrepresents violence: Twelve ways the media misrepresents violence: Where do the media go wrong in dealing with violence? This round-up gives us a start in understanding Where do the media go wrong in dealing with violence? This round-up gives us a start in understanding. Norwegian peace studies professor Johann Galtung has laid out 12 points..
The frenzied coverage of Natasha Singhs death
IN Media Practice | 2002-04-22
The frenzied coverage of Natasha Singhs death The frenzied coverage of Natasha Singhs death The coverage violated all norms. Isn`t the media travesty of her death our chance to acknowledge how urgently we need to change, asks her TV journalist friend, Sonia Verma. What precautions should be taken while covering a suicide? We present a few below, every one..
Six months after the Tehelka sting
IN Media Practice | 2002-04-19
Six months after the Tehelka sting Six months after the Tehelka sting Sevanti Ninan The Indian government brazens it out, while the dotcom which captured the imagination of the world is both financially beleagured, and on the defensive. In mid-September it will be six months from the day Tehelka.com broke the results of its Operation Westend..
IN Media Practice | 2002-04-19
Down, But Not Out Down, But Not Out The Hoot interviewed Tarun Tejpal, Chief Executive Officer of Tehelka.com on August 28, 2001. On Tehelka¿s investigations The Hoot : Earlier your plan was you would do one major investigation a year. TT : I think over the next one year everyone will realise the complete cleanness of our credentials, the sweep..
STD/Internet ban in Kashmir in its fourth month
IN Media Freedom | 2002-04-19
STD/Internet ban in Kashmir in its fourth month STD/Internet ban in Kashmir in its fourth month STD/Inter STD/Internet ban in Kashmir in its fourth month STD/Internet ban in Kashmir in its fourth month STD/Internet ban in Kashmir in its fourth month The withdrawal of these facilities have badly affected the economy of the state besides causing enormous..
Television Ratings-Will the Industry Scare Help Focus on the Real Issues?
IN Media Practice | 2002-04-19
TRPs could be more accurate than what the system reflects now TRPs could be more accurate than what the system reflects now. In the wake of revelations over the confidentiality of the lists, hastening the merger will help, and in any can both agencies now need to work in tandem to restore the credibility of..
Dishonest reporting or accurate and balanced?
IN Media Practice | 2002-04-19
Dishonest reporting or accurate and balanced Dishonest reporting or accurate and balanced? New Delhi Television counters criticism of Star News reporting of the Naga exodus from Manipur, but ignores the charges on the visuals. Pradip Phanjoubam Editor, Imphal Free Press Ayesha Kagal, ..
Australian Sikhs Outraged at Media Distortion
IN Media Practice | 2002-04-18
Australian Sikhs Outraged at Media Distortion Australian Sikhs Outraged at Media Distortion Paritosh Prasher Indo-Asian News Service Sydney, Sep 16 (IANS) A front-page photograph in the tabloid The Sydney Daily Telegraph depicting a Sikh with a screaming headline "First Arrest!" has outraged the local Sikh community. Several Sikh organizations have expressed their disgust at the "misrepresentation" of the..
Where are the dalit journalists?
IN Media Practice | 2002-04-18
Where are the dalit journalists Where are the dalit journalists?</headline> Why is it that from a population of over 205 million Dalits, roughly equivalent to the combined population of France, UK, and Germany, there is not a single Dalit with a press card in the main stream media? Some five years back, on November 16, 1996 to..
Keralas Marxist-promoted TV channel sacks about 60 employees
IN Media Practice | 2002-04-18
Keralas Marxist-promoted TV channel sacks about 60 employees Keralas Marxist-promoted TV channel sacks about 60 employees A political party which vehemently fought retrenchment and privatisation in state-run companies is now letting the media company it promoted jettison staff on account of faction fights and mounting losses. The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) and the Kairali TV channel promoted by..
Infowar Laden Played it First then America took over
IN Media Practice | 2002-04-18
publicity-seeker publicity-seeker. After all, it had also helped him save his life from the many attempts on it by CIA covert operations. Already, by that time, they were trying to figure out the message in another piece of information that had come a week earlier: Laden had named Jumma Mamangani, a Uzbeki commander of the Muslim Army..
CNN Chief Orders Balance in War News-Washington Post
IN Media Practice | 2002-04-18
NBC News Vice President Bill Wheatley took a similar tack, saying: "I¿d give the American public more credit, frankly NBC News Vice President Bill Wheatley took a similar tack, saying: "I¿d give the American public more credit, frankly. I¿m not sure it makes sense to say every single time you see any pictures from Afghanistan,..
How India coloured the British media map
IN Media Practice | 2002-04-18
How India coloured the British media map How India coloured the British media map London, Nov 18 (IANS) India is being sought out for a new place on the media map of Britain as what a senior editor called the "stabilising superpower" of the South Asian region. Media interest in Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee was a record high..
Women back in Bollywoods scheme of things
IN Media Practice | 2002-04-18
Tanuja Chandra, ready with yet another woman-oriented film after "Dushman" and "Sangharsh," said: "As a woman I`m sure of one Tanuja Chandra, ready with yet another woman-oriented film after "Dushman" and "Sangharsh," said: "As a woman I`m sure of one thing. I`ll make film about women protagonists only. Call it my determination or stubbornness, but that`s..
IN Media Practice | 2002-04-18
Soccer Mania on sports pages Soccer Mania on sports pages Why do Indian newspapers devote so much space to European soccer ? When Indians readers turn to the sports page of their daily newspapers, what do they expect to find? Cricket. And more cricket. The expectation is based on years of habit. Cricket has dominated the Indian press much in..
IN Media Practice | 2002-04-18
Beyond the baying for blood Beyond the baying for blood Alternative American voices advocating thought, not vengeance, are not being heard here. The mainstream media in India has largely failed to reflect the diversity of responses and analyses by people who are as American as those baying for blood. A few hours after the events of tragic Tuesday..
InternaItional journalists prepare to leave Pakistan
IN Media Practice | 2002-04-18
InternaItional journalists prepare to leave Pakistan InternaItional journalists prepare to leave Pakistan Islamabad, Sep 29 (IANS) Most international journalists who came to Pakistan in the hope of covering the U.S. retaliatory strike on Osama bid Laden`s bases in Afghanistan are preparing to pack their bags and leave, as they feel nothing was going to happen immediately. "I think there would..
IN Media Practice | 2002-04-18
Dont Justify Extremism Naidu Dont Justify Extremism Naidu Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu has called for media support for his government`s efforts to end Maoist extremism, saying violence cannot be justified in the name of any cause. Unhappy with journalists for projecting the extremist movement as a "socio-economic" issue, Naidu asked the media to emulate their counterparts..
Watching a show or watching an ad?
IN Media Practice | 2002-04-18
Watching a show or watching an ad Watching a show or watching an ad? Ekta Kapoor, producer of Kahani Ghar Ghar Ki and Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi on Star Plus, uses her daily soaps to promote her other productions as well. And the channel thinks this is perfectly acceptable. How far should a channel go..
Two Tamil magazines war over sandalwood smuggler
IN Media Practice | 2002-04-18
Two Tamil magazines war over sandalwood smuggler Two Tamil magazines war over sandalwood smuggler Chennai, Nov 18 (IANS) Two popular Tamil magazines are at war, thanks to accusations by elusive Indian sandalwood smuggler Veerappan who has just hit the headlines with a surprise offer to surrender. The weekly Naveena Netrikkan and its editor A.S. Mani have said Veerappan has charged..
The CNN footage posting and CNNs reply
IN Media Practice | 2002-04-18
The CNN footage posting and CNNs reply The CNN footage posting and CNNs reply The posting The Reply CNN USING 1991 FOOTAGE of celebrating Palistinians to manipulate you (english) by Marcio 10:32pm Wed..
Militant threats force journalists in Manipur to cease work
IN Media Practice | 2002-04-18
Militant threats force journalists in Manipur to cease work Militant threats force journalists in Manipur to cease work Guwahati, Sep 28 (IANS) An indefinite strike by journalists to protest attempts by separatists to muzzle media freedom in Manipur hit publication of daily newspapers for the second straight day Friday. "We shall meet later today to discuss the future..
IN Media Practice | 2002-04-17
Critic or Caveman Critic or Caveman? SAJA (South Asian Journalists Association) posts articles on the stir created by Tunku Vardarajan’s criticism of CNN’s Christiane Amanpour. Among other things, he called her a "fearless she-man". Vardarajan’s article may have delighted some in South Asia who have winced at the boo-boos Amanpour breezily makes when she is reporting from..
Kabul weekly reappears after five years
IN Media Practice | 2002-04-16
Kabul weekly reappears after five years Kabul weekly reappears after five years From Indo-Asian News Service New Delhi, Jan 29 (IANS) Five years after being driven out of existence by the..
Parliament pandemonium and the press
IN Media Practice | 2002-04-16
Parliament pandemonium and the press Parliament pandemonium and the press A Hoot special report by Shefalee Vasudev Is the press guilty of perpetuating a consistent negative image of rowdy, screaming parliamentarians or is the Parliament truly a house of disorder, where the decibel level always drowns the debates? The Issue At the recent special session of Parliament convened on November..
Rejecting Foreign Direct Investment In The Print Media pure Hypocrisy
IN Media Practice | 2002-04-16
Rejecting Foreign Direct Investment In The Print Media pure Hypocrisy Rejecting Foreign Direct Investment In The Print Media pure Hypocrisy If the Press in the country was bold enough to support every step in the liberalisation process, it must also be bold enough to allow the same in its house. Taking one stance when it is convenient..
IN Media Practice | 2002-04-16
Women in Times of Flux Women in Times of Flux By Malavika Karlekar A photographer documents social change, her visuals providing a convincing edge to statistics on child labour, women’s drudgery and the declining female sex ratio Photographs by Sarvesh The ..
IN Media Practice | 2002-04-16
Women, War And The Media Women, War And The Media By Ammu Joseph Did any one notice that women were missing from the gathering to select a new political order to replace the Taliban? Ever since the so-called U.S.-led/British-backed attack on Afghanistan began on 7 October, I have been vaguely conscious of a particular..
When the media lost touch with the pulse of the nation
IN Media Practice | 2002-04-16
Why doesn’t the media go out there and find out all the interesting things happening, to people Why doesn’t the media go out there and find out all the interesting things happening, to people ..
IN Media Practice | 2002-04-16
This, they say, has ill-served the cause of democracy, let alone commerce because neither can prosper in the absence of suitab This, they say, has ill-served the cause of democracy, let alone commerce because neither can prosper in the absence of suitable competition. The have-nots have also pointed to the asymmetry in the law as regards..
The role of the Media in the War against Terrorism
IN Media Practice | 2002-04-16
Journalism sourced to unnamed officials whose job in these circumstances is to manipulate the news has a history Journalism sourced to unnamed officials whose job in these circumstances is to manipulate the news has a history. Pick any one of `our` recent wars or slaughters and write down the `intelligence` and `diplomatic` lies that emerged..
IN Media Practice | 2002-04-16
Author PTI or Powell Author PTI or Powell? A (Curious Mix Of A) Little of What Was Said, And All That Wasn`t Part 1 American Secretary of State Colin Powell testified before the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations on February 5 making his pitch for his department`s 2002-03 budget. A PTI correspondent filed a copy on..
IN Media Practice | 2002-04-16
The people who have actually worked hard to put together the Dvaita FAQ are quite displeased at the Times of India`s chicanery The people who have actually worked hard to put together the Dvaita FAQ are quite displeased at the Times of India`s chicanery, and the newspaper`s moral turpitude rightly gives rise to questions about..
The Media And Laloos Jail Yatra
IN Media Practice | 2002-04-16
The Media And Laloos Jail Yatra The Media And Laloos Jail Yatra Former Bihar Chief Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav`s visit to Ranchi to surrender before the CBI Court in fodder scam case, became a major media event. For two days it appeared that some great leader was going to jail for a larger social goal like Gandhi’s..
An Unseen World How the Media Portrays the Poor
IN Media Practice | 2002-04-16
One reason for these changes has been the greatly increased competition for audiences following the rise of satellite and cabl One reason for these changes has been the greatly increased competition for audiences following the rise of satellite and cable channels. Combined with the onset of a free market from the 1980s and general television..
In an Indian catastrophe only the Indian news channels deliver
IN Media Practice | 2002-04-16
In an Indian catastrophe only the Indian news channels deliver In an Indian catastrophe only the Indian news channels deliver Indian news channels captured live the terror in parliament, international news channels were busy with Usama. Live TV unmasks face of terror for Indian millions By Rezaul H. Laskar ..
IN Media Practice | 2002-04-15
people from both sides people from both sides. I asked them their opinions about the events, the rumours being fuelled. People had a chance to convey their sentiments, express their feelings, their opinions. I showed visual clips of destroyed property. I took my video camera and went to Ravla Baria village, met local residents who..
IN Media Practice | 2002-04-15
When media begins to campaign When media begins to campaign Down To Earth Anil Agarwal and Sunita Narain Shot : The monsoon greeting card reminds Indians of the value of monsoons and rainfall Situated in the heart of the once proud and prosperous Malwa Plateau, the rapidly growing city of Indore, benefited by the waters of the Narmada,..
Bangladeshs Innovation Mukta Khabor
IN Media Practice | 2002-04-15
Bangladeshs Innovation Mukta Khabor Bangladeshs Innovation Mukta Khabor (Adapted from a paper presented by Fuad Choudhury, Ekushey Television, and based on an episode of Mukta Khabor) At 7 pm every Saturday Bangladesh tunes in to a news programme that is brisk, highly professional, heart warming and path-breaking. The anchors are a girl and..
JAILED MYANMAR JOURNALIST WINS WORLD PRESS FREEDOM PRIZE
IN Media Freedom | 2002-04-15
JAILED MYANMAR JOURNALIST WINS WORLD PRESS FREEDOM PRIZE JAILED MYANMAR JOURNALIST WINS WORLD PRESS FREEDOM PRIZE New Delhi, March 13 - The 2001 UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize was awarded to U Win Tin by UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura. The award was given on the recommendation of an international jury of 16 media professionals. U Win..
Reporting Gujarat: how objective was media coverage?
IN Opinion | 2002-04-15
Reprinted from The Chandigarh Tribune Reprinted from The Chandigarh Tribune Reporting Gujarat: how objective was media coverage? No balanced approach by vernacular dailies Gobind Thukral Coverage on Gujarat carnage in both print and electronic media has attracted immense attention. The issue had become so important the Editor`s Guild had to rush a team to make an on-the-spot assessment and..
PAKISTANS MEDIA FINDS ITS WINGS CLIPPED IN THE NEW MILLENNIUM
IN Media Freedom | 2002-04-14
Reprinted from Dawn, May 5, 2001 Reprinted from Dawn, May 5, 2001 PAKISTANS MEDIA FINDS ITS WINGS CLIPPED IN THE NEW MILLENNIUM According to the "State of the Media and Press Freedom Report Pakistan 2000-2001," journalists were found prone to self-censorship given that they work without constitutional protections or democratic safeguards. ISLAMABAD, May 4: The dawn of the new..
Walking a tight rope in Manipur
IN Media Freedom | 2002-04-14
about two decades ago, was bombed because an underground organization thought it was close to its rival about two decades ago, was bombed because an underground organization thought it was close to its rival. Most recently, the hopping courts (kangaroo courts) of two underground organizations took up a dispute in a College election and came..
IN Media Freedom | 2002-04-14
The trial, held within the prison for security reasons, was tense and emotional The trial, held within the prison for security reasons, was tense and emotional. On the day Younus was convicted, Islamic zealots outside the prison said the judge faced serious consequences if he failed to hand down the death penalty. "The judge was..
NEWS FROM THE COMMITTEE TO PROTECT JOURNALISTS
IN Media Freedom | 2002-04-14
Taliban officials have said that Ridley has been detained in a residential compound in Jalalabad and is being well treated, bu Taliban officials have said that Ridley has been detained in a residential compound in Jalalabad and is being well treated, but British officials have not had direct contact with her. Little is known..
BETWEEN THE PULL OF PATRIOTISM AND SELF CENSORSHIP
IN Media Freedom | 2002-04-14
Monde in New York, on 17 September 2001 Monde in New York, on 17 September 2001. In fact today, while countries throw themselves into a fresh military operation, the vigilance of organisations defending human rights and individual freedoms are all the more needed. A number of regimes find the temptation too great to exploit the genuine..
News from the Committee to Protect Journalists
IN Media Freedom | 2002-04-14
News from the Committee to Protect Journalists News from the Committee to Protect Journalists INDIA : Vineet Narain contempt trial postponed New York, August 10, 2001-Yesterday`s scheduled contempt of court case against journalist Vineet Narain has been postponed due to violence in Jammu and Kashmir State, the trial venue. It is not known when the next..
JAYALALITHAS LATESTNO ACCESS FOR MEDIA INSIDE TAMILNADU ASSEMBLY
IN Media Freedom | 2002-04-14
When over a 100 journalists protested and courted arrest, he was released When over a 100 journalists protested and courted arrest, he was released. The next day, June 30, Mr Karunanidhi`s arrest took place. During this pre-dawn arrest police took into custody a group of media persons in front of the CB-CID office and released..
THREATS TO PRESS FREEDOM IN BANGLADESH INDIA AND SRI LANKA
IN Media Freedom | 2002-04-14
THREATS TO PRESS FREEDOM IN BANGLADESH INDIA AND SRI LANKA THREATS TO PRESS FREEDOM IN BANGLADESH INDIA AND SRI LANKA As World Press Freedom Day approaches (May 3) there is enough evidence from around the sub-continent that the profession is under threat in practicing free and fair journalism. Recent incidents in Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka underline..
TENUOUS DEMOCRACY TENUOUS PRESS FREEDOM IN NEPAL
IN Media Freedom | 2002-04-14
What is becoming alarmingly clear is how thin the democratic veneer and the institution of a free press and peoples right to k What is becoming alarmingly clear is how thin the democratic veneer and the institution of a free press and peoples right to know is in Nepal . DOCUMENT AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL`S APPEAL FOR ARRESTED NEPALI..
PRESS FREEDOM BRIEFS FROM THE SUBCONTINENT
IN Media Freedom | 2002-04-14
PRESS FREEDOM BRIEFS FROM THE SUBCONTINENT PRESS FREEDOM BRIEFS FROM THE SUBCONTINENT News from India Pakistan and Bangladesh INDIA Another contempt of court case, this time against the editor of Kalchakra Letter to the Prime Minister of India Your Excellency, The Committee to Protect Journalists and Human Rights Watch are writing jointly to protest the prosecution of Vineet Narain, founding editor of..
A NEW WAVE OF VIOLENCE HITS THE PRESS IN BANGLADESH
IN Media Freedom | 2002-04-14
A NEW WAVE OF VIOLENCE HITS THE PRESS IN BANGLADESH A NEW WAVE OF VIOLENCE HITS THE PRESS IN BANGLADESH In a letter addressed today to Mohammad Nasim, minister of Home Affairs in Bangladesh, Reporters Sans Frontières (Reporters Without Borders - RSF), expressed concern about the new wave of violence against the press, and notably about the implication..
Bangladesh Television embarrasses the government with its black out
IN Media Freedom | 2002-04-14
Bangladesh Television embarrasses the government with its black out Bangladesh Television embarrasses the government with its black out The Bangladesh government has reprimanded officials of the tate-owned Bangladesh Television (BTV) and punished others for lapses in reporting a violent bomb explosion last month. A bomb blast which causes 22 deaths and injured a 100 was ignored..
A journalist arrested for possessing banned publications
IN Media Freedom | 2002-04-14
75009 Paris 75009 Paris ..
Gujarat tries to bring press under consumer laws then backs off
IN Media Freedom | 2002-04-14
Gujarat tries to bring press under consumer laws then backs off Gujarat tries to bring press under consumer laws then backs off Late last week Gujarat`s minister of consumer affairs announced a move that smacked of an effort to gag the press in the state. But it resulted in such a storm, particularly by the political opposition..
IN Books | 2002-04-13
A study done by the Centre for Advocacy and Research in Delhi A study done by the Centre for Advocacy and Research in Delhi Tv And My Child MOTHERS REFLECT This Delhi study released in the last week of May shows that children in the city watch as much as 10 hours of television a..
18 journalists attacked by BNP and Jamaat e Islami activists in Bangladesh
IN Media Freedom | 2002-04-13
journalist lodged a complaint and asked the police to insure his protection journalist lodged a complaint and asked the police to insure his protection. According to the reporter, undamentalists reproached him for his critical articles. On 6 October, JCD activists occupied the office of Kaliakoir press club. They hung a sign board: "City branch of the JCD"...
IN Media Practice | 2002-04-13
HANDMAIDENS OF POLITICS HANDMAIDENS OF POLITICS The Indian state of Tamilnadu is becoming a classic case study of media bias. Sun TV and Jaya TV do not hide their compulsions at all. That they serve the interests of the DMK and the AIADMK is well known. But the fourth estate as a whole..
SAARC SUMMIT BANGLADESH PRESS WATCHDOG JOINT STATEMENT
IN Media Freedom | 2002-04-13
SAARC SUMMIT BANGLADESH PRESS WATCHDOG JOINT STATEMENT SAARC SUMMIT BANGLADESH PRESS WATCHDOG JOINT STATEMENT Effort needed to ensure independent press among south Asian nations The press watchdog of Bangladesh welcome the summit of the heads of states of South Asia at Kathmandu, capital of Nepal during 4 6 January 2002. Also wish to raise the political commitment..
How many journalists were actually killed in 2001?
IN Media Freedom | 2002-04-13
How many journalists were actually killed in 2001 How many journalists were actually killed in 2001? Press Freedom organizations came up with disparate figures for the number of journalists killed in the year just gone by. Thirty one says Reporters Sans Frontiere (RSF), 100 says the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), 53 says the International Press Institute (IPI)..
IN Media Freedom | 2002-04-13
SOMETHING MISSING SOMETHING MISSING From The News, Pakistan, 9 November 2001 http://www.jang-group.com/thenews/index.html The large number of foreign journalists who have descended on this country so uncomfortably close to the frontlines of the war in neighbouring Afghanistan is simply not large enough. That may seem like a strange statement to make about a place that has been dubbed Journalistan for..
Bangla journalist arrested under special powers act
IN Media Freedom | 2002-04-13
Bangla journalist arrested under special powers act Bangla journalist arrested under special powers act In a letter addressed to the Home Minister, Altaf Hossain Chowdhury, Reporters Without Borders (RSF Reporters sans Frontières) asks for the immediate release of journalist Shaharier Kabir, detained for "possessing inflammatory information which can jeopardise the stability of the country." RSF..
PRESS COUNCIL OF INDIAS REPORT ON FAVOURS TO JOURNALISTS
IN Media Practice | 2002-04-13
PRESS COUNCIL OF INDIAS REPORT ON FAVOURS TO JOURNALISTS The Press Council of India has held that Government accommodation, concessional land, free air tickets and company shares being given to journalists, news agencies and newspaper establishments and owners would amount to `undue favours`. The Council, which undertook a comprehensive study on the subject between 1985 and 1995, held that..
Grief Vultures at the Kathmandu palace
IN Media Practice | 2002-04-13
A version of this article appeared in Nepal Times Weekly A version of this article appeared in Nepal Times Weekly Grief Vultures at the Kathmandu palace I have seen `hungry` shutterbugs before... but always a respectable distance from people in sorrow. But the `grief` vultures present that day displayed no sense of propriety, or respect for..
IN Media Practice | 2002-04-13
UNUSED RUSHES UNUSED RUSHES An occasional column on what the media sometimes holds back Where Can I Contact You?(new) Hinglish, as she is spoke Life as a small..
IN Media Practice | 2002-04-13
A Media Ethics Quiz A Media Ethics Quiz 1 Its 8.30 pm and your reporter has just..
INFORMATION WAR MEDIA A VICTIM OR A TOOL?
IN Books | 2002-04-13
· A quantitative analysis of a cross section of newspapers to measure the thrust, importance, and space given to the Kargil crisis. To systematically content-analyze qualitatively to look at biases and slants and the extent ..
KASHMIR HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE INDIAN PRESS
IN Books | 2002-04-13
government posture on the issue government posture on the issue. However, the same writer, in the very same newspaper quotes almost verbatim the US Department of State`s 1991 Human Rights Report which strongly criticises the situation in Pakistan.16 Indeed, this State Department report has been extensively quoted by all the three newspapers in this study in..
Reporting the Naval Chiefs sackingA Case of Media Manipulation
IN Books | 2002-04-13
HOW THE INDIAN PRESS COVERED THE SACKING OF HOW THE INDIAN PRESS COVERED THE SACKING OF ADMIRAL BHAGWAT Now that arms lobbies in the defence establishment are back in the news, we feature an unpublished monitoring study on the press coverage of the sacking of Admiral Bhagwat in December 1998. A Naval Chief was sacked..
TELEVISION COVERAGE OF EARTHQUAKE SHARING THE VIEWERS PERSPECTIVE
IN Books | 2002-04-13
It did not entirely address the sense of hopelessness and despair that had got ingrained in their minds It did not entirely address the sense of hopelessness and despair that had got ingrained in their minds. It is in this context that a large section of people felt that the quality of coverage was not entirely commendable...
Former minister accuses Kumaratunga of attacks on journalists
IN Media Freedom | 2002-04-13
Former minister accuses Kumaratunga of attacks on journalists Former minister accuses Kumaratunga of attacks on journalists Colombo, Nov 6 (IANS) A former Sri Lankan minister, accused by President Chandrika Kumaratunga of plotting to kill newspaper editors, parried the charge by saying she had been privy to plans to murder journalists. Former parliamentary affairs minister S.B...
IN Media Practice | 2002-04-13
Useful Links Useful Links For Favours Received, article by Coomi Kapoor, Indian Express How the ruling establishment manipulates the media in India. www.expressindia.com/ie/daily/20000531/ied31043.htm/ Is There Room for Poverty in the Media? By P Sainath. www.cs.wisc.edu/'param/asha/info/404877.html ..
WHEN THE PEN IS MIGHTIER THAN THE SWORD
IN Media Practice | 2002-04-12
When the pen is mightier than the sword When the pen is mightier than the sword There is one thing that is not taught in any school of journalism and yet, is a subject of vital concern. And that is a certain sensitivity towards the feelings of those who are written about. A reporting career comes..
To whom is the media accountable
IN Media Practice | 2002-04-12
On March 21, 2002 the Media Foundation held a panel discussion at the India International Centre in Delhi to mark th On March 21, 2002 the Media Foundation held a panel discussion at the India International Centre in Delhi to mark the first anniversary of The Hoot.org. What follows is a presentation made that evening..
Buying children in Orissa A valid way to focus on starvation
IN Media Practice | 2002-04-12
Buying children in Orissa A valid way to focus on starvation Buying children in Orissa A valid way to focus on starvation Did the Hindustan Times¿ purchase of two children from Bolangir benefit the children or the Hindustan Times, asks a critic. The paper¿s correspondent says, sensationalizing an issue is better than not..
SCINDIA PHOOLAN DEVI AND THE MEDIA
IN Media Practice | 2002-04-12
A journalist who headed the business desk of a daily proudly said that all his personal flights were sponsored by a private ai A journalist who headed the business desk of a daily proudly said that all his personal flights were sponsored by a private airliner. He saw nothing wrong in this ‘arrangement’. He gladly..
WHATEVER HAPPENED TO JOURNALISTIC RIGOUR?
IN Media Practice | 2002-04-12
WHATEVER HAPPENED TO JOURNALISTIC RIGOUR WHATEVER HAPPENED TO JOURNALISTIC RIGOUR?</headline> Have journalistic norms become a casualty of the pace of change in mass media? Many media persons seem to have abdicated their responsibility, suggesting that you should mechanically do your job and not bother your head about journalistic ethics, commitment, quality or - perish the thought -..
IN Media Practice | 2002-04-12
A REPORTERS DILEMMA A REPORTERS DILEMMA If morality becomes a casualty in pursuing one`s work, it is a big price to pay. Perhaps morality is too strong a word. Yet, most of us now feel, there is an increasing gap between what the media is expected to do and what it is doing. After the Gujarat..
IN Media Practice | 2002-04-12
bodies were taken around the city in a macabre celebration of "people power" bodies were taken around the city in a macabre celebration of "people power". Even as this happened, in broad daylight, Kathmandu residents by the thousands chose to watch and not intervene. In 1992, this writer had asked, "What is it that allows people..
INDO PAK DOCUMENTATION (PAKISTAN)
IN Media Practice | 2002-04-12
INDO PAK DOCUMENTATION (PAKISTAN) INDO PAK DOCUMENTATION (PAKISTAN) PAKISTAN Dawn May 25 Editoria l: Invitation for talks AT LONG last, India has done what it should have done long ago - invite Pakistan for talks on issues of difference. While Islamabad has said it will respond positively to the invitation, two significant points in the Indian external affairs minister`s statement need..
IN Media Practice | 2002-04-12
which the message seems to be specifically addressed, knows enough about what is going on in Kashmir as well as Pakistan to ha which the message seems to be specifically addressed, knows enough about what is going on in Kashmir as well as Pakistan to have misgivings about the move not to further extend the..
IN Books | 2002-04-12
The monitoring study was jointly conducted by a group of researchers in close association with an audience panel The monitoring study was jointly conducted by a group of researchers in close association with an audience panel. The researchers were involved in designing the project which included determining sample size, evolving the monitoring format, and the methodology..
IN Opinion | 2002-04-12
Media On Media BENDS AND MEANS PIMPING IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST TELESCOPE / BOX POPULI PRIME TIME FOR RESURRECTION THE EXUBERANT MEDIA IS THE MEDIA A FORCE MULTIPLIER OR A NUISANCE? NONE SO BLIAFTER THE EXPOSE ND AS THOSE..
IN Opinion | 2002-04-12
blazing, orange light dashed across the entire length of the horizon at what see-med like the speed of light blazing, orange light dashed across the entire length of the horizon at what see-med like the speed of light. The skies crackled with the sharp piercing electrical sound of rockets taking off, one after the..
A hearing for India’s rural tehelkas
IN Media Practice | 2002-04-11
A hearing for India’s rural tehelkas A hearing for India’s rural tehelkas Extracted from The Indian Express, New Delhi, April 12, 2001 By Ajit Bhattacharjea Director, Press Institute of India A right to information movement in a small corner of Rajasthan, unveils a mind-boggling scale of corruption TRAVELLING through the arid, undulating land around Beawar in south Rajasthan is like..
The Media Foundation Which Runs The Hoot Has Published:Women in Journalism Makin
IN Media Practice | 2002-04-11
The Media Foundation Which Runs The Hoot Has Published:Women in Journalism Making News The Media Foundation Which Runs The Hoot Has Published:Women in Journalism Making News WRITTEN BY AMMU JOSEPH The Book The last decade of the millennium has been an eventful one for the media in India. The spurt in the number and visibility..
THE PRESS IN NEPAL IS NOT OTHERWISE MUZZLED
IN Media Practice | 2002-04-11
broadsheets have expanded reach dramatically in the last decade of press freedom, putting the party-affiliated weekly tabloids broadsheets have expanded reach dramatically in the last decade of press freedom, putting the party-affiliated weekly tabloids in a bit of shade. Meanwhile, there is the very successful world of independent FM radio stations, now nearly a dozen..
TWO VIEWS FROM PAKISTAN ON THE MEDIA AND THE SUMMIT
IN Media Practice | 2002-04-11
the backdrop of the pre-summit hype and back home would have been a tough act to explain the backdrop of the pre-summit hype and back home would have been a tough act to explain. Musharraf has been spared the predicament of defending another Tashkent. From his point of view, and no doubt Pakistan`s, far better..
IN Media Practice | 2002-04-11
A MEDIA READER ON SRI LANKA A MEDIA READER ON SRI LANKA The Sunday Times, Columbo August 5, 2001 GOVT, EDITORS TO DRAFT CHARTER ON WAR REPORTING The Government and The Editors Guild have agreed to formulate a charter that would provide a set of guidelines to govern future reporting of the on-going separatist insurgency in place of censorship on..
Enemy Images on Pakistan Television
IN Media Practice | 2002-04-11
www www.peacemonger.com ..
IN Media Practice | 2002-04-11
A SRI LANKAN PERSPECTIVE A SRI LANKAN PERSPECTIVE Editorial from The Sunday Times, Columbo September 16 WAR ON TERRORISM Though the simplest definition of terrorism ought to be "one who uses terror against another,`` that basic definition doesn`t come anywhere near capturing the essential meaning of terrorism in the world today. Terrorist acts leave not just physical debris, but also in their..
Draft protocol urges free movement of South Asian journalists
IN Media Practice | 2002-04-11
Draft protocol urges free movement of South Asian journalists Draft protocol urges free movement of South Asian journalists Prior to the 11th summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) held in Kathmandu in the first week of January, journalists from the subcontinent gathered under the aegis of the South Asian Free Media Conference (SAFMA)..
IN Media Practice | 2002-04-11
foreign correspondents write foreign correspondents write. It must be said to the credit of the Musharraf government that it has not put any restrictions on what they write. Only twice I got a polite call from the External Publicity Division. Once it was an objection to the headline of a report and the second time..
IN Media Practice | 2002-04-11
Some useful links Some useful links www.transparency.de/documents/work-papers/martin-feldman/index-html www.humanrightsinitiative.org/RTI/rti1.htm www.epw.org-in/35-3536/comm4.htm ..
TEXT OF PAKISTANS DRAFT FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ORDINANCE 2000
IN Media Practice | 2002-04-11
TEXT OF PAKISTANS DRAFT FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ORDINANCE 2000 TEXT OF PAKISTANS DRAFT FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ORDINANCE 2000 "A DRAFT ORDINANCE to provide for transparency and freedom of information. WHEREAS it is expedient to provide for transparency and freedom for information to ensure that the citizens of Pakistan have improved access to public records and for the purpose to..
INDIAS FREEDOM OF INFORMATION BILL 2000
IN Media Practice | 2002-04-11
(c) any other matter which is required to be, or maybe, prescribed; Provided that first rules shall be made by the Central Gov (c) any other matter which is required to be, or maybe, prescribed; Provided that first rules shall be made by the Central Government by notification in the Official Gazette. Rule making power by..
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION IMPERATIVE FOR FREEDOM OF PRESS
IN Media Practice | 2002-04-11
In conclusion, it must be reiterated that the freedom of press and information are fundamental to healthy working of a democra In conclusion, it must be reiterated that the freedom of press and information are fundamental to healthy working of a democracy and therefore, must coexist with the freedom of speech and expression. At the..
HASINA STOPS SHORT OF FULL AUTONOMY FOR RADIO AND TV
IN Law and Policy | 2002-04-10
HASINA STOPS SHORT OF FULL AUTONOMY FOR RADIO AND TV HASINA STOPS SHORT OF FULL AUTONOMY FOR RADIO AND TV In a pre-election bid to fulfil a 1996 election promise, Shiekh Hasina`s cabinet approves laws that redefine government control of radio and television rather than seek to eliminate it. Bangladesh is holding a general election..
THE COMMUNICATION CONVERGENCE BILL 2000
IN Law and Policy | 2002-04-10
CHAPTER V CHAPTER V POWERS, DUTIES AND FUNCTIONS OF THE COMMISSION 20. Powers, duties and functions of the Commission. 21. Codes and Standards 22.Hearing of complaints and resolution of disputes by the Commission in certain cases 23. Directives by the Central Government. CHAPTER VI FREQUENCY SPECTRUM MANAGEMENT 24. Spectrum Management Committee 25. Commission to notify schemes for assignment of spectrum CHAPTER..
IN Law and Policy | 2002-04-10
any body to try and provide a standardised definition of these dynamic, evolving facets of our diverse and plural society any body to try and provide a standardised definition of these dynamic, evolving facets of our diverse and plural society. 6) The composition of the commission is important if it is to create the right..
A BRIEF OVERVIEW OF SOME LAWS RELATING TO MEDIA
IN Law and Policy | 2002-04-10
Anyone who by words, signs or representation Anyone who by words, signs or representation * Promotes disharmony or feelings of enmity among religious groups, castes or communities * Commits an act which is prejudicial to maintaining harmony between religions, caste or community groups * Organises exercise, movement or activity to train people to use violence..
MRTPC versus satellite TV channels, versus cable operators, versus consumers
IN Law and Policy | 2002-04-10
MRTPC versus satellite TV channels, versus cable operators, versus MRTPC versus satellite TV channels, versus cable operators, versus consumers i Without regulation in place, the MRTPC`s efforts to restrict satellite TV channels from increasingly their subscription rates arbitrarily will get nowhere. The problem with governments and broadcast policy is that the former always talks about the latter but..
THE PREVENTION OF TERRORISM ORDINANCE, 2001
IN Law and Policy | 2002-04-10
THE PREVENTION OF TERRORISM ORDINANCE, 2001 THE PREVENTION OF TERRORISM ORDINANCE, 2001 The articles which cause concern DISCLOSURE OF INFORMATION Section 3(8) places responsibility on all persons to disclose information which the person knows or believes to be of material assistance in preventing any terrorist activity as soon as reasonably practicable to the police. However, exception has been..
POTO: What Exactly is A Citizen?
IN Law and Policy | 2002-04-10
POTO: What Exactly is A Citizen POTO: What Exactly is A Citizen? In the growing firestorm around the Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance (POTO), there has been much discussion about the rights of journalists and access to sources. Despite some claims by Law Minister Arun Jaitley and Minister for Disinvestment Arun Shourie, few outside the government seem to..
10 Reasons Why FDI Should Be Allowed In Print Media
IN Law and Policy | 2002-04-10
* Americanization of mass culture worldwide is bad enough * Americanization of mass culture worldwide is bad enough. * Blatant interference by media groups in politics. E.g.: Murdoch in UK politics. - Reasons mentioned by the Times of India editorial on 20 Nov 2000 "There is nothing the average reader would gain by allowing foreign..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2002-04-09
Haunting green eyes Haunting green eyes National Geographic Channel`s "Search for the Afghan Girl", telecast on Sunday 24th night, seemed to be one more case of the media making itself the story. The promos kept telling us that it was an extraordinary story of how the green-eyed girl in a Peshawar refugee camp featured..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2002-04-09
Haunting green eyes Haunting green eyes National Geographic Channel`s "Search for the Afghan Girl", telecast on Sunday 24th night, seemed to be one more case of the media making itself the story. The promos kept telling us that it was an extraordinary story of how the green-eyed girl in a Peshawar refugee camp featured..
Pakistan expells Indian Journalist
IN Media Freedom | 2002-04-09
Indian journalists have publicly "insulted" the Pakistani Head of State and do not deserve to Indian journalists have publicly "insulted" the Pakistani Head of State and do not deserve to ..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 2002-04-09
Anything for viewership Anything for viewership Perhaps Channel |V|`s search for Popstars, the reality show aiming to set up a band a la Spice Girls, is not getting enough viewership. So the humorous promo line "Kiska Band Bajega" is being helped along with spicier, more suggestive lines now. As in " Twentyfour of the..
A Network of Women in the Media
IN Media Practice | 2002-04-08
Reprinted with permission from the Indian Express,Sunday Magazine, February 10, 2002 Reprinted with permission from the Indian Express,Sunday Magazine, February 10, 2002 A Network of Women in the Media ``I wasn¿t paid for three months. When I asked my editor, he said `the municipal elections are due, you will be getting money from the candidates anyway.¿¿ ``Can..
ENGLISH JOURNALISM, LUCKNOW STYLE
IN Regional Media | 2002-04-08
ENGLISH JOURNALISM, LUCKNOW STYLE ENGLISH JOURNALISM, LUCKNOW STYLE This is about the English media in Lucknow. It is not pegged to the UP polls in particular, for the simple reason that the English language press is not taken too seriously in the city. And also because most of UP`s key constituencies/rallies are covered by journalists from Delhi,..
Dateline North-East: Risky Business
IN Regional Media | 2002-04-06
Dateline North-East: Risky Business To fully appreciate the conditions in which the media functions in the North-East, some standard terms have to be redefined. Here is a glossary of some phrases journalists usually use in other contexts. Going out on an assignment: Being blindfolded and taken to an underground militant`s group hideout. If it`s the HQ deep..
IN Media Practice | 2002-04-06
personal interaction personal interaction! To the best of my knowledge Foreign Minister, Jaswant Singh has not given a single interview to a Pakistani reporter. Officials here at various levels in fact go out of their way to help in obtaining all the information routed through the `proper channels`. You are informed of all the important briefings...
NO ADIVASI JOURNALISTS IN JHARKHAND NEWSPAPERS
IN Regional Media | 2002-04-06
NO ADIVASI JOURNALISTS IN JHARKHAND NEWSPAPERS When the editor of Jharkhand`s leading daily hands out photocopies of articles written about his newspaper you can be sure they will include some about the adivasi journalists who have won awards from the region. They have written from time to time for Prabhat Khabar, and the paper is..
CONGRESS JOINS THE FOURTH ESTATE, IN TIME FOR GOA POLLS
IN Regional Media | 2002-04-06
CONGRESS JOINS THE FOURTH ESTATE, IN TIME FOR GOA POLLS PANAJI, Goa. Mar 22: Guess who`s taken up the job of investigative journalism in Goa these days? None other than the former ruling Congress party. It accuses the Goa Governor and CM Manohar Parrikar of abusing the constitution, Parrikar of cheating his own Cabinet colleagues,..
Media Violence and its Impact on Children A Five-City Study by CFAR January to
IN Media Practice | 2002-04-06
Media Violence and its Impact on Children A Five-City Study by CFAR January to August 2001 What do you think about horror shows? "Ghosts are there, dead people get alive again, the ghost`s spirit enters into the body of good people". "They appear in our dreams". "It can happen in reality, if it does,..
Press Council Of Indias Report On Favours To Journalists
IN Media Practice | 2002-04-04
Press Council Of Indias Report On Favours To Journalists Press Council Of Indias Report On Favours To Journalists The Press Council of India has held that Government accommodation, concessional land, free air tickets and company shares being given to journalists, news agencies and newspaper establishments and owners would amount to ¿undue favours¿. The Council, which undertook..
Former minister accuses Kumaratunga of attacks on journalists
IN Media Freedom | 2002-04-04
Former minister accuses Kumaratunga of attacks on journalists Former minister accuses Kumaratunga of attacks on journalists By Christine Jayasinghe, Indo-Asian News Service Colombo, Nov 6 (IANS) A former Sri Lankan minister, accused by President Chandrika Kumaratunga of plotting to kill newspaper editors, parried the charge by saying she had been privy to plans to murder journalists. Former parliamentary affairs..
Does India Need A Press Council?
IN Media Practice | 2002-04-04
Does India Need A Press Council Does India Need A Press Council? Does the Indian Press need a Watchdog? When Dileep Padgaonkar, Executive Managing Editor of the Times of India lambasted the role the outgoing Chairman of the Press Council Justice P B Sawant had played during his tenure, he sparked off a debate in..
Indias Freedom Of Information Bill
IN Media Practice | 2002-04-04
Indias Freedom Of Information Bill Indias Freedom Of Information Bill FREEDOM OF INFORMATION AND OBLIGATIONS OF PUBLIC AUTHORITIES Freedom of Information 3. Subject to the provisions of this Act, all citizens shall have freedom of information. Obligations on public authorities 4. Every public authority shall (a) maintain all its records, in such a manner and form as is..
Doordarshan Viewership Survey In Punjab
IN Books | 2002-03-30
Doordarshan Viewership Survey In Punjab Doordarshan Viewership Survey In Punjab Doordarshan claims its satellite channel is the most watched in Punjab SALIENT FEATURES OF THE FIELD SURVEY ON DD-PUNJABI CONDUCTED AT JALANDHAR, LUDHIANA, AMRITSAR & PATIALA BY THE AUDIENCE RESEARCH UNIT OF THE DOORDARSHAN KENDRA, JALANDHAR A field survey was conducted at Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Amritsar & Patiala, the..
Media Violence and its Impact on Children
IN Books | 2002-03-30
Media Violence and its Impact on Children Media Violence and its Impact on Children A Five-City Study by CFAR January to August 2001 What do you think about horror shows? "Ghosts are there, dead people get alive again, the ghost¿s spirit enters into the body of good people". "They appear in our dreams". "It can happen in reality, if..
How The Indian Press Covered The Sacking Of Admiral Bhagwat
IN Books | 2002-03-28
Pioneer: Dec 31 in "The Fall of an Admiral": "Senior Govt Pioneer: Dec 31 in "The Fall of an Admiral": "Senior Govt. official said." "A senior government official said it was a clear defiance of civilian authority which could not have been tolerated by any government." Jan 1: Reactions all attributed On January 2 the Pioneer..
From plough to pen:agriculturists promote farm journalism
IN Media Practice | 2002-03-28
From plough to pen:agriculturists promote farm journalism From plough to pen:agriculturists promote farm journalism From Frederick Noronha Farmers have a lot to say, but simply don¿t get a chance to say it. This is the experience of an organisation working in nearby rural North Karnataka, trying to give a voice to those working in the fields...
Television Coverage Of Eathquake: Sharing The Viewers Perspective
IN Books | 2002-03-28
Television Coverage Of Eathquake: Sharing The Viewers Perspective Television Coverage Of Eathquake: Sharing The Viewers Perspective Study Authored By GUJARAT VIEWERS¿ FORUM Minal Hazarika Jahnvi Vyas Ranchod Bhai Sayra Khan DELHI VIEWERS¿ FORUM Estelle Desai Madhu Prasad CENTRE FOR ADVOCACY AND RESEARCH Meeta Parti, Akhila Sivadas One major objective of this study was to ascertain how viewers perceived the role of television media. Do they..
In Defence Of Journalism As A Public Trust Salzburg, AustriaMarch 26, 2002
IN Media Practice | 2002-03-26
Ammu Joseph attended the Salzburg Seminar Session 396 on Influence, Values and Professional Responsibility in the Ne Ammu Joseph attended the Salzburg Seminar Session 396 on Influence, Values and Professional Responsibility in the News Media (March 2002). She has sent the statement below, which emerged from the meeting. In Defence Of Journalism As A Public Trust Salzburg,Austria March 26,..
POTO: What Exactly is A Citizen?
IN Law and Policy | 2002-03-24
POTO: What Exactly is A Citizen POTO: What Exactly is A Citizen? By Shankar Gopalakrishnan In the growing firestorm around the Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance (POTO), there has been much discussion about the rights of journalists and access to sources. Despite some claims by Law Minister Arun Jaitley and Minister for Disinvestment Arun Shourie, few outside the government seem..
Anti-journalist clauses in POTO toned down
IN Law and Policy | 2002-03-24
Anti-journalist clauses in POTO toned down Anti-journalist clauses in POTO toned down By Indo Asian News Service The Indian Cabinet met on December 6 and decided to tone down one of the anti-media clauses in the Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance. This is section 3 (8) which places responsibility on all persons to disclose information which the person..
The Prevention Of Terrorism Ordinance, 2001
IN Law and Policy | 2002-03-24
The Prevention Of Terrorism Ordinance, 2001 The Prevention Of Terrorism Ordinance, 2001 The articles which cause concern DISCLOSURE OF INFORMATION Section 3(8) places responsibility on all persons to disclose information which the person knows or believes to be of material assistance in preventing any terrorist activity as soon as reasonably practicable to the police. However, exception has been..
Congress Joins The Fourth Estate, In Time For Goa Polls
IN Regional Media | 2002-03-22
Congress Joins The Fourth Estate, In Time For Goa Polls Congress Joins The Fourth Estate, In Time For Goa Polls By Frederick Noronha PANAJI, Goa. Mar 22: Guess who¿s taken up the job of investigative journalism in Goa these days? None other than the former ruling Congress party. It accuses the Goa Governor and CM Manohar Parrikar of..
Truth may be shield in contempt
IN Law and Policy | 2002-03-22
Reprinted with permission from the Indian Express, March 20 Reprinted with permission from the Indian Express, March 20 Truth may be shield in contempt NEW DELHI, MARCH 19: The Constitution Review Commission has proposed that the contempt of court law be amended so that a person can plead ``truth coupled with public interest`` as a defence. This..
Twelve Ways The Media Misrepresents Violence
IN Media Practice | 2002-03-18
Twelve Ways The Media Misrepresents Violence Twelve Ways The Media Misrepresents Violence Where do the media go wrong in dealing with violence? This round-up gives us a start in understanding. Norwegian peace studies professor Johann Galtung has laid out 12 points of concern were journalism often goes wrong when dealing with violence. Each implicitly suggests..
Scindia, Phoolan Devi And The Media
IN Media Practice | 2002-03-16
Scindia, Phoolan Devi And The Media Scindia, Phoolan Devi And The Media By S.Anand The death of four journalists along with Madhavrao Scindia was mourned by the media. But nobody has asked the question, what were these journalists were doing with Scindia on a private flight? That the four journalists who accompanied Scindia morally compromised..
Whatever Happened To Journalistic Rigour
IN Media Practice | 2002-03-16
MRTPC versus satellite TV channels, versus cable operators, versus MRTPC versus satellite TV channels, versus cable operators, versus consumers By Shailaja Bajpai Without regulation in place, the MRTPC¿s efforts to restrict satellite TV channels from increasingly their subscription rates arbitrarily will get nowhere. The problem with governments and broadcast policy is that the former always talks about the latter..
IN Law and Policy | 2002-03-16
Media vs Judiciary Media vs Judiciary By Mannika Chopra At the heart of the issue is whether the media can be allowed to disregard existing laws and engage in activities forbidden to ordinary citizens. Can a profession that is meant to enforce standards of accountability and probity be allowed to judge the judges? You could say that this..
One International Response To Indias Draft Freedom Of Information Bill
IN Media Practice | 2002-03-16
Media vs Judiciary Media vs Judiciary By Mannika Chopra At the heart of the issue is whether the media can be allowed to disregard existing laws and engage in activities forbidden to ordinary citizens. Can a profession that is meant to enforce standards of accountability and probity be allowed to judge the judges? You could say that this..
Text Of Pakistans Draft Freedom Of Information Ordinance
IN Media Practice | 2002-03-14
Text Of Pakistans Draft Freedom Of Information Ordinance Text Of Pakistans Draft Freedom Of Information Ordinance A DRAFT ORDINANCE to provide for transparency and freedom of information. WHEREAS it is expedient to provide for transparency and freedom for information to ensure that the citizens of Pakistan have improved access to public records and for the purpose..
IN Law and Policy | 2002-03-14
Understanding Judgements Understanding Judgements Significant judgements related to the media ( extracted from a training module on media and the law prepared by the Centre for Advocacy and Research New Delhi, 1999 ) This note makes an attempt to understand some judgements relating to films, serials etc. the judgements give important insights and often lay down..
IN Law and Policy | 2002-03-14
Understanding Judgements Understanding Judgements Significant judgements related to the media ( extracted from a training module on media and the law prepared by the Centre for Advocacy and Research New Delhi, 1999 ) This note makes an attempt to understand some judgements relating to films, serials etc. the judgements give important insights and often lay down..
Hasina Stops Short Of Full Autonamy For Radio And TV
IN Law and Policy | 2002-03-12
Hasina Stops Short Of Full Autonamy For Radio And TV Hasina Stops Short Of Full Autonamy For Radio And TV By Saleem Samad In a pre-election bid to fulfil a 1996 election promise, Shiekh Hasina¿s cabinet approves laws that redefine government control of radio and television rather than seek to eliminate it. Bangladesh is holding a general election..
The Communication Convergence Bill
IN Law and Policy | 2002-03-12
The Communication Convergence Bill The Communication Convergence Bill The following is the latest draft of the Convergence Bill 2000. However, the chances of its being passed early have receded considerably with the NDA government`s recent political troubles. It may be introduced at the end of the current session of Parliament, but thereafter is almost certain..
The International Press Institutes Response To Pakistans Ordinance
IN Media Practice | 2002-03-09
The International Press Institutes Response To Pakistans Ordinance The International Press Institutes Response To Pakistans Ordinance VIENNA: The International Press Institute (IPI), the global network of editors and journalists, after examining the draft Freedom of Information Ordinance 2000 of Pakistan, has recommended that the ordinance needs to be revised in accordance with international standards on access..
BJP charms the fourth estate in Goa
IN Media Practice | 2002-01-13
The Bharatiya Janata Party has already taken the art of influencing the media to a new high in this small state.
Marathi Media On Municipal Bodies Elections
IN Regional Media | 2002-01-10
Marathi Media On Municipal Bodies Elections Marathi Media On Municipal Bodies Elections By Prabhakar Kulkarni Most of the Marathi dailies have liberally praised the BJP - Sena alliance for its victory in election of the prominent municipal corporations. Even editors normally critical of BJP and Shiv Sena have glorified the victory with analytical comments. The victory is described..
Sikkim publisher faces criminal charge
IN Media Freedom | 2002-01-01
As a nonpartisan organization of journalists dedicated to the defense of our colleagues around the world, CPJ condemns the cri As a nonpartisan organization of journalists dedicated to the defense of our colleagues around the world, CPJ condemns the criminal prosecution of Rajesh Bhattarai. CPJ believes that no journalist should be imprisoned for his or..
IN Media Practice | 2002-01-01
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IN Media Watch Briefs | 2002-01-01
Time to be nationalistic Time to be nationalistic When war, or at any rate hostility is imminent the media turns nationalistic. On the Indian side both reporters and columnists are dishing out the government rationale for every move. In Pakistan advice is being given. Dawn was advising Pakistan to opt for international monitors along the Line of..
IN Media Practice | 2002-01-01
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IN Books | 2002-01-01
A 1999 study conducted by the A 1999 study conducted by the Indian Institute of Mass Communications Branding of Politicians By Jaishri. N. Jethwaney, Nippun Gupta, Shivaji Sarkar This study conducted on five Delhi campuses asked 585 students to place various leaders in their perception on two major characteristics out of a list of 16 attributes that defined their..
IN Media Freedom | 2001-11-09
From The News, Pakistan, 9 November 2001http://www From The News, Pakistan, 9 November 2001 http://www.jang-group.com/thenews/index.html Press Release In a letter addressed to the Home Minister Altaf Hossain..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 1900-01-01
Pakistan released an Afghan Sikh journalist who was arrested on the Pakistan-Afghan border and tortured on charges of being an Indian national, and also apologised for the "mistreatment". Ganjana was arrested by the Frontier Corps on the Pakistan-Afg
IN Media Practice | 1900-01-01
Let us see if there was any higher purpose for which the TV crew barged into Manu Sharma`s place by disguising their identity.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 1900-01-01
The country’s finance minister endorsing a news channel? Now that is a first. The Times Group’s soon to be launched TV news channel Times Now has P Chidambaram, no less, in a promo on Zoom, smiling and mouthing the channel’s selling line.
IN Media Practice | 1900-01-01
A Times spokeswoman made it clear that Judith Miller would not be able to continue as a reporter of any kind, not just one covering national security.
Between the devil and the deep sea
IN Opinion | 1900-01-01
Between the devil and the deep sea Leader writers, their foreheads creased with annoyance that Madam had not taken their advice and let Mr Sayeed be, booed. You don`t say! Darius Nakhoonwala The choice between ensuring the advancement of the party and the long term interests of the country, in spite of the apparent..
IN Opinion | 1900-01-01
The dilemmas of partisanship The goings-on in Goa and Jharkhand had newspapers performing some very remarkable contortions. You don’t say! Darius Nakhoonwala Two things can give Indian leader writers apoplexy. One is Hindu violence against Muslims; the other is gubernatorial violence against the Constitutional propriety. True, other forms also lead to higher blood pressure...
Why Navakaal was charged with contempt of court
IN Media Practice | 1900-01-01
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IN Media Watch Briefs | 1900-01-01
The media saved the Taj Mahal from having a shopping mall as a backdrop and deserves full credit for the same. The Supreme Court also acknowledged this on July 16. But who in the media should get the credit? The Indian Express tried to claim it for i
Gadgets and the new age journalist
IN Digital Media | 1900-01-01
Gadgets and the new age journalist It is good to remember that despite the advances technology isn`t foolproof. It can ruin you but it can also save you. Jyothi Kiran Not too long ago, Mathew Arnold said that journalism was literature in a hurry. Today, we live in the digital..
IN Media Watch Briefs | 1900-01-01
Campaigning against favours shown to Star News in the matter of uplinking clearances and foreign equity holding patterns, by the Times of India and India Today has paid off. The government has asked the channel to explain its equity structure and pro
IN Media Watch Briefs | 1900-01-01
An editor of the popular Marathi morning paper Navakal here has been sentenced to seven daysø imprisonment in Mumbai for contempt of court. She ha
A media heroine discovers pitfalls of media hype
IN Media Practice | 1900-01-01
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The Hindu, Hindus, and Hindutva
IN Media Practice | 1900-01-01
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IN Media Watch Briefs | 1900-01-01
On June 28 Express Newsline in Delhi printed interviews with four students applying for admission to St Stephenøs college. One of those interviewed was amazed to discover the next morning that what was attributed to her bore not the slightest resembl
IN Media Watch Briefs | 1900-01-01
A low calorie news product from the Times of India stable is in the works. News correspondents of the paper have been told to file separate 250 word versions of all the stories they do, for it. Likely names for the new publication or publications: Ti
IN Media Watch Briefs | 1900-01-01
It appears that the esteemed Hindu hasnøt heard about something known as conflict of interes
IN Media Watch Briefs | 1900-01-01
The editor-in-chief and deputy editor of the weekly newspaper Aftab were arrested in Afghanistanøs capital, Kabul, and the newspaper was closed after it published an article that Afghan authorities considered blasphemous. AFP said Afghanistanøs Supre
IN Media Watch Briefs | 1900-01-01
Is the latest Harry Potter a wild success or a damp squib in Delhi? Depends which paper you read. Both Hindustan Times and Times of India devoted half their front pages on June 22 to the debut, and named Delhi bookshops doing brisk business. But the
Pushing the General into a corner
IN Opinion | 1900-01-01
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The darker side of the Jayson Blair affair
IN Media Practice | 1900-01-01
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TV news channels revive media interest in dowry harassment
IN Media Practice | 1900-01-01
Dowry was out of the news for a long time until Nisha Sharma and TV channels revived the media’s interest in covering the issue.
IN Regional Media | 1900-01-01
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IN Media Watch Briefs | 1900-01-01
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Singing and Dancing about War and Peace
IN Media Practice | 1900-01-01
By conveying the message of war and disability a unique play tries to educate the media to change its ways of reporting on war, peace, and the "normal body".
IN Media Watch Briefs | 1900-01-01
The Dainik Jagran has toppled Dainik Bhaskar as the largest read daily in the country says the latest report from the Indian Readership Survey 2000. However, in urban areas Dainik Bhaskar is still ahead.
IN Media Watch Briefs | 1900-01-01
The White House Correspondents Dinner this year saw the media sparing President Bush the barbs that usually mark the event, says Danny Schechter of Mediachannel.org. The President is traditionally as target for a comic assault at these dinners but th
IN Media Watch Briefs | 1900-01-01
Forbes has rated HindustanTimes.com as the fourth best news site in the world, says Exchange4media. It is the only Indian website in the top ten category. The average time spent on the site is 18 minutes. The HT site also has a UK edition, which puts
The Worldøs Worst Places to Be a Journalist.
IN Media Freedom | 1900-01-01
Iraq, Cuba, Vietnam and Afghanistan head the list. The countries in South Asia do not figure.
The media in Pakistan has come a long way
IN Media Practice | 1900-01-01
The media today is perhaps the only institution in Pakistan which enjoys the highest levels of political clout, commercial power and intellectual legitimacy
Jansunwai: Showcasing grass roots democracy
IN Media Practice | 1900-01-01
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"Chala ho gaon mein" widens its reach
IN Community Media | 1900-01-01
For many people in Palamau, home to India¿s poorest of the poor, this community radio programme is the only connection with the outside world
IN Media Watch Briefs | 1900-01-01
A professional PR man doubling as a newspaper columnist can be expected sometimes to carry his business into his writing. Even so, the column by Suhel Seth on Biki Oberoi in Express Newsline on March 16, took the cake. Just read it.
