These aren’t the days when journalists wake up and feel great about the world—or their profession. But Man Aman Singh Chhina of the The Indian Express has enough reason to feel proud of the power of the press even in these gloomy times. On Friday, July 26, his paper front-paged a report on a Kargil…
Monthly Archives: July 2019
It’s curtains for Busybee’s baby, the ‘Afternoon Despatch & Courier’
The Afternoon Despatch & Courier was launched by Behram Contractor alias ‘Busybee‘ in what was a protest action against goings-on in Mid-Day. The founder is long gone, and the paper soon will. *** Farzana Contractor recounts the launch of the paper, in Mumbai Mirror.
How an ‘Indian Express’ reporter was the conduit for the Vajpayee government to learn that Pakistan had invaded the icy heights of Kargil in 1999
2019 marks the 20th anniversary of Pakistan’s incursion to Kargil and the war that followed with India. Sushant Singh of The Indian Express recounts the role played by the paper’s then defence correspondent Manvendra Singh in relaying the news to his father, Jaswant Singh. “At the beginning of the second week of May 1999, I…
To eat or not to eat with a suspicious host who says you can only sit in the verandah but not enter the kitchen where the numbers are cooked
The unintended consequences of the Union finance ministry’s decision to bar entry to journalists pre-screened by the Union home ministry. “Some ministry officials have said they do not like the idea of journalists prowling the ministry’s corridors and do not wish to be accosted whenever they step out of their rooms. They have claimed that…
Editor of Kashmir’s largest English newspaper picked up for ‘questioning’ in three-decade-old case
Successive Indian governments have turned off and turned on advertisements to Kashmir’s newspapers citing “anti-national” activity, invoking barely a whimper from India’s nationalist media. Now, the Editor and owner of Greater Kashmir Fayaz Ahmad Kaloo has been picked up for questioning by the national investigation agency, and there’s barely a squeak even in the Kashmiri…
33 headlines of columns on the Union budget in today’s newspapers that show ‘chamchagiri’ was, is, and shall always be a sunrise industry
Business journalism is, generally speaking, an oxymoron in India. On the day of the Union budget, it reaches another level. Be it a Congress government or BJP one, the average score for the budget veers between 9 and 10, as fear meets exuberance. 2019 is no different, as the headlines of “columns” by corporate honchos,…
In battle between newspapers and ‘desi’ newsprint manufacturers, Modi signals which side he is on
Notwithstanding the glowing readership numbers, large sections of India’s news media industry are in choppy waters, battling a low rupee, high newsprint prices, and falling advertising revenues as Google and Facebook conquer the digital space. As if that weren’t enough, the Narendra Modi government has signalled its intentions with a 10% customs duty on newsprint,…
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