An online exhibition of cartoons by E.P. Unny, the chief political cartoonist of The Indian Express has gone live. Curated by Sundara Ramanathaiyer of the Centre for Comic Arts (CCA), the cartoons examine the Anna Hazare campaign through the eyes of India’s foremost political linesman. Visit the exhibition: E.P. Unny
Tag Archives: Anna Hazare
Was Anna Hazare a creation of the media?
With the MMRDA grounds in Bombay not quite turning out to be the Ram Lila grounds of Delhi, and with the Lok Pal bill floundering in Parliament, it is time for introspection in the media of the media’s role in the Anna Hazare-led anti-corruption movement. *** Rajdeep Sardesai, editor-in-chief of CNN-IBN, at First Post: “At…
How The Times of India pumped up Team Anna
PRITAM SENGUPTA writes from New Delhi: Six minutes and 20 seconds into his vote of thanks at the culmination of Anna Hazare‘s fast-unto-death last Sunday, the RTI activist Arvind Kejriwal heaped plaudits on the media for the support it had lent to the Jan Lok Pal bill agitation by “articulating the outrage of the nation”. Pointing at the…
Should ‘media corruption’ come under Lokpal?
The more-than-just-a-neutral-observer position taken by sections of the media on the Anna Hazare agitation has clearly begun to rile politicians, and at least two of them cutting across party lines have argued in the last couple of days that the media too must be brought under the purview of the proposed anti-corruption legislation. Exhibit A: Union…
Is the media manufacturing middle-class dissent?
PRITAM SENGUPTA writes from Delhi: The media coverage of the Anna Hazare-led anti-corruption movement, like the movement itself, is a story in two parts—and both show the perils of the watchdog becoming the lapdog in diametrically opposite ways. In Act I, Scene I enacted at Jantar Mantar in April, sections of the Delhi media unabashedly…
Ex-Star News, ToI journos behind ‘Arnab Spring’
In today’s Mail Today, Headlines Today executive editor Rahul Kanwal adds another name to the roster of journalists working with the Anna Hazare campaign against corruption: former Star News anchor Shazia Ilmi. He also throws light on the media strategy adopted by the team to craft India’s “Arnab Spring”: # Never start a press meet…
The ex-Zee journalist in the Anna Hazare show
The TV and newspaper coverage of the growing anti-corruption movement has been singularly personality-driven. In fact, it is almost as if there is just one man behind it all—the 74-year-old Anna Hazare—and the four five other civil society members giving him company on the Lokpal joint drafting committee: the lawyers Prashant and Shanti Bhushan, the…
Our media only bothers about elite, middle-class
SHAH ALAM KHAN writes from New Delhi: In April this year the media went into a loud and vulgar rapture as Anna Hazare continued his four-day fast against corruption at Jantar Mantar in the capital. Hyperventilating TV newscasters repeatedly declared that the issue of corruption has “touched a cord” with the middle class. The circus…
Is Indian Express now a pro-establishment paper?
PRITAM SENGUPTA writes from New Delhi: The Indian Express of Ramnath Goenka is an unputdownable chapter in the book of Indian journalism. Unlike many of its English counterparts—whose grammar was constricted by Wren & Martin, and the Raj—Express was the archetypal desi bully. “Anti-establishment,” was the Express‘ calling card. Its reputation was built on stones…
Anti-corruption campaigner’s error of judgement
An item in Raisina Tattle, the gossip colum in the Delhi tabloid, Mail Today. Image: courtesy Mail Today Also read: Bangalore journos named in site allotment scam Only in India: 90% off for journalists! Cash transfer scheme is already here for journalists Media houses are sitting on plots leased at one rupee!
We, the Peepli Live: 42 OB vans at Jantar Mantar
There were 42 outside broadcasting (OB) vans of various TV stations at Jantar Mantar, the venue of the campaign against corruption launched by Anna Hazare, in New Delhi yesterday. Headlines Today, the news channel owned by the India Today group, had even set up a walk-in studio. Photograph: Pritam Sengupta
IJR 