When he was health minister in the UPA’s first term, Anbumani Ramadoss made it mandatory for movies and TV channels to show the statutory warning against smoking and drinking each time someone on screen lit a cigarette or sipped a drink. The Telegraph reports that the NDA’s information and broadcasting ministry under Prakash Javadekar has…
Tag Archives: I&B Ministry
Tarun Tejpal, Manish Tewari and relief at PBC
From Off the Record, the Monday gossip column in Deccan Herald: “Tehelka editor Tarun Tejpal‘s fall from grace has brought a sense of “divine justice” in Prasar Bharati, where the invisible presence of Tejpal—thanks to his closeness to the information and broadcasting minister Manish Tewari—was one of the contributing factors behind a long-standing “difference of…
POLL: Should FDI in media be enhanced?
With the economic downturn threatening to turn into a full-blown recession and with the finance minister reduced to going around the world with a hat in hand, the Congress-led UPA government last week increased foreign direct investment (FDI) in telecom, defence, petroleum refining, etc, but… But, not the media. On the issue of enhancing FDI…
Sharp, sensitive, substantive (conditions apply)
The Congress-led UPA’s election-eve attempt—like the BJP-led NDA’s attempt in 2004—to revive Doordarshan News has come a cropper. The Indian Express has an editorial: “Less than two months after a splashy advertisement campaign championing Doordarshan’s new-look daily prime-time news bulletin, Ajai Shukla, the anchor/editor of its English-language segment, has put in his papers. The resignation…
New health cards for PIB accreditated journos
Good news for journalists with bad hearts, lungs and kidneys, from the gossip columns of the Sunday papers. From The Telegraph diary: Manmohan Singh has decided to extend a helping hand to journalists. The Centre has accepted a long-standing demand by scribes that new health cards be issued to accreditated journalsits. These health cards will…
Applications invited for Community Radio stations
The information and broadcasting ministry is inviting applications from NGOs and non-for-profit organisations for the setting up of community radio stations. Visit the website: Community Radio Stations
I&B ministry “advisory” on TV protest coverage
In the cold war era, it used to be said that the first target of wannabe-dictators was government-controlled radio stations—take control of it and you control the message going out. In the post-liberalised era, the first target of the government seems to be private television stations. Below is the full text of the “advisory” issued…
How did Robert Vadra vanish off the front pages?
A week is a long time for the media in Scamistan. The ripples caused by Sonia Gandhi‘s son-in-law Robert Vadra‘s real-estate dealings have given way to the hera-pheri of BJP president Nitin Gadkari‘s. The veteran editor and columnist Virendra Kapoor writes in The Sunday Guardian: You can be forgiven if you believe that Nitin Gadkari‘s…
Is UPA hitting back at ToI, India Today, DNA?
There has been plenty of buzz in recent days that the Congress-led UPA government has quietly begun hitting back at the media for the manner in which it has exposed the scams and scandals, and for the proactive manner in which it backed the middle-class led “Arnab Spring”. There have been rumours, for instance, of…
“Indecent? Vulgar? Repulsive? Suggestive?”
The Shirdi Sai Baba may miraculously open his left eye and left eye only, mind you, just as the Neilsen meters start whirring. The mullahs may spew out hate 24×7 with spit and polish. The 9 pm women may all be vampish shrews with Botox vials in their hip pockets. And aging heroes may fish…
IJR 