Mainstream media’s preferred posture on the Chinese ingress in Ladakh, simmering since early May, had been one of denial bordering on wilful neglect, till it exploded in the face with the killing of 20 Indian soldiers on June 15. In Business Standard today, Rahul Jacob, the former Hong Kong bureau chief of the Financial Times,…
Tag Archives: Indian Express
NDTV’s Ravish Kumar delivers a 400-word masterclass to the studio warriors of the “commando comic channels” itching for war with Pakistan (once again)
*** The deadly attack on a Central Reserve Police Force convoy by a suicide-bomber which killed over 40 in Kashmir on Valentine’s Day was the proverbial lightning rod for studio warriors of what former Indian Express editor Shekhar Gupta calls the “commando comic channels“. Hashtags like #IndiaWantsRevenge roared on Republic TV. #AvengeAwantipora and #PakKeTukdeTukde on NewsX.…
On poll eve, BJP government allots prime Bombay land meant for public housing to journalists—50% reserved for those covering “state affairs and politics”
There are several ways for Air Traffic Control to find out if a stormy election is en route, and if a ruling party is feeling the ants in its pants. MPs suddenly become active, inaugurating projects long-ago announced or inaugurated. Ministries announce quotas, sops and ‘special packages” for interest groups they had diligently ignored. Macho ministers…
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…
Lift yourselves up, dearie, or get into my elevator
Tehelka editor Tarun J. Tejpal‘s 312-word letter to managing editor Shoma Chaudhury, expressing his “offer to step down” and not attend office for six months following a “bad lapse of judgement, an awful misreading of the situation” with a younger female colleague, has received plenty of negative acclaim for its sheer lack of contrition. Inspired…
Bangalore reporter who became a ‘RAW agent’
In Lounge, the weekend section of the business paper Mint, the columnist Aakar Patel doffs his hat to Prakash Belawadi, the Bangalore engineer who became an Indian Express reporter, who became a magazine correspondent, who became a television chat show host, who launched a journalism school, who launched a weekly newspaper… Who made a national-award…
‘Media ignores rural rapes, downplays misogyny’
The Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist)’s mouthpiece ML Update has an editorial on the gangrape of a young photojournalist in Bombay and the street protests in its aftermath. According to the Indian Express, ML Update claims the existence of double standards in the media in the treatment of rape, depending on the power and clout…
Shekhar Gupta gives up charge as Express CEO
Below is the full text of the “global” email shot off by Indian Express editor-in-chief Shekhar Gupta on Monday, August 26, in which he formally announces his decision to relinquish his managerial functions at the newspaper group. *** Dear All, Looking at the flurry of communication from me over the past few weeks, mainly on…
Why India Today had to shut Gujarati edition
Indian Express editor-in-chief Shekhar Gupta in his jottings on the Gujarat elections: “Narendra Modi and Gujarat defy simpler generalisations. Such as the idea that communalism in Gujarat rose with the arrival of Modi, and before that it was a state of perfect secular tolerance. “If the BJP hasn’t lost power ever since it first seized…
How Shekhar Gupta busted the ISRO spy ‘scam’
The ISRO spy scandal of the early 1990s has come to an end with the exoneration of S. Nambi Narayanan, the scientist (wrongly) accused by the Malayalam and later national media of selling secrets of the satellite organisation to a couple of Maldivian women. The son of the then Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao‘s son…
How media misuses subsidised land: Episode 324
The misuse of land allotted for media houses is rampant. In Chhattisgarh, several newspapers—including Dainik Bhaskar—have now been slapped with notices for violating the deed under which they were given government land at a concession. An audit found these premises being used for commercial purposes. The Indian Express reports on six of them: DAINIK BHASKAR…
‘Corporate sector has a strong say on media’
First, he commented on the “abnormally affluent” Shekhar Gupta in his memoirs Beyond the Lines and then he apologised to the Indian Express editor-in-chief at the book’s launch. In between, Kuldip Nayar also appeared at Idea Exchange, the Express‘ in-house interaction programme, taking questions from the paper’s journalists. Maneesh Chhibber, assistant editor: What do you…
When Shekhar Gupta met Abdul Kalam
As the prospect of a “contest” for the President looms between the UPA nominee Pranab Mukherjee and the former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, Indian Express editor-in-chief Shekhar Gupta writes of the latter in his weekly column: “I wrote two National Interest articles more critical of Abdul Kalam than any you have seen anywhere…. The second…
No half-truths for New Delhi’s newest paper
Yes, Kumar Mangalam Birla is right: the media is a sunrise sector and further proof of it comes through the launch of New Delhi’s newest daily, the Millennium Post. The 16-page, all-colour broadsheet priced at Rs 3, boasting the tagline “No Half Truths”, was launched on May 2. (Click here to view the front page…
Adolf Hitler reacts to Indian Express ‘C’ report
Just as the journalistic world was consigning the Indian Express ‘C’ report—the full page, three-deck headline, three-byline story of the coup that wasn’t—to the dustbin of history, the Fuhrer steps in. Also read: Indian Express ‘C’ report: scoop, rehash or spin? Indian Express stands by its ‘C’ report How the media viewed the Indian Express…
Ex-TOI, ET editor E. Raghavan passes away
sans serif records with deep regret the passing away of Ethiraj Raghavan, an Indian Express stringer who rose to be Editor of the largest selling Kannada daily newspaper, Vijaya Karnataka, in Bangalore on Saturday. He was 61 years old, and is survived his wife Kumuda and their daughter Swathi. After stints with the Express in…
Four journalists want to be info commissioners
Ritu Sarin reports in today’s Indian Express that at least four journalists—Satya Prakash, Law Kumar Mishra, Prakash N Bhargava and Sudhanshu Ranjan—are among the 214 people who have applied for the posts of information commissioners at the central information commission (CIC). Read the full story: All want jobs in CIC
Sachin Tendulkar, Mid-Day & the Indian Express
Thankfully, Sachin Tendulkar‘s below-par performance on the Australian tour has dimmed the spotlight somewhat on the Indian media batting for a Bharat Ratna for the cricketer in quest for his 100th hundred. In Lounge, the Saturday section of the business daily Mint, columnist Aakar Patel argues why, among other reasons, Sachin shouldn’t get the nation’s…
Conflict of interest in ‘Indian Express’ awards?
The Ramnath Goenka awards for excellence in journalism, instituted by The Indian Express, will be given out by the vice president of India, Hamid Ansari, on Monday, January 16. But the sponsorship of the awards has run into trouble, with a bunch activists and intellectuals raising questions of “conflict of interest”. Below is their full…
Why hasn’t India thrown up a media mogul?
Indian media houses, promoters and practitioners are gung-ho about foreign direct investment (FDI) in all sectors except the media, under the specious argument that the media is not a “commodity”, etc. Media barons who justify the worst excesses of modern Indian media under the this-is-what-the-consumer-wants logic, somehow find it convenient to block FDI in media…
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