In a non-stop season of scams, you would expect television watchers to switch on private TV stations to get the plain, unvarnished truth? Well, think again. Hindustan Times once again reports that the most-watched news shows between 8 pm and 10 pm are those on the state-owned Doordarshan News. The paper reports that the 8…
Tag Archives: Manish Tiwari
India’s most-watched TV news show at 9 pm is…
India’s most-watched TV news show at 9 pm is, pinch yourself, DD News! Hindustan Times reports in its gossip columns that News Night: “the primetime news show [on DD News] between 9 pm and 10 pm topped the TAM ratings last week with 66% market share, four times the channel which comes next.” Interesting, if…
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…
The poll straws, they are a-blowin’ in DD News
To predict the meteorological weather, you have Mausam Bhavan. To predict the political weather, you have Doordarshan. Before every general election, the government happily dips into the pockets of taxpayers and pumps in crores of rupees to revamp the supposedly “autonomous” broadcast behemoth. And so it is in the year of the lord, 2013. Under…
Free speech gets a major boost (in the a**)
So, young Indians cannot tell their friends in what they like on Facebook, without being “pre-screened” by Harvard types (or hauled into a police station by Shiv Sena goons). So, bloggers cannot publish their “online private diaries” without the sword of 66(A) hanging over their heads. So, tweeters can be blocked and Savita bhabhi‘s enviable…
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…
IJR 