A somewhat comical, even if self-serving, side play in the Narendra Modi government’s brazen (and thus far successful) attempts to fool the Supreme Court—not once, but twice—in #Rafale and #CBI, have been the interjections of Justice Markandey Katju*. Justice Katju has tweeted 48 times on or around the “transfer” of CBI director Alok Varma by…
Tag Archives: Markandey Katju
Operation Rajnikant: starring Samir & Vineet Jain
There are 12 media personalities in the Indian Express list of the most powerful Indians in 2014—“ie 100″—for 2014, but 10 of them are proprietors, only one is a journalist and the other is a former journalist. As usual, the most interesting part of the prospective list are the factoids accompanying the profiles. # 19,…
‘People know TV news is just entertainment’
Pratap Bhanu Mehta president of the Delhi-based thinktank, Centre for Policy Research (CPR), in an interview with Karan Thapar for CNN-IBN: Karan Thapar: How do you view the Indian media? Do you share justice Markandey Katju‘s concern, that by and large it is obsessive, it is narrow-minded, it focuses on middle class – urban concerns,…
‘Licensing journos: recipe for total state control’
The following is the full text of the statement issued by N. Ravi, president of the Editors’ Guild of India, on the proposal mooted by minister of state for information and broadcasting, Manish Tewari, on a “common examination” for student-journalists and a “licence” for journalists to perform their function: “The suggestion of the Union minister…
POLL: Common exam, licences for journalists?
As if the “idiots” in the media didn’t have enough problems to deal with—paid news, corruption, wage board, 12-minute-per-hour ad caps, cross-media controls, job losses, recession etc—the Union information and broadcasting minister Manish Tewari has now floated the kite of a “common examination” for journalists as a precursor to giving them “licenses” to operate, a…
Steve Forbes named in Forbes India legal notice
Three of the four Forbes India editors, who were forced out of the fortnightly business magazine allegedly for demanding that the promoters fulfill their contractual commitments on employee stock options (ESOPs), have shot off legal notices to Network 18 and Forbes Media, demanding immediate reinstatement and settlement of dues and damages for loss of livelihood,…
Shekhar Gupta storms into India Today powerlist
Thirteen out of India Today magazine’s 2013 ranking of the 50 most powerful people in India have interests in the media, but only two of them (former Indian Express editor Arun Shourie, Times Now editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami, Indian Express editor-in-chief Shekhar Gupta) are pure-play journalists. The chairman of the press council of India, Justice Markandey…
Yes, Kofi Annan is a dish, Teesta* is an actress
The veteran journalist and former Reader’s Digest assistant editor V. Gangadhar, who taught journalism for over a decade in Bombay’s colleges, agrees with the press council chief Justice Markandey Katju “order” that journalists do need “some legal qualifications.” He writes in The Hindu: Some years ago, the journalism entrance test at a career development institute…
Another substandard post by unqualified journo
He hasn’t quite spelt out which colleges we should go to, what subjects and courses we should take, in which language, or what pass-percentage is OK. At least not yet. But Press Council of India chairman Justice Markandey Katju‘s “order” on “some legal qualification” before one can enter the profession of journalism has been met…
Prabhu Chawla, Pritish Nandy & Modi 87:13
Narendra Modi‘s detractors (and drumbeaters) went into overdrive recently when The Times of India reported that 46% of the Gujarat chief minister’s one million Twitter followers were “fake”, 41% were “inactive”, and only 13% were “good”. TOI used a newly launched internet website to check fakers on Twitter to arrive at the numbers. Status People…
Zee News, Jindal Steel & silence of the media
Swapan Dasgupta on the silence of much of the media on the Zee News-Jindal Steel extortion case, in which the editorial staff of the Subhash Chandra-owned channel allegedly demanded Rs 100 crore in lieu of advertisements from the steel major to not publish stories in the coal scam, in The Pioneer, Delhi: “The media didn’t…
The Hindu’s readers reveal Katju’s infinite bluff
The chairman of the press council of India, Justice Markandey Katju, wrote an article in The Hindu on September 3 on education. Titled ‘Professor, heal thyself’, it contained this paragraph: The level of intellect of many teachers is low, because many of them have not been appointed on merit but on extraneous considerations. To give…
National Awards for Excellence in Journalism
The press council of India (PCI) headed by Justice Markandey Katju, who has spent the best part of his tenure tutoring the media on upping its quality, invites entries for national awards for excellence in journalism, through a DAVP advertisement laden with typographical mistakes and syntactical errors.
Sacrilege! Mihir Sharma takes on P.Sainath
As he exited the Indian Express last year as its most acerbic pen, the Harvard-educated economist Mihir S. Sharma launched into “adman” Suhel Seth in a long review of the latter’s book in The Caravan. Now, at the Business Standard as the editor of its opinion pages, Sharma trains his guns at the Magsaysay award…
N. Ram, Arnab Goswami crash out of power list
Despite stitching up one of the biggest media deals in recent times, TV18’s Raghav Bahl is among four media persons who have crashed out of the Indian Express list of the 100 most powerful people in the year of the lord 2012. N. Ram, the former editor-in-chief of The Hindu (No. 73 in last year’s list)…
N. Ram’s farewell letter to The Hindu staff
The following is the full text of the letter sent off by Narasimhan Ram, editor-in-chief of The Hindu group of publications, to his colleagues on Wednesday, 18 January 2012, on the eve of his relinquishment of office. *** January 18, 2012 Dear colleagues Today I step down as editor-in-chief and publisher of our publications, The…
Rajya Sabha TV tears into Reliance-TV18 deal
The fears over what happens when a big business house with deep pockets and political influence across parties funds a big media house to legitimise its hitherto-hidden media interests, are coming true even before the controversial Reliance Industries -Network18/TV18-Eenadu Television deal can be inked. Obviously, the political class is silent. Obviously, TV18’s competitors won’t touch…
Tamil paper prints phone numbers of N-protestors
In April 2010, the Bengali television news channel Star Ananda of the Ananda Bazaar Patrika group ran into trouble with the soon-to-be chief minister of the State, Mamata Banerjee, for “continously flashing” her mobile phone number after a railway accident. Thousands of miles away, the Tamil newspaper Dinamalar, is making news for nearly similar but…
Should the Chief Justice present media awards?
Influential members of the Supreme Court bar were aghast and affronted when the Indian Express named the Chief Justice of India, S.H. Kapadia, as the most powerful man in India two years ago, especially when he had just taken over and the apex court was seized of major cases with corporate interests, such as mining…
Guess who came to wish Rajdeep ‘good night’?
Indian Express contributing editor Coomi Kapoor has this item in her diary today: “Superstar Shah Rukh Khan‘s face is normally a passport which ensures open doors just about anywhere in the country. But the security guard at the house of CNN-IBN’s Rajdeep Sardesai failed to recognise the actor. “Khan, whose in-laws live in Panchsheel Park [Delhi],…
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