https://soundcloud.com/user-311470525/j-pod-the-woman-photographer Over 26,000 Indians have perished due to COVID in the last four months. But is there an image of any one of them that is imprinted in your mind? A single photograph in your newspaper or magazine that you remember instantly, for its poignancy, for its pathos—for its display? *** Whether they are natural…
Tag Archives: Open
In a bleak media landscape, Sanjiv Goenka picks up ‘Fortune’, wants to get into electronic media as well
For long, Sanjiv Goenka, one half of the R.P. Goenka family who runs the RP-Sanjiv Goenka group, has long had media ambitions. Forever in the running for media buys, Goenka’s name does the rounds each time some enterprise is up in the air, a bit like Rajeev Chandrasekhar‘s. Open magazine is all he has had…
Screenshots, thumb drives, sat phones, OB vans, and all the fancy footwork that fine reporters are using to get their stories out to counter the “propaganda blitzkrieg” on Kashmir
Three days on, the first reports are coming in of the situation on the ground in Kashmir, after New Delhi imposed a blanket clampdown on landline, mobile and internet services, before revoking #Article370 in the Valley. The Telegraph‘s Sankarshan Thakur (above) has a diary of the run-up to the “lockdown”—jargon for a brutal suppression for…
At ‘Republic’ summit, there were (at the very least) 9 known BJP faces; 0 from Congress. Any wonder Arnab Goswami wants other news channels to boycott the party that boycotts him?
Mint, the business newspaper owned by the Hindustan Times group, has a four-page supplement of the first Republic Summit, hosted by the TV channel, Republic. The guest list, as evident from the photographs, is revealing of the channel’s moorings and impulses. Narendra Modi, Arun Jaitley, Amit Shah, Nitin Gadkari, Piyush Goyal, Devendra Fadnavis, Sarbananda Sonowal, Anurag Thakur, Smriti Irani Farooq Abdullah, Praful Patel, Kamal…
When an editor draws a cartoon, it’s news
Indian print editors have done book reviews (Sham Lal, Times of India), film reviews (Vinod Mehta, Debonair), food reviews (Vir Sanghvi, Hindustan Times), music reviews (Chandan Mitra, TOI, Pioneer, The Sunday Observer; Sanjoy Narayan, Hindustan Times), elephant polo reviews (Suman Dubey, India Today) etc, but few have done cartoons. When The Telegraph, Calcutta, was launched…
‘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…
Vir Sanghvi, Modi, 1984 and Hindustan Times
In the latest issue of Open magazine, its political editor Hartosh Singh Bal writes on the re-appearance of former Hindustan Times editor Vir Sanghvi on the pages of the newspaper, to underline the the media’s janus-faced approach to the anti-Sikh pogrom of 1984 under Congress watch and the 2002 Gujarat riots under BJP rule: “Narendra…
How Narendra Modi buys media through PR
In the latest issue of Open magazine, its deputy political editor Jatin Gandhi lays his hand on a “Request for Proposal” (RFP) document of the Gujarat government that shows how “almost every day, the Indian media—and sometimes the foreign media too—is tricked or influenced by Narendra Modi‘s public relations machinery”. Exempli gratia: “Modi’s Rambo act,…
Poems on news anchors: this week, Barkha Dutt
In Open magazine this week, Madhavankutty Pillai continues his occasional series of poems on news anchors. This week, the face of NDTV 24×7: Barkha Dutt, the host of We the People and The Buck Stops Here. Ye destitute widow, acid attack victim Forgotten spy, despairing cripple Who was once trapped in rubble And ye burnt…
The journalist who suddenly forgot everything
In the fourth anniversary issue of Open, Forbes India managing editor Charles Assisi recounts what every journalist dreads—losing the one thing that counts most in our profession: “To cut a long story short, a little over two years ago, some neurons misfired in my head. I was in my office when this happened. I won’t…
‘Business journalists are PR mouthpieces’: Bahal
Last week, Cobra Post, the website run by the investigative journalist Aniruddha Bahal made public “Operation Red Spider”, its sting operation into alleged money-laundering by HDFC, Axis and ICICI banks. This week, in Open magazine, Bahal answers a couple of questions on the media treatment of the story. The story is significant, but failed to…
Poems on anchors: this week, Sagarika Ghose
In Open magazine, Madhavankutty Pillai continues his occassional poems on news anchors. This week, his ode is directed at Sagarika Ghose, the host of Face the Nation on CNN-IBN: Salutations, mistress of the echo Blest with the force Of eyes widening until they greet the other Of eyebrows leaping like trampoline artists together Reveal to…
Indian journalist ‘applies’ to be the next Pope
In the latest issue of Open magazine, its editor Manu Joseph sends in an application to be the 112th Pope, now that the 111th has put in his papers. To The Roman Curia, The Holy See, Rome Reverends, In the aftermath of the sudden resignation of Pope Benedict XVI due to his advanced age and…
Poems on News Anchors: this week, Karan Thapar
In the latest issue of Open magazine, Madhavankutty Pillai continues his series of poems on news anchors. This time, the TV anchor Karan Thapar gets his attention: O, obstreperous weasel Unregenerate blight Cowering from the shock Of my hair’s white Prise your eyes From my neon necktie Prepare your deceits Get ready to fight …
The many faces of Aakar Patel (as per Google)
Google now has a search facility by which you can look up images of people by putting in an image in the search window. This is what turns up when you look for Aakar Patel, at various times the executive editor of Mid-Day, columnist for Mint Lounge, Hindustan Times, Express Tribune, First Post and Open,…
Journalism lesson #1: No one’s indispensable
Tabish Khair, journalist turned poet, in Open magazine: You were with The Times of India in Delhi for a little les than five years. How has your life as a journalist shaped your writing? You lose your fear of deadlines, and learn to keep them. You realise that the world is far wider and weirder…
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…
When Manu Joseph met Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Manu Joseph, editor of Open magazine, in The New York Times: “Nine years ago, I was invited by the Art of Living Foundation to interview Mr Shankar. “Mr Shankar was in the house of a wealthy businessman in South Mumbai. “In the living room he sat on a large, embellished, thronelike chair as about 50…
What Niira Radia told PAC on Barkha Dutt chat
The 21-member public accounts committee (PAC), which probed the 2G spectrum allocation scam and finalised its draft report in a hurry, has gone into a tailspin with the draft report being rejected 11-10 and the Congress members charging the chairman, Murli Manohar Joshi, of leaking the report. Tehelka magazine has put up the PAC draft…
Chameli Devi Award for hounded Tehelka journo
Shahina K.K., a former reporter for Tehelka magazine, has bagged the 2010 Chameli Devi Jain award for outstanding woman mediaperson. Shahina was in the news late last year after Karnataka police charged her with intimidating witnesses in the Bangalore blasts case. This followed her report in Tehelka questioning the incarceration of Abdul Nasar Madani in…
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