VINUTHA MALLYA writes from Ahmedabad: The ban masters are back in business. And as usual, vibrant Gujarat leads the way, but this time the Centre is not too far behind. Narendra Damodardas Modi, the chief minister of Gujarat and renowned terminator of artistic freedom, has just announced the State’s “ban” on the book, Great Soul:…
Tag Archives: The Hindustan Times
‘Hindu and HT were worst offenders in 1975’
With nearly 60% of India reputedly being under 25 years of age—in other words, with three out of five Indians having been born after 1985—it stands to reason that the 35th anniversary of the declaration of Emergency by the Indira Gandhi government should have come and gone without creating a ripple. That, and the fact…
A health report male journos will agree with?
Lies, lies and damn fags: Indian women journalists light up more often than ordinary Indian women. That’s the finding of a month-long study (authored by a male doctor) spanning 1,500 mediapersons in 15 print, television and advertising companies on the occasion of World No-Tobacco Day. While the national average of Indian women smoking is 1.5…
When a politician weds a journalist, it’s news
Not too many Indian politicians have a good word about journalism or journalists, but at least one of them, Congressman Jitin Prasada will (hopefully) do so from today. The 36-year-old junior minister for petroleum and natural gas married television journalist Neha Seth in New Delhi on February 16. Prasada, 36, belongs to the Kapurthala royal…
Everybody loves a good car, not a good filter
The announcement of the launch of Tata Nano, the small car produced by the Tatas, saw the media falling over itself heralding the arrival of the “People’s Car”. The fact that the car was priced at Rs 100,000 was enough to result in long front-page stories; glowing feature articles on Indian engineering and enterprise; breathless…
… may please treat this as a personal invitation
The names of the key engineers who demolished the great wall in Indian journalism—the proprietors, the publishers, the brand managers, the spineless editors and journalists who refused to stand up to the advertiesrs and space sellers—are missing from the gabfest of the Foundation for Media Professionals. Were they not invited? Or did they decline to…
The difference between 386 and 23 is 363 words
How does the mainstream English media in India report the alleged transgressions of one of its own? S.N.M. Abdi, the Calcutta-based journalist who broke the “Bhagalpur Blindings” story in 1979-80 (in which police blinded 31 undertrials by pouring acid into their eyes) for M.J. Akbar‘s Sunday magazine, and now works for the Rupert Murdoch-owned Hong…
The 11 habits of India’s most powerful media pros
Eleven media professionals—editors, publishers, promoters, proprietors—figure in the Indian Express list of the 100 most powerful Indians in 2009. Eight of them have a presence in newspapers, three in television, only one is from the magazine sphere. Four of the 11 are from the language press. The IE ranking also lists the quirks and kinks…
Why the great Indian media dream crashed
Rs 60 crore for hoardings to promote the launch of a television channel; Rs 1 crore per day for programming. Hindustan Times editorial director Vir Sanghvi on why the great Indian media dream came crashing down: “Many publishing houses ventured into businesses and products they had no understanding of, believing that the revenue from their…
Should the government bail out the media?
Just a few months ago, Indian media organisations were prancing around in joy, launching new channels, new editions, new supplements, new “events”, as if there was no tomorrow. Where there was madness without a method, there is now panic without a method. Now, suddenly, media managers are acting as if there are ants in their…
‘Media’s double standards to measure terrorism’
The “Eye for an Eye” email sent out by the “Indian Mujahideen” before the Delhi blasts on Saturday, while using the “injustice and oppression inflicted upon Muslims all over the country” as a justification for the attack, also targets the Indian English print media in particular: “The coverage of news by both the electronic as…
‘Azadi advocates should be tried for treason’
Chandan Mitra, editor-in-chief of The Pioneer and a Rajya Sabha member nominated by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP): “Last weekend two prominent newspaper columnists [Swaminathan Aiyar in The Sunday Times, and Vir Sanghvi in The Hindustan Times] wrote about the need to think out-of-the-box urging us to seriously consider if it is morally right to hold…
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