Afghanistan, according to a global survey, is the most dangerous place for journalists. Eight journalists were killed last year. World over, democracy is at stake; so are the journalists. In India, too, death of a journalist is becoming common.Gouri Lankesh was a victim last year; but her assai...
The newly elected chief minister of Karnataka, HD Kumaraswamy is by profession a film producer. His wife is a film actor. Film and politics, especially in the southern states, are very closely interlinked. The former chief minister of Tamil Nadu, Jayalalitha, was a film actress. So was Andhra Prades...
A ‘photo-shopped’ picture of the prime minister’s mother riding an auto-rickshaw has created a furore in the media and among the opposition. Unfortunately, the Indian media almost goes unchecked in circulating such mischief frequently.Western researchers have developed organised efforts ...
The Prime Minister finally warns his political colleagues not to provide ‘masala’ for the media. This is a confession long awaited. The Prime Minister has been avoiding talking to the press ever since he came to power. Only at times he had spoken to a select few, when he thought he needed to, an...
So finally it came. The I&B Minister moved forward, then backward and then, forward again. The Minister announced that any journalist found involved in propagating ‘fake’ news would lose his government accreditation. The Prime Minister’s Office moved in promptly and the order was struck do...
The world is in turmoil with the leakage of 50 million personal data from the social media giant, Facebook, through a London- based political strategist company, Cambridge Analytica. It is said the data was used to influence the American citizens to vote for the current President Donald Trump. In In...
Public broadcasting in India has never been free. Whichever party has been in power – left, right or centre – it has wanted Akashvani or Doordarshan to serve its propaganda purposes. People who work in these organisations call themselves ‘media’ persons; but in reality, they are government s...
Many years ago, when Raja Ramanna was the Chairman of the Atomic Commission, he came to the Ramakrishna Mission in Kolkata to deliver an inaugural lecture of a religious convention. He questioned the ‘big bang’ theory and said he would love to believe that the world was created out of ‘somethi...
Preparing for the coverage of the budget, both at the state and the central level, has always been a big occasion for any business newspaper or television channel. It’s an annual ritual, for which all media outfits undertake long planning processes.Changes in technologies have made the process of ...
The Prime Minister, before his departure to Davos to speak at the World Economic Forum, gave a remarkable interview to a television channel – perhaps one of his best so far. He spoke about India becoming a ‘bright star’ in the global economic scene; he criticised the Congress (asking it to ref...
