Journalist or not?

IN Media Watch Briefs | 16/03/2016

The TOI's reporting of the case involving the reporting of an RTI reply in Milli Gazette is intriguing. Three other papers describe Pushp Sharma who was picked up by the police on March 15 as a journalist working for Milli Gazette. But TOI does not mention the publication and insists on calling him a man "claiming to be a journalist." The case involves an article written by Sharma purportedly based on an RTI reply given by the Ayush ministry. The ministry said the reply was fabricated to imply communal bias on the ministry's part and the police registered an FIR.

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Amazon resisting voluntary censorship

The new term for self censorship is voluntary censorship, as proposed by companies like Netflix and Hotstar. ET reports that streaming video service Amazon Prime is opposing a move by its peers to adopt a voluntary censorship code in anticipation of the Indian government coming up with its own rules. Amazon is resisting because it fears that it may alienate paying subscribers.

Let the games begin

Clearly, the run to the 2019 elections is on. A journalist received a call from someone saying they were from Aajtak channel and were conducting a survey, asking whom she was going to vote for in 2019. On being told that her vote was secret, the caller assumed she wasn't going to vote for 'Modiji'. The caller, a woman, also didn't identify herself. A month or two earlier the same journalist received a call, this time from a man, asking if she was going to vote for the BSP.