Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi told a bench of Justices A K Sikri and Ashok Bhushan that the news channel must clearly say that it regrets the unfortunate incident that led to the government’s passing direction for it to go off air for a day in November last year.

Senior advocate Harish Salve appearing for NDTV India said that the channel is ready to furnish a letter clarifying that it carries out responsible journalism.

The bench posted the matter for further hearing on March 31.

On November 8 last year, Rohatgi had informed the court that the decision to ban the transmission on November 9 had been put on hold by the government.

He had said that NDTV would be given a hearing by the inter-ministerial committee before which the channel had made a representation for a review of the decision directing NDTV India to go off the air for allegedly violating the telecast norms.

NDTV has challenged the constitutional validity of the provision of the Cable Television Network (Regulation) Act under which the order was issued against it.

The ban was been widely condemned by journalists and editors with all press councils drawing parallels between the move and the Emergency of the 1970s when basic constitutional rights including the freedom of the press were blatantly violated, the channel said on its website.
 

The post After ban threat, Modi government now asks NDTV India to apologise for Pathankot coverage appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Image credit:  Twitter/MEA

“Mahatma Gandhi had said uncontrolled writing can create huge problems but he had also said that external interference would wreak havoc. Controlling it [media] externally cannot be imagined,” he said. “The government should not do any interference. It is true that self-introspection is not easy… It is the responsibility of the PCI and those associated with the press to see to it that what appropriate changes you can make with time. Things do not change from external control.”

Just days earlier, the Information and Broadcasting Ministry was being criticised for singling out NDTV India’s coverage of the Pathankot attacks and imposing a one-day ban on the channel for allegedly violating programme code provisions. That decision was later stayed after a general outcry and a discussion between the channel and the minister.

But that isn’t the only time the I&B minister has questioned the operations of news organisations. The Modi government has also mutely witnessed some truly problematic developments, such as the banning of a newspaper in Kashmir, the state’s hounding of journalists in Chhattisgarh and even attacks on journalists by goons yelling patriotic slogans inside a Delhi court complex.

Modi’s statements on Wednesday, including his condemnation of murdered journalists, are important signals that the government at least feels the need to say that it supports a free press. This is significant because the state has also helped build an atmosphere where any dissent or questioning, such as demanding evidence of the Army’s surgical strikes or reporting on the unhappiness caused by demonetisation, has been vilified as “anti-national”.

Simply saying that he stands against interference in the operations of news organisations is not enough. Modi needs to do much more to remind his colleagues and his fellow party leaders that a media which is free to ask questions and air dissent is more likely to make India safer and stronger than one that is cowed down and does not reflect the truth.

Courtesy: Scroll.in

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“ If the government’s attack on NDTV was ‘fascism’ what explains the ban in Kashmir Reader, demanded critics of mainstream India’s hypocritical attitude towards the suppression of freedoms there. Though the Editor’s Guild had also condemned this media gag, senior Journalist Pervez Khurram still remains under detention despite international voices being raised to demand his freedom. The Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society through advocate Pevez Imroze has on November 9 released a People’s Dossier on Khurram Pervez, “Today, the 55th day of Khurram Parvez’s unlawful detention, marks the 124th day of continued curfew, restrictions and widespread and systematic State violence against the people of Jammu and Kashmir since 8 July 2016. 

Public memory remains short and is made flimsier still with a media unwilling to string together similar and sinister chains of events. Have these recent moves been the only time that Modi Raj has impinged on Press Freedom? Before and after he assumed charge as prime minister, as his campaign blazed a trail across the country, step by step independent voices were systematically silenced. Across the length and breadth of India.

Before and after May 2014 that marked Modi's dramatic win in the elections, to occupy the prime minister’s chair, we saw serious impingements on media and freedoms of expression and thought. Even before that for nearly 13 years as chief minister of the western Indian state of Gujarat –when he oversaw a pogrom against the minorities of tragic proportions–some articles simply did not make it into the final editions of the newspapers even as individual journalists toiled bravely on. A sinister effort at manufacturing consent and support had been systematically afoot . In 2002, months after the pogromatic killings, the Editor’s Guild chronicled media manipulation even as mass crimes were being committed in 2002.

Some examples of a clear-cut, powerful and moneyed effort to manufacture consent and stifle critical comments in the media since May 2014 need recalling.

On or around December 4, 2013, an article critical of Modi’s serial blunders authored by Dheeraj Tiwari was published online on Economic Times website and later, strangely, deleted. The article was published sometime around December 4, 2013. Titled Is Modi Our Palin? by Dheeraj Tiwari, the article was available when I downloaded it at which leads to an error page right now. The above link can be confirmed as it also appeared on rediff.com. Here are excerpts of what the author said when he compared Narendra Modi to Sarah Palin,

“When Palin started her campaign, commentators gave the ‘hockey mom’ a real chance. After all, she was folksy, which America loves, good looking and a would-be grandmother to boot. The concoction was deadly and Republicans lapped it up. A war veteran, John McCain as the head and a mommy as his aide fell in line with the American dream.
 
 Modi’s team has also created a similar aura around him. Decisive, incorruptible and earthy – are the characters which largely define Modi’s campaign. If BJP is to be believed, Modi is the underdog of Indian politics, a ‘chaiwala’ who through his sheer hard work has managed to rise in the political hierarchy. In his own words, he is not a ‘shehzada’ but a ‘sevak.’
 
 Till this point, the script runs perfect. But the American dream crumpled when the mommy started getting her facts wrong. Palin was ridiculed when she claimed to have an insight into American foreign policy because Russia is the next door neighbour to her state of Alaska.
 
 Back home, Namo replicated that feat in his Independence Day speech at Bhuj. He almost took the same neighbourhood line as Palin and while lambasting Pakistan claimed that his voice reached Pakistan first and Delhi later. This came from the same man who some months ago had offered Sindh province in Pakistan, the ‘Gujarat model’ to overcome its power crisis.
 
 While Palin called Afghanistan a neighbouring country, Modi brought Taxila from Pakistan to Bihar. There is an uncanny resemblance between these two politicians in getting their facts wrong, again and again. Their supporters may term this as unpretentious behaviour.

After historical blunders such as calling Gandhi Mohanlal instead of Mohandas, and claiming that Nehru did not attend Patel’s funeral, Modi is now treading on more difficult terrain. In a Jodhpur rally, Modi claimed that he may not be as educated as the country’s finance minister but he knew that buying gold is not leading to inflation. His first lecture in economics may have got a thunderous applause in the rally but he might have lost the faith of voters who till then would have bought into his image as the deliverer of Gujarat’s vibrant economy.

 It is time that Modi should learn from the mistakes which Palin committed. After all he would not like to be remembered as Palin, who finally had to be told that there was no tradition of concession speeches by running mates, and that she would not be speaking. Not anymore.”  

Weeks later, a prominent news magazine, Open, saw significant changes. Manu Joseph its editor resigned when, on January 6, 2014, again, after months of speculation, PR Ramesh, a journalist considered close to general secretary of the BJP Arun Jaitley (now India’s finance minister in the Modi government), joined the magazine as managing editor.

Hartosh Bal, a journalist of repute who was sacked by the same magazine in November 2013, wrote, “Manu Joseph, my former boss at Open Magazine, announced yesterday that he had quit the magazine. While he did not state his reasons, they are evident to all those who have been associated with the magazine. I was sacked from the magazine in November, and while Manu had opposed the decision he had let matters rest at that. But in the three years we had worked together we had managed to put together a reasonable body of stories, including most importantly, the Radia Tapes. This became possible, in great measure, because Manu allowed a considerable degree of independence to those working for the magazine.”

Days before that, on January 7, 2014, the day before yesterday, an innocuous comment by advocate Patrawala on the Times of India website was removed as “offensive” . The comment made by a lawyer from Modi’s home state simply said, “Modi has brought the Indian democracy to the level of Hall Mark of corruption, be it the Constitution or rule of law. System be it legislature, executive or judiciary have utterly failed to curb the historical menace of Modi culminating into the dire frustration and helplessness of the common man. “ The Times of India found this so “dangerous” as to even delete it from the section on the website.

A day later and four months before he captured power, on January 8, 2014, SUN TV sacked a senior journalist and political analyst from his job. Veerapandian for the last 17 years, succumbing to pressure, once again from the political party led by Modi, the BJP. Activists have alleged that Sun TV had taken the decision to stop the program following a letter from the BJP’s state office secretary Sarvothaman to its MD on December 23, 2013, Modi critic loses job in Sun TV: Activists The talk show can be viewed at

The attempted ban on NDTV India that has been put on ‘hold’ is clearly not the first nor will it be possibily be the last time that this regime openly stifles free expression. Instances of criminal cases against critical comments by citizens and users of facebook and twitter even as abusive trolls are given free reign, abound. With media memory being short and selective and media ownership dominated by powerful corporates, journalism in India  has never faced a more challenging time.
 

The post NDTV Ban not the 1st, nor Likely to be the Last Attack on Press Freedom: Tracking the Modi Regime appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Not if you happen to be a current employee of Kashmir Reader.

Take the case of Marouf Ahmed Parray. He comes twice a week to work, sits in office, and then goes home. He is employed at the newspaper, at least for the time being, but for the past one month has been without work. Junaid Nabi Bazaz, a correspondent with the newspaper, has similarly been coming to office, but has no work.

On October 2, when the newspaper was banned, the management had paid him, along with all the other staffers, the salary for September. However, the staff remains in the dark regarding whether they will get salary this month. The reason is self-explanatory: they haven’t worked as their newspaper stands banned and the newspaper hasn’t earned anything due to halt in operations. In short; no advertisements, no circulation, no income.

At the same time, Bazaz is aware of the repercussions if the ban on the newspaper isn’t revoked at earliest. “Imposing ban is like killing an institution. It is a loss to our owner as well as to us. We lose our employment and he loses his investment,” said Bazaz. And the potential impact isn’t lost on the staff.

“If salary for this month isn’t credited it will surely affect me. In the backdrop of continuous ban, I have to look for another job in Kashmir, which already has so few jobs,” he added.

Regarding the media job market in Kashmir, Marouf adds, “Every news organisation is facing crisis in the backdrop of continuous shutdown. It will be difficult to find job in such situation.”
As per Bazaz, nearly 50 to 60 people who are directly connected with Kashmir Reader will lose their job if the ban isn’t revoked.

Dilemma of Kashmiri journalists

The reality is that in Kashmir, even if you are employed as a journalist and getting paid for it, you are perennially in danger, every day of the week. In the last few months, they have been abused and thrashed by security forces as well as protestors, all an attempt to impact the way news is written. But the new trend of imposing bans is setting a precedent so as no one writes against the interest of the state.

The government has understood that if a journalist is injured or abused, he/she will still muster courage to report objectively but if their source of subsistence is threatened, most probably he will be left with no option other than being ambiguous in reports.

The biggest problem with Kashmiri people and its media is that no body sides with them when they are at the receiving end.

Kashmir Reader is no NDTV, so few outside Kashmir care

When the BJP-led central government decided to put a one-day ban on Hindi news channel NDTV India, the outrage against the move across the nation ensured that the government take back its decision. Journalist bodies, student unions, civil society members and common citizens in Delhi and a few other places spoke eloquently on how this ban was a sign of a ‘fascism’ and that the channel was instead upholding journalistic values and not opposing them.

But why so silent about Kashmir Reader?

First, the name and the location of the paper: Kashmir. During the initial day of ban on Kashmir Reader, it did garner support from few organization from other Indian states but within a week or so, the matter was swept went under the carpet and their journalists were left to fight their own battle, as has often been the case when it comes to Kashmir.

Solidarity might be the flavour of the season, but in case of Kashmir, even that comes with its own conditions: never too much, never too long, and almost never against the State. NDTV was accused of almost colluding and helping the enemy–Pakistan–while Kashmir Reader was banned for publishing content which was meant to incite acts of violence and disturb public peace. Mind you, this was at a time when more than 70 people had been killed and over 2,000 injured. NDTV, even when it erred, had the nation’s ear; in case of Kashmir Reader, the nation and the mainstream media was not interested beyond a point. While speaking over different treatment to ban on NDTV and to his newspaper, Hilal Mir, Editor, Kashmir Reader said, “It is very unfortunate. It shows the mindset which is guiding Indian state in guiding its media.”

What lies next for Kashmir Reader

Briefing about the present status of talks with the government regarding revoking of ban, he said, “We are not deliberating any longer with the government. The Editors body of Kashmir did meet the Chief Minister, Mehbooba Mufti but her behavior was discouraging. Now editors body is talking to some top bureaucrats and they are assuring them that ban will be lifted but no fixed date is being given as such.”

In case the ban is not lifted, the last option is to knock the doors of the court, according to Mir.

As the ban on the Kashmir Reader enters its second month, there is no clear indication from the state government to revoke the ban.The journalists associated with the newspaper will be left with no jobs and it will be discouraging for other journalists who report conflict objectively from Kashmir.

But in Delhi, Baagon mein Bahaar Hai.
 

(This article was first published on TwoCircles.net.)
 

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सूचना एवं प्रसारण मंत्रालय ने NDTV इंडिया पर एक दिन के बैन लगाने के अपने आदेश को स्थगित कर दिया है. अपने हिन्दी चैनल NDTV इंडिया पर केंद्र सरकार द्वारा लगाए गए एक दिन के प्रतिबंध को NDTV ने सोमवार को सुप्रीम कोर्ट में चुनौती दी. जिसके बाद सुप्रीम कोर्ट ने कल यानी मंगलवार को इस याचिका पर सुनवाई के लिए सहमति दी थी.
 
सरकार ने NDTV इंडिया पर इसी साल जनवरी में पठानकोट एयरफोर्स बेस पर हुए आतंकवादी हमले के दौरान संवेदनशील जानकारी का प्रसारण करने का आरोप लगाते हुए बुधवार, 9 नवंबर को उसे एक दिन के लिए ऑफएयर रखे जाने का आदेश दिया है.

NDTV ने इन आरोपों का खंडन किया और कहा था कि अन्य चैनलों तथा समाचारपत्रों ने भी वही जानकारी दिखाई या रिपोर्ट की थी.

इस प्रतिबंध की पत्रकारों और संपादकों ने चौतरफा आलोचना की . सभी प्रेस काउंसिलों ने इसे '70 के दशक में देश में लागू की गई एमरजेंसी के समान बताया, जब प्रेस की आज़ादी सहित सभी मूल संवैधानिक अधिकारों का खुलेआम उल्लंघन किया गया था.
 
एडिटर्स गिल्ड ऑफ इंडिया ने कहा था कि अपनी तरह के इस पहले आदेश से पता चलता है कि केंद्र सरकार समझती है कि "उसे मीडिया के कामकाज में दखल देने और जब भी सरकार किसी कवरेज से सहमत न हो, उसे अपनी मर्ज़ी से किसी भी तरह की दंडात्मक कार्रवाई करने का अधिकार है…" देश के सभी बड़े समाचारपत्रों तथा पत्रिकाओं के संपादकों के समूह ने कहा था कि अगर सरकार को किसी मीडिया कवरेज में कुछ आपत्तिजनक लगता है, तो वह कोर्ट जा सकती है.
 
उधर, इस प्रतिबंध का बचाव करते हुए सूचना एवं प्रसारण मंत्री वेंकैया नायडू ने कहा था कि यह प्रतिबंध 'देश की सुरक्षा के हित में है', तथा इस मुद्दे पर की जा रही सरकार की आलोचना 'राजनीति से प्रेरित' लगती है.

Courtesy: National Dastak
 

The post दबाव के चलते सूचना एवं प्रसारण मंत्रालय ने स्थगित किया NDTV बैन का आदेश appeared first on SabrangIndia.

आपको बता दो दिन पहले रवीश कुमार के प्राइम टाइम के प्रसारित होने के बाद सारे देश में सरकार की इस अमानवीय और अलौकतांत्रिक कारवाई के विरोध में भारी रोष देखा गया। इतना ही नहीं विश्व मीडिया में भी सरकार के इस फैसले को लेकर हैरानगी जताई और विरोध किया।

इनपुट: पीटीआई
 

The post प्रतिंबध के खिलाफ NDTV इंडिया की सरकार को सुप्रीम कोर्ट में चुनौती appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The petition challenges the Constitutional validity of the government order, the channel said in filing to the stock exchanges.

In the filing, NDTV said the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting had directed stopping of transmission or re- transmission of its Hindi news channel, NDTV India for a day from 00.01 hrs of 9 November, 2016 till 00.01 hrs of 10 November, 2016.

“We now update that NDTV Ltd and others have filed a writ petition before the Hon’ble Supreme Court challenging the said order, inter-alia, challenging the constitutional validity of the said order and the provisions of law pursuant to which the said order has purportedly been passed,” the company said.

(With inputs from PTI)
 

The post NDTV ban: Channel takes government to court appeared first on SabrangIndia.

However! I need to put my view across on this “leaking sensitive information” drivel. So here it goes.

Every self-respecting intelligence agency these days is well equipped in information gathering. As much through technology as it is through human intelligence assets (human ints). Grass. Supergrass. ISI particularly marvels at information gathering. (That is to go by the assumption that ISI directly coordinated Pathankot thingy.) Their capability at information gathering is sort of unmatched in the region, and even beyond. Mandarins will attest to that. Just Google how many Indian Defence/Military Attachés have been honey trapped in the last five years. It is mind boggling. But it’s their analysis, processing that information part where they lag, and leave a breach open. And Indian intelligence is very good at this other aspect. That’s how they have balanced each other all these years.

To believe a drivel that it would require a live coverage by journalists to tell them about the assets inside the base is preposterous. Journalists, including most of the defence journalists, arguably know a lot about larger picture. But these are of no or very little use to foreign intelligence agencies in their sabotage operations. Useful for political posturing I grant you, but useless for attacks. It is no surprise then that hardly any big time journalist in India has ever been cultivated by Pakistanis. No one has ever been proven to be on their payroll. All past allegations have been political and communal in nature and have fallen flat in courts. Armymen? Yes. Government Officials? Yes. Civilian Contractors linked with Defence works? Yes. But not journalists.

India provides very little scope for independent journalism on defence and foreign policy. Most of it is through press conference or deliberate “leaks,” (called plants in civilised democracies) by information officers. And most of the time these are self-serving misinformation or gross exaggeration. Apart from these, they know nothing. Zilch. So if anyone needs to be held responsible for these useless “leaks,” it is these officers. But that would be ridiculous, isn’t it?

To think that an Indian journalist would know more about a particular defence asset in India more than operatives of the aggressive foreign agencies is to give too much credit to that journalist. It’s borderline laughable, with due respect to all my colleagues.

For these agencies, a layman who owns a shop on the highway linking Punjab to Kashmir is more useful. Because he can give them lots of info on troops movements and their timing sitting on his shop. Because he can tell them exactly how many tanks or artillery pieces passed through that road this last week. That’s what is called intelligence gathering.

So when a journalist files a “report” that India will have two fully functional, battle-ready, Aircraft Carrier in three years; he might still believe in that information. But an aggressive intelligence agency exactly knows that’s not the case. You think they waited for CAG report to bust that information for them? No. They have means. That’s modern intelligence warfare. Learn to live with it.

What NDTV reporter was sharing that day is all available on open sources. It can be found on internet, social media, newspapers, everywhere. Every single information. This is a laughable, rather preposterous accusation. Yes! Telling live movement of your counter-attack troops while operation is on is disastrous. Like ALL channels did during 26/11. Not during Pathankot.

If anyone needs to be punished for Pathankot, it is the government and its agencies. Not the messenger. Not NDTV India.

I stand with NDTV. Do you?

This article was first published on India Resists

The post Did NDTV Compromise National Security? Here’s Why It’s A Brazen Lie, And Why We Must #StandWithNDTV appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The Editor’s Guild of India reacted promptly and sharply to the Modi government’s gag order, calling it "a direct violation of the freedom of the media and, therefore, the citizens of India, and amounts to harsh censorship imposed by the government reminiscent of the Emergency".  

But if the print editions of prominent national dailies dated November 4 and November 5 published from Mumbai are anything to go by, none except The Indian Express seems to think this unprecedented attack on press freedom is of much significance. As the news broke late on the evening of Thursday, November 3, news and views published on November 5 deserve a closer look. Take a look at the reportage and edits/comment pieces, in the various dailies on both dates. The front page of The Telegraph, Kolkata dated November 5 stands out in sharp contrast.

The Indian Express:
November 4:
Page 1: Single column on page 1, headline, "I&B panel: Take NDTV India off air on Nov 9 for Pathankkot", continued in 3 columns on page 2.

November 5:
Page 1: Lead story headline, “Ban recalls Emergency, withdraw it: Editors Guild on NDTV India".
Edit page: Lead editorial. Headline, “November 9 must not be blackout day. Government must take back NDTV ban order or court should step in, read it the Constitution".
Also, lead comment piece on edit page by Pratap Bhanu Mehta: “There is no Emergency: Let’s find another name for cult of the leader, tyranny of nationalism, use of state power to suffocate opposition”.

The Times of India:
November 4:
Page 1: Single column on page 1, headline, “1-day blackout penalty for TV channel over terror coverage”; continued in 3 columns on page 3.

November 5:
Page1: No news of the gag on NDTV India.
Page 14: Two columns under headline, “Ban on NDTV: Govt draws flak from Opposition”.
 Edit page: No edit/comment piece on the ban.

The Economic Times:
November 4: Page 2, single column, “Pathankot attack: Hindi News Channel to be off air for a day.”

November 5:
News: No reportage
Edit: Second editorial, “Don’t mock PM, Don’t Black Out channel.”

The Hindu:
November 4:
Page 13: A two-column report, “NDTV India ordered to go off air for a day”.

November 5:
Page12: Two-column news, bottom of page 12; headline, “NDTV ban sparks outrage”.
Edit page: Second editorial under headline, “Ominous curb on media freedom”.

The Hindustan Times: 
November 4:
Page 11: Two column story, “NDTV India off air for a day for flouting norms”.

November 5:
Page 8:  Four columns, “Media bodies, Opposition slam Centre over channel ban".
Edit page: Nothing on the ban.

The Asian Age:

November 4:
Page 1: Small box item: “TV channel taken off for 1 day”; continued in 4 columns of page 7.

November 5:
Page 7: “News channel ban sparks furore; Opp. refers to Emergency days; BJP hits back, says nation comes first”.
Edit/Op-ed pages: Nothing on the ban.

DNA:
November 4: No report on ban.

November 5:
Page 5: “Govt on NDTV one-day ban: Nation comes first.” As the headline itself suggests the report is clearly slanted towards the government’s justification of the gag.
Opinion Page: No edit/comment.
 

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