Scotching the urge to self-censor, the press must report ‘bad news’—to guard the guards, empower the citizen, and usher in change When you open a newspaper, or switch on the Television, and there’s nothing but good news, it’s time to start worrying about what they’re not telling you. Nobody likes bad news, but the world is full of it. Don’t believe anyone who tells you otherwise: they want your vote...

This “activist” was quite different from the suit-wearing PIL litigant or the Left-leaning jholawala. In the run up to Anna Hazare’s first fast over an anti-corruption law in April, a communications company provided the technical support to a service in which, if mobile users called a toll-free number, they would then receive free alerts on the protests. The service was one of an array of technologies — from Twitter updates...

By the time you read this, Anna Hazare would have started his fast and his well-fed handlers will be stationed in front of Television cameras. Independence Day, grey and wet was a holiday with no breaking news, so after the Red Fort speech, all airtime was taken over by talking heads debating the Anna fast. The talks generate lots of heat: "Think about the future," or "Aren't we also members...

Fighting the insurgency will need careful planning and sustained innovation. But New Delhi seems to have only big sacks of cash and even bigger words. Eleven weeks after the annihilation of an entire company of the Central Reserve Police Force in a Maoist ambush in April 2010 near the village of Tarmetla — the largest single loss India has ever suffered in a counter-insurgency campaign — Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram...

PUNE: Far from taking exemplary action against the policemen who fired at protesting farmers killing four of them, the Pune rural police on Thursday turned the tables and arrested five farmers for attacking the police and damaging their property. They were also charged with criminal conspiracy. Worse, the two officers who were seen firing at farmers running away from the police in Television clippings are now facing a routine government...