IT IS one of the inspirational legends of Indian journalism that James Hickey, founder and editor of the Bengal Gazette — this country’s first newspaper, with its first edition going back to January 1780 — was a fearless seeker of the truth, taken to court and imprisoned by Warren Hastings, then governor-general. Reality is a little different. Hickey’s paper was often a gossipy, yellow rag. It thought nothing of publishing scurrilous...

-One World South Asia The recent report on paid news by Press Council of India recommends that representation of the People Act, 1951, should be amended to make the practice of paid news a punishable electoral malpractice. The Report defines paid news as Any news or analysis appearing in any media (Print & Electronic) for a price in cash or kind as consideration. The Report records that “Sections of the media in India...

Envelopes with cash distributed at BJP press meet A cash-for-coverage scandal has taken the fizz out of Bharatiya Janata Party leader L.K.Advani's ambitious Jan Chetna Yatra against corruption and black money with the BJP leaders in Madhya Pradesh “attempting to bribe” journalists for favourable coverage of the yatra. Envelopes containing currency notes worth Rs. 500-1,000 were handed out to journalists during a press conference called by local BJP MP Ganesh Singh at...

Why were two tribals and the Essar group framed by the Chhattisgarh police? Why are Soni Sori and Linga Kodopi being systematically silenced? This chilling story of one family reveals more about India's Naxal crisis than any official document can. AS I sit to write this, at 12.20 pm on 4 October 2011, an SMS pops up on my phone: “Soni Sori has been arrested by the Delhi Crime Branch.” The...

-The Economic Times   The Supreme Court on Wednesday sought to know if the Centre and the CBI were on the same page on the prosecution of the 2G scam accused, given law minister Salman Khurshid's reported statement that investor sentiment would be hurt if courts ordered the arrests of business persons.  A bench of Justices GS Singhvi and HL Dattu said the statement implied that the SC wanted to keep businessmen in...