-The Indian Express The protests in Delhi are generating two sorts of anxiety. The spectacle of a spontaneous, unstructured, unavoidably vague movement borne out of genuine rage has unsettled the establishment. And it will respond the way it does: by recourse to the language of order. The second is a critique that the movement is misdirected: it is blaming government for what is, in fact, a deep social problem. It is...

-PTI Calling the prevalence of paid news as "shocking and very disturbing", PCI chairperson Justice Markandey Katju said the information provided by the panel, appointed by him, only shows that self regulation by media was proving to be ineffective. There has been large-scale practice of ‘paid news’ in the Gujarat elections, a fact-finding team of the Press Council of India has claimed. Calling the prevalence of paid news as “shocking and very disturbing”,...

-Outlook The Election Commission has proposed putting up a ban on opinion polls in media but the issue needs to be discussed and deliberated upon before initiating any legislative measure, Law Minister Ashwani Kumar said today. In written reply to a question in Lok Sabha, he said, "A proposal of the Election Commission for putting ban on opinion polls during election has been received." Since this issue has a direct bearing on the...

-The Indian Express A free press that is able to operate without fear or favour remains an essential cornerstone of a modern democratic society. It plays a fundamental role as the guardian of public interest. By the same token, when certain deficiencies in its role become apparent, public and political furore is inevitable. So it came to pass in Britain, where public anger emanating from a single action — the hacking...

-The Hindu The Leveson report on the British press should jolt the Indian media into acting against ills such as paid news, and focus on being an agent of progressive social change After an inquiry lasting a year, Lord Justice Leveson has delivered a damning verdict on the decades of “outrageous” behaviour by the media. If anything, this verdict would apply in even greater force to a large section (not all) of...