-The Hoot The West Bengal Chief Minister has made it clear that any public voice of dissent would be curbed by whatever means required. “If required, I will tell the people which newspapers to read in future”: this gem of an announcement was made by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in an interview given to selected news channels recently. Giving interviews to a chosen few, especially those who would not dare...

-The Hindu ‘In a democracy, such bias towards select papers is shocking' In a strongly-worded letter to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, the Congress on Sunday demanded the immediate withdrawal of the circular restricting the purchase of newspapers by State libraries and those it aids and sponsors to ones specified by it. “Undemocratic” Protesting the move, which he described as “most partial and undemocratic,” West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee president Pradip Bhattacharya said...

The Editors Guild of India on Thursday opposed in the Supreme Court the idea of temporary restraint on reporting of court proceedings saying enforcing these guidelines would lead to “infringement” of the right to free speech. Senior counsel Rajeev Dhavan told a five-judge Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice S.H. Kapadia that any move to empower courts even to temporarily clamp down on reporting to protect the interests of the parties...

-The Telegraph The Editors’ Guild today opposed any move to empower courts to temporarily clamp down on reporting to protect the interests of parties in an ongoing case, saying it would amount to “pre-censorship” of news. Arguing for the guild, senior counsel Rajeev Dhavan opposed suggestions for a temporary gag on covering court cases — specially criminal cases and high-stakes corporate matters — if the courts felt it was adversely affecting the...

A directive by the West Bengal Government to State libraries and those sponsored by it to subscribe only to newspapers specified by it has raised the hackles of the Left parties as well as certain civic rights activists. A circular issued by a Special Secretary of the Government directs the libraries to purchase only eight newspapers as specified by it. It provides the names of five Bengali newspapers, two Urdu and...