-The Hindu Long list of agents against free expression Censorship across the country is on the rise with as many as 52 instances being recorded in the first quarter of 2014. Releasing data on censorship for the first three months of this year, media watch group, The Hoot, said this averaged a little less than one a day. The agents against free expression were not just the state or fringe groups. The...

-The Business Standard A sting, Operation Prime Minister, by a TV news channel had said opinion polls could be manipulated by research agencies The Election Commission (EC) of India cannot ban opinion polls ahead of elections; all it can do is remind the Union government about its long-pending request. And, this is what India's highest poll-conducting body is planning to do, following a TV news channel's sting operation code-named ‘Operation Prime Minister', which...

-The Telegraph Has rape become an inspiring act? Protest, debate, anger, mutual blame, marches, mob violence are spilling out of streets and screens, yet the rape count continues to rise relentlessly, almost as if the outrage over one incident is inciting the next one. Such a narrative is to an extent encouraged by the way incidents are reported in newspapers and television, but the facts are inescapable, and everybody, including the...

-Live Mint I&B minister raises prospect of independent broadcasting authority, says govt may be forced to set up ratings system Information and broadcasting (I&B) minister Manish Tewari on Friday raised the prospect of an independent broadcasting authority and said the government may be forced to set up a ratings system unless the industry took steps to put in place a credible method of ranking television programmes, in a series of statements that...

-The Hindu Even direct reportage of facts is being termed defamatory, says Nikhil Pahwa A bid by a private institution to scrub clean the web of all critical opinion against it and a backdoor censorship facilitated by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) have stoked the rage of prominent commentators on Twitter and Facebook. For the second day running on Sunday, the hashtag #IIPM was trending on Twitter across the Indian Twitterverse with several...