Concerned over disturbing trends in the media, including commercialisation and trivialisation of content, corporatisation of the sector and the phenomenon of paid news, the call for a “media watch group” was made at a round table discussion on “Markets, Media and Democracy” here on Tuesday. “There is a need for a public auditing of the media, declaration of the revenue earned and checking on fraudulent news. It would be done best...

It is imperative that at this point in time we “prioritise women's empowerment as an intrinsic part of our development agenda and policy,” Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar has said. “The protection of women's rights and their empowerment is our collective responsibility, and the government, social organisations and the civil society, in partnership with the media, need to create a congenial atmosphere and shape public opinion so that women have freedom...

Issues today have to be dressed up in ways certified by the corporate media. They have to be justified not by their importance to the public but by their acceptability to the media, their owners and sponsors.  That the terrible tragedy in Pune demands serious, sober coverage is a truism. One of the side-effects of the ghastly blast has been unintended, though. The orgy of self-congratulation that marked the media...

Vedanta Resources is under fire from heaven and earth, and even Hollywood has been asked to join in. Tribal rights campaigner Survival International has appealed to Avatar director James Cameron, through an advertisement in US entertainment magazine Variety, to help it stop the company from mining for bauxite in an Orissa forest. The ad drew parallels between the Na’vi tribe in Avatar, who try to stop humans from mining under their sacred...

Despite criticism by civil society and the free press, the state is continuing its violent campaigns against Maoists unchecked Alongside the great internet firewall of China, the vicious paranoia of Burma's ruling junta, and the lists of murdered journalists in Sri Lanka, India appears as a beacon of free speech and open-minded self-criticism. And yet, for all the vociferous passion of its journalists and activists in calling the powerful to account,...