Democratic Institutions

Award-winning photojournalist Sanna Irshad Mattoo said she was barred by immigration authorities at Delhi international airport from travelling on Saturday in what is seen by many as part of continued crackdown on journalists in Kashmir. ..she was going to France to attend a book launch and photography  exhibition

In May, Kashmir-based Sanna, who contributes for Reuters news agency, won the prestigious Pulitzer prize in the Feature Photography category for her Covid crisis coverage in India becoming the first Kashmiri Muslim woman to achieve the feat in the region.

क्या है 2024 के लिए अडानी का 'सीक्रेट प्लान' ? Deepak Sharma
 May 18, 2022 गौतम अडानी भारते के नामचीन और धनी व्यक्तियों की लिस्ट में बहुत तेजी से आगे बढ़ते हुए अब ऐसा कदम उठाने जा रहे हैं जिससे भारत के चौथे स्तम्भ पर आँच आ सकती है | ऐसा क्या बड़ा खेल खेलने जा रहे हैं अडानी और उनका मकसद क्या है आज के इस वीडियो में विस्तार से जानिये अडानी का खेल |

KCR sponsors NDTV 'feature', Modi and Yogi enjoy free publicity on ABP | TV Newsance 173  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=attB2aVsurI 
28th May 2022  This week we shift gears to bring you a special episode breaking down what ad-funded programming looks like on TV news and what different forms this monster has taken in the Indian news ecosphere.

First up is an advertorial in Hindi from the Telugu-speaking state of #Telangana on #NDTV. Almost passed off as news, we look at how such ‘sponsored features’ are aired without any explicit disclaimers and what this implies for the role of the media in a democracy.  We then look at two weekly shows on #ABPNews called "Modi Tracker" and "Yogi Tracker" which are technically not advertorials, except they are functionally indistinguishable.

Speaking of ads on TV news, we can't not talk about the morning shop #Ramdev sets up on #IndiaTV, offering cures for every affliction under the sun, from prostate cancer to brain tumors!

How does this ad-funded programming work and what does it mean for you as a viewer but also, crucially, as the citizen of a democracy?

India’s media is under siege, but what will it take for the public to care? Kalpana Sharma 11 May, 2022  https://www.newslaundry.com/2022/05/11/indias-media-is-under-siege-but-what-will-it-take-for-the-public-to-care
Despite the importance of a free press, the idea of it, or its absence, does not stir the electorate.

Despite 75 years as an elected democracy, it is striking how the idea of a free press, or the absence of one, does not stir too many in the electorate. It would appear that the media really does not make much of a difference to the lives of ordinary people. Or perhaps it indicates our changed times, where what circulates on social media has more currency than news that is reported in the media.

According to Shoaib Daniyal of Scroll, the main reason voters failed to connect the daily human tragedies that played out during the second wave of the pandemic last year to the government’s mismanagement of the crisis was because of a “lack of media critique”.

He rightly points out: “Throughout the pandemic, big media houses – especially Hindi and English-languages outlets based in the National Capital Region – chose to avoid blaming the government for both the economic losses as well as the healthcare collapse. Instead, Covid-19 was portrayed as a global act of god that had affected each and every country in much the same way.

Veteran Journalist & Author Paranjoy Guha Thakurta On India's Sliding In World Press Freedom index.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaiOxecVGqU  May 10, 2022