MediaVigil, Journal of Global Communications and Justice

When we talk of journalism, journalistic activism, media's socialresponsibility and accountability, let's never forget about thejournalism awards which are being given anually in the name of manyrenowned journalists, sponsored by big press lords like The Indian Express and by the Indian government's agencies like publications division and others. These awards are in the sense of utmost importance as they try to create role models in our society for theupcoming journalists who aspire to get these awards in the future.This topic will prove to be a bone of contention between many. It will create a large number of foes rather than friends, but this cannot be avoided to be mentioned in the public domain. Last week, a prestigious journalism award was given in theFICCI auditorium. We all know that the award which is being given inthe name of deceased journalist Udayan Sharma is of great value notonly in terms of the amount, it attracts almost all the media peoplein Delhi every yea...

NUJ(I) Demands Statutory Media Council for Self-regulation of all Media For favour of Publication, New Delhi, July 4 -- The news reports that the Central Government is drafting a legislation to regulate content in the Television channels have naturally raised concerns about the nature of that regulation and the institutional arrangement through which the regulation would be exercised. In the absence of a clear statement from the Government, the National Union of Journalists (India) dedicated to the maintaining of the freedom of the Press is apprehensive about the aim and content of the proposed legislation, as authorities tend to exercise control over the media under the guise of regulation. NUJ(I) has been for long demanding Media Council as an independent self-regulatory body for the entire media including the print and electronic. This is especially urgent in the present anomalous situation where the print media comes under the self-regulation through the Press Council constituted u...

NGOs on EU fraud buster list CHARU SUDAN KASTURI New Delhi, June 26: The European Union’s anti-fraud unit, OLAF, has welcomed proposals made by the Planning Commission seeking to regulate the functioning and funding of non-government organisations. The Planning Commission recently submitted these suggestions to the government in the form of a draft national paper, which is being considered by the Centre. In the past couple of years, OLAF has been monitoring several Indian NGOs, which it believes could be involved in financial fraud worth millions of euros in connection with grants made by the European Union. It has been carrying out its investigations in India in tandem with the Union home ministry. Calling the proposals a positive move, OLAF said their implementation would help eliminate illegal international transfer of donations by NGOs. “While we cannot comment on any political implication of the proposals, it is a very good move,” Joerge Wojahn of OLAF said over phone from the org...

1) Interlinking of Rivers Project "The massive plan will lead to Aral Sea type disasters " http://www.projectsmonitor.com /detailnews.asp?newsid=11208 2) Another Bhopal in the making in Mumbai? Business Standard, 27.5.2002 http://www.rediff.com/money /2002/may/27spec.htm 3) French apex court rules, Clemenceau recalled http://www.indiatogether.org /2006/feb/env-shipretn.htm 4) The scrapping of Riky http://www.indiatogether.org /2006/mar/env-riky.htm 5) White asbestos, a health time bomb http://www.indiatogether.org /2006/apr/hlt-asbestos.htm 6) Waste burning is not renewable energy! www.choike.org/nuevo_eng /informes/2399.html 7) 'Champagne glass in India, hunger in Bharat' http://www.iicdelhi.nic.in /program/program_detail.asp ?ProgId=1254&CatgId=1 8) Waste To Energy Policy Perverts Waste Management http://www.thesouthasian.org /archives/000505.html 9) Electricity, But at what cost? http://www.sanctuaryasia.com /features/detai...

New Evidence Confirm Star Cruises and Norwegian Cruise Lines Deceived German Authorities to Dispose of the Toxic Laden SS Norway to India Brussels; New Delhi; 30 June 2006: The NGO Platform on Shipbreaking, a global coalition of human rights and environmental groups working to uphold environmental justice, released a report today revealing new evidence that the third largest cruise operator in the world, Star Cruises Ltd and its subsidiary, Norwegian Cruise Lines, withheld vital information from German authorities, when they sought permission to allow their toxic waste laden vessel, the SS Norway, to depart from the Port of Bremerhaven on 25 May 2005 to Asia. The Report reveals that as early as December 2004, SCL and NCL formed the intent to dispose of the vessel, which they did not disclose to German authorities, and instead claimed that the SS Norway was going to Asia for repairs. The Report entitled, “Star Cruises Ltd and Norwegian Cruise Lines: Deceiving Germany and Violating In...

SC marks Environment Day; Allows import of asbestos-laden ship In an ironical commemoration of the World Environment Day, the Indian Supreme Court on 5th June went against its own 1997 order and subsequent order of 14 th October 2003 prohibiting import of hazardous wastes by permitting SS Blue Lady, a ship containing 1240 MT of toxic asbestos, to enter Indian waters. Indian media failed to take note of the fact that the the court allowed anchoring of the ship on humanitarian grounds and not on legal grounds. The fact is that there is no legal ground for it to be allowed because its a case of illegal traffic of a toxic ship. The ship under tow left Malaysia on May 5, 2005 , after having fraudulently declared to port authorities there that it was destined for repairs in Dubai . The ship has made several attempts to reach scrap yards, including an aborted attempt late last year when the Bangladesh Government prohibited the toxic ship from entering the country on health and en...

June 15 2006: Global Day of Solidarity with Iraq Journalists in the Frontline of the Deadliest Media War in History The International Federation of Journalists, joined by the Iraqi Syndicate of Journalists and the Kurdish Association of Journalists, today launched a global campaign to end the terrifying ordeal of journalists in Iraq where at least 128 media staff have been killed and hundreds more injured or disabled in what has become the deadliest media war in modern history. The General Secretary of the IFJ, Aidan White, speaking to journalists in Dubai, said the campaign was backed by journalists’ groups across the Middle East and North Africa, as well as throughout the IFJ’s international network. “Iraqi journalists are the real heroes of this war,” said White. “Every day they take risks and make sacrifices that must be recognised in the crucial fight for freedom and democracy in Iraq,” he said. On June 15th – Iraq’s National Day of the Press – there will be de...

The subjective reporting in which Rajat Sharmas of India TV indulge in routine manner must be criticised. Last night while reading the news about how Gujarat Government has ensured that the Cinema Halls in Gujarat would not allow the screening of Aamir Khan's forthcoming film Fanaa in the state, Sharma said, Aamir Khan's involvement in the issue was uncalled for. He should have kept himself confined to movies. The reason for Fanaa's boycott being that Aamir Khan had supported the victims of Narmada Dam project who were seeking just rehablitation Aamir Khan-starrer Fanaa is going to be released on May 26. It is no one's case that Khan is activist. Had he been so he would not have been advertising for Coca Cola company, which has robbed the villagers in Kerela and Madhya Pradesh of their ground water but such support to the autocracy of the state is unbecoming of media persons. It is the same mindset of the Indian government which has put on hold the Friday release of ...

Office-bearers of Press Council of India Chairman, Justice Ganendra Narayan Ray Secretary, Mrs Vibha Bhargava 9th Term Members 1 K. Sachidananda Murthy Malayala Manorama, 2/11, INS Building, Rafi Marg, New Delhi-1 Tel. 23715210, 23325565 Resi-22750246 Mobile: 9818987555 Fax No.2371657 2 Vyas Kundan Ramanlal Janambhoomi Newspapers, Janambhoomi Bhawan, Janambhoomi Marg, Fort, Mumbai-400 001. Tel.23524373, Fax 22874097, Mobile-9869005686 3 Jagjit Singh Dardi 593, SST Nagar, Patiala, Punjab. Resi. 844, SST Nagar, Patiala Punjab. Tel. 0175-2370301, 5001774 Fax-0175-2371181 Mobile: 9815592166 4 Uttam Chandra Sharma 224, Civil Lines South, Muzaffarnagar-251 002. (U.P.) Tel. 0131-2403032, 2403058(O) 0131-2421003, 2402810(R ) 09837042840, 09412710840 5 Rajeeva Kumar Arora Gandiva Hindi Daily First Floor, VDA Shopping Complex, Nichi Bagh, Varanasi-221001 Tel. 2412540(O) 2392969(Editorial) 2392979 (Advt.) 6 Hiranmay Karlekar The Pioneer, Link House, 2nd Floor, B.S. Zafar Marg, Ne...

Complaints Procedure If you have a complaint against a newspaper, for any publication which you find objectionable and effects you personally, or non-publication of a material, you should first take it up with the editor or other representative of the publication concerned. If the complaint is not resolved to your satisfaction, you may refer it to the Press Council of India. The complaint must be specific and in writing and should be filed/lodged within two months of the publication of impugned news item in case of dailies and weeklies and four months in all other cases, along with the original/photostat copy of the impugned clipping ( English translation if the matter is in vernacular ). You must state in what manner the publication/non publication of the matter is objectionable within the meaning of the Press Council Act, 1978 and enclose a copy of your letter to the editor, pointing out why you consider the matter objectionable. His reply thereto or published rejoinder, if any, may ...

Union Human Resources Development Minister, Arjun Singh's proposal to increase the reservation quota from 22.5 per cent to 49.5 per cent, with a whopping 27 per cent reservation to OBCs in all centrally funded educational institutions. These institutions include 20-odd central universities and the IITs and IIMs but also six central medical colleges including AIIMS, the National Law School at Bangalore and Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC).

The very fact that senior faculty members have left and are leaving Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC) shows how IAS officers from Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry have taken over IIMC, which is an autonomous body registered as a society with journalists like N. Ram, Raghav Behl, Shekhar Gupta, Rajdeep Sardesai, Alok Mehta, Hari Jai Singh, Bharat Bhushan, Seema Chisty and activists like Aruna Roy (former IAS Officer) as its members. It is needless to state the obvious that the IIMC Society is non-functional. It is high time they met and took stock of the situation. Initially it was believed that S K Arora, IAS and Praveen Kumar Tripathi, IAS who are Chairman and Director of IIMC respectively are do not inclined to continue in their ex-officio capacity besides being Secretaries in I&B Ministry. Arora replaced Navin Chawla, the then Secretary I&B Ministry who is now an Election Commissioner against whom a PIL has filed seeking his disqualification. Like ...

On 17th April, 2006 Prime Minister Manmohan Singh finally met the campaigners seeking justice for the victims of Bhopal Gas Disaster of 3rd December 1984 and assured speedy work on three of their six demands. He has agreed for a clean-up of the contaminated site, clean water and a commission to execute medical and economic rehabilitation schemes. The six demands were: 1. The setting up of a National Commission on Bhopal to oversee medical and social rehabilitation; 2. Supply of safe water to communities currently drinking poisoned water; 3. Speedy prosecution of the accused, including Union Carbide Corporation and its former chairman; environmental remediation; 4. Curbing Dow and Carbide's business in India; and 5. Memorialising the disaster by including it in school and college curricula and 6. Building a Bhopal Memorial in consultation with survivors. Bhopalis who were on hunger strike called off their fast but they are upset with the Prime Minister who rejected their demand that...

The churning of a lethal cocktail of arrogance and dishonesty by academicians' research, motivated reporting by corporate-religious media(Indian Express-India TV etc) and the official view is a recurrent phenomenon like flood and drought all through the history of water resources development projects. The mega dam projects are ridden with half truths, falsehood and promises of a fantasy land. Take the case of Dr Rajendra Prasad's role with regard to embankments. Britishers had embanked the river Damodar in Bengal as an experiment in flood control in 1855 but regretted their decision because of its adverse consequences. The terrible floods of 1933 in Hwang Ho river had caused more than 50 breaches of the dykes and caused major disaster. In those days Dr Rajendra Prasad was known for his anti-embankment views. His assertions are available in the Proceedings of the Patna Flood Conference, 1938. This is not sursprising since in 1938, the Chiang Kai Shek government had ordered the o...

Medha Patkar's hunger strike enters 18th day. The Narmada Control Authority (NCA) Review Committee is meeting today to review the decision of NCA to raise the height of the Narmada dam in Gujarat from 110.64 metres to 121.92 metres. Chief Ministers of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan are members of the Committee, which is chaired by Saifuddin Soz, the Water Resources Minister. The three states of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat are falsely claiming that rehabilitation of the displaced people has been completed. The Action Taken Reports (ATRs) apparently have been submitted to the Centre by the three states in order to ask for clearance. These ATRs have not been made public. They have not been verified by the NCA or by the Gram Sabhas (village bodies). Despite this the height of the dam is being increased. Responding to the all round support for the victims of Sardar Sarovar dam, there was a combined religious and corporate reaction to it with a full page a...

In every step where an attempt is made to unravel the conspirators behind the assassinations and killing, there is an attempt to subvert it and suppress it. By the way will CPI-ML and others tell how often have the Commission's unearthed the truth? Why is CPI-ML and other political parties interested in the lies or half truths which Commission's give birth to? Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose continues to be in news 60 years after his disputed death. A BBC poll named Netaji the third most popular leader in South Asia after Jinnah and Gandhi. Netaji is supposed to have died at the end of Second World War. Netaji went missing while waging war for India 's freedom and in heart of hearts all Indians wish to know what happened to him. Nehru did institute the Shah Nawaz Khan Committee in 1956 after the Indian newspapers broke the news (based on agancy reports) on August 25, 1945 that Netaji had died in a freak plane crash in Taipei (Taihoku) on August 18th, 1945 . Nehru...