The information ministry is drafting the law in accordance with international and regional norms, Xinhua quoted the daily New Light of Myanmar as saying.

Both sides will hold a discussion on the proposed law that guarantee press freedom, responsibility and accountability in promoting democracy.

Meanwhile, the Myanmar Writers and Journalists Association (MWJA) and Singapore’s Asian Media Information and Communication Centre (AMIC) Monday jointly organised a workshop here on media development in democratic society. Representatives from Indonesia, Myanmar, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand and the US took part.

The workshop discussed media-related laws and publication.

Nov 29, 2008: Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy meets Prime Minister Manmohan Singh seeking sanction to prosecute Raja under the Prevention of Corruption Act

May 4, 2009: Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) receives complaints on irregularities in spectrum allocation to Loop Telecom

May 2010: NGO Centre for Public Interest litigation (CPIL) moves Delhi High Court seeking CBI probe into scam

Sep 13, 2010: Supreme Court asks Raja and central government to respond within 10 days to three petitions of CPIL and others on allegation there was a Rs.70,000 crore scam

Sep 24, 10: Swamy goes to SC seeking direction to the PM to sanction Raja’s prosecution

Oct 8, 10: SC seeks government’s response on CAG’s report on the scam

Oct 29, 10: CBI pulled up by SC for its slow probe in the scam

Nov 10, 10: CAG pegs loss to exchequer at Rs.1.76 lakh crore

Nov 11, 10: DoT questions CAG’s authority to question policy decision on 2G licences in SC by filing an affidavit

Nov 14, 10: Raja resigns from the post of Telecom Minister

Nov 20, 10: Rejecting charge of inaction on Swamy’s complaint, PM files affidavit in SC

Nov 25, 10: CBI pulled down by SC for not questioning Raja

Dec 2, 10: SC comes down heavily on Raja for bypassing PM’s advice to put off allocation of 2G spectrum by a few days

Dec 8, 10: SC favours probe into spectrum allocation since 2001 when first-come-first-served was the norm for spectrum allocation

Dec 8, 10: SC orders setting up of a special court to look into 2G scam

Feb 2 2011: Raja arrested

Sep 15, 11: Swamy goes to CBI court seeking Chidambaram to be made a co-accused

Sep 22, 11: CBI blames telecom department and defends Chidambaram in SC

Oct 10, 11: SC reserves order on Swamy’s plea for a probe into the alleged role of Chidambaram in the 2G scam

Oct 22, 11: Special CBI court frames charges against all 17 accused including Raja

Nov, 11: Except Raja and Behura, 12 others get bail

Dec 12, 11: CBI submits third charge sheet including names of Essar promoters Anshuman, Ravi Ruia, Essar Group director strategy and planning Vikas Saraf, Loop Telecom promoters Kiran Khaitan and her husband I.P. Khaitan as accused

Loop Telecom Pvt Ltd, Loop Mobile India Ltd and Essar Tele Holding also recognised as accused

Jan 31, 12: SC accepts Swamy’s petition against the PMO says filing complaint under the Prevention of Corruption Act is a constitutional right

Feb 2: Supreme Court orders cancellation of 122 licenses given in 2008, gives companies four months to cease operations

- Total subscribers (wireless and fixed-line) in December: 926.53 million

- One of fastest growing markets in the world

- Total players: 15

- Dominant players: Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications, Vodafone, Idea Cellular

- India held auctions of 3G and broadband wireless access (BWA) spectrum in 2010, raising about $20 billion

- 4G services expected to be launched by end of 2012 with fresh guidelines

- Exit policy for telecom players being framed

The study led by researcher David Brown, professor School of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences, University of Portsmouth, simulated a customer search and evaluation of 184 retrieved sites using evaluation tools focusing on quality and safe medicine use.

Results showed that a potential purchaser of statins (cholesterol busting drugs) is likely to encounter websites from a wide geographical base of generally poor quality, the journal of Pharmacoepidemiology & Drug Safety reported.

General contra-indications (condition which makes a particular treatment or procedure inadvisable) were absent in 92.4 percent of sites and contra-indicated medicines were absent in 47.3 percent, according to a university statement.

Key warnings on the appearance of symptoms associated with myopathy, liver disease, hypersensitivity and pancreatitis were absent in 37, 48.4, 91.3, and 96.2 percent of sites, respectively.

Most websites presented a chaotic and incomplete list of known side effects; just 13 (7.1 percent) presented a list compatible with current prescribing information. Only two thirds (65.8 percent) attempted to describe any side effects in lay language.

“Websites offering statins for sale contain little information on the safety of these drugs, which are intended as prescription only medicines,” Brown noted.

“There is an inherent danger in patients seeking to self-medicate in this way without consulting a healthcare professional and being appraised of ways to use the medicine safely,” added Brown.

“We don’t have any problem with the truth. But if you (media) create something and want us to believe that a snake is a rope because that’s your breaking story, then we have a problem,” Trivedi said at a panel discussion at the Kolkata Literary Meet.

Abdullah said: “I don’t have a problem with the media playing the role of a prosecutor. It can ask uneasy questions, it can do investigative stories. I have a problem with the media playing the role of a judge. It should not pronounce a judgment that a man is guilty.”

He said trial by the media was a problem because the trial leads to a judgement.

Journalist Rajdeep Sardesai countered Trivedi and Abdullah, saying the media was accountable to its viewers and readers.

He pointed out the instances of the Jessica Lal and Nitish Katara cases where justice was delivered after an extensive media campaign seeking justice.

But Sardesai conceded that the media should not play the role of a judge.

Abdullah also called for some amount of self-regulation in the social media where people in public life were subjected to all kinds of abuse by anonymous people.

The maiden edition of KLM is being held as part of the 36th Kolkata Book Fair.

The feature had been voluntary till now and Facebook has given all of its 800 million users a seven-day period to delete content before Timeline goes online, The Sun reported.

Timeline makes everything a person has ever done on Facebook appear on a single screen that scrolls down year by year right back to when the person was born.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg recently said he was convinced people wanted to be able to share their entire lives with one another.

Zuckerberg said Timeline was the “story of your life and completely new way to express yourself”.

“Millions of people curate stories of their lives on Facebook every day and have no way to share them once they fall off your profile page,” he said.

A defamation case against N.Ram, former editor-in-chief of The Hindu and the newspaper’s correspondent B.Kolappan has also been filed for reproducing Nakkheeran’s report in the daily.

The petitions were filed by the Chennai public prosecutor before the principal sessions court here.

In a recent issue, Nakkheeran had published an article describing Jayalalithaa as a “beef eater”.

On Jan 12, Gopal had expressed regret to the Madras High Court for publishing the article and agreed to withdraw the article and publish an apology when a contempt of court petition was moved against him and the magazine.

Senate majority leader Harry Reid Friday postponed a planned vote on the Protect IP Act (PIPA).

“In light of recent events, I have decided to postpone Tuesday’s vote on the PROTECT IP Act,” Reid wrote on his Twitter account.

Lamar Smith, the Republican chairman of the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee, then said his panel would also shelve the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) until an agreement was reached.

Smith said in a statement: “I have heard the critics and I take seriously their concerns regarding the proposed legislation to address the problem of online piracy. It is clear that we need to revisit the approach on how best to address the problem of foreign thieves that steal and sell American inventions and products.”

The moves come after hundreds of major websites including Wikipedia and blog-hosting site WordPress blacked out for 24 hours Wednesday.

The legislation is aimed at cracking down on online movie and music piracy by blocking access to websites thought to traffic counterfeit material, but critics fear internet censorship.

More than seven million people signed a Google petition seeking to block the passage of the bills.

On Wednesday, Russia’s Pirate Party staged a protest outside the US embassy in Moscow in support of the campaign.

The party said the bills could derail Russia’s nascent online democracy.

Actor Jude Law, politician Lord Prescott, Shaun Russell, whose wife and daughter were killed in Kent in 1996, and Sara Payne, the mother of murdered schoolgirl Sarah, are also among 36 claimants who have reached settlements.

Details of some of the deals were given in the high court Thursday.

Actress and designer Sadie Frost has received 50,000 pounds in damages. Labour MP Chris Bryant received 30,000 pounds. Footballer Ashley Cole has also received damages but the figure was not disclosed, the newspaper said.

The deals mean that 36 damages claims being brought against News International subsidiary News Group Newspapers (NGN), publisher of the now-defunct News of the World, have been settled.

But Mark Thomson, of law firm Atkins Thomson, who represents some of the claimants, said others would press ahead with a trial scheduled for next month.

Others whose settlements were confirmed Thursday include former cavalry officer James Hewitt, who had an affair with Diana, Princess of Wales, former MP George Galloway, Welsh rugby star Gavin Henson, singer Dannii Minogue, Calum Best, the son of George Best, and Meg Matthews, the ex-wife of former Oasis guitarist Noel Gallagher.

Thomson said: “All of the claimants have been extremely brave to take on and succeed against a massive and influential multinational media organisation.”

“A number of claimants are still pursuing the matter to trial and, as a result, NGN will continue to disclose further information and evidence,” the paper quoted him as saying.

The News of the World (NoW) newspaper, which ceased publication July 10, 2011, has been illicitly hacking into the voicemail messages of prominent people to find stories.

It admitted intercepting voicemails in April last year after years of rumour that the practice was widespread, and amid intense pressure from those who believed they had been victims.

The paper ceased publication after fresh allegations. The final edition signed off with headline “Thank you and goodbye” and included an apology.

The study found that people who were most exposed to newspaper, television and the internet had healthier diets than those who were less well informed, the Daily Mail reported.

More than 1,000 adults were interviewed in the study.

The researchers found that people most exposed to news and mass media consumed a healthier diet, with greater quantities of fruit and fish that reduced the risk of obesity, heart disease and cancer.

Past research has often suggested that mass media can have a negative impact on health.

For instance, TV viewing has been linked to physical inactivity and snacking, the major risk factors for obesity and heart disease.

But the latest findings suggest that TV programmes, addressing health issues, can also make people more health conscious.

The participants completed a questionnaire on mass media usage, from TV viewing to newspaper and magazine reading and surfing the internet, which was then analysed alongside medical, lifestyle and dietary data.

Findings showed people more inquisitive about current affairs had better diets.

Scientist Giovanni de Gaetano supported the contribution of mass media in increasing awareness about health.

“Information delivered by mass media may appear fragmented or imprecise, especially when we talk about health and prevention. Our study has however provided data which may turn out to be very useful in a period in which to combat obesity increase, unhealthy dietary habits and diffused laziness we are urged to find new ways to communicate health.”

“We should stop being suspicious of mass media. The next step will be to evaluate the single sources of information and to study the changes that the internet is introducing in the way people, mainly the youngest, get informed on health topics.”

The study has been published in the International Journal of Public Health.

They have been inspired by none other than ace tennis champion Vijay Amritraj, 58, who has undergone an angioplasty and a multiple muscular surgery.

The contingent would be led by Ramakant Panda, eminent cardiac surgeon who operated on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh three years ago.

“Vijay Amritraj is one of the few sportspersons who straddles generations and is a global icon of fitness and health. He is a brave-heart who inspires other heart patients,” said Panda, AHI’s chairman-cum-managing director.

Amritraj said that he aspired to be a medical doctor in his early days.

“Unfortunately, my association with the medical fraternity remained limited to visiting hospitals as an asthma patient,” he said.

He was advised by his medicos to take up tennis as a sport which would enable his lungs to function better.

“I eventually got my ‘doctor’-ate by hitting aces on the tennis court,” he said.

Amritraj, who is one of the co-Event Ambassadors along with Bollywood star John Abraham, added that his global charitable organization supports 19 charitable organizations and NGOs in India.

Internet addiction has for the first time been linked with changes in the brain similar to those seen in people addicted to alcohol, cocaine and cannabis. In a groundbreaking study, researchers used MRI scanners to reveal abnormalities in the brains of adolescents who spent many hours on the internet, to the detriment of their social and personal lives. The finding could throw light on other behavioural problems and lead to the development of new approaches to treatment, researchers said.

An estimated 5 to 10 per cent of internet users are thought to be addicted – meaning they are unable to control their use. The majority are games players who become so absorbed in the activity they go without food or drink for long periods and their education, work and relationships suffer.

FOR MORE READING. . .

Saigal was swimming with his friends near their anchored sail boat off Bogmalo beach, 35 km from here.

“Saigal’s friends who were present there said that he was asthmatic and could have had an asthma attack when he was swimming, while the entourage had anchored the sail boat mid-sea,” an official of a private beach management service said.

Saigal was headed with his friends from Panaji to Palolem, a popular beach 80 km from here.

“Our lifeguard stationed at Bogmalo beach around 12.20 p.m. saw through his binoculars that some people on the sailboat were gesticulating wildly for help. We sent a jet ski there to check and found Saigal on the deck with his pulse missing,” the official said.

Saigal was later taken to hospital where he was declared dead.

The police have registered the case as an unnatural death and the autopsy is likely to be conducted soon.

The report titled “The ethical issues arising from the relationship between police and media” was prepared by former parliamentary commissioner for standards, Elizabeth Filkin, and was released Wednesday.

It said that “the close relationship which developed between parts of the MPS (Metropolitan Police Service) and the media has caused serious harm”.

In 2011, News Corporation, a media holding owned by media magnate Rupert Murdoch, came under intense criticism after it emerged that some journalists employed by the group had written stories based on material hacked from phone messages, including those belonging to crime victims, celebrities and politicians.

Soon after the scandal, Filkin headed the working group to develop the new ethical standards for the police.

The report advises policemen to “watch out” for “late-night carousing, long sessions, yet another bottle of wine at lunch – these are all long-standing media tactics to get you to spill the beans”.

“Mixing the media with alcohol is not banned but should be an uncommon event,” the report said, adding that having drinks with police officers “may be seen as inappropriate hospitality”.

Among other key points were that “confidential briefings should be the exception” and “all contact should be available for audit”.

“There should be no external control on the media, but media representatives by general consensus should find a way that would promote objectivity and reduce sensationalism,” Manmohan Singh said here while issuing a postage stamp in the honour of late Puran Chandra Gupta, founder of Hindi daily Dainik Jagran.

Talking about the role of media in removing paid news, he said: “I am confident that to remove the evils like paid news, the Indian media will make attempt and be successful.”

He stressed the need for media to focus on issue of national importance. “The media should increase the coverage of those issues which are important for the country.”

“The role and functioning of media has always been discussed ever since we got our freedom. I am very happy that our media is independent and it has an important role in the country,” he said.

Lauding the contribution of Gupta, Manmohan Singh said: “He promoted fearless and independent journalism throughout his life and this kind of journalism is very important for any democracy.”

Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh were also present at the function.

“I am very happy that our media is independent… it has an important role in the country. There should be no external control on the media but representatives from the media should find a way that would promote objectivity rather than sensationalism,” Manmohan Singh said while issuing a postage stamp in honour of the late Puran Chandra Gupta, founder of the Hindi daily Dainik Jagran.

He also expressed concern over paid news in journalism.

“The media should increase the coverage of issues of national importance. I hope that to uproot the evils like paid news, media will make an attempt and be successful,” he said

The show is being launched in association with New Delhi-based Indraprastha All India Sports Foundation. Cricketers like Irfan Pathan, Yusuf Pathan, Keerti Aazad and Piyush Chawla among others will be mentors on the show.

“There is a definite attraction for such a show on cricket. Our main target audience at UTV Bindass is the youth, who will be happy to see revered icons like Irfan Pathan mentoring young cricket enthusiasts on how to play professionally,” Keith Alphonso, the channel’s business head, told IANS over phone from Mumbai.

The basic concept of the show is to choose players, who have the talent but not the opportunity.

The markets in which “Cricket Champs” will hunt for the players will be Mumbai, Kolkata, New Delhi, Chandigarh, Jaipur, Chennai, Bangalore and Patna. It will also travel to other states – Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh.

The cricketers will be chosen in two categories — Under-16 and Under-22, and the on-ground hunt for the show will begin Jan 17, 2012, in the capital.

The selected candidates will be divided into eight teams.

The winner of “Cricket Champs” will win a cash prize of Rs.1 million, while the top 10 players will be given a chance to be coached by some renowned names in Indian cricket.

“Cricket is a religion in India. So after music and dance reality shows, it was time do a reality show on cricket. Like the ‘Indian Idol’, this is a version of ‘cricket idol’,” Rohini Rajdev, chairperson, Indraprastha All India Sports Foundation, told IANS.

“Through the show, we are not promising a place in the Indian cricket team. But it will prove to be a worthy platform where they can show their talent, learn new things and prove themselves,” added Rajdev.

Permanent employees of the corporation have not been paid the 15 percent increase in salary announced in the federal budget 2011-12, while contractual and daily-wage workers are waiting for their salaries for the last two months, Dawn News reported.

Some employees said the management has told them the ministry of finance was yet to release the funds needed to pay them the raise.

A daily-wage employee said that in the Urdu unit there were 35 employees out of which three were regular and the remaining were daily earners.

Same was the case in the units of different languages like Punjabi, Seraiki, Balochi, Sindhi, Kashmiri, Balti and Hindi, he said.

Another employee alleged that only those who have good relations with officers of the accounts section get their cheques on time while others have to wait for months.

An artiste said usually they earn around Rs.8,000 to Rs.10,000 per month, but the management has not been able to give them even that on time. Due to this delay, most artistes want to leave the corporation.

Station director for Islamabad, Abdul Hafeez has said most corporations across the country were facing similar financial problems.

The Pakistan Broadcasting Service came into existence Aug 14, 1947 after the creation of Pakistan. It was also named Radio Pakistan, which was converted into a corporation under an ordinance issued by then president Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto in 1972.

At present, Radio Pakistan broadcasts programmes in 23 languages.

If anyone uses a word or phrase from the department’s list, American spies might read the posts, investigate the online account and even attempt to identify the person from it, the Daily Mail reported.

Some words which reportedly attract attention are outbreak, drill, strain, illegal immigrant, virus, recovery, deaths, collapse and trojan, according to a report filed by a private group — the Electronic Privacy Information Centre.

It was not clear how this information was being used.

The group said the US government has used scans of social media earlier to analyse specific events — such as the 2010 BP oil spill.

The channel will officially start later in January, reported Shanghai Daily.

The satellite channel will have 3D programmes every day from 10:30 a.m. to midnight, said the official.

China Central Television, Radio and Television Beijing, Radio and Television Shanghai, Radio and Television Tianjin, Radio and Television Jiangsu Province and Shenzhen Television Station will produce the 3D content.

Animation, sports, documentaries, TV dramas, entertainment and live broadcasting of big events like the London Olympics will be telecast.

There won’t be any viewing fee during the early phase and people will need to buy a 3D TV set and install high-definition set-top-box.

Imperial College of London scientists have shown how waste paper could be turned into high grade biofuel, with the help of micro-organisms, to power motor vehicles.

Some 1.5 billion cards and 83 sq km of wrapping paper are thrown away by British residents over Christmas.

This could provide five to 12 million litres of biofuel, enough to run a bus for for 18 million km. But they go into a landfill or are recycled in local schemes, according to an Imperial College statement.

‘If one card is assumed to weigh 20 grams and one square metre of wrapping paper is 10 grams, then around 38,300 tonnes of extra paper waste will be generated at Christmas time,’ said study author Richard Murphy from the department of Life Sciences at Imperial College.

‘Our research shows that it would be feasible to build waste paper-to-biofuel processing plants that give energy back as transport fuel.’

‘If this technology can be developed further, waste paper might ultimately provide a great, environmentally friendly alternative to fossil fuels,’ Murphy added.

The violators include China Urban Economy Magazine, China Quality Journey Magazine, China Technology Market News, China Food Publishing Co., Ltd., Shandong Legal News and Enterprise Party Construction Information Weekly, according to a statement released Tuesday by the General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP).

These papers and magazines received warnings and were fined up to 180,000 yuan ($28,400), and their illegally established branches were removed, Xinhua quoted the statement as saying.

The Beijing-based magazine China Urban Economy was stripped of its publishing license.

In 2010 and 2011, the magazine authorized the use of its title to several contracted advertising agencies to charge ‘management fees’ and allowed their employees to do interviews with the magazine’s work permit and letter of introduction.

With the press cards issued by the magazine, two advertising agents Xu Cheng and Li Wanjun allegedly extorted 20,000 yuan from a local real estate group during an ‘investigative interview’ May 25, 2011, in Luoyang city, Henan province.

According to rules, local newspaper branches and their staff reporters are not allowed to engage in extortion by threatening to expose inside stories. Paid news, forced subscriptions and forced advertising in return for complimentary reports are also banned.

The session was organised by Ghaziabad District Magistrate Shashi Bhushan Lal on the directions of the state election officer.

Lal said the election commission had come across complaints of biased media coverage, paid news and other malpractices.

The ‘ghoulish’ decision to ask former cabinet colleagues to contribute to the programme about Blair’s life has shocked some within the Labour party, the Sun reported.

‘It seems in pretty poor taste that the Beeb is already preparing for Tony’s death….He is still a relatively young man who I’m sure has got a lot of years left in him yet,’ said a Labour party source.

Blair, who was premier for ten years, did have a minor heart scare while being in office. But he is known to keep himself in shape.

He and wife Cherie ‘who already had three children’ had baby son Leo in 2000 when he was the prime minister.

‘We don’t comment on obituaries,’ said a BBC spokeswoman.

La Tercera, published by Copesa, must pay a total of 85 million pesos ($163,460) to the 13 victims.

The claims of two other plaintiffs’ were rejected.

The case dates back to July 25, 2004, when La Tercera published in its women’s supplement a recipe for caramel-filled fritters that called for frying a mass of dough at a temperature of 250 degrees Celsius.

The procedure set down in the recipe produced ‘explosions so violent that the splatters reached the ceiling and bathed the person preparing it’, investigating magistrate Ximena Diaz concluded in 2008 after a four-year investigation.

‘Faithfully following the recipe published in the daily, it would be impossible to have avoided this damage,’ the judge wrote, noting that La Tercera’s instructions were wrong on the quantities of ingredients to be used.

People who used the recipe suffered burns to the arms, face and chest.

The individual plaintiffs will receive damages ranging from 1 million to 25 million pesos ($1,923 to $48,076).

The two-day event, being organised by Urdu daily Siasat, will discuss the problems faced by Urdu newspapers and Urdu journalists.

‘It is the first conference of its kind aimed at bringing Urdu newspapers to a common platform,’ Siasat editor Zahid Ali Khan told a news conference here Monday.

To be inaugurated by Vice President Hamid Ansari, the conference will be attended by editors and other journalists of 40 newspapers.

Editors from Pakistan, Middle East, Britain and Canada would also participate in the conference, which will discuss the challenges faced by Urdu newspapers.

It will discuss the idea of bringing Urdu newspapers under one umbrella, efforts to promote the readership and to take up various problems with the authorities.

Siasat, which is working to promote Urdu and is also engaged in social activities like helping poor students, providing relief to cancer patients and guiding students and youth in obtaining jobs, is also working on a project to link Urdu newspapers across the country.

‘Under the project launched on experimental basis, 12 Urdu newspapers have joined hands with us. We are providing them content in Urdu from here,’ said Khan, who plans to rope in many others.

According to conference convenor Aijaz Farrukh, four editors from Pakistan have confirmed their participation. Mehmood Sham, group editor, ARY, Sohail Waraich of daily Jung, Tanveer Qaiser of Express group and Ayaz Badshah of Mashriq would be among the delegates.

Khan said the editors conference was part of the efforts initiated by Siasat with World Urdu Conference in 2006 to unite people who speak, read or write Urdu.

As part of the conference, an exhibition would also be organized. The organisers said 160-year-old Urdu newspapers would also be displayed.

Christian homes were decorated with Christmas trees and lights to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ.

‘It is a festival of peace and harmony. People of all religions have come here today. They feel one with Jesus here,’ said Father Maria Susai at the Scared Heart Cathedral which was built in 1934.

‘This place gives me a sense of peace. I am not Christian but every year, I celebrate Christmas with some friends. We go to church and have some sweets,’ 24-year-old Atul Sharma said.

The Christmas spirit could be felt all over the place. The church organised a day-long public mass and an open air theatre with a DJ playing songs.

Expatriates also gathered at the church to celebrate Christmas. Although Olivier Mensah from Togo in west Africa misses Christmas back home, he is in love with the unique mix of cultures in India.

‘Christmas is always a big thing at home, lots of dance and merriment. But here, it’s different. The churches are so grand and beautiful and so many people of different cultures have come together,’ Mensah, 27, told IANS.

While the mood of festivity prevailed on the Church premises, a different type of celebration could be seen outside the Church.

A group of youngsters in Santa caps, were carrying big sacks just like Santa Claus. The sacks were full of clothes, scarves and ear-muffs which they had decided to give to poor people.

The team’s leader, Dheeraj Rana, 17 said, ‘We are volunteering with the church. These are gifts for the poor and the needy.’

The youngsters’ gifts were even more relevant as incidentally, this is the coldest Christmas in the capital in 5 years.

Other churches across the city held Christmas mass and prayers. Markets and shopping malls in the capital were flooded with Santa Clauses of all shapes and sizes. They also sold briskly at traffic junctions.

“The mathematical base can assist in identifying the atomic number of elements in each group of the periodic table. Even identification of new elements in future will be possible through the number system and with perfectly perfect magic squares,” T V Padmakumar says. Coinciding with the International Year of Chemistry this year, Padmakumar claims he has valid proof to claim that he is the only mathematician in the world to propound the periodic table on the basis of number theory.

FOR MORE READING. . .

Political conflict and unrest proved deadly for journalists in 2011, said the CPJ. The governments failed to prosecute those who targeted reporters for their work, it said Tuesday.

‘Of the seven journalists killed in Pakistan this year, five were murdered,’ CPJ executive director Joel Simon said.

Saleem Shahzad, who was Southeast Asia’s bureau chief for Asia Times Online and also worked for Italy’s AKI news agency, was found dead following his disappearance from Islamabad May 29. His death has drawn worldwide atttention.

The 40-year-old’s body with signs of torture was recovered two days later in Mandi Bahauddin, 150 km from Islamabad.

‘Mexico, which will assume the G20 presidency in 2012, holds a similarly atrocious record,’ Simon said.

‘Despite many promises, authorities in Pakistan and Mexico have made no progress in solving these crimes, and their failure to do so perpetuates this climate of violence.’

The global tally is consistent with the 2010 toll, when 44 journalists died in connection with their work.

CPJ is investigating another 35 deaths in 2011 to determine whether they were work-related. Twenty of these cases are in Latin America, where the web of crime, official corruption, and weak law enforcement often obscures the motive.

Over 80 percent of those killed were local journalists. Photographers and camera operators suffered steep losses in 2011, constituting about 40 percent of the overall toll.

The number of freelancers killed on the job has also increased steadily over the years, constituting nearly a third of the 2011 poll.

Libya and Iraq, each with five fatalities, and Mexico, with three deaths, also ranked high worldwide for journalism-related fatalities.

In the Middle East, 18 journalists perished this year, many while covering the uprisings that swept the Arab world.

‘The combination of dangerous assignments turned deadly and targeted murders that remain unsolved is a double challenge to free expression,’ said Simon.

‘Combatants must recognize the right of journalists to cover conflict, while governments must be held accountable for investigating and prosecuting those who carry out crimes against the press.’

Fatalities on dangerous assignments such as street protests reached the highest rate since 1992, CPJ’s survey shows, while the proportion of murders has declined over the years, accounting for less than half the deaths in 2011.

Nonetheless, assassinations continued in places where governments have failed to prosecute previous crimes.

CPJ research shows that about 90 percent of journalist murders go unsolved even though most victims – 70 percent in 2011 – reported receiving threats prior to their deaths.

‘There is no unanimity over increasing the FDI quotient in print media… the debate in this regard has not been conclusive,’ Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni told the Lok Sabha during Question Hour.

She outlined key features of the government’s print media policy, saying foreign newspapers were not being allowed to bring out Indian editions.

A foreign publishing house which owns a foreign newspaper has also been allowed to bring out the facsimile edition of the paper through its wholly-owned Indian subsidiary, she said.

‘Although the facsimile editions of foreign newspapers are allowed, they are not allowed to carry advertisements in any form aimed at Indian subscribers,’ Soni added.

These and other measures such as limiting the FDI in the news and current affairs sector of the print media has benefited the domestic newspaper industry, she said.

According to the existing policy for FDI in print media, foreign investment up to 26 percent of the capital is allowed to the Indian companies publishing newspapers and periodicals dealing with news and current affairs.

FDI up to 100 percent is allowed in Indian companies publishing speciality magazines, scientific, technical and other journals.

The minister added that the government was making all efforts to ensure that Urdu and regional language newspapers were given more advertisements through the Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity (DAVP).

This information was shared in the Rajya Sabha by Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting C.M. Jatua while replying to a question.

Jatua added that no campaign was released through the electronic media on the birth anniversaries of the two former prime ministers.

The health ministry spent the highest amount of over Rs.95 lakh on the birth anniversary of Rajiv Gandhi, followed by the ministry of new and renewable energy at Rs.82 lakh.

The tourism ministry spent over Rs.79 lakh on the occasion. The ministry of housing and urban poverty alleviation spent over Rs.65 lakh, information and broadcasting ministry over Rs.58 lakh, while social justice ministry spent over Rs.51 lakh for the occasion.

The information and broadcasting ministry topped the list of spenders on advertisements on the birth anniversary of Indira Gandhi at over Rs.60 lakh, followed by the social justice ministry at over Rs.56 lakh.

‘The journalists were detained Sunday by people with automatic rifles in the square of the town of Zhanaozen without the explanation of any reasons,’ Kommersant said.

The three journalists were Kommersant special correspondent Vladimir Solovyov, photo correspondent Vasily Shavoshnikov, and also Lenta-ru correspondent Ilya Azar.

‘During the detainment, some of their personal belongings were seized. The journalists were in Kazakhstan to cover the riots that had erupted in the country’s west. In about four hours after they were detained, the journalists were released,’ the paper said.

Kommersant Editor-in-Chief Mikhail Mikhailin later said that the journalists were released personally by Kazakhstan interior minister Kalmukhanbet Kasymov.

At least 11 people were killed and over 70 injured as striking oil workers clashed with police in the western town of Zhanaozen Friday. Eyewitnesses claim police fired on unarmed protesters, a charge denied by the authorities.

Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev has ordered an investigation into the worst violence in the former Soviet state in years.

Hazare, who has been campaigning for a strong Lokpal bill, also won an award in the public service category, along with members of his team.

Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee was recognised for ‘achieving what was once considered unthinkable in West Bengal’. She brought the curtain down on the more than three-decade-old Left Front in West Bengal and became the first woman chief minister of the state in a landslide victory.

Indian cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni was awarded in the sports category while Verghese Kurien, the Amul man, was honoured with a lifetime achievement award.

The Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC) team and Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan, the host of the popular quiz show, were awarded for their constructive contribution to entertainment.

Cricketer Yuvraj Singh, Manipur Women Gun Survivors’ Network and shooting champion Ranjan Sodhi were honoured with special achievement awards.

Musician K.J. Yesudas, a devotional melody exponent, was honoured for his outstanding contribution to Indian music while businessman Dilip S. Shanghvi was felicitated for converting distressed assets into business value.

The awards were presented by a panel of celebrities which included journalist Mark Tully, former chief justice of India J.S. Verma and former cricket captain Krishnamachari Srikkanth.

The glittering ceremony was held at the Taj Palace Hotel. The award entered its sixth edition in 2011.

After reading dozens of product reviews and asking your friends and acquaintnces, you finally conclude the deal, only to fret endlessly over whether it was the right choice?

If so, new research from Florida State University may shed some light on your inability to make a decision that you’ll be happy with.

Joyce Ehrlinger, assistant professor of psychology at the university has long been fascinated with individuals identified among psychologists as ‘maximizers.’ Maximizers tend to obsess over decisions – big or small – and then fret about their choices later. ‘Satisficers,’ on the other hand, tend to make a decision and then live with it.

Ehrlinger co-authored the study with her graduate student and doctoral candidate Erin Sparks and colleague Richard Eibach, her counterpart at the University of Waterloo, Canada.

It examines whether ‘maximizers show less commitment to their choices than satisficers in a way that leaves them less satisfied with their choices.’

‘Because maximizers want to be certain they have made the right choice,’ the authors contend, ‘they are less likely to fully commit to a decision.’ And most likely, they are less happy in their everyday lives.

Beijing’s government published new rules requiring users of microblogging services to provide their authentic identities, reported Xinhua.

According to the new rules, web users need to give their real names to website administrators before being allowed to put up microblog posts.

The bloggers, however, are free to choose their screen names, a spokesman with the city’s web content management authority said.

China’s internet users with broadband access totalled 149.93 million by the end of September, up 23.64 million year-on-year, whereas the number of dial-up connection users dropped by 198,000 to 5.7 million.

‘The new rules are aimed at protecting web users’ interests and improving credibility on the web,’ said the spokesman.

The official said the move will help microblogging service providers enhance trustworthiness and improve the quality of their services.

According to the rules, web users need to register using authentic identities when applying for microblog IDs, which will enable them to write, publish and share postings.

Web users do not have to apply for an ID to browse posts, the document said.

The new rules ban individuals and organizations from posting and duplicating illegal content, including information that leaks state secrets, damages national security and interests, and instigates ethnic resentment, discrimination or illegal rallies that disrupt social order.

These websites will have to ensure the authenticity of their users’ identities, and protect the privacy of microbloggers, it said.

The new rules have caught the attention of many microbloggers at Sina Weibo, China’s largest microblogging site with over 200 million users.

Some said the move would be effective in curbing online rumours and fraud, while others were worried that it would stop people from voicing their complaints or grievances.

The airline will start the ‘meet and seat’ service early next year that will link travellers’ Facebook and LinkedIn profiles to their check-in information, said Sky News.

The service will allow passengers to check out their fellow travellers and select them based on similar interests, or by how attractive they find them. This will help people ‘who are sick of being stuck next to crying babies or the passenger from hell’.

As soon as the scheme was announced, people turned to Twitter to speak on it.

‘Stumac01′ tweeted it was the perfect solution to ‘how to go ‘Mile High’ with the hottest girl on the flight’, adding ‘the power will be in your hands’.

But not everyone was convinced, with some describing it as ‘creepy’.

‘I cannot think of anything worse than this. Matchmaking via your seat choice in-flight, more like mile-high stalking,’ ‘laurastott1′ posted on Twitter.

‘cklenotic’ commented: ‘That could be a LONG flight if it doesn’t work out.’

Beijing’s government published new rules requiring users of microblogging services to provide their authentic identities, reported Xinhua.

According to the new rules, web users need to give their real names to website administrators before being allowed to put up microblog posts.

The bloggers, however, are free to choose their screen names, a spokesman with the city’s web content management authority said.

China’s internet users with broadband access totalled 149.93 million by the end of September, up 23.64 million year-on-year, whereas the number of dial-up connection users dropped by 198,000 to 5.7 million.

Environment Officer Rajiv Rathi told IANS that 143 buffaloes and 10 cows were rounded up Thursday from the river and for obstructing traffic on the busy Yamuna Kinara road.

The campaign also targeted washermen at Hathi Ghat. The Supreme Court had in December 1996 directed municipal authorities to shift them out and prevent the entry of cattle into the river.

The district authorities have been trying for years to shift dairy owners to Agra’s outskirts but all attempts have been foiled due to intervention of political parties.

According to the company’s blog post, starting from Australia and Brazil next January, users of Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 will get the IE updates if they have turned on automatic updating via Windows Update.

Microsoft said the industry has been moving toward automatic updates as a norm since the biggest online threat these days is social engineering malware typically targeting outdated software like web browsers, reported Xinhua.

Automatic upgrades, also called silent updates for displaying no messages or windows during the progress, has been deployed by Google’s Chrome and Mozilla’s Firefox. It can ensure users have the newest versions of the browser, and therefore is seen as a big improvement to Internet security.

According to the Microsoft Security Intelligence Report released in October, 99 percent of all attacks during the first half of 2011 came from unpatched but known vulnerabilities, and 90 percent of infections were attributed to vulnerability exploitation that had a security update available from the software vendor for more than a year.

In the latest research data from web analytics company StatCounter, Microsoft’s IE has a strong lead with 40.63 percent of global browser market share, followed by 25.7 percent of Chrome and 25.23 percent of Firefox.

Panaji, Dec 16 (IANS) The fast fading tribe of Goan freedom fighters is a disillusioned lot today. At the receiving end of both the colonial Portuguese regime of yore as well as apathy from the state government, the freedom fighters have chosen to mourn, rather than celebrate, the 50th anniversary of Goa’s liberation by India on Dec 19, 1961.

The decision of the All Goa Freedom Fighters Association (AGFFA) to unanimously boycott the state government’s official golden jubilee celebrations, is the last nail they have hammered into the lackluster 50th anniversary celebrations.

AGFFA President Nagesh Karmali told IANS that the freedom fighters community was riled by the corruption of Goa’s Congress-led coalition government.

The inability of the Goa government to resolve contentious issues like evacuee property, mandatory regional language education for schoolchildren and illegal mining has only disillusioned the ageing lot more.

‘We are not going to attend the government function which is being held to commemorate 50 years of Goa’s liberation. This government has let the state down on the medium of instruction and the evacuee property issues,’ said Karmali, whose AGFFA represents the last few hundreds of Goan freedom fighters who battled the colonial Portuguese until December 19, 1961, when the Indian Army liberated Goa.

Gurudas Kunde, another freedom fighter, said that it was only during official government functions and the Liberation Day that they were remembered and spoken highly about.

‘What welfare? The government only speaks highly about us at Liberation Day functions. But to tell you the truth, they don’t know anything of the sacrifices of the freedom fighters; neither are they interested in the history of Goa,’ Kunde told IANS.

He said the freedom fighters were also upset with the high levels of corruption that pervade the Digambar Kamat-led government.

A contrary view is offered by Francisco Colaco, a venerable medical practitioner based in Margao, 35 km from here. Colaco laments the fact that Catholics in Goa are considered pro-Portuguese despite the fact that several from the community participated in the freedom struggle.

‘Although there were many Catholics who fought for freedom and, when we were young, sympathised with the freedom movement, we are today considered pro-Portuguese. But there are many who were earlier falling at the feet of the Portuguese rulers and then were out to embrace the Indian soldiers. It was a very sad sight. The freedom fighters have communalized the whole issue and made us foreigners,’ Colaco lamented.

(Mayabhushan Nagvenkar can be contacted at mayabhushan.n@ians.in)

The journalists, sporting black flags and raising anti-government slogans, marched from the Patrakar Bhavan in Nagpur to the legislature building where the winter session is underway.

A delegation later met Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan to discuss the issue.

Chavan informed them that a report of the ministerial committee headed by Industry Minister Narayan Rane would soon be placed before the state cabinet.

‘Before that, we shall discuss with the committee members whether the media’s point of view has been considered or not before taking any final decision,’ he assured.

His response came after the delegation, comprising journalists from 16 groups, said that the committee report has been prepared without discussing the issue with them.

Condemning all such attacks, particularly on media persons, Chavan said that such instances must be dealt with strictly.

Singh has sent notices to news channel ETV (Madhya Pradesh/Chhattisgarh) and leading daily Hindi newspaper, Patrika, for allegedly carrying the reports without any proof and evidence against him.

The 59-year-old chief minister of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government since December 2003 has strongly refuted charges in the media though his notices.

Singh’s counsel has asked both the media houses to explain their position on the report within seven days failing which his client would file a defamation case of Rs.1 crore against them as the report has damaged Singh’s public reputation.

Both the media groups had carried reports extensively this month, accusing Singh of influencing the state government for recommending allotment of a mine area to his close relatives based in Madhya Pradesh.

People working in the ETV (Madhya Pradesh/Chhattisgarh) have confirmed receiving the legal notice while Patrika carried a front page report in its Raipur edition Thursday based on the text of the legal notice sent to it.

‘This year, the entire print industry in West Bengal is estimated to be worth Rs.900 crore. Bengali print undoubtedly dominates the print industry as it accounts for 60 percent of this market. Their value is estimated to be Rs.550 crore while the English print market in the state is estimated to be at Rs.350 crore. The Bengali print market is projected to touch the value of Rs.800 crore by 2015 growing at a compounded annual growth rate of 10 percent,’ said the report.

The report published Wednesday also stated that the combined readership of the top two Bengali dailies – ‘Anandabazar Patrika’ and ‘Bartaman’ is more than five times the combined readership of the state’s top two English dailies – The Telegraph and the Times of India (Kolkata).

‘But all is not lost for the English dailies; the size of English publications market is estimated to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 9 percent to reach a value of Rs.500 crore by 2015,’ the report said.

It also stated that the advertisements contribute 73 percent of the revenue for Bengali newspapers while the figure is 86 percent for English newspapers. The ad revenue for English newspapers is expected to grow at a rate of 10 percent over the next five years while in Bengali newspapers, the growth rate is expected to be 12 percent

The database will include all those Indian NGOs that have been vetted by an independent third party to ensure they are accountable, transparent and keep only a small percentage of a donation to cover their expenses so the maximum can go to the intended beneficiaries, according to Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia Robert Blake.

This site will also list all the intermediary institutions who can facilitate tax-deductible donations, he said at the annual fund raising gala dinner of American India Foundation, founded by a group of Indian-Americans responding to the 2001 Gujarat earthquake. Former US President Bill Clinton serves as its Honorary Chair.

‘By matching a list of certified Indian NGOs with potential American donors, we hope to create an efficient philanthropy marketplace that will grow the overall sector, making it a win-win proposition for all, including AIF,’ Blake said.

‘In today’s budget-constrained environment, such public-private strategies strengthen not only our international economic development efforts, but also the crucial people-to-people ties that bind our two great countries,’ he said.

The State Department was also partnering with AIF on a project to build intercultural understanding and engage citizens across the Punjab through digital storytelling and the creative arts, Blake said.

The programme aims to create a self-sustaining Indo-Pakistani Young Education Professionals Network, a global network of Punjabi youth from India, Pakistan and the United States, and a ‘Punjabi Cultural Connections’ publication for educators available to institutions and communities across the Punjab and the US.

(Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in)

Representatives from major news agencies of the region — including China’s Xinhua, Japan’s Kyodo and Russia’s ITAR-TASS — met in Bangkok on the occasion of the 50th founding anniversary of the Organisation of Asia-Pacific News Agencies (OANA).

More than 30 delegates from around 20 news agencies expressed concern over the growing financial and social problems faced by humanity, said Xinhua.

In an ‘Ethical Guidelines Declaration’ issued at the meet, the news agencies said: ‘We should respect the privacy of the individual and the dignity of the dead regardless of who they are.’

The document was drafted by the Anadolu agency of Turkey. Kemal Ozturk, OANA president and director general of Anadolu, made a comparison between social media and news agencies.

‘Although social media is a great tool to gather and disseminate news, it has some innate problems. It is a minefield where there are a lot of hoaxes, fake identities, false stories, slanders, and disinformation. They hardly stick to media ethics and guidelines on social platforms,’ he said.

He urged news agencies to stand out to fulfill the public’s right to accurate and reliable information and uphold the media’s ethical guidelines.

Founded Dec 22, 1961 in Bangkok at the initiative of the Unesco, the OANA now has 44 member news agencies from 35 countries across the Asia-Pacific region.

‘The OANA has grown to become the largest regional news agency alliance in the world. It has always functioned as a common platform for this vast area of the world where diverse political systems, colors, races, cultures and religions co-exist,’ said Ozturk.

‘It’s a huge step for the broadcasting industry. It’s an opportunity for us to leapfrog into a technologically advanced ecosystem,’ Amit Khanna, chairman, Reliance Entertainment, told reporters here after the second roundtable meeting of CEOs of leading networks. The meeting was organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

Khanna, also chairman of CII National Committee on media and entertainment, added that the digitalisation will help curb piracy which is proving a big drain on the broadcast industry.

It’s a very positive step, said Samir Manchanda, chairman and Managing Director, Den Networks.

‘The next few years will be great for the media. It brings in the much-needed transparency,’ said Manchanda.

The CEOs and representatives of leading TV networks held detailed discussions on implementing the digitalisation of the cable TV and issues relating to content regulation.

The bill for the digitalisation of cable TV was passed by the Lok Sabha Tuesday, with the government assuring cable operators that the proposed move would not harm them.

Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni underlined that the measure was a major step which would enable digitalisation of the analog TV network and bring India on par with other countries like US, UK, Korea and Taiwan.

The digitisation is expected to boost the subscription revenues for broadcasters as it promises to end hefty carriage fee they pay to cable TV operators.

According to an estimate, carriage and placement fee contribute around 20 percent of the total cost of running a channel. Under the new regime, all satellite channels will be beamed to houses through set-top boxes.

The cable and satellite television industry is expected to be worth Rs 20,000 crore.

Some 40 news professionals marched from the eastern part of Tegucigalpa to the presidential palace, where soldiers and cops responded with batons and tear gas when the protesters tried to get around a security barrier.

The demonstrators then laid down on the pavement at the entrance to the palace’s parking lot.

‘That’s how they want us, they want us quiet and asleep,’ said one of the organizers of the protest, Claudia Mendoza. ‘We denounce … the aggression against journalists displayed by the government.’

The idea for the demonstration came from a group of woman journalists who work for alternative media outlets and in government agencies.

Since the June 2009 coup that toppled President Mel Zelaya, killings of reporters ‘have increased with a criminal pattern that endangers life and the practice of journalism’, the protesters said in a statement.

They also demanded punishment for the ‘white-collar assassins’ behind assaults on the freedom of expression and information and on the liberty of ‘Hondurans in general’.

President Porfirio Lobo’s press secretary said the palace did not order police and troops to break up the protest.

‘We will investigate who gave the order to repress the journalists,’ Miguel Angel Bonilla told reporters.

Lobo took office in January 2010 after winning an election organized by the junta that ousted Zelaya. Turnout was low following a campaign marked by suppression of independent media and violence against opponents of the coup.

]]> http://indiacurrentaffairs.org/cops-beat-protesting-journalists-in-honduras/feed/ 0 http://indiacurrentaffairs.org/no-diktat-but-open-to-all-party-meet-on-tv-content-soni/ http://indiacurrentaffairs.org/no-diktat-but-open-to-all-party-meet-on-tv-content-soni/#comments Tue, 13 Dec 2011 13:50:43 +0000 India Current Affairs http://indiacurrentaffairs.org/no-diktat-but-open-to-all-party-meet-on-tv-content-soni/ New Delhi, Dec 13 (IANS) With members of parliament voicing concern over objectionable content on TV channels, the government Tuesday said it was open to an all-party meeting to discuss the issue, but made it clear it was against issuing any diktat.

‘I have no objection if a law is made after an all-party meeting is convened by the prime minister in which views of everyone are taken in writing,’ Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni said while replying to a supplementary during question hour in the Lok Sabha.

‘We are getting views. After collating the views, we want to bring a law which is beyond the self-regulatory body which has been set up,’ she added.

Soni informed the upper house that a draft Broadcasting Services Regulation Bill has already been posted on the ministry’s website and a final bill could be brought for parliament’s consideration after getting feedback from various stakeholders.

Soni stressed that the ‘media is a sensitive matter, no matter what we say’, and added that it was important to get the views of those who would be affected by the bill.

Narrating her own experiences, Soni said as a mother and grandmother, she herself was ‘worried’ at some of the the content being broadcast on TV channels. However, she made it clear that without discussion, any ‘fatwa based on law’ or direction on the subject will simply not do.

The minister added that a two-tier self-regulatory system is in place to monitor the contents on TV channels. Under the first tier, the channels themselves check the output. The tier two consists of a regulatory mechanism comprising a 13-member body.

Around 300 complaints have been received by the body since June last year, Soni said, adding that monetary fine was imposed on one channel.

The tricky issue of content regulation, a move vigorously opposed by the electronic media, also came up during a debate on the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Second Amendment Bill.

Soni was responding to concerns expressed by many MPs, who contended that TV channels were broadcasting indecent and obscene content.

Advertisements shown on TV channels, including during news programmes, were so ‘indecent’ and ‘obscene’ that these could not be watched with family members, complained Shailender Kumar of the Samajwadi Party.

Maheshwar Hazari of the JD-U also complained that programmes telecast on TV channels were simply not worth watching with family members.

Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni, who had earlier introduced the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Second Amendment Bill, said the measure was a major step which would enable digitisation of the analog TV network and bring India on a par with other countries like US, Britain, Korea and Taiwan.

The digitisation is expected to boost the subscription revenues for broadcasters as it promises to end hefty carriage fee they pay to the cable TV operators.

According to an estimate, carriage and placement fee contribute around 20 percent of the total cost of running a channel. Under the new regime, all satellite channels will be beamed to houses through set-top boxes.

The cable and satellite television industry is expected to be worth Rs.20,000 crore.

Though some members voiced their unhappiness at the content being broadcast on some channels, including those telecasting news, virtually all present supported the bill.

Allaying apprehensions of cable operators that the new act would render them jobless, Soni said such fears were misplaced and underlined that the key concern of the government was the viewers’ interest.

‘The prices of set-top boxes will fall. These will be available on instalments and on rent. Also, viewers do not have to take a whole bouquet of channels. TRAI will impose a tariff capping for subscribing to channels,’ she said.

The minister contended that this legislation would end the fight for more TRPs among channels.

‘When we issue notices to channels or take them to court for showing objectionable content, they say we have to do so to get more TRPs as they bring the advertisements. Now the subscriber list will determine this,’ Soni said.

The bill also allows the government the right to cancel licenses of cable operators who flout rules. ‘But this bill is not anti-poor and not against small operators. This is not for big players,’ Soni said.

Justifying the government’s decision to bring an ordinance earlier, Soni said this was done to meet the deadline set for full digitalisation by Dec 31, 2014. The government will complete the process in four phases starting with the metros.

Under the new system, cable operators will have to give up analog in the four metros by March 31, 2012. Cities with a population of one million will be covered by March 31, 2013. All urban areas would be covered by September 30, 2014 while the entire country will be covered by Dec 31, 2014.

Soni said that the digitisation would provide consumers a la carte selection of channels and video-on-demand, among other things. It will also ensure transparency and reduce the dependence of the broadcasters and cable operators on TRP and ad revenues and raise subscription revenue, said Soni.

The government would also stand to benefit as it would ensure proper tax collection, she added.

Some members made a strong pitch for protecting the interests of customers, specially in rural areas.

Rajendra Agrawal of the BJP said that certain channels, identified by the government, should be designated free-to-air and not included in any package for which the consumer would have to pay.

He sought rules to fix the time for advertisements in between programmes and of social messages through the channels and called for regulation of content by the information and broadcasting ministry.

Police said the psychiatric patient Arabindra Chakraborty allegedly jumped from the roof of the nursing home Tuesday morning. The 68-year-old was pronounced dead at the state-run SSKM hospital where he had been rushed.

Following the incident, locals staged a demonstration and put up a road block alleging negligence on the part of the nursing home management and demanded the arrest of its owner.

When journalists tried to enter the nursing home, they found its gate locked. Meanwhile, the police swung into action to disperse the mob and beat up the mediamen and some locals with batons.

One of the injured mediapersons had to be admitted to a nursing home.

A police complaint was lodged into the incident.

Describing the incident as ‘very bad’, City Police Commissioner Ranjit Pachnanda said he had ordered the suspension of the policeman who had beaten up the journalists. ‘We respect the media. I have asked the Deputy Commissioner South and the Joint Commissioner to go to the spot and hold a comprehensive probe. The guilty will be punished.’

The matter also figured in the West Bengal assembly where opposition Revolutionary Socialist Party member Subhas Naskar demanded a probe.

Public Health Engineering minister Subrata Mukherjee said Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was aware of the incident and action would be taken against the guilty.

Speaking to mediapersons outside the house, leader of the opposition Surya Kanta Mishra said: ‘We condemn the beating up of journalists. We have been told corrective steps will be taken’.

CEO Andrey Galiev and editor-in-chief Maxim Kovalsky were fired by the magazine’s owner, Russian tycoon Alisher Usmanov.

‘These materials are comparable to hooliganism,’ Usmanov was quoted as saying by Gazeta.ru.

A law suit may also be filed against Kovalsky for the publication, he said.

Demyan Kudryavtsev, chief executive officer of the Kommersant publishing house, Tuesday apologised for the publication.

‘Internal procedures and rules of the Kommersant publishing house, the standards of professional journalism and the law of the Russian Federation have been violated. The executive group of the Publishing House regrets this and would like to apologize to readers and partners,’ Kudryavtsev wrote in his blog.

The magazine published Dec 12 several photos accompanying an article about the Dec 4 State Duma elections. One photo depicted a vote ballot with an obscene remark aiming Putin, written in red ink across it.

The whole magazine issue was devoted to an analysis of the results and the alleged violations of the vote in which Putin’s ruling United Russia party could just maintain a parliamentary majority.

However, deputy chief editor of Kommersant Vlast, Veronika Kutsyllo, denied hooliganism charges spelled out by Usmanov.

‘I don’t think this is provocation. We never use profanity in the magazine, it is a quote,’ she told Ekho Moskvy radio Tuesday.

The parliamentary polls were criticised by many foreign and domestic observers as rigged in favour of the ruling party.

President Dmitry Medvedev has ordered an investigation into the complaints.

Kommersant is one of the biggest and oldest Russian news organisations. In 2006 it was acquired by Alisher Usmanov, a metal tycoon with close ties to the state-owned Gazprom corporation. He is also a major stakeholder in Britain’s Arsenal football club.

–IANS/RIA Novosti

pm/dg

The Delhi edition comes with Metrolife, a youth-oriented city supplement, four days a week, a statement from the daily said.

Living, a Lifestyle supplement, will accompany the paper on Saturdays. The weekend Sunday Herald will focus on trends, culture, art, entertainment, books and travel.

He is followed by Mamta Banerjee and J. Jayalalithaa, who took over as chief ministers of West Bengal and Tamil Nadu respectively after the April-May assembly elections, according to Yahoo’s 2011 Year in Review, an annual compilation of the year’s biggest trends, based on searches on the portal, plus a selection of what users read, recommended and shared most on the network.

India’s 2011 cricket World Cup winning captain M.S. Dhoni is next on the list, and followed by B.S. Yedyurappa, who had to resign as the Bharatiya Janata Party’s first chief minister in south India following his indictment in Karnataka’s illegal mining scam.

The remaining five among the top 10 news makers were BJP leader L.K. Advani, police officer turned social activist Kiran Bedi, Al Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden, boxer Sushil Kumar and Manipur’s Iron Lady, Irom Sharmila.

Hazare was also the most searched person of the year and Lokpal bill the most searched word.

Sachin Tendulkar was the most searched sportperson and Katrina Kaif, the most sought after celebrity. The cricket World Cup was the event most netizens looked for and Samsung Galaxy Tab and Maruti Swift the gadget and the car of the year, respectively.

‘Murder 2′ was the most-searched film.

‘No One Killed Jessica’, ‘Turning 30!!!’, ‘Yeh Saali Zindagi’, ‘Shor In The City’, ‘Ragini MMS’, ‘Shaitan’, ‘Delhi Belly’, ‘Bubble Gum’, ‘Sahi Dhandhe Galat Bande’ and ‘Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster’, were the top Bollywood films for Yahoo users.

Interestingly, cricket was not among the top three on the sports list, with these posts occupied by hockey, badminton star Saina Nehwal, and tennis players Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi.

However, it occupied six of the remaining slots with the World Cup, ‘Hammering’ England, Rahul Dravid, the Indian Premier League, and ‘Obsession with records’ on positions four to eight and spot-fixing at number 10.

The inaugural Indian FI Grand Prix occupied number 9.

During his visit, Mario Lubetkin held extensive talks with the NMC officials on ways to strengthen cooperation between the Emirates News Agency (WAM) and the IPS.

Lubetkin underlined the excellent level of relations between WAM and IPS and their close cooperation during the last decades through specific cooperation agreements of mutual benefit.

Two months ago, the cabinet had approved amended guidelines for the uplinking and downlinking of TV channels and toughened criteria for entry to weed out non-serious players from ‘crowding the electronic media landscape’.

However, the renewal clause in the amended guidelines elicited sharp criticism from TV channels who decried it as a plot by the government to control the media.

The renewal clause had empowered the government not to renew the licence if the channels were found guilty of violating the terms and conditions of permission, including violations of the Programme and Advertisement Code, on five occasions or more.

Since then, the heads of leading TV channels appealed to Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Sonia and also met her to retract or alter the clause.

In the guidelines notified early this week, the ministry appears to have softened the clause and added a qualifying line, saying it will consult the self-regulatory mechanisms of TV channels to see what constitutes an offence.

‘What would constitute a violation would be determined in consultation with the established self-regulating mechanisms,’ says the clause in the notified guidelines.

The investigations were carried out following tips from people, said the State Internet Information Office (SIIO).

All of the accounts were registered at four of China’s largest microblogging sites – Sina.com.cn, Sohu.com, 163.com and QQ.com – with 130 accounts set up through Sina, reported Xinhua.

The SIIO has urged the country’s microblog providers and Internet portals to fulfil their legal and social obligations and ‘refuse to be used as a platform to spread obscene material’.

‘The SIIO and other departments will strengthen supervision over microblogs and other technology-based content in accordance with laws and regulations,’ the statement said.

The move would be to protest the state government’s failure to enact a strict law to make attacks on journalists a non-bailable offence, and would be supported by 16 main media organisations across the state, said S.M. Deshmukh, convenor of Patrakar Halla Virodhi Kruti Samiti.

‘Media persons will attend Prithviraj Chavan’s press conference wearing black badges and would not ask any questions. We will intensify our agitation from Jan 6, celebrated as Patrakar Din, if the government fails to act in this matter,’ Deshmukh told mediapersons.

Journalists will also take out a protest march from the Nagpur Patrakar Bhavan to the state legislature building Dec 15 to draw attention to the growing vulnerability of media persons to attacks.

The winter session of the legislature is usually held in Nagpur, the state’s second capital.

Since the past couple of years, state journalists have been demanding enactment of a law to make attacks against the Fourth Estate a cognizable, non-bailable offence.

Deshmukh also cited the case of senior Mumbai journalist Jyotirmoy Dey, who was killed in broad daylight June 11 this year.

The bug in the website’s photo reporting tool – which Facebook says was only temporary and has now been fixed – meant that users could access others’ pictures even if they were private.

Users were able to look at the private photos by ‘reporting’ a profile picture as ‘inappropriate’, which then saw other photos displayed, such as those of Zuckerberg, the Daily Mail reported.

A Facebook spokesman told CNET, a tech media website, that the glitch happened because of ‘one of our most recent code pushes’ but it was only live for a short time and ‘not all content was accessible’.

The glitch and resulting private photos of Zuckerberg went viral when software engineer Mike Rundle, of Raleigh, North Carolina, posted a link to them on photo-sharing website Imgur.

Zuckerberg’s girlfriend Priscilla Chan is pictured in most of the photos. Some of them can be viewed publicly on his public Facebook profile, but others are said to be private.

The 27-year-old technology genius, of Palo Alto, California, has a staggering fortune of $17.5 billion and treated himself to a $7 million five-bedroom, five bathroom home earlier this year in May.

The New York dentist’s son has lived in Palo Alto almost continuously since he moved Facebook to Silicon Valley straight from his Harvard dormitory room in 2004.

The web-based video game has been developed by Jerome Waldispuhl of the McGill School of Computer Science along with collaborator Mathieu Blanchette.

Phylo is designed to allow gamers to contribute to scientific research by arranging multiple sequences of coloured blocks that represent human DNA.

Waldispuhl and his students came up with the idea to solve the problem of DNA multiple sequence alignment because it is a task that is difficult for computers to do well, according to a statement by the university.

‘There are some calculations that the human brain does more efficiently than any computer can. Recognizing and sorting visual patterns fall in that category,’ explained Waldispuhl.

‘Computers are best at handling large amounts of messy data, but where we require high accuracy, we need humans. In this case, the genomes we are analyzing have already been pre-aligned by computers, but there are parts of it that are misaligned,’ he added.

By looking at the similarities and differences between these DNA sequences, scientists are able to gain new insights into a variety of genetically-based diseases.

Over the past year, Phylo’s 17,000 registered users have been able to simply play the game for fun or choose to help decode a particular genetic disease.

‘A lot of people said they enjoyed playing a game which could help to trace the origin of a specific disease like epilepsy,’ said Waldispuhl.

So far, Phylo has been working very well. Since the game was launched in November 2010, researchers have received more than 350,000 solutions to alignment sequence problems.

‘Why do they want to censor Facebook, when they don’t censor Sunny Leone,’ Thakur asked a day after Communications Minister Kapil Sibal advocated screening of inflammatory or offensive content on social networking sites.

‘Thousands of children are searching for her on internet and getting connected to porn sites,’ Thakur told IANS on the sidelines of a conference on effective legislatures organised by PRS Legislative Research.

Congress leader and Lok Sabha MP Shashi Tharoor, who had Tuesday ‘rejected’ censorship for socal media, however, said that after an expostulation from his colleague Kapil Sibal he felt some restriction was needed as Indian politics and society was not as mature as in the West.

‘I talked to Kapil Sibal, he told me that there were inflammatory images of gods, goddesses, prophets. When I saw those, I felt there is a problem. Free speech in India is not the same as in the West,’ he said at the conference.

‘If certain people see these images, it can cause violence, we don’t have a democracy so mature that we can ignore such things. So certain amount of restraint is necessary,’ he said.

‘Inflammatory communal incitement is like a match at a petrol pump, why should we do that?’ Tharoor argued, adding in good measure, however, that he was against censorship.

Contradicting him, Thakur said social media was a platform for common expression and should be allowed to grow and become mature.

‘Social media should be given time to get mature,’ said Thakur, adding that it should be left to the social media to create ways of removing objectionable content.

‘There are options like watermarking,’ he said.

Sibal had Tuesday said the government will not allow social networking sites to host ‘objectionable’ content and will take steps to screen and remove these.

The hashtag is used to group together tweets relating to the same subject.

Sheen made the headlines in 2011 for a series of public rants that culminated with the comment to online celebrity gossip site RadarOnline: ‘My fangs are dripping tiger blood.’

He joined Twitter and had one million followers in the first 24 hours of his sacking, believed to be a record for the site, BBC reported.

He used the site to comment on the dispute between him and the producers of the ‘Two And A Half Men’ show.

Twitter also released details about the hottest topics in a range of subjects, including the most talked about actors, countries and news topics.

The resignation of Egypt president Hosni Mubarak, which triggered a series of uprisings across the Middle East and North Africa, topped the news list.

It was followed by the US special forces’ raid on Osama bin Laden’s hideout in Pakistan, and the Japanese earthquake in third place.

‘More than anything, these trends demonstrate how Twitter connects people with common interests. Instead of watching the news at home alone, we watched them together on Twitter,’ Twitter said in its official blog.

Kumar, a small-time computer operator who captured the imagination of one and all by becoming the first to win Rs.5 crore ($972,500) on the game show ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’, has been approached by dozens of strangers for financial help in the last few weeks.

‘People from different places and different backgrounds have been requesting financial help. It is a new thing in my life, people have been expecting charity from me,’ a softspoken Kumar, 27, told IANS.

He said though helping people in dire need is his motto, ‘it is not possible for me to help strangers, who have been demanding Rs.5 lakh to Rs.20 lakh as donation for temples, marriage of daughters, construction of house and starting businesses’.

Recalling a recent incident, Sushil said a Hindu priest asked him for an obnoxious amount as donation.

‘A Hindu priest, locally known as sadhu, did not disclose his name and requested me to deposit the donation money for divine blessings in a bank account given by him. He assured me that I will get a huge bounty from the deity if I donate,’ Sushil said.

Then a man from Chhattisgarh asked for Rs.20 lakh to meet an emergency expenditure. Interestingly, the man asked for the sum as a loan and assured Kumar the money would be returned after he gets a bank loan.

Kumar said that even an Agra-based activist, Umapati Ambast, demanded help for an old-age shelter while a woman, Kalpana Gopal of Madhya Pradesh, requested Rs.20 lakh for the marriage of her daughter.

And all these requests are pouring in even as he is yet to receive the winning amount.

Speaking to IANS over phone, Kumar says he fails to understand how he can help all of them, particularly strangers.

‘I strongly support help to people in need, but can’t help every one who approaches me with requests of financial help,’ he said.

Before becoming a crorepati, Kumar, who hails from East Champaran in Bihar, used to draw a meagre monthly salary of Rs.6,000.

Living in a big joint family — he has five brothers, five nieces and a nephew — Kumar himself has many dreams to fulfil from the Rs.5 crore.

‘First of all, I would build my new house. Then my younger brother is working with a garment shop and earns merely Rs.1,500 per month, I would help him start a new business so that he gets settled in life. I am also planning to help my elder brother get a new shop,’ he had said upon winning in the show.

Nevertheless, Kumar has been helping out his relatives and friends to meet their small financial needs. ‘In the last one month, I have spend a total of Rs.20,000 by helping out people I know. Recently there was a wedding in my area and I extended some help,’ he said.

Justifying his recent decision to turn down reality show ‘Bigg Boss’, the civil service aspirant said: ‘It was a right decision. More than anything, my image is important for me. I don’t want to do anything that affects my image.’

‘Had I joined ‘Big Boss’ and stayed there for some days, it would have changed my mindset and diverted me from my goal,’ he adds.

(Imran Khan can be contacted at imran.k@ians.in)

In fact, it wasn’t easy when we got down to planning this contest to pick Hyderabad’s Seven Wonders. As the city of Nawabs progresses at a rapid pace to metamorphose into a happening IT hub with a modern cityscape, some were hinting at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport, while others at the world’s greenest building – the CII – Sohrabji Godrej Green Business Centre, as some of the new wonders. But giving them stiff competition were some of the city’s best-lovedmonuments.

And just as the city is an amazing blend of the old and the new, it is only fair that Hyderabad’s Seven Wonders should reflect the same.

FOR MORE READING. . .

This was discovered by residents of the Irish village who said they could not register the village name as their place of birth on the website, The Sun reported.

Ann Marie Kennedy, who was born in the village, has launched a campaign to get it recognised by Facebook.

But when she tried to create a Facebook group called ‘Please get my hometown Effin recognised’, it was also rejected.

‘It came back with an error message saying ‘offensive’. I would like to be able to put Effin on my profile page and so would many other Effin people around the world to proudly say that they are from Effin, but it won’t recognise that,’ she said.

Kennedy is trying to get the village’s population of around 1,000 behind her cause.

‘The quest for a wider audience and cost effectiveness will drive decentralisation and innovative delivery platforms for future media. The time of the big newsrooms is coming to an end,’ said RIA Novosti chief editor Svetlana Mironyuk at a conference of the Global Editor Network in Syangan, Hong Kong.

The network is a professional organisation uniting top media managers from all over the world.

Mironyuk offered as an example RIA Novosti’s YouReporter.Ru news portal, whose content is generated by non-professional contributors.

The agency also has a RAPINFO project, aimed at the teenage audience, in which news is presented by rap musicians.

These changes have resulted in a 16-fold growth of RIA Novosti’s audience over the past five years, Mironyuk said.

Going after the audience requires perpetual editorial changes, she said.

It needs regular professional training for reporters and editors and a rapid expansion into social networks. She also mentioned development of more advanced multimedia platforms in order to increase penetration among the audience.

The ‘British Newspaper Archive’, made up of four million pages, contains articles from local and regional papers since 1700, the Daily Telegraph reported.

Till now, people had to travel to library newspaper depository in Colindale, north London, to access the entire collection of 200 newspapers.

‘People will find this archive extraordinary on both a personal and historical level. For the first time people can search for their ancestors through the pages of our newspapers wherever they are in the world at any time,’ said Ed King, head of the library’s newspaper collection.

‘But what’s really striking is how these pages take us straight back to scenes of murders, social deprivation and church meetings from hundreds of year ago, which we no longer think about as we haven’t been able to easily access articles about them,’ he said.

The archive also features hundreds of letters from soldiers, which were published in local papers as a way of bringing attention to their needs and informing people about life at war.

However, people wishing to fully access the archive will have to pay. Users can also download pages to keep forever.

The digitisation project, which started in 2010, will take 10 years to complete, with a total of 650 million articles on 40 million web pages expected to be in the finished archive by 2020.

The microblog ‘Shanghai City’ was launched on China’s popular Twitter-like service Weibo.com, Xinhua reported.

Launched by the information office of the Shanghai municipal government, the microblog accumulated more than 30,000 followers in the first five hours since its launch.

It will also contain ‘practical information’ related to activities in Shanghai, and interactions with internet users over issues of public concern.

Another microblog, the ‘Shanghai Metro’, or the official microblog of the city’s metro operator with over 1.15 million followers, is considered one of most popular government microblogs in China.

China has more than 300 million registered microblog users.

*
Address by Mr. Justice G.N. Ray, Chairman, Press Council of India at the inaugural session of National
Press Day on November 16, 2009 organised by the Press Council of India in collaboration with
Government of Andhra Pradesh and AP Press Academy at Jubilee Hall, Public Gardens, Hyderabad. 2
instrument for public advancement in political and socio-economic
field.
Since the Indians enjoyed no fundamental rights in the British
India, there was no question of guarantee of freedom of expression.
When the Bengal Gazette popularly known as Hicky’s Gazette started
in the 18 th century as a first newspaper published in the country the
colonial rule conferred no privileges or special liabilities apart from
those in the general statute. Soon, however, as is evident from the
history of Indian journalism, a plethora of laws relating to media
were enacted primarily to suit the interest of the foreign rulers.
Coming to post independence, even though the constitution did
not make any special mention of the word ‘press’, the intense
debates amongst the fathers of our constitution ensured that the
press would create a special place for itself even without a specific
mention. The need for freedom of speech and expression was well
accepted by civil society of India and such freedom was also declared
by Supreme Court way back in 1950 when the Constitution of India
was just operative and the Supreme Court of India started
functioning while deciding the question of pre censorship of
newspaper.
However, since then long time has elapsed and with passage of
time, there has been paradigm shift in the functioning of media. As a
result, “accountability” is a word heard more often than ‘freedom’ in
he context of today’s media functioning thereby justifying a serious
look to the changing face of Media.3
Historical Background
The Indian national press was undisputedly the backbone of
the freedom struggle for independence from colonial rule. Its
historical importance and prestige it enjoyed in the society are linked
to the awareness and creation of public opinion.
The modern press marked its beginning only after the advent
of European Civilization in India. Portuguese were the first Europeans
who introduced printing press in India. The Christian missionaries of
Bengal deserve the credit in introducing printing press primarily for
publishing missionary leaflets etc. Today, over the last 250 years, the
press has come to occupy an undisputed position as the fourth and
the strongest pillar of modern India.
Though the press in India started as an European institution
the native Indians did not take long to realize its potential in sociopolitical communication. The Print Media, and for that matter Media
as a whole owes its origin, and growth not to the government but to
the individuals who had in them the courage to lead the nation. The
trials and tribulation they had to encounter at the hands of foreign
powers could not prevent the press from growing and becoming an
instrument for fight against subjugation and to bring wide range of
social and economic reforms which speak galore of their resolute
determination and inherent strength.
The later years of 19 th
century unfolded a glorious chapter of
Indian newspapers which reveals the newspapers consistently
reporting on challenges ahead of the nation. Instead of reporting4
societal events of the Britishers and feudal Indian society, the
newspapers focused on news and write-ups on diverse social and
political concerns and problems and the country saw the birth of a
different kind of journalism, a dedicated journalism which stood for
social reforms and public welfare, and creating opinion on issues like
education, child marriage, widow marriage and sati.
The press gradually became the most powerful weapon for
freedom movement under the leadership of towering personalities
like Tilak, Gokhale, Gandhiji and others who stood for progressive
journalism and liberal notions and believed in the strength of the
press to mould public opinion, to shape the destiny of the nation and
safeguard the rights and civil liberties of its citizens.
The strong belief of our freedom fighters that ‘pen is mightier
than sword’ and the power of their pen can challenge the political
establishment directed the Indian journalism with a sense of purpose
that never weakened and holds ground till date. As a result, Press
had always enjoyed popular support with respect and despite various
lamentable aberrations in the functioning of media, even now media
in India has strong popular support and the liberty which it enjoys
today is founded on such popular support of the civil society.
National political struggle and advocacy of social reforms and
emancipation in the years before independence contributed to the
creation of the core strength of the press in free India. This included
independent functioning, resistance to state oppression and
censorship, firm commitment to free speech and expression and its5
role as the leader and path finder of the society and protector of
fundamental rights. Indian democracy has grown from strength to
strength and made wide range of reforms for surging India in the
sixty years of independence encountering struggles, war and
insurgencies. The press has not only mirrored the march of this
journey of democracy but gave valuable insights and suggestions at
every step.
The media scenario of India in the last 62 years has undergone
sea change. The change can be broadly divided into two categories,
i.e. the positive achievements of the media and negative trends in
the media. But before delving into both of these aspects, it will be
appropriate to refer to the major factor which has shaped the growth
of this powerful medium of communication. Globalization, the new
economic order of the world, has opened the floodgates to a cut–
throat competition virtually in every sphere of our activities. The
media and communication industries have immensely contributed in
facilitating overall globalization. The impact of globalization is not
merely an economic phenomenon, dictated by the market dominated
corporate capitalism but also very powerful cultural content, shaped
by the inseparable intertwining of advertising, television and internet.
I would like to discuss the two perspectives as mentioned
earlier in which the analysis of the Changing Face of Indian Media
may be considered. First, your kind attention towards the positive
developments which have brought complete makeover of the Indian6
media may be drawn. To begin with, an insight into media’s growth
scenario is necessary.
Positive strides made by the media
The technological breakthrough in printing has brought in
unforeseen structural change in the set up of print media. It has not
only helped in better designing and lay out and more attractive
presentation with improved colour scheme in printing of the papers
but also made it feasible and economically viable to print more multi
edition copies faster and at lesser cost with better get up and
attractive type, thus, enabling the press to cater to more readers
stationed at different locations. The developing telecommunication
services and transport facilities have also facilitated news reporting
even from remote and forlorn places, and quick transmission and
dissemination of news resulted in prompt and wider circulation of the
newspapers with better news contents. These developments in
technology coupled with the growth in the newspaper readers on
account of higher literacy level and higher per capita income have led
to an enviable growth in the number of newspapers and their
circulation. Daily circulation of some of the national level newspapers
is enviable even globally. Formation of linguistic states paved the way
for development of language press in various linguistic regions which
in turn has made significant contribution in the developmental
programmes of the government. Further, the status of language
press is now well recognised and considered at par with the English
newspapers. As a matter of fact, small newspaper published in local7
regional language and dialects in remote areas in India are working
as conduit between local rural and urban population in other parts of
the country unfolding not only rich culture and heritage of the region
but also various problems in such area.
Today’s readers of the print media have a wide variety of
options to choose from the publications devoted to specialized
subjects because of diverse information easily available on account of
technological development. With a click of the mouse news and
happenings in every part of the globe are before you.
The growing presence of women in journalism has opened a
new era for enhancement of socio-economic condition of women.
The Media boom in India has resulted in need for adequate
representation of women in public and private sectors of the media.
This in turn has not only provided source of livelihood for women
journalists but also ensured adequate and effective representation as
women journalists in media. Such journalists have not only
established their competence and dedication but have also proved
that they have skill to analyse and handle women related issues with
better sensitivity. The potentiality of today’s media is required to
focus on live issues with intense studies of the problems for quick
growth of women empowerment. A note of caution need be made at
this stage. Misleading and improper gender biased programming
which are often resorted by media turns out to be counter
productive. It is heartening to note that today quite a few woman8
journalists are occupying responsible positions even in managerial
cadre and other responsible position in journalism.
The expansion of the newspapers has led to the growth of
press-related specific jobs and has boosted the profession of
journalism. Even the lower level journalists in some metropolitan and
district towns are drawing decent salary not to speak of the editors
and persons holding managerial position of some newspapers whose
salary package runs into five to six figures.
Rapid Growth of Journalism Institutes
Another consequence of Media boom is spurt in establishment
of Journalism Institutes. The demand for education in journalism in
universities and private Institutions have been catered to, by
introduction of degree both at undergraduate and post graduate level
and diploma courses and certificates in connected skills and
disciplines pertaining to Journalism. With the boom in Mass
Communication, new specialized courses have been introduced.
More and more bright, talented and educated young men and women
are now opting for journalism as their career. With money in the job
and the tremendous power that journalists have come to wield,
particularly in political, financial and investigative journalism, the
profession is attracting large number of students. The prospect of
eventually joining the Electronic media is an added attraction. It will
be pertinent to mention here that many of the institutes imparting
education in various specialties of Mass Communication and
journalism lack in adequate infrastructure, qualified faculty members9
and even proper course contents. Monitoring of functioning of
Journalism and Mass Communication Institutes by authorised expert
body like medical or engineering council with power to disaffiliate
needs serious consideration.
The advertisement revenue has become the main revenue base
of the Press. In the case of the metropolitan press, it accounts for
about 70% to 80% of its total revenue. Consequently, space in the
newspapers is disproportionately occupied by the advertisements.
The gap between news and advertisement ratio is fast widening. The
general news items are constantly shrinking and advertisements
occupying more and more space. The advertisements have also
made inroads in the policy and outlook of the newspapers in more
senses than one. With the rapid growth of advertisements by way of
corporate communication and for luring potential consumers, the
revenue earning of a newspaper from such advertisements is very
often quite robust As a result, even though the number of pages
have increased, the price has decreased. The circulation having gone
up considerably, the profits particularly of the metropolitan
newspapers, have multiplied many fold.
Investigative journalism in its present avataar as sting
operation has opened a new chapter in the history of the Press. It
has made the Press to acquire more powerful position and has
helped to enhance the image of the Press as an active watchdog of
the society. Unfortunately, investigative journalism has often been
misused to settle personal score or to tarnish the image of the10
individuals or to blackmail individuals and men in position. This
aspect of media behavior deserves a careful scrutiny for taking
appropriate remedial measures. Investigative journalism, however,
has helped reporters to assert their place more prominently in the
setup against editor’s exclusive position so long being enjoyed. The
reportage has become as important as, if not more, than the leading
articles.
The Press in today’s media scenario has become instrumental
in setting the political, economic, social and cultural agenda of the
country. From 1990s India has witnessed an explosion in electronic
media, online news services. Media has acquired such great control
on the mind of the masses that it now controls and shapes the liking,
disliking and interest in different segments of news items to a
considerable extent. Compared to the print media, electronic media
has grown faster in view of advantage of visual impact enjoyed by it.
The Indian press is going through transformation because of
changes occurring in today’s polity of the country on account of rapid
socio economic strides. Liberalization, globalization, and competition
from the electronic media are impelling the print media to adapt new
technologies, with more professional out look and sensitivity to the
market forces. Today, the structure of India’s print media maintains a
product line which is amazingly diverse array of languages,
management set up, topics and news contents.
The rapid challenges being faced today and to be faced in near
future need dynamism and quick adaptation for the growth and11
effective survival of print media. The newspapers today are
compelled to delicately balance the twin challenges namely how best
they can adapt to and gain from digital distribution and advertising
revenue; and how to meet the role of fourth estate. Unfortunately,
media is failing to play its role as fourth estate effectively. What is
witnessed in today’s media scenario is that instead of making
newspaper rich in news contents and addressing serious issues for
better governance of the country and improve socio economic
disparities, the media driven by market forces and in unending urge
to make more profits, is indulging in trivilisation and
sensationalisation and tainted corporate communication. It is
interesting to note that media is cleverly attempting to keep under
wrap such deplorable design, by covertly under playing trivilisation of
news contents and biased news and views sub serving interests of
advertisers and corporate houses in order to remain gainfully floated
with market forces. Such clever manipulation has been aptly
described as ‘feeding the readers spinach with the ice-cream.’
The changes in technology and marketplace are shaping the
growth and development of Print India. In India, almost all
newspapers are accessible through the Internet and provide up todate news and information not only relating to India but other parts
of the globe as well. Today’s readers are not satisfied with traditional
news contents but some thing more giving insight to what is
happening all around. Unfortunately, in their anxiety to get more or
more readers and particularly more and more advertisers and12
corporate sector as client, the print media is by and large turning to
be a commercial enterprise and the newspaper as a commodity.
Journalism in today’s media scenario appears more as a profession
than a mission. The print media is consciously oblivious to its role as
Fourth Estate. To say the least, this trend is not only unfortunate but
deserves to be condemned by civil society in no uncertain term.
Negative Trends Corporatisation of Media
In the early history of print media in our country, the
newspapers were largely owned by middle class or upper middle
class intellectuals. Such owners did not publish newspapers primarily
for making profits like a businessman. The publication was made in
the spirit of ushering in social reforms and gaining independence of
the country. The circulation of the newspapers was also quite
moderate in those days. But the news contents and articles published
in such newspapers did not suffer from trivialism or sensationalism as
in today. Slowly the print media in India has undergone
corporatisation.
Today’s media particularly big national level newspapers are
mostly owned by the corporate houses. These newspapers barring a
few are running the newspapers with an aim to derive more and
more profits like commercial enterprises. More and more revenue
from corporate houses and commercial ventures being targetted,
news contents and articles have orientation suiting corporate houses
and business community. These newspapers very often covertly13
lobby the pursuits of big corporate houses from which large revenue
is obtained for advertisements. The problems, concerns and the
interests of the weaker segment of the society are inappropriately
projected and serious national issues are not addressed properly. The
Centre for Media Studies in its study of media scenario of 2004 very
appropriately indicated that “the overall reach of all mass media in
the country individually and even collectively is not expanding
although individually the media is registering growth. The un-reached
sections being at the bottom of economic pyramid are not the target
of mass media both for reach as well as for concerns.”
Monopoly Trends
The emergence of big media houses and corporatisation of
media is heading fast towards monopoly in the media. This is a
matter of concern. The small and medium newspapers particularly
regional newspapers with low circulation and operating in remote
rural areas are facing acute financial crisis and their survival is at
stake because of rapid spreading of wings by big newspapers
covering large number of cities and districts. The elimination of the
rivals at any cost, through competition and acquisition is the age old
device. In the interest of body polity of Indian democracy consisting
of different segments in the society, sources of information should
also contain voices and concerns of all segments of body polity. To
achieve this, ownership of media should essentially belong to such
persons or institutions who would be concerned in the voices of all
segments of the society. The other news or the other side of14
the news and views, will not be available and dissemination of only
the specified information will be subtly ensured if media suffers from
monopoly and corporatisation. Such monopoly in media is inherently
not good for Indian democracy.
Malpractises and Corruption
Media, like other institutions has also succumbed to the vice of
malpractises and corruption. In media, such malpractises operate in
both explicit and implicit forms. Yellow journalism and blackmailing
were the known forms of corruption in journalism. But in today’s
media functioning, subtle and implicit form of corruption is creating
greater mischief. The distortion, disinformation and ‘paid news
syndrome’ aimed to serve certain interests and suppression of news
and concerns of other interests have become a usual feature in
media. The promotion of certain politicians and political groups,
business magnets, commercial and industrial interests, products and
services, and entertainment programmes through induced news and
favourable articles and in the process, maligning rivals through
interviews, articles, reports, so called surveys and reviews have
ushered in an era of tainted communication. It is a said commentary
on today’s media functioning that media entrusted with sacred duty
to inform civil society and the administration correctly and
dispassionately has indulged in large scale misinformation and tainted
communication only to augment greater profit. Journalists are often
softened on account of wooing them by liberally giving various
favours in the shape of foreign trips, costly presents and other15
monetary benefits. As a result, their pen becomes friendly to givers
while reporting or advocating their causes and concerns even though
such journalists know well that such causes and concerns advocated
by them are not beneficial to the society at large.
Paid News Syndrome
In the last Parliamentary election media in general and print
media in particular has indulged in nefarious monetary deals with
some politicians and candidates by agreeing to publish only their
views not as advertisements but as news items and not to publish the
view points of other candidates and even publish news items against
rival candidates as desired by the other party in exchange of
specified amount of money. This paid news syndrome was so
rampant that voices of concern were raised by members of various
journalists’ unions and also members of civil society and eminent
media personalities. Shortly after election, the Andhra Pradesh Union
of Working Journalists in association of others held a seminar in this
very Jubilee Hall to express their concern about this malpractice.
Similar seminars were organised in other parts of the country. A
committee has been set up by the Press Council of India to collect
inputs from various parts of the country and make in-depth study of
the malady of paid news syndrome in election and to make its
recommendation to the Press Council. Newspapers enjoy freedom of
speech and expression as the watchdog of the nation and as a
representative voice of the people with a solemn duly to inform the
people and the government correctly and dispassionately They do not 16
enjoy freedom of speech and expression to misinform and give
distorted news and project views of a particular party or group in the
guise of news for monetary consideration.
Trial by Media and incorrect reporting of court cases
Of late, trial by media of sub judice matters and incorrect
reporting of court proceedings have become a disturbing
phenomenon. Being perturbed by this growing menace, at the
initiation of the Hon’ble Chief Justice of India, the Supreme Curt
Legal Services Authority in association with Press Council of India,
Editors’ Guild of India and Indian Law Institute organised a national
level seminar in Delhi to discuss this malady and to evolve remedial
measures which were followed by regional conferences held in
Cochin, Bhubaneswar, Mumbai and Guwahati. A training programme for reporters of court proceedings was also arranged.

Devaluation of the Office of Editor
Earlier, the editor used to control the contents of the newspaper, including the advertisements. Today, the office of editor has been marginalised and the editor has very little or no say about the contents of the newspaper. It is the manager or director incharge of advertisement who decides what space is to be left for contents to be published other than advertisements or write-ups desired by the advertisers and corporate sector.
It, therefore, does not require imagination to comprehend that real contents in the newspaper will be consumer and material oriented thereby blatantly ignoring appropriate news need to be17 focused and serious issues to be addressed for public awareness and good governance.
The representatives of media in seminars or round table concerning media functioning often assert boldly that the news contents are aimed to cater the felt need of the readers which they perceive as their duty and first priority. Such assertion, to say the least, is not only incorrect but a random statement without any basis. I am not aware of any authentic survey on readers as to what kind of content they want. To my mind, it is convenient way of assuming by erring newspapers that what contents they give to the readers suiting their revenue augmenting drive, are the contents desired by the readers. Even if it is assumed that trivilisation and sensationalisation
of news and tainted corporate communication resorted by such newspapers were tolerated by the readers without protest, such practice can not be held to be proper journalistic practice consistent with well accepted media ethics. The media being most powerful mass communicator and watch dog of the nation and also a fourth pillar in democracy has a solemn duty to educate and inform people properly and correctly with appropriate news contents and not to slowly inert the urge of the readers for good and rich news contents, articles and write ups.
Before I conclude, it would be appropriate to refer to theexcerpts of speech delivered by revered Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam,Former President of India on the occasion of National Press Day,2006 during an International Conference. 18In the words of Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, “It is very important forthe media to be partner in national mission. They should highlight the positive aspects and provide solutions to difficult aspects through nationwide consultations”.
By highlighting the needs and aspirations of the grass root level of the society the media can truly contribute to the creation of a vibrant and developing India where every citizen would be equal. With orientation for Bahujana Hitaya and Bahujana Sukhaya, [welfare of many and happiness of many] the media must relentlessly strive to remove the paradox of vulgar affluence of a few and abject poverty of many in today’s polity so that the nation marches forward in real sense. We should keep in mind that in the forward leap of a nation, those who are left behind will pull back others. Inclusive economic order is well accepted goal.
Permit me to conclude with a note of optimism. The press in India has always been at the forefront of national life. Even though there has been a considerable erosion of ethics over the decades since independence, the basic values adhered to by the Indian Media over the ages, still continue to inspire. The media has always risen to the situation whenever there is a crisis. We must remember that in this new era of journalism rich with booming information and mind boggling entertainment and in the context of global invasion and competition, the need of the hour is sober introspection by the journalists and not losing the focus on the paramount duty of media to be the fourth estate without making any compromise with vested19 interest. In a multi religious, multilingual and multi ethnic denominations comprising the polity of India, the social fabric is quite delicate. Journalists must be very sensitive to this delicate and fragile social structure and should refrain from doing any act which may even remotely disturb the equilibrium of the society.

Award-winning REN TV presenter Tatiana Limanova allegedly made the gesture while reading Obama’s name during a Nov 14 news item on the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) conference. Online footage of the incident has since gone viral.

REN TV, however, said Limanova’s gesture was not aimed at Obama, but was rather a response to her ‘editorial staff’ colleagues, who were standing off camera and trying to distract her, for a joke.

It was not, REN TV stressed in a statement, ‘linked to the item being presented by Limanova’.

Limanova said she did not know she was on camera when she made the gesture, an explanation that failed to impress the REN TV bosses.

‘This does not diminish her guilt and cannot be considered an excuse. The REN TV management views this action as the gravest violation of on-air discipline and a demonstration of unprofessionalism,’ the channel said.

Limanova is not the only Russian newsreader to have made the headlines for similar reasons.

Irada Zeinalova of the state-run Channel One TV channel has sworn at least twice on camera. In one such incident, her anger was directed at a small boy who accidentally distracted her while she was recording a standup.

Murdoch is no longer a director of Times Newspapers Limited or News Group Newspapers (NGN), the Daily Mail reported, adding he will remain the executive chairman of News International and chairman of British Sky Broadcasting Group (BSkyB), as well as deputy chief operating officer of parent company News Corporation.

He had been on the board of NGN, which owns The Sun and used to publish the News of the World and Times newspapers since taking over News International in 2007.

As well as leaving those posts, he has resigned as a director of subsidiary company News International Holdings Ltd, according to Companies House filings seen by the Evening Standard.

But James Murdoch still remains on The Times’ editorial board, which was set up when his father Rupert Murdoch bought the paper.

A News International spokesman reportedly said: ‘James doesn’t step back from NI. He remains chairman.’ He has been replaced on both newspaper boards by Tom Mockridge, the new chief executive of NI.

As per records at Companies House, Murdoch stepped down from the boards of News Group Newspapers Limited, publisher of The Sun, and Times Newspapers Limited in September, the BBC reported.

The resignatio’s news came ahead of a key BSkyB shareholder meeting amid calls that he resign from the company.

On Nov 10, Murdoch appeared for the second time before British MPs regarding phone-hacking at the News of the World (NoW). He had appeared before the parliamentary committee with his father in July.

Brin granted $500,000 from The Brin Wojcicki Foundation, the charity fund run by him and his wife, Anne Wojcicki, reported RIA Novosti.

The money however will not cover all Wikipedia’s annual budget of $28.3 million.

This week Wikipedia started its annual fund-rising campaign that is due to last until January, with the personal appeal from its founder Jimmy Wales, who created the world’s biggest user-created encyclopaedia in 2001. Wales has repeatedly said that there would not be any advertising on Wikipedia.

‘Commerce is fine. Advertising is not evil. But it doesn’t belong here. Not in Wikipedia,’ Wales said in its latest address.

Last year’s campaign raised $16 million to Wikimedia foundation.

Wikipedia was ranked the fifth most popular web-site in Internet with over 470 million unique visitors every month, comScore said in its October’s report.

The four-day conference aimed to create a fusion of education and entertainment to highlight life-threatening diseases and social issues.

The ten video games that could be downloaded on all types of mobile phones were developed by Delhi-based gaming and e-Learning company, ZMQ Software Systems, while research for the games was done by the students of Lady Irwin College here.

‘Mobile phones have a massive reach in the country and their numbers are increasing every day. We wanted people to know the intricacies of diseases like TB and AIDS but in a fun and exciting way,’ Anjali Singh, a researcher and alumni of the college told IANS.

Talks are going on with several mobile phone makers and service providers to offer the games pre-installed on their devices, she said.

The EE5 has brought together well-known artists, government officials, media experts and academics from over 20 countries, showcasing how amalgamation of education and entertainment could change lives.

This year’s conference focuses on women and children, aiming to help India improve its development indices, especially those related to maternal and infant mortality.

Two students from west Delhi’s International Institute of Health Management Research (IIHMR) have come up with the idea of offering personalized advice through calls and messages to rural dwellers in the country.

The brains behind the idea — 25-year-old Arshad Beg and his partner, Sharvari Ubale, 23 — said the initiative will hopefully be launched soon.

‘Those who are interested can register with us and then we will call them according to their convenience and answer all their queries,’ Beg told IANS.

‘We want the service to be free and will be talking to various service providers to bear the cost as part of their corporate social responsibility,’ he said.

Organised by the Moneylife Foundation, the screening of ‘Brokering News’ Friday evening was held to highlight the dark side of journalism replete with details on how news is bought and sold in print and electronic media by politicians, corporate houses, sportspersons and film personalities.

The 53-minute documentary is made by award winning documentary maker Umesh Aggarwal.

A former journalist, Aggrawal traces his career to the 1985 television show Newsline. He won a National Award for ‘The Whistle Blowers’, an investigative film on pesticides in bottled water and soft drinks, in 2007.

‘Brokering News’ packs in a lot of information and analysis in its narrative. Questions have been raised on the authenticity of news items which were, at that point in time, paid for with huge amounts.

The film that unfolds like a thriller portrays a corrupt but powerful system where big money is at stake. It also includes an interview of a former journalist from Kurukshetra in north India who was allegedly asked by his publication to generate income through paid news during elections in 2009.

In the interview he is seen revealing various documents as proof. The narrative also unfurls another instance.

‘What is one supposed to think when one article, extolling the virtues of a politician, is carried by three newspapers under three bylines,’ asks Aggarwal.

‘If the people who make news think of it as a commercial product, it is time to ask a few questions,’ says Aggarwal.

‘News paid for by candidates during assembly and parliamentary elections should be considered an electoral malpractice that will attract two-year imprisonment,’ Chief Election Commissioner S.Y. Quraishi was quoted as saying in the documentary.

Also present at the screening were member of Press Council of India’s sub-committee set up to investigate paid news P.G. Thakurta, senior sports journalist Ayaz Memon, veteran entertainment journalist, editor and film reviewer Bhawana Somaaya and veteran business journalist Sucheta Dalal who responded to audience questions on the paid news phenomena.

The film also includes bits from television shows, photographs of different newspapers and snatches of interviews with eminent people in the media as well as editors to create a strong visual story.

A team of Northwestern University engineers created an electrode for lithium-ion batteries, used in cellphones and iPods, that allows holding a charge up to ten times greater than current technology.

Batteries with the new electrode also can charge 10 times faster than current batteries, the journal Advanced Energy Materials reported.

‘We have found a way to extend a new lithium-ion battery’s charge life by ten times,’ said Harold H. Kung, researcher, a university statement said.

‘Even after 150 charges, which would be one year or more of operation, the battery is still five times more effective than lithium-ion batteries on the market today,’ Kung said.

Researchers combined two chemical engineering approaches to address two major battery limitations – energy capacity and charge rate.

Besides better batteries for cellphones and iPods, the technology could pave the way for more efficient, smaller batteries for electric cars.

The technology could be seen in the marketplace in the next three to five years, the researchers said.

‘We have been informed that conditions involving quantum of damages of this kind are unheard of in the history of defamation laws and effectively cripples the media’s right to seek redressal by way of appeal,’ said a statement issued by IBF.

The apex court Monday declined to interfere with a Bombay High Court order directing Times Global Broadcasting Co to deposit Rs.20 crore with the high court registrar along with a Rs.80 crore bank guarantee in a Rs.100 crore defamation suit filed by a retired apex court judge.

The high court set the deposit money as a pre-condition for taking up the company’s appeal challenging the award of Rs.100 crore damages to former apex court judge P.B. Sawant by a Pune court.

‘In a legal environment where awarding of exemplary and punitive damages are rarely seen, the trial court’s decision definitely raises serious concerns as regards the media’s freedom of speech and expression,’ it said.

Raising the issue of media independence, IBF said: ‘If stipulations such as these become the norm, news channels would be targeted at every instance, thereby affecting the survival and existence of this news industry.

‘IBF agrees that such decisions should be reviewed and reconsidered. Because if media is compelled to pay up damages of such quantum, despite the issuance of a public apology for inadvertent error, it would effectively cripple the functioning of the media,’ the statement said.

‘An economic burden of such nature would completely jeopardise media business as it directly impacts media freedom, independence and survival, the very essentials of a democratic set up in the country,’ it added.

As Wales spoke at Mumbai University’s Fort campus, some Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) members staged a protest outside the campus, contending there was an ‘illegal’ depiction of India’s map on Wikipedia.

Demanding the founders to remove the map, over 100 members of BJYM contested there should be legal proceedings against the founders.

‘The map on Wikipedia shows Pakistan Occupied Kashmir in green colour and Arunachal Pradesh in red colour implying that these regions are not a part of India. This is wrong,’ BJYM Mumbai youth president Amit Satam told IANS.

‘It is a criminal offence under the Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1961, which states that publishing maps of India not in conformity with the ones published by the country is a criminal offence with imprisonment up to six months,’ he added.

Wales, however, said Wikipedia represents the ideas of several of its readers and editors.

‘We do try to maintain a neutral point of view in all the fields. Be it science or politics, people from all over the world contribute to the content of Wikipedia and it displays only what is the view of a large number of them,’ he said.

He also emphasised that Wikipedia editors and contributors should abide to the local laws.

‘But there are certain laws which also need to be amended or changed. Freedom of speech in India is more broadly free than in many other countries,’ he said.

He also said he looks forward to improvise on the content, software and the technology that drives Wikipedia and urged more participation from India.

‘We look forward to overcome editing challenges for users and editors in terms of accessibility and technology… More feedback from readers and editors will help in improvising and eventually overcoming the problems.’

The three-day conference is hosted by the Mumbai Wikipedia Community and the Wikimedia Chapter.

Some 600 people turned up Friday and Wales in his opening notes said it was ‘one of the largest national WikiConferences’.

A live ‘Editathon’ session and a ‘Hackathon’ will take place at the conference in which aspects of editing a Wikipedia article will be taught. A session will also be dedicated to Marathi Wikipedia.

For 120 years, movies have been distributed on celluloid rolls housed in circular canisters and shown by projectors burning intensely bright carbon arc lamps.

But in early 2012, digital cinema will overtake celluloid globally, with the last celluloid cinemas expected to close shop by 2015.

Many directors still favour the ‘warm’ look of celluloid, which is still preferred by an ace moviemaker like Steven Spielberg.

In Britain, two-thirds of cinemas are already digital. Analyst IHS Screen Digest says celluloid could disappear as early as 2013, the Daily Mail reports.

”Avatar’ was the catalyst for the change,’ says David Hancock, analyst with IHS Screen Digest. ‘It drove screens to 3D — and therefore made cinemas upgrade to digital.’

‘The digitisation process started 10 years ago — it slowly took off in 2005 and 2006. Distributors are saving money — these days films are moved between cinemas on a hard drive costing 150 pounds, which can be reused,’ adds Hancock.

With celluloid, each print of a movie costs around 1,000 pounds each (Rs.850,000). So if a film opened in 1,000 screens, the cost to distributors is huge.

Demand for celluloid peaked in 2008, says IHS, when 13 billion feet of film were used worldwide. By 2012, as little as four billion will be used.

By 2015, film will no longer be used commercially — although libraries storing old celluloid releases will continue to exist, and private projectors will exist to show them.

However, directors may still use celluloid to shoot films. They will be converted to digital to show at the cinema.

Celluloid is derived from cellulose and alcoholised camphor. It was developed by John Wesley Hyatt in 1868 as a substitute for ivory in billiard balls.

By 1900, celluloid was being used as the base for film for still photography and motion pictures.

‘There is an emotional attachment to celluloid,’ says Hancock.

‘It does produce a particular, recognisable effect. Digitally shot films are cleaner and neater, and some film-makers are against that.’

Previously, the opening dates of films in America, Europe and other territories was often dictated by the expense of producing film.

Once a film had finished its run in one territory, the celluloid would be shipped to another.

Ironically, despite the switch to digital, most films are still couriered, rather than sent digitally.

The Indian Newspaper Society (INS) said the publishers told Katju at a meeting here that he should withdraw his statement that most journalists were ‘of very poor intellectual level’.

‘The chairman, however, was firm and refused to withdraw the remarks made by him,’ INS said in statement. ‘The publishers walked out of the meeting in protest.’

The four were R. Lakshmipathy (Dinamalar), V.K. Chopra (Filmi Duniya), Sanjay Gupta (Jagran) and Vijay Kumar Chopra (Punjab Kesari).

Earlier, the INS Executive Committee said that Katju’s remarks ‘demonstrated a deep bias against members of the Fourth Estate and such bias would adversely affect the functioning of the Council’.

Different kinds of sedentary behaviour produce different consequences for young people’s health, according to the findings from Queen’s University, Canada.

‘Even if a child is physically active, this activity is really only making up a short period of their whole day, so it’s important to look at other aspects of their day to see what’s going on,’ says Valerie Carson, doctoral candidate in Queen’s School of Kinesiology and Health Studies.

Previous research has identified high volumes of sedentary behaviour as a risk factor for cardiovascular diseases in adults, the journal BMC Public Health reports.

But among the children she surveyed, Carson found no general connection between the volume of sedentary behaviour and the risk of developing diabetes or heart disease, according to a Queen’s statement.

Instead, she noticed some types of sedentary activities having a greater impact on children’s health than others. Specifically, high levels of TV viewing.

One possible explanation is that TV viewing falls near the bottom on the scale of energy expenditure, according to some research.

Another is that activities like snacking between meals that usually go hand-in-hand with specific kinds of screen times may be causing the associated health risks.

‘Our study suggests we should also limit children’s television viewing time,’ explains Carson.

‘Is self-regulation adequate to deal with the problem or do we need to bring in a new law… Will the existing laws work if they are brought in tune with the times or do we need a new regulation,’ asked Thomas.

He was addressing a seminar on ‘Strengthening Self Regulation of Advertising Content’ organised by the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI).

The minister said since several ministries like health and information and broadcasting are involved in the implementation of laws to check such ads, the government is ‘considering an inter-ministerial committee to look at ways and means of making these laws and regulations effective’.

He said there was demand for an independent regulator who would authenticate or certify all health-related ads before they are released on the basis of substantiation provided by the advertiser.

Pointing out that the Consumer Protection Act provides for protection of consumers from unfair trade practices and the consumer courts have delivered some excellent judgments regarding misleading ads, the minister said ‘there is a clamour among consumers for a comprehensive and effective mechanism to put a stop to ads that violate their basic rights to choose information and safety’.

He said the absence of the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Commission, which looks at false and misleading advertisements, is also being felt.

‘I am particularly worried about health and nutrition related advertisements that blatantly mislead consumers and particularly target the highly vulnerable groups like children, senior citizens and those suffering from health problems,’ said Thomas.

He mentioned that most of the misleading advertisements are not issued by fly-by-night companies, but big corporations, who could even be members of ASCI.

He referred to cases such as that of Piramal Healthcare on ‘Getting complete energy in 8 days or Money back’, the AIRTEL Digital TV advertisement offering ‘Free Regional Pack for life’ and the one on NUZEN Gold hair oil.

‘These are all cases which could not substantiate their claims when questioned by the ASCI,’ said Thomas.

–Indo-Asian News service

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‘Our main restriction on the media is that foreign nationals and stateless persons cannot act as founders,’ Maxim Medvedkov, Russia’s chief WTO negotiator, said Wednesday.

Regulations on radio and television will also stay the same, he said.

WTO recently finalised terms for Russia’s accession, enabling it to gain final approval at a WTO meeting next month and to join the trade organisation early next year.

]]> http://indiacurrentaffairs.org/russia-not-to-let-foreigners-set-up-media-outlets/feed/ 0 http://indiacurrentaffairs.org/media-self-regulation-has-not-succeeded-ansari/ http://indiacurrentaffairs.org/media-self-regulation-has-not-succeeded-ansari/#comments Wed, 16 Nov 2011 15:36:33 +0000 India Current Affairs http://indiacurrentaffairs.org/media-self-regulation-has-not-succeeded-ansari/ New Delhi, Nov 16 (IANS) Vice President of India M. Hamid Ansari Wednesday observed that self-regulation in media has not succeeded ‘due to personal predilection and prevailing of personal interest over public interest’.

‘Collective self-regulation in media is yet to succeed in substantive measure because it is neither universal nor enforceable,’ said Ansari.

‘Individual self-regulation has also failed due to personal predilection and the prevailing of personal interest over public interest.’

‘Who will step in to address the gap when the government, the polity, the market and the industry are unable to provide for full-spectrum systemic regulation that protects consumer welfare and citizen interest.’

Ansari was delivering the inaugural address at the ‘National Press Day Celebration’ organized by the Press Council of India, headed by Justice Markandeya Katju here.

Justice Katju’s recent remarks on the role of media has raised a debate over self-regulation within the media, especially in relation to the electronic media.

Stating media represents a sector of the economy, Ansari said it has witnessed extremely buoyant growth over the last two decades in an environment characterised by minimal or no regulation.

He said in the absence of any other government regulator, the focus has shifted to self-regulation by the media organisations, individually or collectively.

The vice president said the convergence between news media, entertainment and telecom has meant that the demarcation between journalism, public relations, advertising and entertainment has been eroded.

He said: ‘Our democracy is poorer without active media watch groups engaged in objective analyses of the media, discerning prejudices and latent biases, and subjecting the media to a dose of their own medicine’. And added: ‘For an industry that has over fifty thousand newspapers and hundreds of television channels, systemic media criticism is non-existent in India. This should be remedied.’

He remarked that controversy over ‘paid news’ has been debated extensively in the Press Council and other fora, including Parliament.

Ansari opined that media outlets assume importance not only for marketing and advertisement but also for the ‘soft power’ aspects of businesses, organisations and even nations.

‘It is a harsh reality that media entrepreneurship is now a necessary condition for a business enterprise, a political party and even individuals seeking to leverage public influence for private gain,’ said Ansari.

Ansari raised a point stating ‘if the constitutional safeguards on freedom of speech be used to evade regulation of the commercial persona of media corporates and groups.’

‘Where does public interest end and private interest begin,’ said Ansari.

He expressed hope the debate on media role would focus on the erosion of the institution of the editor in media organisations.

‘When media space is treated as real estate or as airline seats for purpose of revenue maximisation, and when media products are sold as jeans or soaps for marketing purposes, editors end up giving way to marketing departments,’ said Ansari.

Speaking at a function organised to mark the National Press Day in Panaji, Kamat said a journalist protection law on the lines of the one being cobbled together in Maharashtra was a possibility in Goa soon.

‘We (can) adapt the journalist protection law in Maharshtra in Goa with the required modifications,’ Kamat said.

‘We can sit down with journalists and get the law in place,’ he added.

The chief minister also called for greater introspection by the media about themselves, especially at a time when it was being accused of invasion of privacy and being overtly biased.

The report released by Nielsen, a global information and measurement company, said that 91 percent of Indonesian digital consumers maintain an active profile on Facebook, the highest across the region.

Netizens in the Philippines follow with 81 percent, Malaysia 78 percent, Singapore 77 percent and Thailand 56 percent, Xinhua reported.

Viraj Juthani, director of telecom practice at Nielsen, told reporters that social networking sites are becoming increasingly popular as a means of engaging with consumers.

‘Social media platforms offer myriad opportunities for organisations to engage with consumers, and social media is becoming an increasingly critical means of influencing consumer decision making,’ said Juthani.

‘Innovation has a critical role to play in India’s socio-economic processes and development,’ Manmohan Singh said after releasing here the first report of the National Innovation Council set up last year.

He also launched a portal that will serve as an information repository for innovation in the country.

It’s only through creativity and innovation, solutions that are appropriate to India’s conditions, that we can achieve development, the prime minister said.

Innovation is truly a game-changer, Manmohan Singh said while adding that it will enable the country to move from ‘incremental change to radical change’.

The National Innovation Council was set up by Manmohan Singh in 2010 under the chairmanship of Sam Pitroda to discuss, analyse and help implement strategies for inclusive innovation in India and prepare a roadmap for 2010-2020, which has been designated as the decade of innovation.

Alluding to innovative advances made in areas like space technology, atomic energy and automobiles, the prime minister pointed out the need for parity, saying innovations so far have tended to benefit largely upper income groups and therefore the focus should be on benefiting ordinary people.

Describing India’s freedom struggle as ‘a social innovation in peaceful resistance’, Manmohan Singh stressed on creating ‘an enabling environment for innovations to flourish’.

‘Father’s popular creation ‘The Common Man’ has inspired a TV show ‘R.K. Laxman Ki Duniya’, which will deal with the aspirations and troubles of the common Indian men and women,’ Usha Laxman, his daughter-in-law said.

‘We are fully involved in the show as we want to ensure that his works are adapted in the right manner,’ she added.

To be aired on SAB TV, the show will see comedian Atul Parchure essay the common man, while Vandana Pathak will be seen as his wife. The show will go on air Nov 28.

‘We have requested that Mr Laxman be shown the pilot episode of the show. The producers have agreed and it will go on air once Mr Laxman gives it the go-ahead,’ said Nandu Gupta, a businessman and a close family friend involved in the project.

Laxman, who turned 90 last month, portrayed the Common Man in Times of India cartoons that dealt with scheming politicians, gossiping housewives and corrupt bureaucrats, among a vast variety of subjects.

‘We have given the rights of telecasting 150 episodes of the show based on father’s works of past 60 years to J.D. Majethia of Hats Off Productions and Dharmesh Mehta of NamanRaj Productions,’ Usha said.

The episodes and incidents of the show would involve happenings in the life of the common man, and represent his hopes, aspirations, troubles, and weaknesses in day-to-day life.

Laxman, who celebrated his 90th birthday last month has been keeping unwell. He, however, continues to sketch and draw everyday.

‘His speech has been affected after he suffered a second stroke last year and hence we are not involving him directly with the show,’ Usha said.

Laxman had in 1988 been actively involved in a show on Doordarshan ‘Wagle ki Duniya’. He had conceptualised the show and wrote each episode on the spot.

‘Unlike ‘Wagle ki Duniya’, father will not be able to be actively involved in this show. Hence, we are chipping in as family members,’ Usha said.

Usha, however, said that Laxman who is very emotionally attached to the Times of India that has carried his works for 60 years. ‘Times of India did carry his works from its archives when father could not continue to contribute due to his illness. But that too has been stopped now. He is slightly sad about this,’ she said.

Usha also said that now that Laxman’s works have been featured across print and television, the family would look forward to a film being made on his works in the future.

Howard Davies-Carr, the 42-year-old father of Charlie and Harry, became famous after the ‘Charlie bit my finger – again!’ video was posted on the website.

Since he posted the video, it has been viewed a staggering 386 million times, The Sun reported.

Davies-Carr now posts videos every six weeks and runs a website.

‘Nearly all income from YouTube is banked. A little is spent on holidays and we bought a castle for the garden. We would have struggled to put all three boys through private education but with the YouTube money we decided to commit to all, and it was always going to be all or none,’ he said.

YouTube often splits with users the revenue from advertising running alongside videos.

Another man Jamie Hagan, 18, has earned 40,000 pounds in three years by posting hilarious footage of his 11-year-old brother Jacob.

The channel, launched Jan 14, provides eight hours of service daily, seven days a week, in Farsi language in peak viewing time of Iran and Afghanistan from London.

According to the Mehr news agency, Hassan Fathi was arrested by the Iranian intelligence forces.

In September, Iran had arrested six other people, including a woman, for working for the BBC and distributing photos, videos and information to reflect a negative image of the country.

Most people in Iran have access to satellite dishes and follow global events through various domestic and foreign television channels.

Iran’s intelligence ministry has warned Iranians not to work with the BBC.

The government will support the publication and distribution of video products, books, newspapers and magazines in both Mandarin and Tibetan and also aid translating TV programs into Tibetan language, said Chen Quanguo, Tibet’s Party chief, reported Xinhua.

‘This will help all ethnic groups read and understand,’ Chen said at the Tibet Autonomous Regional Congress of the Communist Party of China being held in the regional capital Lhasa.

Tibet invested over 100 million yuan ($15.8 million) in the media and TV programmes translation work between 2006 and 2010, official data showed.

Tibet currently has a 24-hour Tibetan-language TV channel that offers news programs and TV drama series and is favoured by over 80 percent of Tibetan farmers and herdsmen as their first-choice TV channel, a survey has showed.

“comScore is excited to introduce this new Social module to our Ad Metrix product, offering clients unparalleled visibility into the social side of the display advertising landscape,” said Jeff Hackett, comScore Executive Vice President. “Social networking publishers, led by Facebook, not only account for one out of every three display ads appearing online today, but they are increasingly being woven into the fabric of existing display campaigns. comScore now offers advertisers and agencies a unique way to understand the intersection of social media and display advertising.”

Socially-Published Ads vs. Socially-Enabled Ads
The core enhancements to Ad Metrix involve detailed reporting and analysis of two different types of social display ads: socially-published ads and socially-enabled ads. Socially-published ads refer to any brand’s display ads that appear on social networking sites, such as Facebook and Linkedin. In order to improve brand-level classification of the non-IAB standard hybrid text/image ads that appear on Facebook, comScore developed a proprietary classification technology to assign these ads to the appropriate brands.

Socially-enabled ads are standard IAB display ads that click through to Facebook or other social networking sites, often including an emblem with verbiage such as “Like us on Facebook” Or “Follow us on Twitter.” Increasingly, brands are utilizing these social calls-to-action in their display ad campaigns as a means of bolstering their social media presence.

Top 10 “Most Social” Display Advertisers
The top display advertiser in terms of its number of socially-published ads in August was AT&T with 3.9 billion. AT&T, the top display advertiser overall, had a share of ads published on social media sites similar to that of the total U.S. online ad universe. Among the top ten social display advertisers, IAC had the highest percentage of ads published on a social media site at 38.8 percent, 31 percent higher than the total Internet average. Each of the other top ten display advertisers on social media sites were somewhat underrepresented on these sites in relation to the total.

*Social Ad Index = % of Advertiser’s Social Ads / % of Advertiser’s Total Ads x 100; Index of 100 indicates average representation.

Mars Incorporated ranked #1 on the list of the top socially-enabled display advertisers in August with nearly 300 million impressions among its brands, which include popular candy brands M&Ms, Snickers and Skittles. Nearly 30 percent of Mars Inc.’s display ads were socially-enabled – approximately 42 times higher than the total online average. Kraft Foods ranked second with 179 million socially-enabled display ad impressions, followed by Energizer Holdings with 101 million and General Motors at 97 million. Nearly all of the top ten advertisers were consumer packaged goods companies, highlighting an industry segment that is currently demonstrating the heaviest focus on these types of advertising messages.

*Social Ad Index = % of Advertiser’s Social Ads / % of Advertiser’s Total Ads x 100; Index of 100 indicates average representation.

comScore to Host Webinar on Ad Metrix Social
comScore will be hosting a complimentary webinar on Thursday, October 20, 2011 from 2:00-3:00 PM ET to show how Ad Metrix Social can be used to gain key insights and competitive intelligence about the social side of display advertising. All participants are welcome and may register for the webinar at the following link: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/338258400

For more information on comScore Ad Metrix Social, please email learnmore@comscore.com.

Industry Leaders on Ad Metrix Social
“At Digitas, we’re working on the next generation of media planning by designing content around audiences in owned and paid venues; we believe audiences will share engaging content and, as a result, generate earned media. With Ad Metrix Social, the industry now has a tool that can enable powerful and actionable insights around how owned and paid drive earned media for individual brands, categories, or publishers.”
-Dave Marsey, Senior Vice President of Media, Digitas

“Earned media is more important than ever before in the Paid, Earned, Owned triad, but measurement of its impact and relationship with display can be tricky. comScore’s Ad Metrix Social continues to deconstruct the black box around how brands are advertising on social sites, the relationship between display and social engagement, as well as determining which audiences are being reached. It’s a great way for brands to stay on top of their social media strategy, and offers tools to optimize their campaigns in this ever-changing media/technology market.”
-Chad Maxwell, Senior Vice President of Research, Starcom Worldwide
About comScore
comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) is a global leader in measuring the digital world and preferred source of digital business analytics. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com/companyinfo.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements 
This release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, including, but not limited to, expectations regarding the impact and benefits to comScore of the comScore Ad Metrix Social™, financial or otherwise. These statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to differ materially, including, but not limited to: the features and characteristics of the products, the rate of development of the digital marketing intelligence, Internet advertising and e-Commerce markets; the growth of the Internet as a medium for commerce, content, advertising and communications; and the acceptance of new products and methodologies by the industry, including existing and prospective clients.

For a detailed discussion of these and other risk factors, please refer to comScore’s most recent respective Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Annual Reports on Form 10-K and from time to time other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”), which are available on the SEC’s Web site ( http://www.sec.gov).

Stockholders of comScore are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date such statements are made. comScore does not undertake any obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements to reflect events, circumstances or new information after the date of this press release, or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.

“Social networking has become the central activity in Malaysians’ digital lives, accounting for 1 in every 3 minutes spent online,” said Joe Nguyen, comScore vice president for Southeast Asia. “Given its importance today, brands and marketers need to ensure that social media is addressed in their digital strategies – whether that means having a dedicated social media plan or simply monitoring consumer sentiment towards your brand.”

Mudah.my, Media Prima Group and Maybank Group among Top Properties

In August, more than 11 million people age 15 and older accessed the Internet from a home or work location in Malaysia. Among this audience, 92.4 percent visited Google Sites, which ranked as the top online property for the market with 10.4 million visitors. Facebook.com ranked as the second most-visited property with nearly 9.9 million visitors, up 15 percent in the past year, as the social networking giant continues to attract more users.

Among local properties, classifieds destination Mudah.my ranked as the most visited with 2.5 million visitors in August. Media Prima Group, which includes Hmetro.com.my (Harian Metro), Bharian.com.my (Berita Harian), Tonton.com.my and others, reached 2.2 million visitors. Maybank Group drew nearly 1.9 million visitors in August 2011, growing 20 percent from the previous year, as Malaysians continue to adopt online banking.

Social Networking Tops List as Most Engaging Online Activity

An analysis of how Internet users are spending their time found that Social Networking led as the most-engaging content category in Malaysia. In the past year, Social Networking has increased 5 percentage points to 32.1 percent of all time spent online as it becomes increasingly important in people’s daily lives and to digital marketing strategies.

A critical component of brands’ social marketing strategies is leveraging Facebook brand fan pages to reach fans and friends of fans with social media impressions. An analysis using comScore Social Essentials, comScore’s social measurement product, found that AirAsia and My.McDonalds managed to double the reach of Facebook brand impressions by reaching friends of fans. These findings highlight the importance of leveraging brands’ fan bases to extend the reach of their brands and deliver impressions at scale and without additional marketing expense.

Other top categories by share of time spent online included Entertainment (11.5 percent) and Portals, (11.0 percent). Instant Messengers and Email represented 5.3 percent and 4.2 percent of total minutes, respectively.

*Defined as web-based email.

YouTube Accounts for 67 Percent of All Videos Viewed in Malaysia

Online video viewing continues to be a growing activity in Malaysia. The total online video viewing audience grew to nearly 9.3 million viewers in August 2011, up 8 percent from the previous year. Growth in online video engagement was even more pronounced, as average minutes per viewer increased 19 percent to 6.2 hours in August 2011.

Google Sites ranked as the top video property in Malaysia with 8.8 million viewers and 457 million videos during August 2011 driven largely by YouTube.com, which accounted for 99 percent of viewers and videos to the Google Sites property. Facebook.com ranked second with 4.1 million viewers watching a total of 30.5 million videos during the month, while VEVO saw nearly 3 million viewers watch 26.5 million videos ranking as the third largest online video property in Malaysia.

Facebook Most Engaging Site in Turkey
In Turkey, 23 million consumers spent a total of 45.3 billion minutes on the internet during August 2011. Facebook was the most engaging site with 13.1 billion minutes spent on the site, accounting for 28.8 percent of all time spent online during the month. International sites Facebook, Microsoft Sites (4 billion minutes) and Google Sites (3.9 billion minutes) took the top 3 spots with the remainder made up of local Turkish sites.

comScore to Speak at Webrazzi
comScore Managing Director Mike Read will be speaking at Webrazzi in Istanbul, Turkey on Wednesday, 19 October, 2011. Mr. Read will be providing insights into the future of online measurement in Turkey as well as an overview of the internet, globally.

“While we have seen the increasing adoption of smartphones in the EU5 contribute to the rapid growth of mobile media consumption, we are also beginning to see tablets and other connected devices play an increasing role,” said Jeremy Copp, comScore vice president for Mobile in Europe. “With more options available for consuming digital media on the go than ever before, many users now access online content from multiple platforms throughout the day. This media fragmentation has made it more important than ever for advertisers and publishers to take a holistic view of audience measurement to effectively reach their audiences.”

Apple iOS Surpasses Symbian in Share of Mobile Phones and Connected Devices in Use
In the three month average period ending in August 2011, 91.4 million mobile subscribers across the EU5 reported using smartphones, up 46 percent from last year. Although Symbian continues to have the largest share of the smartphone market, its audience among all mobile and connected devices in current use was recently surpassed by the Apple iOS audience. The iOS platform (including iPhones, iPads and iPod Touches) currently accounts for 30.5 percent of all mobile and connected devices in use in the EU5 (excluding feature phones and e-readers), driven by the popularity of the iPad and iPod Touch. Symbian ranks second, accounting for 28.7 percent of all devices in use, followed by the Google Android platform at 23.5 percent.

A closer look at the composition of devices in use for each platform reveals interesting differences. Symbian’s share of the market is driven exclusively by Symbian smartphones, whereas nearly half of the iOS share is driven by iPads and iPod Touches in use. Meanwhile, tablets account for only 16 percent of the Android platform share.

Apple iOS Drives More Than 60 Percent of Non-Computer Traffic
An analysis of platform market share, as determined by internet traffic coming from browser-based page views, shows the iOS platform driving more than 60 percent of all connected device traffic to significantly lead other platforms. Despite comprising less than a quarter of iOS devices in use, iPads fuelled this strong position accounting for 43 percent of all iOS traffic.

Following iOS, Android ranked second in delivering non-computer traffic with a 20.9 percent share. RIM accounted for 8.5 percent, while Symbian accounted for just 2.7 percent, indicating that Symbian smartphone users were less likely on average to consume digital media on their mobile devices.

August 2011 EU5 Mobile Benchmark Data
The table below shows comScore’s August 2011 mobile benchmark data, including a review of mobile consumption behaviours and device penetration for the five EU countries under measurement. These benchmarks are published by comScore to provide the most up-to-date snapshot of the mobile industry. Further information on these benchmarks, and other data included above, can be provided upon request.

Digital Omnivores
In conjunction with these findings, comScore recently released the report Digital Omnivores: How Tablets, Smartphones and Connected Devices are Changing U.S. Digital Media Consumption Habits. The report analyses how cross-platform consumption has created a vastly different landscape in the U.S. as consumers utilise a growing number of devices to consume digital content. The report also analyses the impact these shifting consumption habits have on online visitation and engagement across the Internet. To download a complimentary copy of the report, Digital Omnivores, please visit:

“Public health information sites produced by government agencies such as the National Institutes of Health and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have proven to be invaluable resources to many Americans,” said John Mangano, comScore vice president for Health Marketing Solutions. “We have seen that leading public health sites attract as many visitors as some of the top properties in the commercial Health category, indicating that consumers continue to look to public health sites for objective and credible information on topics ranging from health conditions to pharmaceutical information.”

NIH.gov Ranks as Leading Government Health Site, Followed by CDC.gov

In September 2011, NIH.gov ranked as the leading public health site with the most unique visitors within the Government category, while having a comparable audience size to top sites within the Health category such as Yahoo! Health and MSN Health. NIH.gov received 10.6 million visitors in September, growing 22 percent from the previous year partly driven by a continued partnership with Google that returned NIH results as the first unpaid listing for pharmaceutical-related searches. The growth of the site outpaced both the Government sector’s 3-percent overall category growth and the Health sector’s 15-percent category growth over the past year.

Also ranking among the top ten federal Government sites were CDC.gov, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention site, and USDA.gov, the Department of Agriculture site. USDA.gov showed a similar increase in traffic as NIH.gov, with a 20 percent gain over the previous year. HealthFinder.gov, an initiative of the Department of Health and Human Services, saw the highest increase in traffic from the previous year (69 percent), drawing 113,000 unique visitors in September 2011.

Flu Searches Drive Visitors to CDC.gov and Flu.gov

In September 2011, broad-matched searches for flu information drove a significant amount of search click-throughs to CDC.gov and flu information site Flu.gov, illustrating the important role of search in driving visitors to public health sites. In September, 1.8 million searches were conducted related to the flu, increasing 116 percent from August as many people began flu season preparation earlier. CDC.gov accounted for the highest share of click-throughs at 17.7 percent during the month, followed by New York Times Digital (3.7 percent) and WebMD Health (3.4 percent). Flu.gov accounted for nearly 2 percent of all click-throughs.

*Includes broad matches on the search term “flu”

“With health topics ranging from disease prevention to health care availability continuing to be priority issues for Americans, we are seeing government health agencies invest more in their digital media strategies to make information and resources more easily accessible,” added Mr. Mangano. “Public health marketers and strategists need to understand their online audiences’ characteristics as well as their behaviors in order to ensure the further success of digital campaigns, while also building on the commercial Health sector’s best practices.”

The two channels have been charged for showing content which is not in good taste and is not decency and is also not suitable for unrestricted public exhibition besides not for viewing by children, said official sources Saturday.

The news channels, P7 and Sahara Samay, have to reply by Nov 14, they added.

The channels have also been asked not to repeat the telecast of the CD.

–Indo-ASian News Service

aag/vd/vm

The application works by collecting in real time tweets sent by large numbers of people and extracting information about events — parties, concerts, games and the like — happening nearby.

The Tweetographer is the brainchild of William Clifton and Alex Padgett, computer science undergraduates at the University of Cincinnati.

‘We wanted to explore data mining, which is an important area of research in computer science, in the context of social media,’ Padgett said, according to a university statement.

‘Everything is out there in public domain, a giant pool of untapped data, tagged with latitude and longitude. It’s very precise and lends itself to so many uses,’

Padgett added.

Clifton said: ‘We realised we could do all sorts of things with this data. We could add all sorts of functions but we worked really hard to avoid ‘feature creep’ and decided to focus on events.’

Another obstacle was making sense of all the available data. Although Twitter offers upwards of 140 million tweets a day, they are not posted in a uniform format. ‘So many people type in their own shorthand,’ Padgett said.

The solution, according to Clifton, was to create a ‘thesaurus’ of multiple Twitter synonyms.

Airline chief Michael O’Leary said they are looking at launching an in-flight web offer that is similar to hotel room pay-TV services. It would allow passengers to log into a Ryanair app and then would pay to gamble, watch a movie and even see sex scenes.

‘I’m not talking about having it on screens on the back of seats for everyone to see. It would be on handheld devices,’ The Sun quoted O’Leary as saying.

‘Hotels around the world have it, so why wouldn’t we,’ he queried.

The Irish low-cost airline feels it would take about a year for their plan to take-off.

A spokesman said: ‘Nothing has been decided as yet.’