Self-regulation is a norm that has high values and noble objectives. “Yet in the context of independent India – more so in the context of modern-day broadcasting where we witness coming up of many regional and national channels – self-regulation alone may not be sufficient,” said secretary general D.S. Rawat.

ASSOCHAM encourages the government to examine the parameters and significance of broadcasting in the context of internet. Self-regulation has to be the first tier of the pyramid while the second tier has to consist of an autonomous regulator.

“When the entire world is moving in the direction of wireless, mobile and could computing, it is therefore very essential that the present proposed legislation must have a realistic perspective of situations. In this scenario, co-regulation for news content in a holistic and inclusive manner is the real way forward,” said Mr Rawat.

Present provisions in programming and advertising codes under the Cable Act and News Broadcasters Association’s code of ethics are not sufficient and comprehensive. There is need for more clarity through elaborate stakeholder consultations to move forward in an inclusive and balanced manner, said Mr Rawat.

There is distinct need for an independent and autonomous regulator as the Broadcasting Services Regulation Bill has various flaws which need to be appropriately addressed.

The News Broadcasters Association (NBA) seems to be a mere formality in regulating the media and imposes only small fine upon the defaulters. In today’s time when media is making huge profits out of broadcast rights, such imposition of nominal fine barely regulates any broadcaster, he said.

Powers exercised by the self-governing authority are not enough to maintain media discipline. ASSOCHAM is of the firm opinion that regulation has to be by means of a public body which is accountable to the Right to Information Act.

The relevant interests of consumers also need to be considered. The framework under Content Code / Broadcast Service Regulation Bill does not give appropriate attention to privacy rights and protection of relevant stakeholders.

Based on a different branding mantra that entails not just connecting to the audience but interacting with them as well, big and small brands are now turning to social interactive tools, like blogging, to advertise and market their products.

Says Neeraj Goyal, senior marketing manager of Johnson & Johnson India: “Bloggers have a loyal following and tapping into that base through readership is a good way to create word of mouth and conversation around the brand and its core idea.”

“Blogs are written and read voluntarily and therefore they bring a lot of credibility to the brand idea. It also helps in engaging with consumers to co-create. Candid comments and reader’s take on an idea through this medium is also a very good opportunity for the marketers to have a reality check,” Goyal told IANS.

Johnson & Johnson India thus used blogging as a medium to market their product, sanitary napkin, Stayfree.

“Stayfree’s brand idea, ‘it’s time to change’, and its belief that only you can change things that irritate you is the keystone for our strategies. We believed that having real and credible brand advocates like blogging will help the campaign go viral,” he added.

The route which brands usually take is to invite bloggers to try their product and then share their experience. Readers leave behind comments and, depending on the feedback, more information is supplied and new strategies planned.

Personal care product Dove, for instance, organised a bloggers’ meet in Mumbai, in which the participants -70 percent women- were treated to Dove Hair Spa, the product they wanted to advertise.

Following this, the participants wrote about their experience and generated a readership, whose main audience were those in the 25-35 age group – also the brand’s target age group. Besides blog posts, there were also tweets and Facebook posts. The campaign reached 4.3 million people.

Automobile company Tata Motors used a similar platform to market its vehicle, Tata Sumo Grande.

“To help bloggers gain first-hand experience of our SUV – Tata Sumo Grande, 10 bloggers were invited to two Tata Motors showrooms where they could drive the vehicle to the venue. This not only encouraged bloggers to test drive the vehicle but also helped them understand the various features of the car and get answers to their queries by our representative,” a Tata Motors spokesperson told IANS.

This, he said, helped them market their product and get feedback faster.

These interactions enhance our understanding of customers at ground level and thereby help us to devise right strategies with respect to product, communication, pricing and retailing. It also helps us in converting prospects to retail faster,” he said.

Terming this trend as a result of opening up of the social media, Ayesha Durante, Country Manager-Marketing of HP IPG India, said: “Social media and blogging outreach complement the conventional communication tools. Our communication campaigns today seamlessly straddle the domains of traditional as well as new media and are designed to reach our audiences through channels they are present in and in formats they are interested in.”

So does this mean that celebrities are not doing the trick any more?

“Celebrities do have a lot of reach and, depending on their personal success, they are still effective as far as advertisements are concerned. But for the online consumer base, very few buy on impulse and most buy on the basis of someone else’s experience. This makes blogging a very effective means of communication,” said Renie Ravin, managing director of IndiBlogger, an umbrella body of bloggers.

Arvind Passey, a blogger, who writes for Samsung mobiles, compares himself and those from his community to a columnist of a newspaper. “Bloggers have a niche readership and their opinion has a loyal following…this is almost akin to the kind of following any good columnist in a print daily would have,” he told IANS.

“Thus any blogpost has the power to travel straight into the heart of the most focussed group. I use words, pictures, and videos to take the shortest route to a potential customer’s heart and give him all the information that he ever wants to have. There is no pretension, since I am not a paid employee of any organisation.”

(Azera Parveen Rahman can be contacted at azera.rahman@gmail.com)

Earlier, welcoming the guests, Union Home Secretary, RK Singh said that the website has been created with three objectives of:-

To enable a greater number of J&K youth to view and register easily for the training and employment opportunities under Udaan.

To allow partner corporates to reach out to a larger talent pool in J&K and effectively shortlist candidates for their projects.

To assist NSDC in effectively monitoring the implementation of Udaan projects by partner corporates.

The new website has been especially designed by NSDC where candidates can get complete information and   register themselves on line.

Three MoUs were also signed on the occasion between  Shri Dilip Chenoy, Managing Director & CEO, NSDC and ShriAjai Choudhary, Chairman,  HCL Infosystems Lted., Shri Partha Sarathi Guha Patra, Vice President and Head Corporate Affairs, Wipro (BPO),  Shri Goutam Roy, Chief Operating Officer, Future Group to implement the Udaan scheme in accordance with the guidelines.

The Scheme is being implemented by National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC and the corporate sector in PPP mode. It  covers graduates, post graduates and professional degree holders.

As per the Scheme, the identified companies will screen and select students from the State.  The duration, place and nature of training will be decided by the company after considering the profile of the candidates and their skill gap.  After completion of the training, the company will take necessary measures for placement of the trainees in association with NSDC.

Government of India will bear the expenditure on travel from J&K to training destination, boarding & lodging, stipend and placement fee in respect of trainees.  Corporate will bear the cost of training.  In case the trainee is employed by the same corporate for minimum one year, 50% of the training cost or Rs.62,500/- whichever is less will be reimbursed to the corporate.   The total budget of the Scheme is Rs. 1000.00 crore in five years.

As per the approved proposal the details are as under:-

First batch of 30 students has been trained by CII.  The candidates underwent a 6 week training programme (21st of November 2011 – 30th of December 2011) at the CII Naoroji Godrej Centre of Excellence  at Mumbai.   Proposals of many leading Corporates are in pipeline.

An Expert Group constituted by PMO under the chairpersonship of Dr. C. Rangarajan, to formulate a Job plan for the State of Jammu & Kashmir had recommended the Scheme Special Industry Initiative for J&K.

For she has stumped PMO officials with her Right to Information (RTI) query on when and by what orders was the title of ‘Father of the Nation’ conferred on Mahatma Gandhi.

Sitting in her small but neatly kept house in Rajajipuram F Block, the backdrop of teddy bears and toys makes her just any other Barbie doll loving girl next door.

But this is only till she starts to speak. Aishwarya, a student of the City Montessori School, Rajajipuram branch, chuckles throughout the conversation on how her mother has “groomed her into the RTI mode”, adding that she finds the Act so helpful that she has filed two RTIs against garbage dumps outside her school, in the past.

Asked what prompted her to file the RTI application on Gandhi and send it to the PMO, Aishwarya told IANS how the term ‘Father of the Nation’ had always “somehow excited and interested” her after she read it in her social studies text book.

“I would keep asking my mom ‘why is Gandhi referred to as the Father of the Nation’, to which my mother mostly had no answers till one fine day she thought of the RTI route”. Her mother Urvashi Sharma is happy that the PMO has “at least taken cognizance of the letter”, even if the response has not been to their satisfaction.

Aishwarya, the eldest of three siblings, had written to the PMO on Feb 13, seeking a photocopy of the government order (GO) that conferred the famous title of Father of Nation on Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. The PMO replied that they had no such record whatsoever and directed the query to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), which then referred the case to the National Archives of India (NAI).

The NAI’s Assistant Director and central Public Information Officer Jayprabha Ravindran also had no answers to the poser by the Lucknow girl, and responded with an invite to Aishwarya asking her to visit the Archives to find for herself if there were any such relevant papers. Daughter of Sanjay Parashar, a lecturer at GB Pant Polytechnic College, Aishwarya’s mother is an RTI activist as well.

The NAI, she added, vide a letter dated March 26, was an institution to provide documents and was not in any way a reserach helping body. It however offered all facilities to the girl in her “quest for the Gandhi research.”

History however holds that the title of Father of the Nation was given to the Mahatma by Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, who in his address on Singapore Radio on July 6, 1944 has addressed Mahatma Gandhi as Father of the Nation. Thereafter on April 28, 1947 Gandhi was referred with the same title by Sarojini Naidu at a conference.

Although Hu is visiting to attend the 4th summit of Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa (BRICS) on March 29, its sidelines are fraught with an opportunity for him to make a statesmen-like gesture by meeting the Dalai Lama.

With 29 self-immolations in the past one year of which 22 have been fatal and seven in the past three weeks alone, Hu could soothe the growing unrest in a region which he once controlled with an iron fist as the political commissar of the People’s Liberation Army units. He was also the Communist Party’s Regional Committee Secretary of the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR) in 1988. If there is one individual in the Chinese establishment who could make a bold gesture on Tibet, it is Hu.

Seven years younger than the Dalai Lama, President Hu has the political and administrative weight to break some outdated moulds and at least initiate the process of direct engagement with the Tibetan leader. Realistically, there is no prospect of the meeting taking place of course, but that is precisely where it requires the Chinese leader to do something entirely unexpected. Starting later this year and over a period of six months Hu is expected to give up at least two of his three powerful positions as president of the People’s Republic of China, chair of the Central Military Commission, and party secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). There could not be a more opportune time for him to exercise gumption.

While Hu is not known for dramatic gestures and has distinguished himself throughout his long career as a low-key and solidly grounded political figure, there is nothing intrinsic reason to stop him from doing something out of the ordinary. No one expects a single Chinese leader, even someone of Hu’s unquestionable consequence, to even begin to wind down decades of Sino-Tibetan animus. However, from all indications Tibet appears only tenuously welded to China; and the rash of self-immolations are seen to incinerate Beijing’s idea of harmony.

The self-immolation of 26-year-old exiled Tibetan activist Jamphel Yeshi on the streets of Delhi in the run-up to the Hu visit this week serves as a macabre reminder to both the Chinese leader and India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that things can go out of control very quickly. China has officially described the Tibetan self-immolators as “terrorists” acting under a pernicious external influence. The description might satisfy the narrow official purpose of how to treat this deeply disturbing means of protest, but it is unlikely to address the broader challenge of putting a lid on the growing restiveness. It is in this context that President Hu should seek out the Dalai Lama for a one-on-one meeting.

Over the last six decades Beijing has with some manifest success pushed Tibet into a tight territorial and cultural integration but frequent outbursts of protests over the years have shown the assimilation is nowhere close to being as harmonious as it would have the world believe. With the Dalai Lama having long emphasized meaningful autonomy for Tibet within China as opposed to complete independence and steadfastly pursued a peaceful and nonviolent middle-path, it is time for Beijing to yield some ground rather than sticking to its tired out of hand rejection of the Tibetan leader.

President Hu ought to be aware of the rise of a youthful and genuinely independent and democratic polity under Lobsang Sangay as the Tibetan prime minister-in-exile. By divesting political powers specifically invested in the person of the Dalai Lama to the new elected leadership, Tenzin Gyatso has already sent a strong signal to China that he would remain only a spiritual face of Tibet who has no intentions of controlling the lives of close to six million Tibetans.

From the Indian perspective the Hu visit also offers Manmohan Singh an extraordinary opportunity to make a lasting contribution to the decades-old problem. Perhaps the Indian prime minister too can spend some of his own political capital on bringing Hu and the Dalai Lama together.

(27-03-2012-Mayank Chhaya is a Chicago-based commentator and writer whose authorized biography of the Dalai Lama has so far been published in 22 languages He can be contacted at m@mayankchhaya.net)

Online reports of tanks on the streets of Beijing and shots fired within the secure leaders’ compound – next to the top tourist spot, the Forbidden City – are being closely monitored by the international intelligence communities, including the US and Britain, it said.

Popular Chinese microblogging sites Sina Weibo, QQ Weibo and the bulletin board of the search engine Baidu, all reported “abnormalities” in Beijing on the night of March 19.

The comments included rumours of the downfall of the country’s Shanghai leadership faction, a reference to high-level officials who hail from the coastal financial hub, which has traditionally been the home of reformers and modernisers in the Party.

Some of the comments claimed a possible “military coup” had been attempted, along with other reports of gunfire and swarms of plain clothes and uniformed security officers on Changan Street, close to Tiananmen Square, scene of the 1989 massacre of pro-democracy protesters.

All the reports have been removed by China’s army of internet censors and can no longer be accessed. MailOnline cannot confirm the rumours but the reports have caused a speculative and nervous atmosphere in Beijing.

Bo, the party secretary of the mega-city of Chongqing in west China, was widely tipped to join the all-powerful, nine-strong Politburo Standing Committee in the autumn.

But he was sacked after his right-hand man and police chief, Wang Lijun, sought asylum at a US consulate last month, the Mail said.

Wang “feared for his life” after he was dismissed for ordering an investigation into the business dealings of Bo’s family.

The firing of Bo, a telegenic, controversial figure who had been encouraging “Mao-stalgia” – a return to the “red” socialist culture and values of Chairman Mao Zedong – has become a rare political drama in the authoritarian state as it prepares for a once-in-a-decade leadership change later this year, the newspaper added.

Take Indian-born Aparism Bobby Ghosh, for instance, who was last week named by Time magazine as ‘Editor-at-Large’. In naming Ghosh, Time Managing Editor Richard Stengel, called him “one of Time’s greatest assets and this past year was one of his best yet.”

Then there is Fareed Zakaria, who too was introduced as Editor-at-Large of Time Magazine in October 2010 after spending 10 years overseeing all of Newsweek’s editions abroad.

Called “the most influential foreign policy adviser of his generation” by Esquire Magazine, Zakaria hosts what has been dibbed one of the most intelligent shows on American TV, ‘Fareed Zakaria GPS’ on CNN every Sunday.

Equally ubiquitous is Sanjay Gupta, the multiple Emmy-award winning chief medical correspondent for CNN. A practicing neurosurgeon, Gupta has reported from earthquake- and tsunami-ravaged Japan, earthquake devastated Haiti and covered live the unprecedented flooding in Pakistan.

Vinnie Malhotra, a former programme development executive at ESPN and long-time ABC News producer, has just joined CNN as senior vice president for development and acquisitions.

Last month, Raju Narisetti, credited with creating Mint, the successful business daily out of Delhi, returned to the Wall Street Journal, where he had spent 23 years earlier, as Managing Editor of its Digital Network.

Nisid Hajari, Managing Editor of Newsweek is busy writing “Midnight’s Furies,” a dramatic history of the Partition of India and Pakistan, told through the characters of Gandhi, Jinnah, Nehru, Churchill, and Mountbatten.

Rajiv Chandrasekaran is the National Editor of The Washington Post, where he has worked since 1994. His first book “Imperial Life in the Emerald City:Inside Iraq’s Green Zone” published in 2006 won the 2007 Samuel Johnson Prize and was a finalist for the 2006 National Book Awards for non-fiction.

ESPN’s sports anchor Kevin Negandhi is the first anchor of Indian-American descent to be on a national sports network in American Television history and Ali Velshi, son of Murad Velshi, the first Canadian of Indian origin elected to the legislative assembly of Ontario, serves as CNN’s chief business correspondent.

Other names include Davan Maharaj, managing editor of the Los Angeles Times;

Stephanie Mehta, Fortune magazine Executive Editor overseeing technology, and Nikhil Deogun, Senior Vice President and Editor in Chief Business News, CNBC, the most-watched business TV network in the world.

Peter Bhatia, editor of The Oregonian, one of America’s top regional newspapers, is the first South Asian to run a major US daily.

Hundreds of lesser known Indian Americans are among the producers, reporters, copy editors and production assistants, bringing Americans their daily news -showing how far Indian-American have come in the media world where only a few of them commanded bylines in the 1990s

Conferring the Seema Nazreth Award for Journalistic Excellence to Indulekha Arvind of Business Standard at a function here, Soni said her ministry was in the process of constituting a committee in consultation with human resource development (HRD) ministry to review the mushrooming of media training institutes across the country.

According to an official press release, the minister said the committee would comprise of key stakeholders associated with the issue.

The minister said Seema Nazreth Award, instituted by Business Standard, provided an ideal platform to nurture talent based on professionalism, skills and aptitude for journalism.

She said the government had initiated measures to establish regional centres of Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC) at four Aizawl, Amravati, Kerala and Jammu to promote excellence in journalism

The minister said she was confident that the ongoing debate in the country on the issue of regulation and self-regulation in the electronic and print media would help in bringing about consensus and new perspectives on issues related to freedom of press.

She said the media landscape had placed India in an exciting position globally and growth of the sector was robust with over 82,000 publications and 800 broadcast channels.

The release said that while the media and entertainment sector in India grew at 11.2 percent in 2010, it grew at less than four percent in the developed countries in the same period.

Addressing a press conference here Friday, Shauzab Kazmi said no Iranian national linked to the Feb 13 bomb attack had visited their house.

Shauzab Kazmi said: “It is completely a false statement that my father has given shelter to the blast accused. No Iranian related to this case has visited our house.”

He also denied that the scooty, which was allegedly used in the blast, has been recovered from Kazmi’s house.

He said the scooty which police claimed was used in the blast was lying in his house since the past two years. “It was bought by my uncle who hails from Meerut two years ago when he had come for treatment to AIIMS.”

He called his father as a national hero and claimed his innocence in the case. “He has not done any illegal activity. He covered the Iraq war for the country. The police is mentally torturing my father,” said Shauzab Kazmi.

Shauzab Kazmi added that his relatives has been called for investigation and he was forced to sign on ‘arrest memos’ by the police on the day of his arrest.

The press conference was also addressed by S.K. Pandey, president of Delhi Union of Journalists, senior journalist Saeed Naqvi, and others.

Pandey said he has sent a mail to the police chief requesting him to release Kazmi on bail as he is cooperating in the probe. He also warned police against indulging in media trial in the case.

“He has been working with the Iranian news agency for a long time. He has impeccable credentials and has a reputation of an upright objective journalist with definite views,” said Pandey.

He said that if police find any evidence against him then they can file a chargesheet immediately.

Sayed Ahmed Kazmi, 52, was arrested by the special cell of Delhi Police Tuesday night. He is in police custody.

Kazmi, who hails from Meerut in Uttar Pradesh, is a resident of south Delhi’s B.K. Dutt colony near Jor Bagh area.

A post-graduate in Persian language from Delhi University, Kazmi has worked as a freelance journalist with DD News. He has also worked as news reader for a Tehran-based radio.

Four people were injured when an Israeli diplomat’s car was struck by a bomb near the Israeli embassy in the capital Feb 13.

Tal Yehoshua Koren, wife of the Israeli defence attache, suffered multiple injuries when a motorcycle rider attached a magnetic explosive device to her car and sped away. Within seconds, the device exploded with a thunderous sound, setting the car on fire.

Koren moved back to Israel after getting treatment at a private south Delhi hospital. Three others injured were discharged after being given medical aid.

Madhouse, a nationwide chain of discount men’s clothing stores, was branded “shameful” and “outrageous” by hundreds of Twitter users Monday, because of the label’s washing instructions to “Give it to your woman”, The Telegraph reported Tuesday.

The beige pair of chinos in question were purchased in London at Madhouse’s flagship Oxford Street store last month. The incident shows the power of Twitter to embarrass companies which make such gaffes.

Vanessa Truskey, a publicity executive, commenting on the Madhouse trouser label, tweeted: “Lately I can’t tell which decade I’m living in. What brand are those trousers?! I can only assume that’s a joke.”

According to the research, 41 percent of the British online population claim to be getting bored with social media and say they will use it less, The Telegraph reported.

However, the uptake and usage of sites such as Facebook and Twitter is still growing, the study by the market research firm YouGov has found.

Nearly two-thirds (65 percent) of Britain’s online population have used Facebook last month, while 23 percent of all web users have logged onto Twitter in the same period.

But the research found that just under a quarter of the British online population who regularly use Facebook, are going on it less than they did a year ago.

Nineteen percent also reckon they will continue to use the world’s most popular social networking site less and less over the next 12 months.

The US Department of Treasury said in a statement that as a state-run agency under Syria’s ministry of information, the organisation was responsible for operating Syria’s state-owned TV channels — two terrestrial and one satellite — as well as government radio stations.

“By taking this action today (Monday), the treasury is sending a clear signal that it stands with the Syrian people. Any individuals or institutions supporting its abhorrent behavior will be targeted and cut off from the international financial system,” said Adam Szubin, director of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control.

The move bars US citizens from doing business with the Syrian government, and freezes all of their assets under US jurisdiction.

Pointing out to a strong linkage between cloud, innovation and entrepreneurship, the study said most companies look at migration to cloud computing as a way to free up existing resources and work on more innovative projects. Freeing up budget allows organisations to shift some of their legacy work to the cloud and invest such freed budget in IT innovation that supports business innovation and in turn create new jobs.

“A common misconception is cloud computing is a job eliminator, but in truth it will be a job creator – a major one,” said John F Gantz, chief research officer and senior vice-president at IDC in a statement.

For more reading. . .

The US Department of Treasury said in a statement that as a state-run agency under Syria’s ministry of information, the organisation was responsible for operating Syria’s state-owned TV channels — two terrestrial and one satellite — as well as government radio stations.

“By taking this action today (Monday), the treasury is sending a clear signal that it stands with the Syrian people. Any individuals or institutions supporting its abhorrent behavior will be targeted and cut off from the international financial system,” said Adam Szubin, director of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control.

The move bars US citizens from doing business with the Syrian government, and freezes all of their assets under US jurisdiction.

“Now, interesting science facts, latest science news, health tips, green tips, events and days of scientific importance will be at your fingertips with this service. The basic objective of this scheme is to exploit the potential of mobile phones for science popularisation in society so as to create interest among the people towards science,” said IGNOU in a statement.

There is no subscription fee for the SMSes and the target group includes educated as well as uneducated people including homemakers and children. The content has been divided into three categories. “First category includes those with little education background who need basic science knowledge, the second category would consist of those who are educated but have no science background while the third category would include educated people having sound knowledge about science,” the statement said. Subscribers will be given a choice to select the category and frequency of the messages as per their choice and interest.

“We have so far arrested four advocates under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for their suspected involvement in the violent incidents at the court complex Friday in which several journalists and policemen were attacked, vehicles were damaged and media equipment was destroyed,” Bangalore Police Commissioner B.G. Jyothiprakash Mirji told reporters here.

The arrested lawyers are A.P. Ranganath, Somesh, Arun Naik and Santosh. Ranganath is general secretary of the Advocates Association of Bangalore.

The accused were presented before Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Manjunath for remand.

“We have registered 31 cases against 25 advocates and others, some more arrests are likely soon. A special team has been formed to investigate the violent incidents in which 57 policemen, a dozen journalists, cameramen of news channels and photographers were injured,” Mirji said.

“We will arrest all those suspected to have attacked media persons and policemen on duty. There is no pressure on us to spare anyone as we have taken serious view of the incidents to prevent such recurrence to maintain peace and law and order,” Mirji said.

The attack took place when about 100 media persons were present at the court complex to cover the appearance of tainted former state minister and mining baron G. Janardhana Reddy in a court for his alleged involvement in the multi-crore rupee mining scam in the state.

Facebook responded saying: “No user information beyond the content in question and the source of the report is shared.”

However, new evidence seen by the newspaper shows that these moderators, who have to deal with the distressing images and messages every day, are able to see the names of the person who uploaded the “offensive” content, the subject of the image or person tagged in a photo, in addition to the person who has reported the content.

Former Facebook moderator, 21 year-old Amine Derkaoui from Morocco, has shown The Telegraph several screenshots of what these outsourced workers see when deciding if a piece of content is suitable to be on the site.

Security experts are concerned about the amount of personal information Facebook is allowing these poorly paid third-party workers in the developing world access to.

Graham Cluley, of the British internet security firm Sophos, said: “When people report content on Facebook, I don’t think they expect all of their details to end up in India, with someone who doesn’t directly work for Facebook… By sharing information about a Facebook account holder, there is obviously the potential for abuse and blackmail.”

Stating that West Bengal used to be one of the safest places in the past, the governor said: “Now the rapes are not being committed by outsiders. They are being committed by those in the state. It is the duty of all of us to protect our women and children.”

He said the administration was taking all possible steps to prevent any recurrence of such incidents.

“We should also ensure rapists are caught and police action is taken against them,” he said on the sidelines of a programme here.

Recently a series of rape cases, including those involving an Anglo-Indian woman in the upscale Park street, a railway commuter in Katwa of Burdwan district, and a deaf and mute patient in a government hospital in Bankura district, have come to the light.

He revealed that he has four girlfriends, with each of whom he spends one week a month.

Turner and his third wife Jane Fonda divorced in 2001, after 10 years of marriage.

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the media mogul and philanthropist, who owns 28 homes, including 14 ranches, said a week per month for each girlfriend was “pretty much the general rule”.

He only named one of the women, novelist Elizabeth Dewberry, who was with him at the time in New York. Until five years ago, Dewberry was married to the Pulitzer Prize-winning author Robert Olen Butler.

When they separated, Butler wrote an email to friends, which was leaked to the media, in which he said: “She will not be Ted’s only girlfriend. Ted is permanently and avowedly non-monogamous. But though he has several girlfriends, it is a very small number, and he does not take them up lightly.”

Asked if the other three unnamed women in his life were happy to share him, Turner replied: “Sort of.” He still speaks to Fonda about once a month and, according to one friend, is “still in love with her”.

Turner himself told the magazine: “Jane said ‘I want two homes, a winter home and a summer home. I don’t want 10.’ And she couldn’t take the travel. Really, it’s much harder for a woman than a man.”

“What am I supposed to do, sit down and cry? I did for six months. And after that, you gotta go on.”

Turner, who donated $1 billion to the UN, has an estimated wealth of $2 billion and is America’s second largest private landowner. He has spent much of his recent time on environmental causes and owns more than 50,000 bison, The Telegraph said.

Awan said Wednesday that the final draft of code of conduct would be formulated for better working of media, reported Associated Press of Pakistan.

She said that reviving or amending the code of conduct for media was the need of hour and it would be made in consultation with all the stakeholders.

Her statement comes barely two days after she assured that the Pakistani government does not intend to impose curbs on the media.

Awan Monday said the government believed in freedom of expression and did not intend to impose curbs on media.

Speaking at Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) headquarters here, she said: “The PPP (Pakistan Peoples Party) led-government believes in the freedom of expression and media and wants to strengthen and empower it. It has no intention to curb media freedom.”

Pakistani media was up in arms over the proposed move, with a Pakistani daily describing it as “alarming news”.

An editorial in the News International Sunday cited reports as saying that the government has plans to impose tough curbs on the media ahead of general elections.

“This of course would be a replication of the measures taken by General Pervez Musharraf in his final days – in blatant violation of the constitution. The purpose obviously is to prevent material which can discredit the government from making it to the people,” it had said.

Syrian activists risked their lives for six nights to smuggle Conroy to Lebanon, a spokesman for Avaaz, an international activist network, told CNN.

Three people were killed in shelling as they tried to assist the journalists through the Baba Amr area, and 10 died bringing relief supplies into the neighbourhood.

Two award-winning journalists, Marie Colvin from the US and Remi Ochlik from France, were killed in last week’s attack.

Conroy’s wife, Kate, told CNN she was “overjoyed with the news”.

The photographer’s newspaper, the Sunday Times, said he was safe in Lebanon.

“He is in good shape and good spirits,” the newspaper said in a statement.

The BBC said Conroy had received “three large wounds” to his leg and Bouvier suffered multiple leg fractures.

The Syrian activist group, Local Co-ordination Committees (LCC), said on its Facebook page that Bouvier and other foreign journalists had refused to leave Homs until the Syrian regime guaranteed their photographs and recordings would not be confiscated.

The UN Human Rights Council has called an emergency session in Geneva to discuss a confidential report delivered by a UN panel of experts that lists Syrian army officers and government officials who could be investigated for crimes against humanity.

Partha Pratim Ghosh said he was beaten up when he tried to capture on video the ransacking of a CPI-M (Communist Party of India-Marxist) local party office.

“When I visited the spot, Trinamool supporters told me not to take the video footage. Then all of a sudden some of the Trinamool supporters started abusing. I pleaded but they kept on beating me,” said Ghosh.

City Police Joint Commissioner (Headquarters) Jawed Shamim said they will investigate the matter.

“I am aware of the incident. Let him file the complaint. We will investigate the matter,” Shamim told IANS.

Over 100 media persons were staging a sit-in outside the main gate of the state assembly demanding that the speaker “take back” his remarks about the media.

Lone had Monday said that the media “during the session” works under his control and that they will have to disclose their sources to him.

His remarks came after Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ali Mohhammad Sagar expressed his reservations about the “source-based stories” appearing in the media.

To this, legislator of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Nizamuddin Bhat said the media “works under the control of the Press Council of India”.

However, the speaker immediately responded: “The media during the session works under my control.”

This statement prompted an immediate walkout by the media in protest.

Minister Sagar and political advisor to the chief minister, Devender Singh Rana, along with some legislators tried to placate the media persons, asking them to resume their coverage of the assembly proceedings.

But the journalists remained adamant on their stand that the “speaker must take back his words”.

Chief Minister Omar Abdullah is expected to make a statement on the issue later Tuesday.

The budget session of the state assembly began Feb 23.

“Consumers’ digital media consumption is rapidly expanding to multiple devices as a growing number of Latin Americans stay connected though smartphones and tablets,” said Alejandro Fosk, comScore senior vice president for Latin America. “Understanding how these multiple platforms influence consumers’ media consumption habits should be at the top of marketers’, advertisers’ and publishers’ 2012 planning lists, because the new realities of the multiplatform digital environment will only become more disruptive over time.”

Puerto Rico, Costa Rica and Chile See Non-Computer Devices Drive Largest Share of Web Traffic

Analysis of the current distribution of Internet traffic (defined as browser-based Internet page views) across devices found that traditional computers still account for an overwhelming majority of Internet traffic across most markets, although non-computer traffic has continued to increase in the past year. Among the markets included in this study, Puerto Rico had the highest percentage of non-computer traffic in October 2011 at 5.9 percent. Costa Rica was next at 3.7 percent, followed by Chile at 3.1 percent.

Brazil Has Highest Share of Non-Computer Traffic Coming from Tablets

When looking exclusively at non-computer traffic, different countries in Latin America exhibited varying mixes of traffic coming from mobile, tablets and other connected devices. In Chile, mobile phones accounted for 78.8 percent of non-computer Internet traffic, the highest percentage of mobile traffic among the markets included in the study. Argentina followed with 77.0 percent of its non-computer Internet traffic occurring on mobile phones in October.

Brazil had the highest share of non-computer traffic coming from tablets, which accounted for 39.9 percent of all non-computer page views. In Colombia, tablets accounted for 38.9 percent, while in Puerto Rico they drove 34.6 percent of non-computer traffic.

Apple Has Largest Non-Computer Traffic Market Share Across Markets

When looking at the operating system (OS) share of non-computer traffic among the selected Latin American markets, Apple’s iOS led the way in the wide majority of countries. Apple accounted for the highest percentage of non-computer traffic in Colombia (64.3 percent), followed by Puerto Rico (63.7 percent), Brazil (60.6 percent), Chile (60.2 percent), and Mexico (60.0 percent). These high percentages were driven by high intensity of media consumption among iPhone users combined with the iPad’s dominance in the tablet market. Android’s OS led in one of the included markets, Argentina, accounting for 33.1 percent of non-computer traffic.

Nearly 1 in 2 Europeans Visit Newspaper Sites 
In November 2011, 181.5 million unique people in Europe visited Newspaper sites, an increase of 9 percent from the previous year. The Daily Mail continued to attract the largest audience at 20.1 million unique visitors, followed by the Guardian at 15.7 million unique visitors. Turkish newspapers Hürriyet and Milliyet and German newspaper Bild rounded out the top five Newspaper properties, with each attracting approximately 10 million unique visitors.

An analysis of the sites visited by Europeans prior to visiting the top 5 Newspaper sites shows that Google Sites preceded at least 12 percent of visits to the top 5 Newspaper sites, with a significantly higher percentage seen for the Daily Mail and the Guardian (more than 23 percent of inbound site traffic). At least 10 percent of visits are preceded by a visit to Facebook, second only to Google Sites. (This data includes both direct referrals from Facebook links and visits initiated by direct user navigation following a visit to Facebook.)

Interestingly, the percentage of traffic to these sites preceded by a visit to Facebook has significantly increased in each case, highlighting both Facebook’s growing prominence in the European web landscape and its increasing ability to drive referral traffic. The percentage of inbound site traffic preceded by a Facebook visit was highest at Turkish site Milliyet, where it accounted for nearly a fifth of traffic (18.9 percent). Facebook visitation also preceded a significant percentage of inbound traffic to the Daily Mail and the Guardian, with both sites at approximately 13 percent, while German newspaper site Bild.de saw an even higher share (14.8 percent). Milliyet, the fifth largest European Newspaper site, demonstrated the highest point change in such traffic (9-percentage point increase), followed closely by the Guardian (8-percentage point increase).

Fastest Growing Properties in Europe
Google Sites continued to rank as the top European web property in November with 347.3 million unique visitors, reaching 91.5 percent of the total European Internet audience. Meanwhile, Russian social network VKontakte continued to display the highest average engagement amongst the top properties, with European visitors spending 438.9 minutes (7.3 hours) on the site. Amongst the fastest growing properties in Europe from October to November were the home improvement retailer Kingfisher (up 21 percent), followed by French film property AlloCiné Sites (up 19 percent). Social networking site LinkedIn.com and daily deals site Groupon also ranked amongst the fastest growing properties, exhibiting a 6-percent month-on-month increase and a 4-percent increase, respectively.

* Amongst the Top 100 online properties

European Internet Usage by Country
Below is a snapshot of European internet usage in the 18 reportable markets for which comScore provides individual reporting. The Russian Internet audience continued to grow and surpass Germany as the largest online market in Europe. The UK continued to show the highest engagement, with users spending an average of 38.2 hours online during the month.

The media persons are demanding that Lone should “take back” his remark that the “media during the assembly session works under my control”.

His remarks came after Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ali Mohammad Sagar expressed his reservations over the “source- based stories” appearing in media.

Leader of Opposition Nizam-ud-Din Bhat of the main Opposition Peoples Democratic Party PDP) countered Sagar and said that the media “works under the control of Press Council of India (PCI)”.

Countering the PDP leader, Speaker Lone said, “Media during the session works under my control”.

Media persons resented this, and boycotted the legislature’s proceedings for the day.

Saying it has “alarming news”, an editorial in the News International Sunday cited reports as saying that the Pakistan Peoples Party government has plans to impose tough curbs on the media ahead of any general elections.

“This of course would be a replication of the measures taken by General Pervez Musharraf in his final days – in blatant violation of the constitution. The purpose obviously is to prevent material which can discredit the government from making it to the people,” it said.

It said that a meeting to be held Feb 27 to approve a new set of regulations which, among other things, will propose that live shows be put on a system of ‘delay’, that their content be conveyed in advance to the regulatory authorities and that anchor persons demonstrate ‘balance’ and steer clear of sub-judice matters.

“All this can, of course, be open to very wide interpretation and lead to a whole host of restrictions; and restriction on access to information is exactly the purpose behind the whole exercise that has been planned with the meeting to be presided over by Information Minister Firdaus Ashiq Awan,” said the editorial.

It went on to say that even “more absurd are the curbs being planned on the airing of ‘gloomy’ or ‘dismal’ news or ‘sensationalisation’ of events”.

“Once again, it’s the government authorities who will define what is gloomy, dismal or sensational.

“It is virtually impossible in our country to escape bad news given all that is happening. We do not know how television channels can be expected to achieve this,” it wondered.

Other measures planned include steps to prevent newsreaders from making comments or offering analysis.

Criticising the government, the editorial said: “We know that the set up which has ruled since 2008 has a great deal that it would love to hide, and the very last thing it would want is for the many misdeeds of all these years to be highlighted as the time for polling approaches”.

“It seems even a government that has made repeated claims of standing for democracy cares nothing about this and is eager only to protect itself through force. It is, yet again, time for the media to stand fast and firm in the face of power and coercion,” it added.

Stressing that she was against any outside censorship or control over media, Soni called for regulation by the media industry itself. “I firmly believe that we must give the process of self-regulation some time and that something positive will come from this process,” said Soni here. “It is necessary to give the process, time and space to establish its credibility and acceptance,” she said while cautioning against the dangers
of “sensational journalism.”

She was speaking after conferring the International Press Institute(IPI)-India Excellence in Journalism awards on “Tehelka” and “The Week” for their investigative journalism.

She said that efforts made by leading broadcasting bodies have provided a roadmap for the self-regulation process to move forward and stressed that the government was committed to facilitate the various mechanisms taken in this regard.

Soni also dispelled doubts regarding the intention of the government in controlling the mass communication. She quoted Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s views on the issue of freedom of press.

“Everyday we see examples of journalism of a very high standard. There are stories with painstaking research and the journalists often tell stories at considerable risk to themselves. But we also see sensationalism and prejudiced reporting,” Manmohan Singh had said.

Former chief justice of India A.S. Anand, the chairman of the IPI India jury, urged Soni to follow-up on the issue of the abolition of criminal defamation.” “It is the duty of the state to protect the freedom of expression,” he said.

“Freedom of speech and expression is the soul of democracy. It has been granted special protection under our Constitution.” He was critical of the tendency of the press to divert the attention of the readers from the real issues to non-issues. “I think the press is sometimes far focused on trivial issues at the cost of major issues in the country. From a human rights perspective, there are issues about custodial killings, abuse of children and women. These issues remain mostly under-reported in media.” He also added that the media has to self regulate more and more.

N. Ravi, the chairman of the IPI India chapter, alluded to the challenges that journalists face in doing their job daily. “The first is criminal defamation where the criminal justice process can be easily triggered by any motivated person or group even in the most frivolous cases and has the rigid requirement of personal appearance..with the result that a journalist and a publication can be dragged to court in far corners of the country.”

Congratulating the joint winners, Tehelka and The Week, Soni said it was a moment to celebrate the initiative as well as the awards, claiming that starting such awards was a great step towards increasing the standards of investigative journalism in the country.

Tehelka got the award for exposing Shri Ram Sena’s riots on rent operations while The Week got the prize for investigating the sham medical and dental colleges that had no doctors, patients or facilities and yet were permitted to award degrees to thousands of students.

Journalists walk a tough line between meaningful journalism and surviving in a highly competitive market with the “advertisers paying the bills not the readers,” said Tehelka editor Tarun Tejpal. Senior journalist Gunjan sharma received the award for The Week.

IPI Vienna executive director Alison McKenzie, Philip Mathew, Managing Editor of The Week, Sachidananda Murthy, resident editor of the Week, were also present at the award ceremony.

Soni also struck an upbeat note about the growth prospects of the media in India and stressed that the print media is still thriving in the country despite competition from social media and 24×7 channels. The untapped potential of 300 million literate individuals offered an opportunity to the industry to carve out the next stage of growth for the print industry, she said.

India has more than 800 television channels in 24 languages reaching 140 million homes, she said.

“I heard that there is improvement in law and order in Bihar under (Chief Minister) Nitish Kumar but there is no press freedom,” Katju said at a function here.

He said mediapersons were under pressure not to write anything that goes against the state government.

“Some mediapersons are facing threat of job loss,” he said.

Katju added that when Lalu Prasad ruled Bihar, there was media freedom. A three-member PCI team will visit Bihar soon, he said.

When Katju made his observation, Lalkeshwar Prasad Singh. principal of Patna College, raised objections.

He was joined by some students, who criticized Katju for his remarks. But a large number of students at the event supported Katju.

Early this month Katju had said he was getting reports from many states that media freedom was facing threats.

The measure will not include the group’s national daily, USA Today.

Gannett spokesperson Laura Dalton told EFE Thursday that the firm had not yet determined how much the charge will be.

With the new plan in place, Gannett expects to earn an additional $100 million per year starting in 2013 as well as to improve ad revenues at its 80 newspapers.

Readers will have at their disposal a variety of subscription methods that will include unlimited access to digital content through computers and mobile devices.

The group said that access to other products it offers such as the secondhand vehicle web site, Cars.com, or employment site CareerBuilder.com will continue to be provided free of charge.

Gannett, based in McLean, Virginia, said that readers who do not want to subscribe to any of the payment plans will have free access to a specific number of articles.

The publisher is following in the steps of other media such as The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, which are now charging their readers for access to their online editions.

Gannett last year earned $458.7 million, or $1.89 per share, down 22 percent from 2010.

Sales at the close of 2011 totaled $5.14 billion, 3.7 percent less than the $5.44 billion the firm took in during 2010.

Gannett shares Thursday closed down 1.22 percent on the New York Stock Exchange, where they have experienced a price drop of 4.99 percent over the past 12 months.

“We have filed a supplementary chargesheet against Vora today (Tuesday) in the MCOCA court. In the chargesheet, we have listed enough evidence against her to make a case,” Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime branch) Deven Bharti told IANS.

Bharti said the chargesheet runs into 1,400 pages and the evidence gathered by the crime branch has been mentioned in detail.

Working as a deputy bureau chief with a Mumbai daily, Vora was arrested Nov 25 last year in connection with the June 11 killing of Dey, the editor (Special Investigations) at Mid-Day.

Mumbai Police had in December last year filed a chargesheet against 12 accused in the case. However, the name of Vora, who was arrested in November was not included in the chargesheet.

The earlier chargesheet filed in the special MCOCA court runs to 3,055 pages and has described in detail the role of 10 men allegedly involved in Dey’s murder. Fugitive don Chhota Rajan has also been named in the chargesheet. However, police have mentioned that Rajan and another accused Nayan Singh are still absconding.

Sources in the crime branch say police have enough reason to support the theory that it was Vora’s professional rivalry with Dey that claimed his life.

According to police, Vora had allegedly provided Dey’s mobile number and his exact location to absconding mafia don Rajan.

“We have filed a supplementary chargesheet against Vora today (Tuesday) in the MCOCA court. In the chargesheet, we have listed enough evidence against her to make a case,” Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime branch) Deven Bharti told IANS.

Bharti said the chargesheet runs into 1,400 pages and the evidence gathered by the crime branch has been mentioned in detail.

Working as a deputy bureau chief with a Mumbai daily, Vora was arrested Nov 25 last year in connection with the June 11 killing of Dey, the editor (Special Investigations) at Mid-Day.

Mumbai Police had in December last year filed a chargesheet against 12 accused in the case. However, the name of Vora, who was arrested in November was not included in the chargesheet.

The earlier chargesheet filed in the special MCOCA court runs to 3,055 pages and has described in detail the role of 10 men allegedly involved in Dey’s murder. Fugitive don Chhota Rajan has also been named in the chargesheet. However, police have mentioned that Rajan and another accused Nayan Singh are still absconding.

Sources in the crime branch say police have enough reason to support the theory that it was Vora’s professional rivalry with Dey that claimed his life.

According to police, Vora had allegedly provided Dey’s mobile number and his exact location to absconding mafia don Rajan.

Mario Randolfo, the editor of the Web site Vassouras na Net was shot to death along with his wife in Rio de Janeiro state Feb 8 and Paulo Roberto Cardoso Rodrigues, editor-in-chief of the Jornal da Praca newspaper was fatally shot last week in Ponta Pora, a town on the Paraguayan border.

The crimes “are unacceptable” and constitute “an intolerable attack on the profession of journalism and the basic human right to freedom of speech”, said UNESCO chief Irina Bokova in a communique.

She called for “an exhaustive investigation into both crimes” because “it is essential that journalists be able to continue reporting without fear for their lives and the safety of their relatives”.

According to UNESCO calculations, 11 journalists and press employees have been murdered in Brazil since 2002.

The organization last year supported an investigative effort into the characteristics and functions of the news media in the European Union that are operating in violent or difficult areas in Rio de Janeiro, the results of which should “help the professionals of those community media to carry out their work with greater safety”.

“There has been a decrease in children’s suicides. There is no need to heat up the situation. There is no epidemic, but the tragedy is really here,” said Pavel Astakhov, Russia’s children’s rights ombudsman

Astakhov had earlier termed teen suicides a “nationwide tragedy”.

According to official statistics from the Federal State Statistics Service or Rosstat, the number of suicides committed by people under 14 fell to 240 in 2010, less than half the 500 teenage suicides recorded in 2000.

However, the Russian media has reported in detail each of the 17 suicide cases that have taken place in the country since the beginning of February.

On Feb 7, two 14-year-old girls killed themselves by jumping from the roof of a 14-storeyed building in Lobnya town near Moscow. They had reportedly skipped classes for two weeks and were afraid what would happen when their parents found out.

The next day, a 14-year-old boy jumped from the window of his apartment on the 12th floor in Moscow. He was said to be accused of stealing a classmate’s camera and had a nasty argument with his father.

The media also reported about teenagers slashing their veins, swallowing dangerous pills and hanging themselves.

“This outburst of media attention began after the first sensational case (the two girls in Lobnya). The main reason for the suicide peak is the romanticised media reports that depict the cases with all the juicy details,” said Anna Portnova of the Serbsky Research Institute for Forensic Psychology.

“We haven’t registered any bump in suicides compared to the same period in 2011. On the contrary, the number of suicide victims in Moscow has decreased,” Portnova said.

According to the Federal State Statistics Service, the number of suicides in Russia is gradually decreasing. In 2010, there were 23 suicides per 100,000 people as compared to 41 deaths per 100,000 people in 1995.

Numerous groups on Russian social networking site Vkontakte, popular among teenagers, suggest methods to commit suicide.

According to a Unicef survey released in November 2011, 20 percent of all young Russians have “adolescent depression”, a psychological disorder that pushes teenagers to suicidal thoughts due to a weak instinct for self-preservation.

The social networking site’s spokesman, Vladislav Tsyplukhin, however, said that the company quickly shut down the pages that call to violence or self-killing.

But new pages on suicide appear every day. A search of Vkontakte yielded over 1,000 pages that have the word “suicide” in their name.

Bertrand Bainvel, head of the Russian Unicef office, said the media reported about suicides as if they were something “fashionable”.

“The media should tell you what to do if you feel depressed, where to go, where to call instead of reporting details of such stories,” Bainvel said.

He said Unicef has opened 150 “youth-friendly clinics” across Russia where teenagers can discuss their problems without being afraid that someone else will know it.

“It is most distressing to hear of such a terrible incident where not only a journalist but his entire family has been so brutally killed,” Congress leader and spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi said.

“I certainly don’t want to make a political comment, but immediately the word that comes to mind is ‘aaj ka gundaraj’ (the rule of thugs)… this is nothing but that,” Singhvi said. Madhya Pradesh is ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Senior journalist Chandrika Rai, 42, his wife Durga, 39, son Jalaj, 20, and daughter Nisha, 17, were brutally killed at their residence on the intervening night of Friday and Saturday in Umaria, some 500 km from Bhopal. The family was killed with iron rods and their bodies dumped in four rooms of Rai’s house.

“How is it possible that mafia can roam around freely and do this kind of thing to a journalist, of all the people, and to his family? I think it needs to be condemned as the most reprehensible thing,” he said.

The Congress leader added the guilty should be punished immediately.

“Unless and until concrete result is immediately shown by the state government in actual punishment…I think it will be completely unpardonable,” Singhvi added.

Madhya Pradesh Police have said the murders will be investigated by the Special Task Force (STF). The media fraternity and Rai’s kin have demanded a Central Bureau of Investigation inquiry into the murder. Madhya Pradesh Police chief S.K. Raut, after visiting the spot, said the STF will enquire into the murders.

Rai was associated with several newspapers, including Navbharat and English daily the Hitvaada.

                           Though every change brings with it something new, there are some areas where it has not proved so useful.

                The silver screen or bollywood has completely transformed itself during the past three to four decades emerging completely in a new avatar. The art of film making has seen a total overhaul right from storyline, action, music to technological innovations and up gradations, marketing strategy and publicity.

            Though in some way it may seem as a welcome step, but it has proved more harmful and the benefits derived from this change are much less.

                                          It is not the case that good movies are not produced now-a-days. But looking at the overall social scenario and the typical tastes, preferences, values and emotions of Indian people, their number is negligible when compared to the situation four decades back.

              In order to completely understand this phenomenon, it would be wise to look at the overall scenario of the Indian film industry, the movies produced during the past six decades, the different eras of bollywood and the success rates of movies in such period.

                             BOLLYWOOD: HISTORY

The term Bollywood derived from Bombay [former name of Mumbai] had its origin in the 1970’s when India became the world’s largest film producer overtaking America. Several people claim credit for coining of the term including lyricist and scholar Amit Khanna and journalist Bevinda Collaco.

                           BOLLYWOOD: EARLY TIMES

The journey of bollywood films began as early as 1913. Raja Harischandra [1913] by Dadasaheb Phalke was the first film produced in India.

      By 1931, bollywood started producing over 200 films in a year. Romantic musicals and melodramas were ruling the roost during this period.

             The first Indian talking film Alam Ara was produced by Ardeshir Irani in 1931. He also produced the first colour film Kisan Kanya in 1937. However, colour did not become much popular till late 1950’s.

                                   THE GOLDEN ERA

             The period between late 1940’s and 1960’s is known as the Golden Era of Hindi cinema when some of the most beautifully created masterpieces were manufactured in the industry. The actors enthralled the audiences with their mind blowing performances and the music was good enough to make an indelible mark on the minds of cinema lovers as not only the tunes were soft but the lyrics itself were meaningful with some social message in it.

                           Guru Dutt’s film Pyaasa [1957] and Kagaaz Ke Phool [1959] and Raj Kapoor’s films Awara [1951] and Shree 420 [1955] depicted social themes dealing with working class urban life in India. Pyaasa tried to portray the unrealities of city life. This movie was featured in Time magazine’s all time 100 best movies list and was recently selected by Time among top five romantic movies of the century.

             Two of the greatest epic films K. Asif’s Mughal-e-Azam and Mehboob Khan’s Mother India were launched during this period. Mother India was nominated for the Academy Award for the best foreign language film.

                   Madhumati [1958] directed by Bimal Roy popularized the theme of reincarnation in western popular culture.

                                Besides mainstream commercial cinema, this period also saw the advent of parallel cinema and saw films like Bimal Roy’s Do Beegha Zameen [1953] and Chetan Anand’s Neecha Nagar [1946]. Neecha Nagar won the grand prize at the first Cannes Film Festival.

                                   THE MODERN PERIOD

          The Modern Period which began in the 1970’s can also be said to be an enduring period and the film industry can be said to be at its peak during this period. Though some new innovations evolved in the modern period and the style of film making saw a little shift from the golden era, still this period produced some of the biggest and outstanding bollywood blockbusters. The modern period saw a mix of action and romantic movies.

      While the early 1970’s saw the release of immortal Sholay [1975] which still remains a landmark film in the annals of Indian film industry and Yash Chopra’s Deewar [1975] which was a crime film pitting a policeman against his brother, a gang leader based on real life smuggler Haji Mustan portrayed by Amitabh Bachchan, the late 1980’s and the early 1990’s saw the pendulum swinging towards romantic movies with excellent films being released during this period. Films such as Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak [1988], Maine Pyar Kiya [1989], Hum Aapke Hain Kaun [1994] and Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge [1995], made huge success at the box office. Hum Aapke Hain Kaun and Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge successfully completed 25 weeks in theatres. Overall, this period can be said to be highly satisfactory for the film industry.

                                        BOLLYWOOD: PRESENT TIMES

 The present times of bollywood seems to have completely transformed from the earlier periods. It seems the film industry wants to go in consonance with the technological developments and information technology revolutions that have been taking place in society completely forgetting and misunderstanding that the people still thrive on the same emotional values and morals as were decades back and these modern day developments are for making their lives convenient and not for fulfilling their emotional needs. The citizens still crave for movies with which they can have an emotional bonding and which is more real to their lives with which they can relate.

                  The present day bollywood movies seem to have forgotten this as technology has now become an integral and indispensable part of bollywood. Movies relying heavily on technology and fantasy became a complete disaster. The examples being Abhay and Love Story 2050.

                The present day bollywood can be said to be the period from the late 1990’s to the present times.

               While the late 1990’s was still a period where some good movies were produced, the coming years saw a gradual decline in films success.

  This can be attributed to a number of factors. An analysis of the present day movies will make the picture clear.

            As mentioned earlier, this era is witnessing a complete makeover from the films produced during the earlier periods. Technology played a dominant part in every aspect of film making and the audiences witnessed cutting edge technology not only in action packed thrillers but also got a chance to have a feel of it even in music.

                  With more and more sophisticated instruments being invented, the soft music of yesteryears was lost in oblivion and the music started to get processed through these technological instruments and the end product resulted in mechanised music with the sound of these gadgets overpowering the voice of the playback singers. Perhaps this might be the reason that the greatest title conferment’s [Nightingale of India-Lata Mangeshkar] and the best award honours-Manna Dey [Padma Shri 1971, Padma Bhushan 2005, and Dadasaheb Phalke 2009] and Late Pandit Bhimsen Joshi [Bharat Ratna] were conferred upon the greatest singers of the golden period.

        The advent of commercialisation and globalisation has given ample scope for Indian film makers to release their movies globally as the international market may have many lucrative chances for them.

               The provision of 100% FDI has made the Indian film industry attractive for foreign enterprises and in the 20^th Century, Indian cinema, along with American and Chinese film industries became a global enterprise.

         Many global players like 20^th Century Fox, Warner Brothers and Sony Pictures entered the Indian market.

               It cannot be said that the present times is a complete debacle in terms of movies but their number and success rate as compared to earlier decades has become very less.

    Some of the good movies during early 2000’s were Lagaan [2001], Koi Mil Gaya [2003], Munnabhai MBBS [2006], Ghajini [2008] and 3 Idiots [2009]. These movies did fairly well at the box office.

             The present decade also saw a new genre of film making- the realistic cinema i.e. films based on real life events which to a considerable extent helped the cash registers ringing and were appreciated by people from all walks of life.

     Realistic cinema can be broadly categorized in two categories:

1. films base on underworld.
2. Films base on other real life events.

While the late 1990’s saw a plethora of films being released on Mumbai underworld and majority of them being widely acclaimed.

 Ram Gopal Varma’s Satya [1998] and Company [2002] and Mahesh Manjrekar’s Vaastav [1999] becoming a runaway hit.

    The early and later part of 2000 saw movies being released on other real life events. Black Friday [2004] based on Mumbai blasts of 1993 and Shootout at Lokhandwala [2007] based on 1991 Lokhandwala Complex shootout were welcomed with good response.

       The latest in the real life event movies –No One Killed Jessica [2011] based on the famous Jessica Lal murder case of 1999 won huge accolades.

            But despite all this, bollywood began loosing its sheen in the present decade as these successful movies did not constitute the major chunk of the total movies produced in a year and the number of disastrous movies steadily began rising.

       One of the major reasons being the openness, boldness and vulgarity both in terms of scenes and dialogues which today’s movie portray. Though the society has modernized and progressed in the present times our moral values have always remained the same. But the producers and directors have completely misjudged the tastes and choices of the audiences and leaving aside the piety and sanctity of the movies they went ahead to bank upon the voyeuristic appetite and prurient interests of the viewers which proved a complete fiasco.

          This was the only reason of films like Style, Tauba-tauba and Love, sex aur Dhokha being a debacle.

             Movies which had the ‘sex only mantra’ as its formula for success neither appealed to the audiences at the cerebral nor at the carnal level. Mr Sing and Mrs Mehta [2010] was one such movie which was crushed down. And in these dark times whenever any topical film with some meaningful social message was released it earned huge success. Taare Zameen Pe and 3 Idiots thus became instant hits Singham released in2011 was a commercial movie of the 1990’s genre and earned huge laurels. .

           To bring the old glory of the film industry, thus, the films of the Golden era like Mughal-e-Azam and Hum Dono have been re-released in colour and many more are in the pipeline

             Thus amongst all this glitterati, the bollywood film makers have changed the way of making films. .

          The producers and directors have forgotten that they are making movies for the Indian audience who are not used to see movies without a good story.

                        The result is obvious, out of all the movies released in a year, more than ninety percent can be put in the category of not successful or flop, and the rest are of an average nature. Many movies find it hard to stay in a theatre even for two weeks. Only a few movies are able to create a big impression on the viewers.

        A peek at the movies released during 2010 will give us a more clear picture. Out of the total movies released last year, only four were major hits which included Once Upon a time in Mumbai, Peepli Live, Golmaal 3 and Dabangg. Overall bollywood suffered a net loss of Rs 300 crore. The list of flop movies is endless and included Kites, Raavan, Rakta Charitra, Veer, Action Replay, Guzaarish, Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Se, Pyaar Impossible, Paathshaala, Rann, Teen Patti, Khatta Meetha, Jhoota Hi Sahi, We are Family, Knock Out, Phoonk 2 etc

          The gradual extinction of single screen cinema halls and the birth of multiplex culture [tax exemptions to multiplex has resulted in multiplex boom in India] have also to a considerable extent caused a dent on the style of making films. The multiplex audience being limited, many of the producers are making films catering exclusively to the needs of those limited audience. These movies are in many cases not more than one and a half to two hours duration and most of the times go unheard and unnoticed by a large section of the population. The style of these movies is also very different and can be easily compared with the Hollywood movies with the only difference that the dialogues being delivered in Hindi.

     The cumulative effect of all these factors is that the Indian film industry is running into huge losses and a large section of the audience losing interest in the movies of the present times.

         It is high time that the bollywood producers and directors revive the old way of making films with a good storyline so that the golden days of the movies and bollywood can be brought back.

The country’s first F1 driver edged his contemporaries to sign up with HRT earlier in the month to complete the drivers’ line-up for the season, beginning March 16 at Melbourne. The back of the grid team has a completely new management in place and they want their drivers Narain and the more experienced Pedro de la Rosa to provide them valuable inputs to work on the car.

Narain, who returned to F1 last year after five seasons, was dropped in the middle of the season, but he was back in the cockpit for the inaugural home race. Though the 35-year-old has been signed for the 20-race season, the team’s new principal and former F1 driver Luiz-Perez Sala says he will have to earn his place for each round.

“The idea as of now is to race him the whole season, but nothing is taken for granted in F1, you have to work for your place in every race. But as things stand, Narain and Pedro will race the entire season,” Perez-Sala told IANS in an online interview.

Explaining how HRT zeroed in on Narain, Perez-Sala said the Indian was a reliable driver, having finished seven of the eight races he took part in last season.

“We picked him because of his familiarity with the members of the team. Last year he raced in eight of the 19 rounds with us and was very reliable, he barely had a mix-up, finishing seven races. In his last race in India, he put up a great performance and we were very happy with him.

“We believe that Narain can strike up a solid partnership with Pedro. He is a quick intuitive driver and he only has to be a little bit consistent,” said Perez-Sala referring to Narain’s 17th place finish in New Delhi where he was faster than highly-rated teammate Daniel Ricciardo, who has now moved to Toro Rosso.

HRT had a setback even before the start of the season as their 2012 car failed the FIA’s crash test and will now only be ready for the final testing session in Barcelona March 1 — 17 days before the season opener. Now, Narain will only get his hands on the 2011 car in the second test in Circuit de Catalunya next week.

As for HRT’s goal for the year, considering the team’s limitations, Perez-Sala said it would be happy if it could finish ahead of Marussia and would be delighted if it can be at the heels of Caterham, nee Team Lotus, for whom another Indian, Karun Chandhok, was a standby driver last year.

“We have a new car and a new team. That means, to start with, we will be a little bit behind. But we believe that sometimes to improve you must go backwards firstly, we have taken one step backwards in order to take two forward. Our target is to grow little by little as the season goes on,” said the Spaniard, who raced for Minardi from 1988 and 1989.

“If we can stay ahead of Marussia, we will be happy and if we get closer to Caterham, then we will be delighted, but our first objective is to get things under way, improve on reliability and progress as the season advances.”

HRT finished the 2011 Constructors Championship in 11th position.

“Self regulation is laudable but existing time lag between a claim not supported by facts and corrective measures is not acceptable,” Consumer Affairs Minister K.V. Thomas told reporters here.

“There has to be an enabling mechanism between the government, media and industry. We are duty bound to protect interests of the consumers.”

He said though nationwide consultations have been carried out by an expert committee constituted for the purpose August last year, a national seminar will be held in Delhi in first week of March before an appropriate mechanism is finalised to deal with the issue.

Stating there are many laws to protect consumer interest, Thomas hinted the legislations may be remodified.

“Some laws may be remodified. There has to be better liaison between the centre and the state government,” said Thomas.

Secretary Consumer Affairs Rajeev Agrawal said a “dedicated agency” is being actively considered to take up complaints against misleading advertisements.

Sources said “the move aims to protect the consumer against advertisements promising false health and nutrition benefits” and “will cover advertisements across all mediums like electronic, print and hoardings.”

Sources said they have been taking note of misleading advertisements related to nutrition in food supplements, cosmetics and herbal products promising immediate health benefits.

Besides, the proposal will cover the services sector, for instance the get-rich-quick schemes, they said.

Sources said with TV becoming a strong medium, the chances of gullible consumers being taken for a ride by misleading advertisements have increased.

However, private investors in Facebook have been willing to pay a similar price for a share of the action on the social networking site. As a result, its market value has grown more rapidly than its user base in the last three years. The company’s user base grew from 150 million users in early-2009 to 845 million users in 2012. But in private trades, this company’s valuation has soared from $6 billion in early-2009 to about $100 billion in recent trades.

FOR FURTHER READING:

Hundreds of journalists formed a human chain in front of the Jatiya Press Club in Dhaka to protest the gory murders, the Daily Star reported.

Sarowar, a news editor at private TV channel Maasranga, and his wife Runi, a senior reporter for ATN Bangla, were stabbed to death in their posh West Rajabazar flat in the capital Saturday.

Members of different journalists’ associations, including Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists, Dhaka Reporters Unity, Dhaka Union of Journalists, Crime Reporters’ Association of Bangladesh, expressed their condemnation of the brutal killing.

Leaders of the associations demanded the immediate arrest of the perpetrators, and warned Home Minister Shahara Khatun of raising a tougher movement if the murderers were not arrested.

Meherun Runi was a reporter for ATN Bangla while her husband Sagor Sarwar worked for the Maasranga TV channel as a news editor, and was also correspondent for the Bangla service of German media group Deutsche Welle.

Dhaka Metropolitan Police commissioner Benazir Ahmed told Xinhua the couple were found dead in their house and the reason was still unknown.

Home Minister Sahara Khatun, Information Minister Abul Kalam Azad and leader of the opposition Khaleda Zia have condemned the killing.

He was honoured for a photograph taken by him on Oct 15 that shows a Yemeni woman holding a wounded relative in her arms after a clash in Yemen. The picture was taken inside a mosque used as a field hospital during clashes in the Yemeni capital.

According to comments of the jury, the winning picture could speak for the situation in the whole region. It also shows a private, intimate side of what went on.

In the 55th annual World Press Photo Contest, the jury gave prizes in nine categories, with entries by 5,247 photographers from 124 countries participating and a total of 101,254 pictures submitted, Xinhua reported.

Aranda will receive his award at a ceremony in Amsterdam April 21

Salil Bera, who works for The Week magazine here, was the only Indian among 5,247 contestants from 124 different countries to get the prize.

In its 55th year, the annual World Press Photo Contest is recognized as the world’s leading international contest for photojournalists

“We expect nothing less from a Commonwealth member country that has undertaken to uphold Commonwealth values, especially as they relate to human rights and freedom of expression,” CJA said in a statement.

“CJA has developed valuable relationships with the Maldivian media over the last few years and while we remain neutral in matters of internal politics, we will not stay silent if our brothers and sisters in Commonwealth journalism are endangered,” the statement added.

Said CJA President Rita Payne: “I visited the Maldives in June (2011) and had the opportunity to meet a range of journalists there. It was apparent then that they were under pressure from media owners, political parties and powerful business interests. As CJA president, I urge the new authorities to protect journalists and create a climate where they will be able to report freely without fear of repercussion.”

“While the Maldives is in turmoil, we note with grave concern a statement by the Maldives Journalists Association that members of the media are being threatened and harassed over their reporting of the current political crisis. The association said that television stations are being penalised for airing oppositions politicians’ comments,” the statement said.

“The CJA will continue to closely monitor the situation in the Maldives and through our Commmonwealth network will do all in our power to defend the rights of Maldivian journalists. We will issue further bulletins as the situation unfolds,” the statement added.

Max, an 85-pound Argentine Mastiff, sunk its teeth into Kyle Dyer’s face when she bent down to pet him during a morning show segment on KUSA-TV, the Daily Mail reported.

Dyer, who had been working at the station for over 15 years, had reconstructive surgery Wednesday. She is going to be out for several weeks for recovery.

The dog had survived a harrowing rescue from a freezing pond and was on the show as part of a mini-reunion between him and his rescuers

The co-branded property bengali.yahoo.com will leverage the combined editorial strengths of ABP and Yahoo! India, a company statement said.

Bengali content is the latest in language offerings from Yahoo! in India after Hindi, Tamil and Marathi. It offers fresh news ranging from politics, sports, entertainment from across the world, as well as local news from in and around Kolkata.

Select articles from ABP’s supplements such as Pustak Porichoy (book review), Kolkatar Korcha (snippets from Kolkata), Baracharcha (celebrity interviews), Natyo Samalochana (theatre review), Probondho (essays), and weekend specials will also be showcased on the site, the statement said.

Commenting on the launch, Arun Tadanki, managing director of Yahoo! India and Southeast Asia said: “The launch of Bengali on Yahoo! India is another milestone in our journey to expand language portfolio with a view to make our content relevant for new Internet users who seek to consume content in their own language.”

“Yahoo!’s reach, combined with ABP’s vast experience in generating and serving Bengali content, will provide a superior digital content experience to Bengalis around the world,” Tadanki added.

Elaborating on the partnership Kaushik Banerjee, vice President, ABP & Digital, said: “Ananda Bazar is an undisputed leader of the Bengali domain while Yahoo! commands a great online reach. Together, we will deliver a superior digital content experience to 220 million people who speak Bengali the world over.”

The site has been built on the Yahoo! Publishing Platform and is jointly managed by Yahoo! and My Ananda Bazar Patrika.

As per the ICube report by IAMAI, the Indian language audience is growing at a rate of nearly 40 percent per year and the next wave of digital audience in India is expected to emerge from the non-English speaking population.

Calling the power crisis the biggest problem for the average Pakistani, an editorial in the News International said mockingly: “The minister for water and power has spoken.”

It was referring to Qamar’s announcement Monday on the floor of the National Assembly that there would be no more power cuts from Feb 7, 2012.

The paper said: “Understandably, power consumers have been left more than a little perplexed…Looking at Pakistan from the outside, militancy and terrorism may be the big worry, but with no electricity to switch on lights at home, and no job because the factory you worked in has been shut down, the power crisis is the biggest problem for the average Pakistani and one that permeates his or her everyday existence at every level.”

“So when our dear minister tells us that there won’t be any loadshedding from tomorrow, we’re very, very suspicious.”

It asked sarcastically: “How, after all, will the issue of debt of Independent Power Producers be resolved within the next few days, as Naveed Qamar says it will be? What are the ‘reforms’ introduced to resolve the power crisis overnight? What do we know about this mysterious plan ‘to produce to 88,480 MW power in the next 14 years’ and why should we trust it?”

The editorial said for a country which has an installed capacity of more than 18,000 MW, producing less than 10,000 MW at a time when demand is nearly 17,000 MW is a terrible indictment of the state of the power sector.

“What is this government up to?” it wondered.

It went on to say that “broken promises seem to be the government’s forte”.

“The energy crisis is a self-inflicted problem that has been allowed to reach dire proportions even though the country lacks neither energy resources nor the opportunities to exploit them meaningfully.

“Among the greatest tragedies the power sector has suffered is the lack of vision by the government and the unwillingness of the political leadership to shoulder responsibility.”

The editorial couldn’t help asking: “How will you go from loadshedding for 20 hours a day in many parts of the country to no loadshedding at all? Indeed, why did we go through so much misery if the problem could just be solved with one statement from a federal minister?”

“While these questions remained unanswered, facts on the ground belied the minister’s claim Tuesday as loadshedding continued just as it was before his announcement.

“So much for lofty claims!” it rued.

Edgar Ariel Cordoba Trujillo was also ordered to pay a fine equivalent to $467,950.

The sentence and fine were handed down to Cordoba by a court in Santa Marta, the capital of Magdalena province, the Attorney General’s Office said Monday.

Two unidentified individuals gunned down Escobar Dec 23, 2001, in Fundacion, Magdalena, where he edited and published the weekly Region.

Escobar was the second journalist from Fundacion murdered by gunmen. Hernando Rangel Moreno was killed April 11, 1999.

Over the past 20 years, 90 journalists have been murdered in Colombia, the Fundacion para la Libertad de Prensa said.

Cordoba, known as “Cinco Siete”, was in charge of a unit from the Northern Bloc of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, or AUC, militia federation.

The AUC, accused of committing numerous human rights violations, demobilized more than 31,000 of its fighters between the end of 2003 and mid-2006 as part of the peace process with former president Alvaro Uribe’s administration.

A source told Mehr that a number of “deceived” locals who were tasked with collecting news and information in Iran for the BBC have been arrested by security forces.

The people received “huge amount of money” from the BBC, the source said. The exact number of people arrested was, however, not mentioned.

According to Xinhua, in November 2011, Mehr said that Iranian intelligence forces arrested Hassan Fathi, a local who was working as a reporter with the BBC for a long time, on charges of spreading lies about the country and making attempts to manipulate the Iranian public opinion.

In September, Iran said six Iranian nationals, including a woman, were arrested for working for the BBC’s Farsi-language service and distributing photos, videos and information to reflect a negative image of Iran.

Xinhua said the BBC provides services from London in Farsi language eight hours a day for seven days a week, in peak viewing time of Iran and Afghanistan.

Iran’s intelligence ministry earlier warned Iranians not to work with the BBC, saying that those who were thinking of cooperation with the BBC should be careful not to fall into the trap of the “anti-Iranian institution”.

Facebook also finds India equally indispensable.

According to the Facebook data analyst, Inside Facebook Gold’s 2011 data, India was the third biggest Facebook market after US and Indonesia, at 34.6 million users.

And the growth rate of Indian users is at 162.4 percent, second only to that of Brazil.

The statistics show that the social networks and Facebook in particular are only going to grow in times to come.

Samir Parikh, chief psychiatrist at department of Mental Health and Behavioural Sciences, Max Healthcare, however, denied that this boom was a country specific phenomena limited to India.

“The growth of Facebook has been universal across the globe. In India, the higher growth rates come from the much recent increase in accessibility of internet,” Parikh told IANS.

“Social networking sprouts from the mankind’s intrinsic need to stay and feel connected. Mankind is all about communication,” he added.

For Facebook loyalists, the two biggest draws are connectivity and easy accessibility.

IT professional and long-time Facebook user Vinesh Nagpal says the social network lets him “stay in touch with my old college friends”.

On the other hand, Yogesh Kumar uses it for networking. “I use FB for networking, and yeah, it keeps me in touch with the friends too,” said the Pune-based programmer.

The chance to keep tabs on childhood friends is one of the biggest draws for Rituparna Borah who hails from Assam.

“I use Facebook to connect with my friends with whom I am not in regular touch with. I also use it as a pastime,” she said.

The fact that Facebook is now multilingual and available in regional Indian languages like Punjabi or Bengali, combined with the rapid increase in the numbers of Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs) and smart phones in India can only mean a bright future for Facebook in the country.

The main competition to Facebook’s dominance over Indian social networks comes from Orkut and Google Plus. But many consider Orkut outdated, while Google’s latest offering has yet to take off.

“Orkut’s interface started getting a bit too cluttered and a lot of spam in the network drove me away, although I used to be on Orkut for several years after launch of Facebook,” said Raghav Tuli who accesses Facebook on his smart-phone more frequently than the computer.

A small office will soon be set up in the PMO to effectively handle communications through social media.

Besides, the PM’s media team is planning to make its Twitter account @PMOIndia more interactive by answering questions of people.

“We will take up the matter of people in distress on Twitter. The process of social media is very new for us and things will take time,” the source said, adding that PMO could offer monetary help through the Prime Minister’s Relief Fund.

The PMO is also exploring the option of Facebook. According to the source, the existing PMO account on Facebook is not official and is being run by some fans.

The PMO came on Twitter on Jan 23 and has since gathered 38,585 followers.

“It has been very successful. We are seeing 3,000-4,000 followers each day,” the source said.

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.

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

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.

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

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