Will structure properly and put more stuff here by and by. But in the meanwhile, read the paid news report (Paranjoy Guha Thakurta and K. Sreenivas Reddy) commissioned (and suppressed) by PCI
The complete Paid News Report PCIPaidNewsFinalReport2. Compare to the BS online on PCI’s website and see how useless “self-regulation” is. An investigation into private treaties will be even more damning.
The answer can’t just be “ownership” ’cause a lot of small (mostly politically affiliated newspapers) are super crappy. The press must be independent of the state (to resist censorship) but not the people, deriving as it does, its freedom from the freedom of speech, of a free populace (this argument is not mine – it’s been proposed by many people, including Prabhash Joshi). The ombudsman/reader’s editor business is of limited usefulness. Read some preliminary thoughts on media reform here
Some Sainath columns on this topic in the Hindu are good – will link soon. And Hoot.
Also read this open letter on the ongoing succession battle at The Hindu and this post by Churumuri on the Indian Express
Read Vinod Mehta’s interview with Hartosh Bal on the “mother of all mistakes”. And Indian Express’ legal notice to Vinod Mehta et al
Read the Leveson report: executive summary and summary of the summary by Guardian
Indian Express Report on how Chattisgarh government gets favorable TV coverage
Most Circulated Dailies (Audit Bureau of Circulations)
Blog posts on media
Indian Media Hoax Of Self-Regulation
Media Campaign for MNIK – Free Speech or Free Market
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