Media Newsletter
GujaratGlobal
Issue 38
December 22, 2008
Greetings!

This Newsletter from the GujaratGlobal  brings to you the latest happening in the media particularly in Gujarat, whats hot and whats not , who's in and who's out , you want it and you get it here !This newsletter is about people who craft voice and image of others. It is about the real newsmakers.
 
 

                Editor..... SC media initiative
 
 


Friends you are getting weekly newsletter almost after a fortnight. I received many queries about the newsletter during past few days. I am thankful to you friends for your interest. The newsletter is still weekly, it has been delayed this time because I was away for ten days. And there was no e connectivity.
Recently a five day residential training on Reporting of Court Proceedings by Media and Administration of Justice for Legal Correspondents and Journalists was held in Delhi. It was an initiative of the Chief Justice of India K G Balkrishnan and National Legal Services Authority and Indira Gandhi National Open University were its organisers and Press Council of India and Editors Guild of India its Associates
It is a welcome move as journalists covering different beats require specialized knowledge of the fields related to the beat. Defence has a practice of training reporters so that they know about the defence forces and this knowledge help reporters cover defence forces better.
The SC initiative was mainly result of blunders in reporting of judicial matters which have been rising. Certainly such a move will not only improve the quality of judicial reporting but will also improve functional relations between media and judiciary.
9am to 9 pm sessions for five days exposed over 50 journalists to various issues like Indian Constitution and the Judiciary, Media: Relevance and responsibilities, Freedom of Expression and Media, Why restrictions on Media freedom and freedom of expression and Right to Privacy.
It also had topics like access to Court information, sensationalism versus fair trial and evolving good practices in reporting court proceedings.
Bharat Lakhtariya of Gujarat Samachar who was the only correspondent from Gujarat has penned his impressions of the training for the newsletter readers.
Besides this, there is lot of other interesting reading material for you friends.
Have A Happy Reading.


With love  

Yogesh Sharma

Gujarat Global

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Media Masalaa
  
 
Bharat's Modi identity
 
Attending the five day training programme for journalists covering Courts was a great exposure for our friend Bharat Lakhtariya. He had interaction with legal luminaries and top guns of the profession in this field.
Topics of the discussions changed daily. But from the day one, there was one thing that remained unchanged.  Bharat was the only participant from Gujarat. The moment someone heard that he was from Gujarat, oh from the land of Modi came the remark. Many said that they knew only two persons from Gujarat, Gandhi and Modi.
He was quite surprised to find that there were many takers of Modi's ideology in the legal fraternity when they praised Modi for his views about handling terrorism
Though his surname Lakhtariya was easily noticeable for being quite different, participants preferred to recognize and remember him as Bharat Modi. Certainly this change was not a pleasant one for Bharat who does not belong to any fan club of Modi. But all the five days of the training he had to live with this new identity.
And on his return to Ahmedabad, the first thing he wrote to me was about his new identity.
 
 
Gujarat to Goa
 
Journalists of Ahmedabad have suddenly become Goa lovers. Many are talking about Goa and Christmas vacations there. Journalists are talking about accommodation and places to be seen in Goa.
The secret of this new found love for Goa among journalists of Ahmedabad is the fact that a good number of them have got free tickets from Spicejet. Return tickets for a couple are for selected destinations- Goa, Jaipur and Kolkotta.
Since New Year bash of Goa is well known our friends are making a beeline for Goa. They are contacting friends and searching for relatives with Goa connection to get accommodation as Goa is full for tourists. No room is available anywhere.
There are some who have not got the tickets. They are searching for journalists who are interested in selling their tickets. All are in a great hurry. The airline has very smartly given deadline of offer of December 31. Friends have to complete their travel by December 31!!!
 
Modhwadia resuming law studies
 
Congress spokesperson in Gujarat, Arjun Modhwadia, an engineer turned politician is very serious about resuming his LL.B studies which he had left halfway in 1984. Modhwadia who started his career as a student leader of the Saurashtra University in Gujarat is searching for records of his half LL.B studies to take admission in the new semester.
When asked, he said it is to use the time since he has no work nowadays! He is former Leader of Opposition and had also looked after PCC for sometime. But it is learnt that his renewed interest in law studies is to arm himself with some kind of legal power.
Certainly a leader with powerful verbal arsenal needs a legal cover to have lethal power! Best of luck to Modhwadia for resuming studies at the age of 50 

 

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Vanishing trick of Ahmedabad Mirror


 -Yogesh Sharma
 
Readers of Times of India, Economic Times English and Gujarati found Ahmedabad Mirror missing when they picked up their main newspapers on Monday morning. The midloid companion of the three newspapers had thinned down recently from the regular 48 pages to 32 pages.
Answer to the vanished Mirror was in the box item of the main newspapers which said that now readers will have to pay Rs one for the publication which was a value addition of the group so far. This value addition had piggy riding of the mainstream publications as add on in the advertising package of the group.
Though hawkers had some idea of the coming change, they were not officially told about the separation of the mirror and the main object. In the wee hours of Monday, hawkers were told to sell the midloid for Rs one and get regular commission on real sale. This caused loss of commission to hawkers who used to get money for each complimentary copy as insertion charge.
The decision is said to be the direct effect of the recession coupled with steep increase in the newsprint price. The shattered mirror has sent shock waves in the staff as talks of five per cent general lay off by the TOI group are doing rounds. The lay off issue was raised in an unconfirmed report on a website last week.
The only saving grace for the highly paid staff of the mirror is that the sanctioned staff strength of the Mirror in Ahmedabad is 56 while the staff is of 48 only. The vacancies are more than five per cent of the sanctioned staff and so there is no immediate threat of lay off in Mirror, a staff member consoled the situation.
The first day report says that many did not bother missing the mirror and some who asked the hawker about the missing Mirror were not willing to shell out one rupee for it. It is to be seen what happens to the print order of 1.30 Lakh of the Mirror when it is sold as an independent publication and what about the potential of package rate of independent mirror.
The problem with the Mirror staff is that it is very highly paid and many of its reporters have not yet acquired skills of communication in English. Mirror recruited reporters with Gujarati background and offered them with attractive packages. Recently, there was hefty salary rise for the staff. On the other hand, abrupt closure of Business Standard Gujarati, take off crash of Dainik Jagran and lay off of substantial staff of Jansatta in Ahmedabad and Vadodara has many jobless journalists struggling to get job at any cost.
Now the question is will Mirror meet the fate of Gujarati Times of India which was closed down after sometime of its publication?
   
 
     Trial by Media and Supreme Court
 
 
(The writer of this article Bharat Lakhtariya, a senior journalist with Gujarat Samachar, needs no introduction for the readers of the newsletter. Lakhtariya was the only journalist from Gujarat who attended the five day residential training on Reporting of Court Proceedings by Media and Administration of Justice for Legal Correspondents and Journalists. Here he gives idea about this first ever training.)
 
Debate on the role of media in Mumbai terror attacks is going on with full steam. But it is not the isolated incident. There are number of instances where the role of the media has become very controversial. Even the field like judiciary is feeling the heat of bravados of media persons.
This was very clear at the five day programme for legal correspondents and journalists held in Delhi. In fact, the very purpose of the workshop was to groom correspondents covering law and judiciary for free and fair reporting of court matters.
The training held at the initiative of the Chief Justice of India, K.G.Balkrishnan, had several Supreme Court judges with their quota of incidents where a casual remark by a judge was turned into a sensational headline. It often gave totally different colour to the proceedings, Judges pointed out. The remarks were quoted without reference to context. In legal terminology these remarks are obiter dicta which are not part of decision.
Justice Arijit Pasayat, who presided over the inaugural function, cited a classic example of distorted reports. In a report, a reporter had mentioned about the acquittal of an accused. In reality the court had asked for more details about the charges against him and gave a date. When asked about the blunder, the reporter said that he thought of the acquittal because he found the defence lawyer smiling while he came out of the court room.
The national workshop had more than 50 legal correspondents from all over and it was the first such initiative to train journalists covering courts. Judges made it clear that the reports covering courts should have legal background to understand court proceedings and report court matters fairly and accurately. In the era of liberalization where private players have aggressively entered the market for seeking viewers and readers, the conceptual understanding of Freedom of Press has assumed more dimensions. CJI said while inaugurating the workshop.
Though the terrorists attack on Mumbai was not on the agenda of the workshop, most of the speakers spoke about it and the negative role of the media in reporting the incident and the damage it has done to the anti terrorist operations.
The CJI explained these dimensions as protecting the rights of smaller players in the media, "especially of those who represent dissenting views", preventing "a race to the bottom in standards of reporting in an intense scenario of competition among media organisations, coverage of sub-judice matters where reporting can be prejudicial to litigant parties, and the role of pervasive tele-cover of situations like the Mumbai mayhem. 
Calling upon influential media agencies, the CJI said, they "must promote the best practices for newsgathering and emphasized the importance of maintaining ethical standards for coverage the judicial proceedings."
Judges at the workshop were very critical about the use of the term trial by media. Justice Pasayat said the term 'Trial by Media' is a misnomer". The responsibility of trial lies only with the courts. Media can only interpret the merits of the cases and their judgments without suggesting corruption in the judgment, he said.
Journalists got training from Supreme Court and Delhi High Court judges for three days. In the last two days, participants were taken to Delhi High Court and the Supreme Court and shown live proceedings. This was followed by how to report session guided by judges for practical safe guidance.
The programme at the initiative of the CJI had National Legal Services Authority and Indira Gandhi National Open University as organisers and Press Council of India and Editors Guild of India as Associates.

Beta version of Economic Times Gujarati portal

 
 
Times of India group had soft launch of its Economic Times Gujarati portal on December 8. The portal is expected to be officially launched for public view within a month or so according to Krishna Shah who heads Gujarati portal division of the group.
 
This follows Hindi version of the ET portal which was launched earlier this year. Equipped with the latest interactive web 2.0 technology, the portal has separate section for latest news and most read news besides sections offering business news from Gujarat and information about NRGs.
It has interesting sections like ET debate and ET classroom where reader gets to know about Economics fundas like ETF and Rights Issue and can discuss hot topics like reduction in home loans by private banks.

Annual meet of the PRSI
 

 
Public Relations Society of India (PRSI), the 50 year old body of PR Professionals had its annual meet in Guwahati. More than 75 delegates participated in the conference held from December 11 to December 13.
 
The active involvement of journalists made the meet different this time. Subir Bhowmik, correspondent of BBC in NE spoke on "Role of media in strengthening the democracy". Besides, Bhowmik, Sanjay Hazarika, a senior journalist and familiar face on TV also spoke. Senior journalist from North East Wasbir Hussain  spoke on different aspects of media and what the media expects from PR professionals. Amitabh Dutta, President, The telegraph spoke on "Emerging Media Scenario in India".
96 year old journalist and writer Shiva Prasad Barua was felicitated here.
Other star speakers included Dr H B Sarmah, Health Minster of Asam, who recently received best Health minister of India award from government of India. His talk focused on the PR blunder regarding Nano project in Singur.
The three day meet had number of speakers who spoke on variety of PR related subjects. 
Dr S K Malhotra of Dept of Atomic Energy spoke on "The expanding nuclear power programme -Role of PR & Communication".
Madan Bezbaruah, former Tourism Sectretary, government of India and the one of the brains behind Incredible India campaign with Mr Dipak Goswami had the theme "Tourism opportunities in North East: can PR help?"
Ms Nimoo Dhar, Director, Delhi Development Authority spoke on "Perception Management and Role of PR" and Mohan Mishra-Director (PR), National Cooperative Union of India spoke on "Cooperative and Bharat Nirman-Role of PR". Robil Kalita ,ED,Rail Vikas Nigam spoke on "Public Service Communication".
(This piece is from Vipul Shukla, Ahmedabad based PR consultant who is an active office bearer of the Ahmedabad unit of the PRSI)
 
 

Best Programmes Award for Chandigarh Chapter of PRSI

 
 
The Chandigarh Chapter of Public Relations Society of India received "The Best Programmes Award" for the year 2008 at the recently concluded 30th PRSI National PR Conference at Guwahati.
V.P.Sharma, Jt.Director (PR),BBMB & Chairman, Chandigarh Chapter, PRSI and Renuka B.Salwan, Dy Director,Bureau of Indian Standards & past chairperson of the chapter, who attended the Conference, received the award on behalf of Chandigarh Chapter.
The current Chapter Chair,  V.P. Sharma, Joint Director Public Relations with Bhakra Beas Management Board, was a happy man, as he received two awards on behalf of his organisation, which received the "Best Corporate Film" and also the "Best Corporate Brochure" awards at the PR Conference
Journalism is literature in a hurry. 

~Matthew Arnold 


With Love,
 
Yogesh Sharma
GujaratGlobal.com