Ethics and Freedom

New Delhi, December 12: The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL), which sought a ban on the publication of obscene and nude photographs in newspapers of the country. A bench headed by Justice A R Laxman, however, directed the Union Government to consider suggestions made by Press Council of India for bringing certain regulation in the publication of such...

MUMBAI: The Social Service Branch of the Mumbai Police has booked the editor and publisher of a magazine on the charge of hurting the religious sentiments of a community by publishing an allegedly derogatory advertisement about Dr BR Ambedkar in its current issue. An SSB officer said the editor and publisher of JAM, a fortnightly magazine, had been booked under Section 295-A of Indian Penal Code...

The chief minister of a major state is a mass murderer. The Prime Minister of India is a small-time manipulator who masquerades as a statesman. The Information & Broadcasting Minister should find better things to do than set up a nipple police. The president of the Congress party is a sleazeball. The chief minister of one of south India’s most important states is a fruitcake. Shocking stuff...

When the anchorman Matt Lauer declared on the "Today" show last week that his network, NBC, would start referring to the conflict in Iraq as a "civil war," he inadvertently started his own civil war within the American news media. Fox News refused to follow suit, saying that non-Iraqis were involved in the fighting, "and that makes it something different." Accusations of partisanship flew in all...

In recent months, a flow of legal letters and orders has hit newspapers’ legal offices from actors, models and footballing personalities. That looks set to grow after this week’s ruling by Mr Justice Eady granting a temporary injunction to a high-profile sports figure who had an affair with another man’s wife banning the betrayed husband from naming him in the media. In what is thought to be the...

Ever since newspapers came in vogue under British rule, the media has played an important role in Indian affairs. The Bombay Chronicle, the Free Press Journal, and many other newspapers and magazines were important elements in the movement for Indian independence. Gandhiji used the print medium to convey his views on important matters of the day as well as on many others in which he took interest...

CNN-IBN chief editor Rajdeep Sardesai was let off without having to appear in Vidhan Sabha for breach of privilege in the ‘Neta Bikta Hai’ sting operation case. The House had earlier resolved that Sardesai should be produced before it in police custody. An inquiry committee of Vidhan Sabha in its interim report had held Sardesai responsible for obstructing its functioning and committing breach of...

A local newspaper known for its sensational coverage apologized on Monday for printing a front-page picture showing a popular politician's wife covered in blood after sustaining life-threatening injuries in a traffic accident. The photograph in Sunday's edition of the Apple Daily depicted former actress Shao Hsiao-ling, 57, lying prone on a stretcher, her jeans and blouse awash in red, and her...

New Delhi: The nation celebrated National Press Day on November 16. It was the day on which the Press Council of India started functioning as a moral watchdog. Today, the media is everywhere. Take for example, the kidnapping of three-year-old Anant. The media is reporting everything from the investigation leads to the personal woes of his family. When Jessica Lall is denied justice, press leads a...

(CPJ/IFEX) - New York, November 17, 2006 - The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the arrest of two independent journalists in Azerbaijan over an article that authorities claim insulted the Prophet Muhammad. Samir Sadagatoglu, editor-in-chief of the independent newspaper Senet, and reporter Rafiq Tagi, were detained after publishing an article on November 1 titled "Europe and Us." Tagi, the...