Ethics and Freedom

Actor Aman Verma, who was caught in a sting operation on casting couch in Bollywood by India TV, has filed a criminal complaint against the channel alleging that it wanted to "blackmail and extort money" from him. "We have filed a criminal complaint against India TV CEO Rajat Sharma, programme manager Suhaib Ilyasi and journalist Ruchi, at Andheri court yesterday," Verma’s lawyer Dipesh Mehta said...

News channel India TV, whose sting operations on Bollywood personalities set off a controversy, on Sunday said such programmes would be its "mainstay in future". Asked whether the channel will be engaged in sting operations in future as well, India TV Editor-in-Chief Rajat Sharma said, "Investigative journalism as well as interactive TV will be our forte." He told the agency that the channel's...

Its Bollywood sting may have grabbed all the headlines but it’s India TV’s purported sneak shots of three former MPs and a sitting Member that has prompted the government to serve a show-cause notice on the channel. The notice, served two days ago, seeks an explanation from the channel for airing the programme Bhaiya Bhole, which was found to be offensive and obscene, said officials of the...

A Division Bench of the Kerala High Court has decided not to initiate contempt of court proceedings against V.R. Krishna Iyer and V. Balakrishna Eradi, both former Supreme Court Judges, N. Ram, Editor-in-Chief, The Hindu; Kuldip Nayyar, eminent journalist, K. Gopalakrishnan, Editor, Mathrubhoomi; and other respondents for issuing a statement on the incident in which Mr. Gopalakrishnan had to be...

Stung by the sting. A group of Mumbai reporters found out much to their dismay that in the age of exposes, some operations can backfire. Early on Saturday morning, two journalists from BAG Films, a TV news agency, entered the premises of the Mulund fire station, hoping to catch firemen sleeping on duty. But they found the marshals were not only up but alert enough to spot trespassers. The...

‘‘Aman, don’t be naughty,’’ teases the voice without a face. The TV star responds with a smile: "That’s the way I am." Five days ago, the voice plied a Bollywood villain with drinks, got him to be naughtier. The final act in both cases: a TV crew barges in, squeezes out reactions from stunned victims, hands over the mike to the anchors to proclaim the sting a success. Left unanswered are a horde...

Chief editor of the Kashmir Valley’s vernacular daily Al-Saffa News, Ashraf Shaban, has been arrested and detained at Police Station Kulgam in a case of brazen impersonation on the orders of Sub Judge Kulgam late on Thursday evening. Informed sources told the Excelsior that on the orders of Sub Judge Kulgam, Mr Jawwad Ahmed, Police Station Kulgam on Thursday evening registered case FIR No: 38 of...

Four days after the Shakti Kapoor clips stung Bollywood, India TV has now got a TV star running for cover. Aman Verma, host of Indian Idol and star of Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi, has filed a complaint with Mumbai Police Commissioner A N Roy against India TV Editor-in-chief Rajat Sharma and producer Suhaib Illiyasi, alleging that there was an attempt to ‘‘frame’’ him in another sting operation...

In India, a flourishing business for print media doesn't translate to flourishing media criticism. As of March 2003, the Registrar of Newspapers for India reported there were 55,780 newspapers in the subcontinent, with 3,820 new newspapers registered in the previous year and 23 percent growth in overall circulation. And the Times of India, owned by the Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd., is the king of...

Reporters Without Borders today wrote to the Canadian justice minister with its position on an important question of law for online media that has been raised by a former UN official's libel action in Canada against the Washington Post, namely can a journalist whose article has been published on the Internet be sued anywhere it can be downloaded ? The Washington Post appealed on 8 March. The text...