In the out-and-out corporate media environment that exists today, market-friendly value systems are a natural consequence and crony capitalist behaviour by media luminaries is par for the course.
In the first flush of independent cable and satellite television in the early 1990s, there was the buoyant expectation and excitement of liberation from state control. A clear departure from the monotonous, drab, cliched, hortatory, government-extolling, politically cautious, socially prescriptive and culturally ritualistic programming was an end in itself. This break came close on the heels of a brief phase of euphoria—what could be characterised as the glasnost and perestroika years of Doordarshan towards the latter part of the 1980s—when a Reithian public interest temper seemed, unimaginably, to capture the imagination of the state broadcaster and yielded a season of bold and critical television fare, even if it was produced and delivered, for the most part, by producers contracted from outside to give Doordarshan a credible current affairs visage.
That interlude was to prove a tantalising but elusive possibility of what Doordarshan could itself deliver if the government of the day would allow it professional freedom. The opportunity slipped away, or was frittered way, and the initiative swung all the way the other way, from the patronising arms of the state into the grasping ones of the market. The process began when maiden private ventures like Zee in Hindi and Asianet in a regional Indian language (Malayalam) set out to push the established frontiers and laws of broadcasting and create the market for private television in the country. The air was expectant, when these tentative steps towards an independent electronic media regime were taken, with the promise of choice and variety and diversity, and a virtual renaissance in the electronic media. The market was a means to carve out a public viewership.
Esta historia es de la edición August 5, 2016 de FRONTLINE.
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How Not To Handle An Epidemic
The lockdowns were meant to buy time to put in place appropriate health measures and contain the coronavirus’ spread, but they have failed to achieve the objective and heaped immense misery on the marginalised sections of society. India is still in the exponential phase of the COVID-19 infection and community transmission is a reality that the government refuses to accept.
Tragedy on foot
As the COVID-19-induced lockdown cuts the ground beneath their feet in Tamil Nadu, thousands of migrant workers are trudging along the highway to the relative safety of their upcountry homes.
Sarpanchs as game changers
Odisha manages to keep COVID-19 well under control because of the strong participation of panchayati raj institutions and the community at the grass-roots level under the leadership of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.
Scapegoating China
As the COVID-19 death rate spikes and the economy tanks in the United States, Donald Trump and his advisers target China and the World Health Organisation with an eye to winning the forthcoming presidential election.
New worries
Kerala’s measured approach to the pandemic and lockdown has yielded results. But it still has to grapple with their huge economic impact on its economy, which it feels the Centre’s special financial relief package does little to alleviate.
No love lost for labour
Taking advantage of the lockdown and the inability of workers to organise protests, many State governments introduce sweeping changes to labour laws to the detriment of workers on the pretext of reviving production and boosting the economy.
Capital's Malthusian moment
In a world that needs substantial reorienting of production and distribution, Indian capital is resorting to a militant form of moribund neoliberalism to overcome its current crisis. In this pursuit of profit, it is ready and willing to throw into mortal peril millions whom it adjudicates as not worth their means—an admixture of social Darwinism born of capital’s avarice and brutalism spawned by Hindutva. .
Understanding migration
When governments and their plans are found to be blatantly wanting in addressing reverse migration, exercises such as the Ekta Parishad’s survey of migrant workers throughout India can be useful to work out creative long-lasting solutions.
Waiting for Jabalpur moment
The Supreme Court’s role in ensuring executive accountability during the ongoing lockdown leaves much to be desired. Standing in shining contrast is the record of some High Courts.
An empty package
The Modi regime, which has been unable to control the COVID-19 infection, restore economic activity and provide relief to millions exposed to starvation, trains its sights on Indian democracy, making use of the panic generated by fear and a lockdown that forecloses paths of resistance.
