News Broadcasting
Sindh High Court restrains issuing LDI licenses
NEW DELHI: Noting that the 2003 Telecom policy was outdated, the Sindh High Court has restrained federal government from issuing Long Distance and International (LDI) licenses.
A bench led by Justice Nadeem Akhtar has also directed the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority to draw up a new telecom policy. It issued the stay order over the PTA notification which was challenged by private telephone operators.
According to the petition submitted by Telecard Limited, Redtone Telecommunications and Multinet Pakistan, LDI licenses were issued back in 2003 according to the deregulation policy and they were subjected to renewal after five years. The petitioners also mentioned that the fee for prescription was $500,000 back in 2003 but after expiry in 2008 there has been no revision in the policy.
While the Pakistan Information and Technology Ministry and the PTA were ready to-re-issue licences, the petitioners argued that these were sought to be issued on the same fee of $500,000 despite the desperate need for revision in policy and licence fee.
News Broadcasting
Senior media executive Madhu Soman exits Zee Media
Former Reuters and Bloomberg leader says he leaves with “no regrets” after brief stint at WION and Zee Business
NOIDA: Madhu Soman, a veteran of global newsrooms and media sales floors, has stepped away from Zee Media Corporation after a short stint steering business strategy for WION and Zee Business.
In a reflective LinkedIn note marking his departure, Soman said his time within the network’s corridors was always likely to be brief. “Some chapters close faster than expected,” he wrote, signalling the end of a nearly two-year spell in which he oversaw both editorial partnerships and commercial strategy.
Soman joined Zee Media in 2022 after more than a decade abroad with Reuters and Bloomberg, returning to India to take on the role of chief business officer for WION and Zee Business. His mandate was ambitious: bridge the newsroom and the revenue desk while expanding digital and broadcast reach.
During the stint, Zee Business reached break-even for the first time since its launch in 2005, while WION refreshed programming and strengthened its digital footprint across platforms such as YouTube and Facebook.
But Soman suggested the cultural fit proved uneasy. Describing himself as a “cultural misfit”, he hinted at deeper tensions between editorial instincts shaped in global newsrooms and the realities of India’s television news ecosystem.
Before joining Zee, Soman spent more than seven years at Bloomberg in Hong Kong as head of broadcast sales for Asia-Pacific, expanding the company’s news syndication business across several markets. Earlier, he held senior editorial roles at Reuters, overseeing online strategy in India and managing Reuters Video Services from London.
His career began in television and wire reporting, including a stint with ANI during the 1999 Kargil conflict, before moving into digital publishing as India’s internet media landscape took shape.
Now, after nearly three decades in broadcast and digital media, Soman is leaving Delhi NCR and returning to his hometown, Trivandrum.
Exhausted, he admits. But unbowed. And with one quiet line that sums up the journey: he didn’t sell his soul — because some things, after all, are not for sale.
