News Broadcasting
Govt moots law on foreign newspapers
NEW DELHI: The Indian government is proposing to enact a legislation to plug loopholes in the rules and regulations related to the print medium and discourage a repeat of the International Herald Tribune episode.
The Congress-led coalition government also ruled out easing norms for printing of foreign newspapers from India, barring technical and scientific journals.
“The government does propose to bring about a legislation that that would stop people like MJ Akbar and Venkat Ram Reddy in future to take advantage and print foreign newspapers from India, ” a senior info-broad ministry representative said today.
Hyderabad-based Midram Publications has been printing and publishing IHT from India after registering the brand with the Registrar of Newspapers in India since May end — a move that has put the government in a quandary as apparently no law is being broken as existing guidelines and rules lack legal sanctity and teeth.
While IHT is printed in India by Reddy, Akbar, who also edits Asian Age newspaper, is the editor. Akbar has also threatened to take legal action against the government if pushed against the wall.
“The government is looking at strengthening its case” against the likes of IHT, the ministry representative said, indicating that over the next two-three weeks a draft legislation in this regard may be ready.
The new proposed legislation would aim at plugging loopholes in organizations like the RNI, Press Registration Bureau Act and syndication rules.
Pointing out that till now the country’s print medium sector laws had been guided by the “moral strength” of a Jawaharlal Nehru cabinet decision of 1955, which incidentally is not technically a law, the I&B ministry representative said the present government and Congress party had been against a previous government’s decision allowing 26 per cent foreign investment in the news category of the print medium.
Apart from Business Standard, which has tied up with Financial Times of London, the Times of India group too is aiming at bringing The Asian Wall Street Journal (AWSJ) to India, amongst a slew of such other projects.
As per information available, AWSJ’s Indian edition, if allowed, is to be edited by Dow Jones’ India representative and senior journalist, Suman Dubey, who also happens to be a family friend of Congress chief Sonia Gandhi.
News Broadcasting
CNN-News18 to air live counting day coverage for five state election results on May 4
The channel is rolling out its biggest election coverage machinery yet for results day on 4th May
NOIDA: The votes have been cast. Now comes the reckoning. CNN-News18 is pulling out all the stops for results day on 4th May, when counting begins across five battleground states — West Bengal, Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and the Union Territory of Puducherry — in what promises to be one of the most closely watched electoral verdicts in recent memory.
The channel’s coverage, titled Battle for the States: The Verdict, kicks off at 7am and runs through the day across linear TV, connected television and YouTube. It is the culmination of CNN-News18’s multi-format editorial initiative, Battle for the States, which has tracked the polls from the beginning under the theme Road to Power.
At the operational heart of the coverage will be the Live Results Hub, the channel’s central command centre built to collate, verify and process real-time data flowing in from reporters stationed at counting centres across constituencies. The hub combines newsroom intelligence, analytics and on-the-ground reporting to deliver what the channel promises will be the fastest and most accurate results coverage in English news.
Leading the on-air charge will be primetime anchors Rahul Shivshankar, Anand Narasimhan, Aman Sharma, Nabila Jamal and Shivani Gupta. They will be joined by a wide panel of commentators including author Chetan Bhagat; GVL Narasimha Rao, senior leader of the BJP; Smita Prakash, editor of ANI; activist Saira Shah Halim; political analyst Sumanth C Raman; Abhijit Iyer Mitra, senior fellow at IPCS; Amitabh Tiwari, founder of VoteVibe; columnist Abhijit Majumdar; Nalin Mehta, managing editor of MoneyControl; political analyst Tehseen Poonawalla; senior journalist Subir Bhaumik; and political analyst Manojit Mandal.
Shivshankar, who serves as editorial affairs director at CNN-News18, set out the stakes plainly. “Counting day is one of the most watched events in the electoral cycle, where speed and credibility are tested in real time,” he said. “Battle for the States: The Verdict is built on that promise, combining ground reporting, sharp analysis and cutting-edge election technology to give viewers the clearest and fastest route to the verdict. On May 4, CNN-News18 will once again be the nation’s most trusted channel to witness democracy in action.”
Smriti Mehra, chief executive of English and Business News at Network18, framed the coverage in broader terms. “Elections are defining national events, and audiences turn to brands they trust in moments that matter,” she said. “CNN-News18 has consistently led from the front in every election coverage, and this special programming reflects the scale of our ambition and editorial strength.”
The channel has form here. It claims to have been India’s most preferred English news destination for election results for the past 20 years, covering everything from the 2024 general elections to the Delhi, Maharashtra, Bihar and BMC polls on the back of what it calls an “Always First, Always Right” record. Five states, one day, and a nation waiting for answers. The clock starts at 7am on 4th May.
