News Broadcasting
Centre to set up a media consultative committee
MUMBAI: The centre is setting up a standing Media Consultative Committee to address the growing concerns over media coverage on crisis situations. Television news channels had been criticised for the way they covered live the terror attacks on Mumbai.
The minister of state for information and broadcasting (I&B) and external affairs Anand Sharma has said that the committee will be chaired by the secretary, information and broadcasting with representatives of key ministries, News Broadcasters’ Association (NBA), and editor’s guild as members.
“Extraordinary circumstances require careful coverage, not hampering rescue or counter operations.” he said and added that a training programme is being introduced in consultation with the ministries of home and defence for the media persons on how to cover crisis situations, without exposing themselves to the risks.
Meanwhile, the centre has welcomed the news coverage guidelines formulated by the NBA with respect to coverage of crisis situations. Sharma said, “It is a step in the right direction.”
Sharma stressed upon the need for mature news broadcasting in the country, and said that the Mumbai terror attacks were a learning opportunity both for the Government as well as the media. He said that high level meetings were held between representatives of media and secretaries of key ministries like home, defence, tourism and I&B to agree upon and formulate ethics of news journalism in modern era.
News Broadcasters appreciated the concerns expressed by various security and administrative outfits and agreed to address them, Sharma added.
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.
