THE THIN EDGE | The BBC documentary on Narendra Modi Ruchir Joshi The recently broadcast first part of India: The Modi Question, BBC’s documentary on Narendra Modi and the Gujarat killings of 2002, makes for curious viewing. For any Indian engaging with the news since 2002, much of the material is familiar, the ground the film explores… Read More Lingering shadow
Bharat Bhushan The airing of part one of a BBC documentary “India: The Modi Question” has raised political hackles in India. It suggests that the then Gujarat CM Narendra Modi was directly responsible for the riots, which left 2,000 people dead, mostly Muslims. It has since been taken down from YouTube and other social media… Read More Gujarat riots documentary: BBC’s motives are less clear
Truth, and the memory of truth, are public enemy number one for authoritarian governments today. The most relentless Swachh Bharat programme has been a campaign against Sachh Bharat. Mitali Saran The guiding principle of the Modi government is ‘If you can’t fix it, bury it.’ Information is power, so suck up as much of it… Read More One nation, one version
Catherine Bennett Early signs are that Prince Harry’s revelations may not, frustratingly for experts and republicans alike, seriously threaten the monarchy. Even if he’d wanted to, he probably picked the wrong moment, the public still being in an exceptionally forgiving mood. For all his divulging, to seriously “stain” or “trash”, as alleged, the royal brand,… Read More Prince Harry has left the zoo, so why is he being treated like a caged animal?
Stephanie Kirchgaessner A prominent pro-reform law professor in Saudi Arabia was sentenced to death for alleged crimes including having a Twitter account and using WhatsApp to share news considered “hostile” to the kingdom, according to court documents seen by the Guardian. The arrest of Awad Al-Qarni, 65, in September 2017 represented the start of a crackdown against dissent by… Read More Saudi Arabian academic on death row for using Twitter and WhatsApp
Women are sexually assaulted on a daily basis. Rape Crisis has reported that one in four women is raped or sexually assaulted as an adult; in March 2022, 70,330 rape cases were reported to the police. According to the charity, 618,000 women are raped or sexually assaulted every year. The criminal justice system consistently fails to protect… Read More The Sun will protect Jeremy Clarkson. Who will protect women who suffer violence every day?
A number of prominent journalists who have reported on Twitter and its new chief executive Elon Musk appeared to have been suspended or banned from the platform. The Twitter account for a rival social media company, Mastodon, where some Twitter users have migrated after Musk’s takeover of Twitter, also appeared to have been suspended. In a series… Read More The ‘free speech’ advocate suspends accounts of several journalists who had reported on Elon Musk
How conglomerates corrupt the Indian media landscape HARTOSH SINGH BAL The Adani Group’s attempted takeover of NDTV this year sparked intense speculation about the future of the broadcaster and the effect it would have on Indian media. The multinational conglomerate, founded by the billionaire Gautam Adani, has already established a presence in media by investing… Read More Private Interest Journalism
Tabloid rule is rule by intimidation. It has long rested on the presumption that no one – not even the royals – would dare to stand up to the papers. The ongoing barrage of fury against the Sussexes is motivated therefore by more than the usual strategy of selling newspapers by monetising hate. It also… Read More Meghan and Harry’s documentary has hit the raw nerve of tabloid prejudice
Following an investigation that Al Jazeera said uncovered new evidence regarding the fatal shooting of Palestinian-America journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in May, the international news network said Tuesday that it has filed a lawsuit against Israeli military forces at the International Criminal Court. “Al Jazeera‘s legal team has conducted a full and detailed investigation into the case and unearthed new… Read More Revealing New Evidence in Abu Akleh’s Killing, Al Jazeera Sues Israeli Forces at ICC
After the truth-shower 