Financial Stability of journos must for Press Freedom, says Press Council Chairman

•         At RedInk awards, Justice Prasad defends wage boards for newsmen
•         Mark Tully gets of the RedInk Lifetime Achievement Award, says Radio journalism should be resurrected in India
•          Media owners say it is not a great business, but there is money to be made

MUMBAI: To ensure freedom for the news media, it is necessary to ensure the financial stability of journalists, and job security. It is only if a journalist is financially secure that he can do his job with peace of mind, said Justice C K Prasad, chairman of the Press Council of India (PCI).

Giving his closing remarks as the chief guest at the ‘National Red Ink Awards for Excellence in Journalist’ instituted by Mumbai Press Club (www.mumbaipressclub.com) on Friday night, Justice Prasad said it was not fair on the part of media owners to run down the appointment of Wage Boards for media employees. Other industries such as cement and pharmaceuticals are all governed by the Minimum Wages Act, where such law does not exist for newspaper employees, he pointed out.

 “An editor returning to his office only to receive a pink slip does not augur well for the free press,” he said, adding that he had examined the balance sheet of many media groups and found the profits they were making could easily support the payment of Wage Board salaries.

Earlier, he emphasized that the job of the Press Council of India is to ensure the freedom of the press, and “we are not here to regulate the media.”

Sir Mark Tully receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award

Sir Mark Tully, who worked for over two decades as the bureau chief of BBC in the subcontinent, received the RedInk Award for Lifetime Achievement’. In his acceptance speech, Tully said he grew up as radio reporter, and he would always prefer radio to television. Radio broadcasts gave a personal touch as “the listener gets the feeling that the news reader or reporter talks to him directly,” he said and recalled how at a village gathering in Uttar Pardesh, people greeted him as “a friend”.

Sir Mark, who was deported during the emergency, said for journalists’ credibility is everything, and in today’s age they must learn to grapple with fake news. Just a small crosscheck and verification of facts would help in giving the right information to the society. He said public service broadcasting was a bolstering factor of a free press. Citing the BBC as an example, Tully said in his 40 years of working for the organisation, he could not recall a single instance where he had been asked to change or drop his news dispatch.

Your editor with Faye!

Faye D’souza, executive editor of TV channel Mirror Now, who was given the ‘Journalist of the year’ Award said her reporting was built on covering the issues that affected the common man. Focusing on credible news without much antics helped her channel stand out in the crowd and make a mark for itself.

“I stick my neck out to report not what politicians are saying but what hits the man on the street, even as the entire media could be busy with irrelevant breaking news,” she said.

A high power panel consisting of Vijay Darda, Chairman, Lokmat Group, Raghav Bahl, Founder & Chairman, Quintillion Media, Anant Goenka, Executive Director, The Indian Express Group, and Samir Patil, founder and CEO of Scroll Media, debated the important and relevant issue of: Is there a business in News Media’.  Senior Journalist and Founder of IndiaSpend.Org  Govindraj Ethiraj anchored the panel discussion.

Most of the panellists agreed that news media is not a great business but there is money to be made. Raghav Bahl stressed that as the scenario shifted to digital platforms, a healthy business in niche areas was not difficult. As the business scaled up along with the number of brands, the challenges also increased. He emphasized that the mandatory legal requirement in broadcasting for 51 percent Indian ownership had become a bottleneck to expansion. It was not a level playing field as the law did not apply to other areas like print or digital.

The Secretary of the Mumbai Press Club, Dharmendra Jore, in his welcome speech said this year the RedInk Awards had received a record over-2,000 entries. Gurbir Singh, the convenor of the Awards Committee, said accusing the media of being anti-establishment was foolish as by its very nature news media will always be anti-establishment irrespective of the party in power.

Awards were given away in 11 competitive categories and five special categories. As many as 32 journalists received trophies and Rs one lakh as cash prizes. The RedInk Award for ‘A Media Start-up that is making a difference’ was given to IndiaSpend.org, for its initiative in developing data journalism in India.

Here is the list of RedInk awards winners for 2018:

Business & Economy

Print :         SruthisagarYamunan, Scroll.In

Kabir Agarwal, The wire

TV     :         Sushil Kumar Mohapatra, NDTV India

Crime

Print :         Santosh Singh, The Indian Express

TV     :         DeepuRevathy, Manorama News

Environment

Print :         T. R. Vivek, Newslaundry.com

Aruna Chandrasekhar, The Caravan

TV     :         Sushil Chandra Bahuguna, NDTV India

Health & Wellness

Print :         Menaka Rao, Scroll.in

Human Rights

Print :         Radhika Iyengar, Al Jazeera Media Network

TV     :         Shone Satheesh, Scroll.in

Lifestyle & Entertainment

Print :         Shamik Bag, Mint

Politics

Print :         RikyntiMarwein, Highland Post

TV     :         Jainendra Kumar, ABP News

Science & Innovation

Print :         R Ramachandran, Frontline

TV     :         Jugal R Purohit, India Today

Sports

Print :         Shail Desai, Mint

TV     :         Smitha Nair, Scroll.In

The Big Picture

Winner        :         Vinod Kumar T, The New India Express

Runner up 1          :         Indranil Mukherjee, Agence France Presse

Runner up 2          :         SibuBhuvanendran, MalayalaManorama

Women Empowerment & Gender Equality

Print            :         Leena Gita Reghunath (Surabhi Kanga), The Caravan

:         Shalini Nair, The Indian Express

TV              :         Moumita Sen &Ruchira Sharma, India Today

Media Start-up of the year     :         IndiaSpend.com

Mumbai Star Reporter  :         Yadu Joshi, Lokmat &

                                                Chaitanya Marpakwar, Mumbai Mirror

Journalist of the Year    :         Faye D’Souza, Mirror Now

Lifetime Achievement :         Sir William Mark Tully

PRCI Media person of the Year (2014-15) 'Partho' is no more

We regret to inform you that veteran business journalist Parthasarathi Swami, Managing Editor of Business India, passed away around 11 pm on Monday.

Partho, as he was fondly called, began his career with the Anand Bazar Patrika group where he was with Business Standard. Later, he joined India Today and then Business World. He had a brief stint with Sunday Observer before joining Business India.

A journalist with immense sense of pride, Partho did several stories - analytical and  hard  hitting. He had been a long standing member of Mumbai Press Club.

Partho was recipient of PRCI Media person of the Year award in print category.

A resident of Seawoods, Nerul, Navi Mumbai, Partho was cremated at Belapur, Navi Mumbai this morning.

He leaves behind wife Alka, daughter Nisha and son Nikhil.

PRCI, Mumbai Press Club pay tributes to Parho's memory and offer condolences to Alka, Nisha and Nikhil.

-Editor

Veteran journo Raikar felicitated

Veteran journalist and former Group Editor of the Lokmat Group Dinkar Raikar was today felicitated at Mumbai Press Club on completing 75 years of age, and 46 years in Journalism. 

Raikar (left) after receiving PRCI souvenir as Press Club Chairman Prakash
Akolkar and B N Kumar, PRCI national president, and Sanjay Rammoorthy,
General Secretary, PRCI -Mumbai Capter, look on

Public Relations Council of India (PRCI) also presented him a souvenir.

For Raikar, a well wisher of PRCI, It is a milestone well-achieved. The important thing is Raikar has no intention of slowing down or hanging up his boots. He is firmly in the saddle and continues to gallop as an active and leading journalist.

For those who have worked with him and have a story to tell, please be there to share it with all of us.

Raikar was an employee with the Indian Express Group with the technical services department before he entered journalism. In 1970, he was promoted and offered an editorial post in the Indian Express, which he grabbed; and there was no looking back since. He was not parachuted into senior positions, but made his way up steadily from the ranks working as a reporter and finally becoming the City Editor of the Indian Express. In 1993, he was elevated as the Deputy Editor of 'Loksatta' - the largest selling Marathi daily in those years; and he became the front face of the newspaper till he retired in 2002.

 Raikar took a break only for a few months before he was made Editor of Lokmat, then a Hindi and Marathi daily largely circulated in Vidharbha region of Maharashtra. From 2002, under Raikar's leadership, Lokmat expanded not only to a multi-city newspaper all over Maharashtra, but also grew as an English title with multiple editions in all major cities of the state.

 He says he has no intention of retiring from journalism in the near future, and is all set to hit his half century in the profession in the coming years and months.

Environmental Journalism Workshop @ Mumbai

-       Organised  by The Press Club in association with BNHS

MUMBAI, September 27, 2015: Mumbai Press Club, in association with the BNHS, is organising a certification workshop on Environmental Journalism.

The aim of the workshop is not only to familiarize the media fraternity with key aspects related to environment but to equip them with knowledge so that they will be able to appreciate ecology.

Issues related to environment conservation and sustainability have become crucial and an integral part of all human endeavours in the past decade or so. This is because after a century of reckless and unbalanced development across the planet, humans are now faced with myriad threats such as pollution, global warming, habitat loss, biodiversity loss, diseases, erratic weather patterns and social strife arising from too much wants chasing too few resources.

The role of the ever expanding media is very important is changing this state of affairs, whether it is the traditional print media or the modern electronic media consisting of TV, radio, websites, blogs and social media.

Media has been covering the aspects, but the issues need to be addressed in a holistic and scientific manner and assess their impact on the society. In order to educate the people as a while for subsequent action, an unbiased and informed coverage and analysis of the real issues assumes paramount importance.

Hence, this workshop, powered by Public Relations Council of India (PRCI) that brings a unique opportunity for practicing and budding journalists/writers/bloggers/PR professionals to understand the environmental issues; learn to differentiate the real from the cosmetic ones and understand the ways of portraying the same in a constructive manner.

Please Note:

1) The workshop includes a trek/trail at the BNHS Reserve inside the Film City.

2) Please wear clothes and shoes accordingly.

Date: Saturday, October 17, 2015

Time: 8.30 am to 1.00 pm

Venue: BNHS Conservation Education Centre (CEC), near Film City, Gen Arunkumar Vaidya Marg, Goregaon (East), Mumbai

Registration Fees: Rs 100 per head

Workshop structure: This half-day workshop will include the following components:

• 8.00 am: Registration
• 8.15 – 8.35: Introduction and Brief Orientation
• 8.40 – 9.40: Nature trail in surrounding forest with BNHS resource persons
• 9.40 – 10.00: Tea and snacks
• 10.00 – 10.45: Presentation on “Environmental Journalism – How it should be? How it should not be?”
• 10.45 – 11.30: Presentation on “How to report the findings of research” (two BNHS research case studies)
• 11.30 am – 12.15 pm: Presentation on “Biodiversity in Mumbai Metropolitan Region”
• 12.15 – 12.30 pm: Giving away of certificates and end of program

Medium of instruction: English (with responses in Marathi and Hindi where required)

We intend to keep the batch seize to 25-30 to make the exercise meaningful.

Please rush with your formal confirmation of participation by October 10, 2015.

PRCI Kerala joins Onam celebrations with Press Club

KOCHI: PRCI Kerala chapter has joined the Press Club-Kochi in celebrating Onam at the Rajiv Gandhi Indoor Stadium.

K Babu, Hon. Minister for Fisheries, Ports & Excise inaugurated the celebrations.

Prof K V Thomas MP and Chairman Public Accounts Committee was the Chief Guest. N Venugopal. Chairman  Greater Cochin Development Authority, C Rajagopal. Chairman Minorities Cell BJP, Leno Jacob, Councillor Cochin Municipal Corporation, SAS Navaz IRS (Retd) Secretary RAC, T Vinay Kumar, Secretary Public Relations Council of India - Kerala Chapter, Kaithapram Viswanathan Namboodiri, Music Director, P K Natesh Treasurer PRCI Kerala Chapter, K Ravikumar, President Press Club and S Unnikrishnan, Secretary Press Club took part in the festivities.

A tug-of-war competition was held, followed a sumptuous Onam feast after the inauguration

From the President’s Desk-3: Well begun, Half Done!

Friends,

Thank you very much for all your support and critical views as well over the past one month or so.

The new team at NE has taken quite a few initiatives lie launching the e-mag which has become immensely popular in India and abroad. We have already clocked over 2,000 page views across the world. Here are the stats.

India – 1,117, United States – 786, Germany – 71, United Kingdom – 15, France – 6, Ireland – 6, United Arab Emirates – 5, Turkey – 5, Canada – 4 and Russia - 4.

Let me acknowledge that Mr Narendra's weekly columns with his insight on the functioning of the government are becoming extremely popular!

Now, our web site – www.publicrelationscouncilofindia.com - is almost ready. It has taken quite a bit of efforts in collating information and putting it together in a presentable format. Our young breed of web designers is still working to fine tune the site. As you can make out the lists of TEAMS is still incomplete – that’s mainly because we do not have relevant data. Will send a separate mail on what’s missing out in the list. 

Now, for the future calendar:

Knowledge Forum: In association with the Press Club Mumbai, we planned a discussion on the burning issue of Net Neutrality in the first week of May. Mumbai Chapter President Ajay Sharma and Secretary Sanjay Rammoorthy are working on a discussion paper. And together with the Club, we hope to have some good speakers.

Other City chapters may try to find similar forums – Kochi with the local Press Club. We can also tap Lions or Rotarians to align our Knowledge Forum with their events. This will help us spread our network.

Communicators’ Day: Bengaluru Chapter has been celebrating Communicators’ Day during the week of May 16 to 20. Suggest all chapters do the same and plans events, involving PR and media professionals.

Suggested theme: Communicators as Whistle Blowers.

Frankly, I got the idea from Mr S Narendra’s column – Political Sandwich – called in the e-mag.

These pointers may be used as discussion paper and in mails to participants. Bengaluru is working on this so is Mumbai.

Ø  Corporate Communication professionals ought to be in touch with all departments within their companies and hence in the know of developments. While communicating to the external world on their respective company's transparency and adherence to principles of corporate governance, they should make sure that what they speak is truth.

Ø  Corporate communication professionals should be able to alert top management about any violations and discrepancies.

Ø  Early alerts could help seal gaps and take corrective steps before the situation blows up into a crisis or a scam.

Ø  Managements/promoters on their part should not use  CompuCom teams to suppress negative developments or as mere fire fighters.

Ø  On the contrary, with media contacts and 'leaks' of information by competition or authorities like the Income Tax or Excise, corpcom teams do get to know about potential negative stories that can ruin the companies’ reputation.

Ø  Instead of acting in the last minute to do damage control, it is important to take appropriate action and nip the crisis in the bud.

Ø  In today's cut-throat competition, one cannot suppress or kill negative stories.

Ø  Managements need to understand this.

Ø  So, the question is: Whether we as corpcom professionals are ready to take up the challenge of turning into informal Whistle Blowers within our companies or with our clients?

Ø  It’s a new role for us. Let's debate now and prepare for future shocks!

At the end of discussions across PRCI platforms, we intend to bring out a White Paper for further action by Industry and Business Forums.

It is a sensitive issue. But let’s take the bull by the horns and demonstrate to the world that we mean business, serious one at that!

Delhi Chapter: The committee appointed by the Chairman Emeritus and Chief Mentor has started action towards forming a new Committee under the leadership of Dr Gaganjit Singh, President, IMM. We hope to have the new committee functioning shortly.

More as we go along.

Please give feedback on these and the issues that we discuss in e-mag. This will only help us do well, as a team.

Till then….

Duplicate Modi @ Press Club's 'OUCH' Awards and some for crazy media moments!

MUMBAI, April 20, 2015: : Subramanian Swamy, Rahul Gandhi, BBC and Shobhaa De, who are among recipients of the Mumbai Press Club's inaugural ‘Golden Ouch’ Awards. This is the prize whose winners might say 'Ouch', not cheese, while posing for prize photographs!

On Monday, eminent journalists Bachi Karkaria and others, on behalf of the Mumbai Press Club, gave away the ‘'prestigious' Ouch Awards in 14 categories for the craziest moments in media at a glittering function anchored by stand-up comedian Anuvab Pal. The evening of good-humored satire was a prelude to the more serious Mumbai Press Club RedInk Awards on April 30, 2015 that celebrate the finest in Indian journalism.

With outrageous statements a near-daily phenomenon, and outrage of many varieties a staple of the daily news cycle on mainstream as well as social media, the Press Club felt it was about time to honour the national champions in this new and burgeoning field with awards. Besides, there are awards for everything and given to all and sundry for any old nonsense, so why not yet another award for some real, quality nonsense?

Competition was stiff in many categories, but nowhere more so than in the race for the person who spoke most strongly in retarding the cause of women, for which the list of nominees was very, very long. In the end, Hon Minister Giriraj Singh won this award despite stiff competition from Abu Azmi, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Tapas Pal, and many others.

Duplicate Modi - Vikas Mahanta - sharing some lighter moments at the Press Club's Ouch awards

However, there was very little competition in some categories, such as "Leadership in Absentia", for which Rahul Gandhi was the runaway winner. The only other name that came up was Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, but since the awards are for recent achievements, Mr Gandhi won this award by a comfortable majority of jury votes.

Only two categories were decided unanimously with no other name even mentioned. One was Dr Subramanian Swamy, who won the Ouchie for Lifetime Achievement effortlessly. Dr Swamy has been given this prize for his tireless efforts in the field of "consistently and eloquently delivering highly provocative statements". His contributions towards inventing a whole new lexicon of outrage and abuse were deemed matchless. A surprise pulled off with great elan was 'Narendra Modi' double Vikas Mahante receiving the award on behalf of 'Subramanin Swamy'.

Mr Arvind Kejriwal, too, swept the award for Transparency in Public Life with no competition, thanks to this tweet: "Running 102 fever since yesterday. Severe loose motions. Sad that i won't be able to attend office today."

We were happy to recognize Mr Kejriwal's peerless efforts in extending transparency that extended to letting the whole country know about the state of his stomach. His tweet went where no sting video has ever gone.

It was wonderful to have such a distinguished list of winners from across the political spectrum in our very first awards. Awardees also span a remarkable range of educational achievements, from former Harvard professor Dr Swamy to IITian Mr Kejriwal to Dr Sakshi Maharaj, who apparently holds a Ph.D from a Sanskrit institute in Varanasi. We wonder if any other award in India so accurately reflects the variegated wisdom of our leaders.

The absolute howlers of the evening included a 'Presswalla' dhobi picking up the award for General V K Singh, Sharad Yadav's 'masseur' standing in for the award and a white-uniformed Taj Hotel driver being mistaken for a navy man and forced on stage as an 'unwilling representative' of Coast Guard DIG B K Loshali.

The media, too, received a small share of honour. Apart from clarifying the true meaning of the word "presstitute", which we realized was a mash of the words "press+destitute", we were also pleased to recognize the contributions of BBC in science reporting and the Hindustan Times in caption writing.

Unity in diversity is truly what makes India a great place, especially for the Golden Ouch awards. We look forward to honouring more stalwarts of outrage and foot-in-mouth in years to come.

………………………………………………………………………….

COMPELTE LIST OF OUCH AWARDEES WITH THE CITATIONS:

1.      Golden Ouch For Transparency in Public Life.

Citation: For his evangelism in pursuing transparency and detoxification of self and the 'body politic' – and for his great progress from singing to stinging and some very surprising mud-slinging!

Winner: Arvind Kejriwal for his tweet on loose motions.

2.      Golden Ouch For Leadership in Absentia

Citation: For going on extended vacation when the ‘party’ needs him most, for staying  away from parliament at its most critical moments, for his enormous vocabulary of two  key words: ‘women’s empowerment’!

Winner: Rahul Gandhi.

3. Golden Ouch For Advancing The Cause Of Women.

Citation: For excelling in the field of gender prejudice in the face of enormous domestic competition, and for successfully hurting the sentiments of a friendly African nation.

Golden 'Ouch' for Advancing the Cause of Women (and For Improving Foreign Relations

Winner: Honourable Minister Of State For Micro, Small And Medium Enterprise Giriraj Singh

AND JOINT GOLDEN OUCH WINNER

For crudely changing the complexion of parliamentary discourse by his racially-charged comments on the skin of South Indian women and his response to the  criticism of HRD Minister SmritiIrani

Winner: Honourable JD(U) Chief, Sharad Yadav

4.  Silver Ouch For Advancing the Cause of Women
Citation: For their consistent, unstinting commitment to the cause of misogyny and patriarchy despite the valiant battles being fought for independence and respect by the women of India and their supporters.

WINNERS: Tie between two defence lawyers M.L.Sharma and A.P.Singh in the Nirbhaya case.

5.  Golden Ouch For Confession of the Year.
Citation:  For either shooting down a Pakistani boat or simply shooting his mouth off – using ‘biryani’ again as a new metaphor for Indian hospitality.

Winner: Coast Guard DIG, B.K. Loshali

6.  Golden Ouch For Confession of the Year – Part 2

Citation: For his extraordinary morality and misplaced sense of pride in cooking up a  'biryani lie' to build public opinion against a prisoner on death row and thus expediting  his execution.

Winner: Special Public Prosecutor, Ujjwal Nikam

7. Golden 'Ouch' for Best Science Reporting (Rising to the Occasion!)
Citation: For provoking and arousing laughter and embarrassment around a serious scientific phenomenon by alluding to a male sexual phenomenon that is best not talked about.

Winner: THE BBC for calling the Large Hadron Collider the "Large Hardon Collider"

8. Golden 'Ouch' for Best HISTORY Reporting
Citation: For insisting that Indians flew planes centuries before the Wright Brothers (and Air-India), that these planes flew between nations and planets, that they flew forwards, backwards and sideways –– and above all, that these were no flights of the imagination.

Winner:: Captain Anand J. Bodas for Educating the Masses on India’s Aeronautical Achievements in Vedic Times

9. Golden 'Ouch' for his ‘labours’ in Family Planning

 Citation: For asking women of a certain religion to labour' their entire adult lives producing babies and thus working tirelessy for the cause of resurgent majoritarianism.

Winner: Sakshi Maharaj For Urging Hindu Women To Have More Children

10. Golden 'Ouch' for the most Non-Violent Statement

Citation: For having an instant opinion on every issue and for his sweeping attacks as ‘imperialist collaborator’ on the father of the nation, Mahatma Gandhi, and of the founder of the Indian National Army, Subash Chandra Bose.

Winner: FORMER SUPREME COURT JUDGE and FORMER CHAIRMAN, PRESS
COUNCIL OF INDIA, MARKANDEY KATJU, ON GANDHIJI

11.  Golden Ouch For A Newspaper Blooper

Citation: For the best caption in the print media that outlines the care and detail that goes into addressing the photographs that accompany news items.

Winner: HT for referring to the Shakti Mills rape convicts and showing a Chinese trade delegation photo.

12.  Joint Golden 'Ouch' for the best criticism of the press
Citation: For hurting the sentiments of commercial sex workers by calling media people "presstitutes". General V.K. Singh for hastily coining the word, and Justice Katju for endorsing it with his usual efficiency.

Winner: Gen VK Singh & Justice Markandey Katju

13.  Golden 'Ouch' for Food Critic of the year
Citation: For a remark in delightful poor taste, elevating the lowly American popcorn above the thundering all-conquering indigenous warrior taste of VADA-PAO and MISAL.

Winner: Shobhaa De

14. Golden Ouch Lifetime Achievement
Citation: For consistently and eloquently delivering highly provocative statements with exquisite sophistry, confounding both enemies and allies alike

Winner: Subramaniam Swamy