आditi

It was the most depressing, but motivating two-and-a-half-hour talk I had heard. P Sainath talked about paid news and how the electronic media handed out rate cards for paid news in 2009 elections. He spoke of print media 'companies' owning stake in private companies. A media company apparently owns stake in 240 companies! He spoke about the helplessness of an editor and his subordinates before the media corporates! I had covered miniscule part of the 2009 elections -the Ambegaon assembly constituency near Junnar and never found myself in a positition of being told to report in a particular manner. However, we have all 'read' the paid news that appeared in various papers. The paid news items -all of same size -a single column with DC photos that dotted news pages...the sacred news space. Yet we kept quiet. We never questioned. We never discussed. A few years down the line, if, we are made to be a part of the paid news, what would be our stand? What will happen if we ref...

H/l: State heading for food crisis’ With decreased food grain production in Maharashtra and around 80 lakh farmers quitting the occupation over the last two decades, the state is in for a severe food crisis, said senior journalist P Sainath here on Thursday. Sainath was interacting with journalism students and reporters at a programme organised by the Pune Union of Working Journalists. Comparing the per capita food-grain production of Maharashtra with the neighbouring states, Sainath said Maharashtra stands at the lowest position with 100.6 kg per person, where as Bihar is highest with 262 kg, followed by Karnataka -186 kg, Andhra Pradesh -180 kg and Goa -104 kg. Sainath quoted the Maharashtra Economic Survey Report during 2006-2009 and highlighted that 20 lakh persons in the state had lost their jobs even before the economic slowdown, sugarcane production had reduced by 43 percent, oilseeds production had dipped by 49 percent and food grain production had come down by 24 percent. He a...