The Indian Express (Mumbai Edition) has carried an article on the current blogstorm. It is heartening to note that the mainstream media, which has till now acted comfortably numb to the issue, is waking up.Kaps and I had asked Sudhish Kamath (of The Hindu) why the media was acting deaf-mute to this issue. His response was that his newspaper doesn’t react unless one of the parties comes out with a press release. Well, I cannot fault him on that. However, I am surprised that the media in our country works on such dated principles. I wonder what press release The Hindu waited for before covering the recent earthquake or last year’s tsunami. Perhaps the media stands testimony to the statement “When confronted with a problem, people don’t think; they simply re-adjust their prejudices!”
The Express article states…
With word spreading in the ‘blogosphere’, the incident has now erupted into a major controversy and hundreds of bloggers are standing by Sabnis and espousing their right to freedom of speech
Further it quotes A. Sandeep, the all-India dean of IIPM as saying that he has “no idea about it.” On the legal (t)angle, the article seems to side with the institute.
Legally, IIPM is well within its rights in taking the blogger to court, said advocate Vishwas Patel. ‘‘The organisation’s reputation is tarnished by such statements and if it continues to be eroded, it can resort to civil and criminal procedures under defamation laws,’’ he said.
Related posts:
- NDTV breaks its silenceNDTV correspondent Alaphia Zoyab had mentioned in her blog that NDTV would carry the story in its 10:30 PM show, Mumbai Live. She then re-posted saying that the show will not feature this issue. However, she has since re-posted again. It seems that NDTV has (un)covered this in its 8 and 9 PM news shows. I missed them both. But here are excerpts from the NDTV.com article. Full-page advertisements by the Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM) in all...
- Spare Wikipedia, please!Ravikiran has issued a call to the blogging community to write "the facts" about IIPM into its Wikipedia page. His idea in doing this is to save all prospective seekers of information, by providing them with the right information.I appreciate the ends he is striving for (the right to correct information), but I am not in favour of the means of achieving it. My reasons are as follows. Wikipedia is an encyclopedia; there is a limit to the information it...
- Thank you, Mr. Chaudhuri!It seems to me that in the affair concerning IIPM and us bloggers, we have been really unfair to the institute and its founder, Mr. Arindam Chaudhuri. We have been maligning them left, right and centre, without understanding the nature of the service that they have rendered to us. And this comes from someone who was extremely critical of them, till realisation dawned on me.Instead of being uncharitable, we must actually thank Mr. Chaudhuri and his institute (and all those...
- The Firm v/s Gaurav Sabnis A few months ago, three hundred students sacrificed admits to Ivy League b-schools like Harvard, Wharton, Kellogg, Chicago and Stanford. Because they had just realised their life's dream and ambition. They were heading to India... to study in the world's numero uno institute. They were all armed with admits to the IIPM. Yeah, that's right. Didn't you hear that India had finally arrived? And all because of one man... The above could as well be found on the back...
- No Vinci Code!This is absolutely ridiculous. The Tamil Nadu State Government has decided to suspend the release of The da Vinci Code in the state; this despite the Central Government clearing the movie for release.According to a press release: The screening of the movie might hurt the religious feelings and sentiments of the Christian community and lead to demonstrations and disturb peace and tranquillity within the State... ...
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Arunkumar Ravi on 
October 13th, 2005 at 10:26 pm
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October 13th, 2005 at 10:29 pm
http://flickr.com/photos/toufeeq/52170691/
Should put a smile on you face.
October 14th, 2005 at 9:39 pm
Dilip, I chose the wrong word to describe it.
I had wanted to state that the article conveyed, contrary to the general opinion in blogosphere, IIPM could take them to court.
October 15th, 2005 at 9:37 am
Hey Vijay, what happened to my comment that you’ve responded to?
October 15th, 2005 at 5:00 pm
Dilip, this is extremely surprising, ‘cos I cannot find it myself. I swear I didn’t delete it! And I’m amazed at what’s happened.
In any case, I’ll re-post Dilip’s comment.
“But actually Vijay, IIPM is within its rights to go to court. Anyone can take anyone else to court — the test is in what the court makes of the case. My opinion is that there is no merit in those threats of legal action, and the courts will see it that way, and IIPM did it just to try to frighten Rashmi and co. (Which is why I wish Gaurav had not resigned, but that’s another story). But that doesn’t mean IIPM doesn’t have the right to send out such a legal notice.
So I don’t think IE’s mention of this qualifies as “siding” with IIPM.
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Posted by Dilip D’Souza to VKpedia at 10/14/2005 09:32:38 PM”