Tag: TV channels

Fight against corruption

Posted on by Vincent Augustine D'Souza

The events of the last few days have shown that fight against corruption will be hard and the corrupt will do everything to scuttle the Lokpal Bill.

A nameless and faceless coward sent a CD that caused problems for Shanti Bhushan and Prashant Bhushan. The Bhushans have gone to Supreme Court. Some want Bhushans to quit the drafting committee and that seems to be the reason for sending the CD. Not many top lawyers joined Anna Hazare in his fight against corruption. Most of them have taken briefs of 2G companies and various criminals. On TV channels they may talk of probity, integrity and transparency but when it comes to briefs they have no compunction in accepting any brief from anyone whether murderer, rapist, molester, swindler, fraudster or some other high criminal.

Read more

Cricket is not war

Posted on by Vincent Augustine D'Souza

Sport is not war. Cricket is a game and should be treated as such. In football and hockey many times players get physical. Sometimes football players play karate or kick boxing for which they deserve red card. In cricket scope for getting physical is limited. Some people talk of cricket as of war. They talk of India-Pakistan match as mother of all battles or the biggest battle. That should be avoided.

In a tournament there is one final. There is no final before the final. Some people first talked of India-Australia quarter-final match as final before the final. After that they talked of India-Pakistan semi-final match as final before the final.

Read more

Boring tournament

Posted on by Vincent Augustine D'Souza

Cricket World Cup 2011 is proving to be a boring tournament. It has 14 teams and spread over 43 days. Olympics, Asian Games and Commonwealth Games are of 14-16 days. Football World Cup with 32 teams is about 32 days.

When Cricket Word Cup began in 1975 there were eight teams and four matches per day. The gap between matches was not long. In 1987 there were three matches per day. In 2011 it is one match or two matches per day with long gaps for teams in between. India played Bangladesh on 19/2/2011 and its next match against England is on 27/2/2011. In an ODI tournament a team having to wait for 5-8 days to play its next match is strange.

Read more

No negotiations with criminals

Posted on by Vincent Augustine D'Souza

India should have a policy of no negotiations with criminals whether they are terrorists, abductors, kidnappers, hijackers, pirates or Maoists. The policy should be followed by central and state governments. The policy should be irrespective of who the hostage is. The hostage may be a minister’s daughter, engineer, doctor, collector, truck driver or someone else. It does not matter whether there is one hostage or there are many hostages. When the policy of no negotiations is declared and followed there will be no pressure on any government.

Since December 1989 when Rubiya Sayeed was abducted and five terrorists were released there have been many cases when India has surrendered to criminals and released prisoners or paid ransom. In recent years Maoists have abducted many people and state governments have released prisoners. The abductions continue.

In December 1999 a hijacked plane was allowed to take off from Amritsar and go to Kandahar. Three terrorists were released who caused many deaths later on.

Read more

Journalists and exaggerations

Posted on by Vincent Augustine D'Souza

Journalists are expected to report facts without exaggerations. They do not have the liberty to exaggerate. Poets and writers of fiction have the liberty to exaggerate. “De Villiers was quick to get to the ball, running Dravid out at the striker’s end by a mile.” (Aditya Iyer — Gambhir, Tendulkar keep India in hunt —…

Read more

Acquittal by media

Posted on by Vincent Augustine D'Souza

Sometimes one hears about trial by media, media going too far and media being judge, jury and executioner. One has not heard about acquittal by media. Sometimes people in media pronounce someone not guilty when the court has announced him or her guilty. Some years back a British girl in USA was found guilty by…

Read more

Three Events

Posted on by Vincent Augustine D'Souza

Three recent events in India have significance. First was Colors challenging I&B Ministry and going to court. I&B Ministry had asked Imagine and Colours to shift their 9.00 p.m. programmes to a time slot between 11.00 p.m. and 5.00 a.m. Imagine obliged. Colors went to court. It got a stay order. Second was Jaganmohan Reddy’s…

Read more

Corporal Punishment

Posted on by Vincent Augustine D'Souza

Corporal punishment to students has become a controversial subject. There have been instances of excessive beating by teachers, causing injury and sometimes death. TV channels reported it for a day, some discussed it for a few minutes and everything was forgotten. A boy from La Martiniere in Calcutta died in February. After three and half months the death became controversial.

Read more

Crime and media

Posted on by Vincent Augustine D'Souza

Media has a responsibility in what it shows and how it shows. If anything that TV channels do gives a boost to crime, TV channels refrain from doing it.
If some people call TV reporters and tell them at a particular they will go to a particular place and damage public or private property there or beat people, TV reporters should not go to cover that event but report to the police. The people want publicity for their crime and if there is no publicity there will not be crime.

Read more

Nobel Peace Prize to Barack Obama

Posted on by Vincent Augustine D'Souza

Barack Obama said he was surprised and deeply humbled and would accept the prize as a call to action. He said “To be honest, I do not feel that I deserve to be in the company of so many of the transformative figures who have been honoured by this prize, men and women who’ve inspired me and inspired the entire world through their courageous pursuit of peace.”

Read more