Pressing for free speech

On November 16, a day marked as National Press Day, three newspapers made a statement in that cause by publishing blank spaces on their editorial pages. They were protesting against a notice served by the Assam Rifles to the editors of newspapers in Nagaland, warning them on coverage of the banned National Socialist Council of Nagalim (Khaplang). The editors were told they could be violating the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), 1967. This expression of defiance draws attention to the problems faced by the press in places described as conflict zones, trapped as mediapersons are between the state armed with the law to enforce varying degrees of censorship, and militant groups who use all methods of intimidation to have their versions published. In its defence, the Assam Rifles has drawn attention to a clause in the UAPA, under which the press can be made accountable in the interests of the sovereignty and integrity of the country. The editors, however, contest the Assam Rifles’ remit in asking them to refrain from carrying press releases of banned groups such as the NSCN (K). Such crucial technicalities apart, the diktat begs the larger question about both the freedom of expression and the independence of the press. What are — or, should be — the red lines in safeguarding free speech and fair reportage, critical to holding power to account?

The Press Council of India (PCI), often described as a toothless tiger, has taken suo motu note of the case and served notices to the paramilitary force and the State government. The PCI has the power to review any development likely to restrict the supply and dissemination of news of public interest and importance. The Nagaland government and the Assam Rifles’s reaction, and the PCI’s next move thereupon, will be instructive for the case at hand. Every effort should be made to check the authorities’ use of the law to curb reportage and opinion just because it challenges their line. It is far too common to use the pretext of safeguarding the sovereignty of India merely to hush legitimate critiques of governments and, equally, the security forces. There also needs to be a more broad-based appraisal of other ways and means by which freedom of the press is sought to be fettered, and what remedial measures there should be. For instance, government advertisements are often denied to ‘unfriendly’ publications. putting them at an unfair material disadvantage. The Press Council, for its part, appears to be shedding its image of an ageing tiger — from directing the Maharashtra government to withdraw its circular on the Sedition Act, to asking the Delhi government to do the same. On the “blank editorial” protest by Morung Express, Nagaland Page and Eastern Mirror, the Council must expand its investigation to the instruments of intimidation, passive and aggressive, that are utilised by state and non-state actors alike to both censor and get a favourable press.

Keywords: censorship, National Press Day, Press Council of India

Source: The Hindu, 24-11-2015

What if Facebookers Dislike Negativity?





The new dislike button on Facebook contains the seeds of huge disruption

Facebook has presumably factored in the wide range of effects the imminent introduction of a `dislike' option will have on the millions who turn to it daily -or even more frequently -for succour and sustenance. The determined optimism inherent in the absence of an easy negativity mechanism has been a source of much comfort to many . While approval requires just a single easy click of an icon, the actual keying in of an apposite dissenting opinion presents too much of an effort for most users. The result is a recording of only positive thoughts, which encourages many to come forth with opinions or photographs, secure in the knowledge that naysayers will remain unquantified. The addition of a dislike option is tantamount to making every Facebook post a referendum on both the writer and his or her offering. Not many would be able to stomach such daily assessments and may opt out of being voted on.Where and when to use a dislike option may prove confounding too. For instance, would expressing dislike of a person in a new outfit be seen as a criticism of the wearer or the outfit? That confusion could drive irate selfie-posters to turn to another negative option on Facebook: unfriend. Of course, the clincher on that would be for Facebook to test if the debut of a dislike option garners more likes or dislikes.

Source: Economic Times, 18-09-2015

UN adopts resolution on protection of journalists in conflict zones

United Nations Security Council (UNSC) has unanimously adopted a resolution on the protection of journalists in conflict zones. The resolution has urged member nations, governments and armed groups to take appropriate steps in order to ensure accountability for crimes committed against journalists, media professionals in situations of armed conflict. It also condemns attacks on journalists and affirms the work of a free, independent and impartial media as it constitutes one of the essential foundations of a democratic society. The resolution also called for the immediate and unconditional release of reporters who are held as hostages in conflict zones. UNSC resolution comes after the number of deaths and kidnappings cases of media professionals continues to increase. In 2014, 66 journalists were killed and since January 2015, 25 more have died. In the last decade, 700 media workers were killed in the conflict zones.

May 20 2015 : The Times of India (Delhi)

Speed post faster, more reliable than pvt couriers: CAG

New Delhi TIMES NEWS NETWORK





Should we depend on private courier services? A Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) study has found that private couriers deliver only 90% of letters compared to 99% by speed post.In major cities, the performance of speed post is faster and more reliable. The postal service delivers 99% of letters through speed post within 1-9 days as compared to 92% by private courier services that take up to 10 days.
At the local level, the delivery by speed post is 98% compared to 93% by courier services. While the time taken by speed post is 1-11 days at local level, it is 1-12 days in case of private couriers.
In a report on department of posts, tabled in Parliament recently , the official auditor has said the performance of speed post has been better not only at local level and in major cities, but it is the only reliable service at the tehsil and village level.
To compare the performance and quality of speed post with private courier agencies for delivery of mails, a test check was conducted by CAG in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. Checks were conducted by posting hundreds of letters.
At the tehsil level, only speed post could reach 100% addressees that too within 1-7 days. Private couriers could deliver only 83% letters and the time ranged from 1-23 days.
Speed post was introduced in 1986 to provide a faster and time-bound mail delivery service in major cities. However, due to late delivery of mails people had stopped relying on the department. But the auditor says the perception is wrong and speed post still remains most reliable and account for more than 10% of the total revenue of the DoP.

Dec 09 2014 : The Economic Times (Delhi)

Facebook, Twitter Current Status: Hirers are Watching You Closely

Sneha Shah & Rica Bhattacharyya

Mumbai





Prospective employees who post radical views on various subjects, get tagged in inappropriate pictures face risk of rejection

Sachin Keshav's (name changed) rile about a past employer on his Facebook page might have earned him many likes and forwards, but it has spoilt his chances of landing a better job next time.Keshav, a mid-level employee of an information technology firm, is among scores of prospective employees whose Facebook and Twitter accounts are under close employer scrutiny. Candidates who post radical views on various subjects apart from negative comments about previous employers face the risk of never being called for an interview or receiving job offers. Having a clean image on social media is equally important, according to executive search industry experts.
“A profile on a social medium like Facebook is normally woven in with traditional recruiting programmes. This helps HR personnel to do background checks and screen profiles of potential recruits,“ says Manoj Biswas, managing director, HR for Accenture in India.
Though Facebook is meant to be a leisure activity, it is important to keep a professional profile while looking out for a job. “Employers, to a great extent, have second thoughts on an individual who appears to be insensitive and tactless on such an open forum,“ says Biswas.
While more than 90% of hiring managers use professional networking site LinkedIn as a tool to source candidates, in certain industry sectors, such as IT, more than 50% of hiring managers scan candidates' profiles on Facebook and Twitter before shortlisting them.
“An online scan does not just save time, but also helps get an insight into the candidates' personality traits which is critical for assessing their cultural fit with the organisation,“ says Prashanth Nair, managing partner and country head of Inhelm Leadership Solutions, a global headhunting firm.
According to Nair, even blogs and comments on various public groups are scanned. Everything on social networking sites -being tagged in inappropriate pictures, communication skills in comments and blog posts, negative comments on an issue, comment bombing or having an opinion on everything, friends and followers and even the posts shared -can come in the way of prospective employment with a company .
Such scanning of social networking sites could be mostly for role-specific hiring for managers at the middle level though not for CXO-level hiring as most of them are not present on FB, says Sinosh Panicker, associate principal at executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles. However, Rohit Karnatak, senior director, Asia for Pinkerton, a corporate risk management services provider, says there are cases of such scanning even for senior and top-level hiring.
“A firm is more worried about the image the top-level executive will create about the company and hence such checks are rampant in that league,“ he says.
“People should be careful of not sharing information online that the company treats as confidential, controversial or proprietary, no matter how exciting it is -even long after leaving the organisation,“ says Karnatak.
Karnatak's firm, which helps companies perform background verification checks on candidates, has seen a steady rise in such mandates. “Earlier if one in every hundred clients asked for such a check to be carried out, today there are ten in hundred. We definitely are witnessing an encouraging upward trend here,“ he says.
There are a couple of other dos on social media networks that prospective employees need to keep in mind.
One: Consistency in information about educational background and employment history. “I did not bother to update my Facebook and LinkedIn about employee history. Some of the information did not match with information provided in the resume. I was almost rejected by my employer had they not sought a clarification,“ says the vice-president of an information technology company.
Two, when using Facebook to land a job, you need to modify your profile so it reads like a resume. It is imperative to list your education, former employers and volunteer organisations you have worked for. “This gives the employer an overview into the kind of work you previously performed as well as some credentials,“ says Biswas.
Importantly, keep pictures on your profile to the bare minimum. You can also highlight your accomplishments through some good photographs. Ensure that the captions are concise and adequate.
Expect the employer to read your profile, and edit it carefully. Make it professional, informative and well written. “Networking has always played an important role for job seekers. Social media just takes traditional networking to a new technological level,“ says Biswas.
Besides “behaving well“ on public social networking sites it is important to keep your privacy settings in place. Also, you need to search your name on search engines from time to time to see what comes up.
It's not just enough to walk tall in the real world. What you do, say, and above all, how you project yourself in the online world is key.

Aug 14 2014 : The Economic Times (Delhi)

Researchers Grapple with Ethics of Studying Users

@The New York Times





Scientists can now analyse personal data on millions of people online without their knowledge, and some want to bring ethical guidelines to such studies, writes Vindu Goel

Scholars are exhilarated by the prospect of tap ping into the vast troves of personal data collected by Facebook, Google, Amazon and a host of startups, which they say could transform social science research.Once forced to conduct painstaking personal interviews with subjects, scientists can now sit at a screen and instantly play with the digital experiences of millions of internet users.
It's the frontier of social science -experiments on people who may never even know they are subjects of study , let alone explicitly consent.
Scholars are exhilarated by the prospect of tapping into the vast troves of personal data collected by Facebook, Google, Amazon and a host of startups, which they say could transform social science research.
Once forced to conduct painstaking personal interviews with subjects, scientists can now sit at a screen and instantly play with the digital experiences of millions of internet users.
It's the frontier of social science -experiments on people who may never even know they are subjects of study , let alone explicitly consent.
“This is a new era,“ said Jeffrey T Hancock, a Cornell University professor. “I liken it a little bit to when chemistry got the microscope.“
But the new era has brought some controversy with it. Hancock was a co-author of the Facebook study in which the social network quietly manipulated the news feeds of nearly 700,000 people to learn how the changes affected their emotions. When the research was published in June, the outrage was immediate.
Now Hancock and other university and corporate researchers are grappling with how to create ethical guidelines for this kind of research.
In his first interview since the Facebook study was made public, Hancock said he would help develop such guidelines by leading a series of discussions among academics, corporate researchers and government agencies.
Scholars from the MIT and Stanford are planning panels and conferences on the topic, and several academic journals are working on special issues devoted to ethics.
Microsoft Research, a quasi-independent arm of the software company, hosted a panel last month on the Facebook research with Hancock and is offering a software tool to scholars to help them quickly survey consumers about the ethics of a project in its early stages.
Much of the research done by the internet companies is in-house and aimed at product adjustments, like whether people prefer news articles or cat videos in their Facebook feeds or how to make Google's search results more accurate.
But bigger social questions are studied as well, often in partnership with academic institutions, and scientists are eager to conduct even more ambitious research.
The Facebook emotion experiment was in that vein. The brainchild of a company data scientist, Adam DI Kramer, but shaped and analysed with help from Hancock and another academic researcher, Jamie E Guillory , it was intended to shed light on how emotions spread through large populations.
Such testing raises fundamental questions. What types of experiments are so intrusive that they need prior consent or prompt disclosure after the fact? How do companies make sure that customers have a clear understanding of how their personal information might be used? Who even decides what the rules should be?
Existing US federal rules governing research on human subjects, intended for medical research, generally require consent from those studied unless the potential for harm is minimal.
Mary L Gray , a senior researcher at Microsoft Research and associate professor at Indiana University , said that too often, researchers conducting digital experiments work in isolation with little outside guidance.
Gray advocates a simple litmus test for researchers: If you're afraid to ask your subjects for their permission to conduct the research, there's probably a deeper ethical issue that must be considered.

Jul 08 2014 : The Economic Times (Delhi)

Social Media to Guide Govt's Policy Matters

NEW DELHI OUR POLITICAL BUREAU





If you are the world's third most followed leader on Twitter, and have 18.8 million `likes' on Facebook, the t internet not only has to be the centre of your governance model, but it also has to be the key means to interact with the public, listen to their views and, wherever possible, redress their grievances too. This is what Prime Minister Narendra Modi is keen on doing now. People interested in sending their grievances, feedback and messages to Modi will soon have a dedicated forum to do so.
The BJP's IT cell is in the process of creating at least two dedicated ids for people to send in suggestions to the Prime Minister's Office.Considered part of the Prime Minister's `Social Media in Nation Building,' the IDs will have a dedicated team monitoring the letters which will be forwarded to he PMO once in 15 days.
“We want to leverage the power of social media for healthy interaction be ween the government and people. We are in the process of setting up a strong server for the systems to start receiving emails,“ said Vinit Goenka, National Co-Convener, BJP IT Cell.Depending on the nature of he letters, they will be forwarded to the respective cell n the PMO and acknowledged with replies, Goenka added. The mails could range from feedback to schemes to major grievance against policy decisions.
Goenka said the grievance redress system was not con ined to emails alone. “All BJP offices have been asked o get a grievance cell up and running, and collect letters of feedback and complaints rom people and send it to us. We can forward them to he PMO,“ Goenka said.