By Rajan Narayan

Worse affected than the electronic media is the independent print media. The Caravan’ is amongst the few independent media being published. Most of them are forced to go online. The most reliable of the online media isThe Wire’ and the `Goan Observer.’

THE ban on 14 anchors by I.N.D.I.A is only the tip of the iceberg. The BJP government under Narendra Modi has even more unfortunately killed the print media. The majority of the literate people in the country rely on the print media for news and views. Even the middle class is aware that the electronic media can be manipulated. There are reportedly as many as 500 electronic channels in the country. The majority of them are either owned or controlled by the BJP government. The BJP party has a big team of “karsevak” to create content for the “godi” (lapdog) media. Even the biggest channels in the country are now controlled by the BJP government and its cronies. NDTV founded by Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy is the oldest and most respected TV channel. It has been taken over by the Reliance group. The promoter of the channel has taken a loan from Mukesh Ambani. Unfortunately, there was a clause which allowed the loan to be converted into shares. Mukesh Ambani bought the company which owned NDTV.
Within days or months all the veteran senior anchors quit NDTV. This included Ravish Kumar who is considered the country’s best Hindi anchor with any integrity and scrupulously crosschecking references before going on record. Ravish Kumar got the Magsaysay award of 2019 for being the fifth best journalist in the world; more recently he was awarded the honorary title for freedom of expression for his critical and independent journalism in India in 2023 on World Press Day. Over 90% of the original staff of the NDTV has now left, including Prannoy and Radhika Roy.

FORCED OUT
CNN18 was controlled by Rajdeep Sardesai and his wife Sagarika Ghosh. CNN18 was taken over by the Adani business group. Both Rajdeep Sardesai and Sangrika were forced to quit. CNN18 has joined what we have come to call the “Godi Media.” India Today’ which claims to be the most reputed TV channel walks the fence. It tries not to antagonize the Modi government. It has even provided Rajdeep Sardesai with a talk show at 10pm at night. Most of the TV anchors who were forced to resign by the Modi government run their own mini-TV stations in the form of YouTube videos. Shekar Kapoor, former Indian Express editor, runsThe Print.’ Recently, Rajdeep Sardesai started his own YouTube video channel called The Straight Bat.’ This is a tribute to his father Dilip Sardesai, originally from Margao, who was part of the Indian cricket team. Rajdeep has a bungalow in Verem where he sometimes visits with his mother Nandini Sardesai. Barkha Dutt, who was the most popular of the NDTV anchors, has her own video channel. Fey Dsouza of theBombay Mirror’ was dismissed by the Times Group. The most popular of the YouTube video channels is that of Ravish Kumar who has more than a million followers and his readership continues to grow.

LITTLE INDEPENDENT MEDIA
THERE is hardly any independent print media left. The Time of India’ which claims to be the largest paper in circulation is completely for Modi and pro-government. This ensures that it gets a very large number of government advertisement revenue. It is the government ads which enables it to sell at Rs4 now. In contrast the oldest English paper in Goa,The Navhind Times’ is forced to charge Rs10 per copy.
The reason why print media is so expensive is because of the huge GST imposed on it. There is 27% GST on printing. In addition, there is a 28% GST on paper. Advertisements attract a 5% GST. If you take the dealer’s margin of 30% into consideration the cost of printing a paper is more than the sale price. The majority of newspapers in the country which do not get government support have reduced their print order drastically. Whatever may be their claims no newspaper in Goa prints more than 10,000 copies. Most of them rely on their online editions.
The independent papers like the Indian Express’ have survived because of the generosity of the then Janata government which was created by Jayaprakash Narayan after the Emergency. It was pointed out to Jayaprakash that print newspapers could not survive without government ads. If the government was hostile the newspaper would not be able to meet the cost. The then Janata government gave large amounts of land to the main newspapers in the country and allowed them to build 25-storyed skyscrapers. Both theIndian Express’ and Free Press Journal’ in Mumbai have benefited and have 25-storeyed building office premises with penthouses.The Times of India’ in Delhi and other papers were also given land to build huge offices. It is rent from these buildings that sustains newspapers like the Indian Express’ andThe Hindu’ in today’s times.

ROLE OF ADVERTISING
PRINT media which opposes the government like the Caravan’ in Kolkata are harassed by the Income-Tax Department and Enforcement Directorate. Except for the Godi Media independent media does not get government advertising. You can see this happening even in Goa. Of all the daily newspapers in Goa, the only one which gets a large amount of Centre and State government advertising is theTimes of India.’ The Navhind Times’ survives on classified ads and government notices, Catholic obituary advertisements and also benefits from birthday ads of Catholic politicians. One of its main strengths is tiatr or local ads. Till 2018 our political weeklyGoan Observer’ enjoyed the patronage of both government and private sectors. When Chief Minister Digambar Kamat was in power as Congress chief minister, Goan Observer’ got government ads and also books to print.Goan Observer’ had the privilege of writing and printing an exhaustive book The Liberation of Goa.’ However with the entry of the BJP government even most of our private ads in theGoan Observer’ were stopped or dried up or became very minimal, a lot of our advertising was stopped because of the harassment of the government.
The punishing GST on casinos will further affect the Goan news media. The only reliable source of news is the video channels started by former anchors. The most reliable online newspaper is The Wire’ started by former editor ofThe Hindu’ Siddharth Varadarajan. Some of the most senior journalists who were forced to resign are now with The Wire.’ Goan Observer’ is always been the most independent publication in Goa. We started in 2003 and in our second issue called Babush Monserrate the “monster rat” manipulating Goan politics. We have never backed away from exposing scandals. Today, we desperately need your help to stay alive and kicking to survive. All that we need is a donation or a fixed deposit of Rs10,000 a year. We hope that at least a hundred people who backed Rajan Narayan when he was editing the `Oheraldo’ in the 1980s and 1990s will help us out. They may deposit their contribution in our bank account, our bank details are below: