Scanning through Google News before class, I noticed a piece about the “Indianisation” of the Catholic Church in India. I didn’t have time to read the whole thing before lecture started, but I kept it in a Mozilla tab because the issue of how the Roman Catholic Church, known for its inflexibility in many respects, has been adapted to other parts of the world (as with the frequency of marriage among African priests) interests me. However, when I refreshed the page later, the article, “Going the Desi Way”, had disappeared — it still shows on Google, but nowhere else. What’s more, the URL now carried a message that was on every page of the site:
Subsequent to the notices issued by the Mumbai Police to the Publisher and Editor of Mumbai Mirror and in view of the sentiments expressed by some activist NGOs pertaining to the contents in the November 12- 18 issue of Mumbai Mirror Buzz magazine, we have requested the venders and distributors of the magazine as well as our own sales colleagues to stop sales of this issue, and to return the undistributed material back to us.
One last bit of Googling explained it all: the publisher of the magazine has been charged with violations of the Indian Penal Code and Young Persons (Harmful Publications) Act, as well as the Press and Registration of Books Act for failing to publish the names of printer, place of printing and name of publisher in the magazine. The arrest is being viewed as part of a general morality campaign to change the popular perception of Mumbai. Apparently a college professor also has filed a lawsuit against the newspaper.
I don’t consider a sex survey under the headline “Mercury Rising: How hot is Mumbai?” to be an example of journalistic greatness, and suspect that the recently-launched Mirror may be deliberately courting controversy to gain readers. The main objection to the insert, after all, was not to the survey itself — which was featured in the Mirror’s sister publication, The Times of India, to little objection — but to the pictures that were published with it. I don’t think Woodward and Bernstein would have gotten tripped up like this in their pursuit of unwanted truths.
At the same time [insert standard defense of freedom of press and attack on prudery of authority figures]. I oppose having governmental machinery come down on the press for such cases, not least because it only gives rise to more attempts at pushing the envelope once the publisher is released, the fine paid and business back to usual.
