More than three dozen journalists were temporarily detained and, in some cases, assaulted while covering protests against Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar over allegations of voter-list manipulation, in Delhi, Ahmedabad and Pune on October 10 and 11, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). The non-profit organisation said that at least 39 journalists were detained in New Delhi, where the main protests broke out, over the course of two days, based on its review of news reports, direct interviews, and verified social media posts by editors, journalists and their newsrooms.
As per the report, the Delhi Police, on October 10, temporarily detained Scroll’s Ayush Tiwari and Shoaib Daniyal; Business Standard’s Anushka Bhardwaj; Newslaundry reporters Ashwine Kumar Singh, Astha Savyasachi and Anmol Pritam and intern Anshu; Reuters’ Saurabh Sharma; Navbharat Times’ Hritik Joshi and Rahul Charas; BOOM’s Jagriti Trisha; Shivang Shukla of Mo, India Today’s digital video platform; Molitics’ Amaan Rastogi; The Quint’s Sarthak Jaiswal; Reporter TV’s Roshni Rajan and Farza T.M.; independent journalists Shrishti Khanna and Prashant Pundir; No Noise Stories’ Vivek Gupta; and Alt News intern Agniva Ray. Most of them were carrying press cards, it said.
Four more journalists were detained while covering solidarity protests in other cities, including Alt News correspondent Kinjal in Ahmedabad and Scroll’s Divya Aslesha in Pune on October 10. In Mumbai, police detained The Quint’s Swati Chopra and Mohit Manwani at Shivaji Park on October 11, while they covered a solidarity protest, it said. (TH / 17 Oct.)
The Press Council of India (PCI) has issued detailed guidelines to facilitate “orderly and effective coverage of protests and demonstrations”, while promoting safety of media personnel, responsible reporting, and better coordination among journalists, media organisations, and law enforcement authorities.
The guidelines advise journalists to
- Visibly display a valid press identity card issued by their media organisation, or a valid Press Information Bureau (PIB) accreditation card, or a State government Directorate of Information and Publicity accreditation card.
- Ensure, when using a lanyard, that it is worn and secured carefully to minimise the risk of entanglement during crowd movement or confrontations.
- Clearly and calmly identify yourself as a journalist when approached by law enforcement personnel.
- Maintain neutrality and professionalism.
- Do not participate in demonstrations, take sides, provoke confrontations, or interfere with protesters, counter-protesters, or police.
- Maintain a reasonable and safe distance from confrontations, particularly when tensions escalate or police action is anticipated.
- Do not attach cameras or recording equipment to police barricades, vehicles, or other equipment in ways that obstruct movement or damage property.
- Report events accurately, objectively, and impartially.
- Distinguish verified facts from allegations and unconfirmed claims; follow the applicable Norms of Journalistic Conduct on Accuracy and Fairness.
Living Media India Limited, the company that publishes India Today magazine, has won the Supply Chain Innovator Award at the WAN-IFRA Print & Sustainability Awards 2026. The publisher was selected for the award for its “Magazine in Minutes” initiative which delivers print magazines through quick commerce platform, Blinkit. The publisher said the quick commerce channel accounts for more than 10% of its total monthly circulation, and has been recording strong repeat purchases and attracting new customers. The publisher coordinated with Blinkit’s technology, inventory planning and operations teams, and redesigned its processes for issue launches, replenishment, stock availability and demand forecasting, according to a report on Exchange4Media.com.
Several associations of journalists on Wednesday demanded registration of a case against a Delhi police officer for alleged sexual assault on three women journalists at Jantar Mantar. In a joint statement, the Indian Women’s Press Corps, Press Club of India, Delhi Union of Journalists, Press Association, and Kerala Union of Journalists sought an “impartial judicial inquiry” into the charges. “The Delhi police needs to recognise the growing presence of independent journalists running their own channels and pages and having substantial followers. Today, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and X form a major source of news and views. Not all of these journalists, many of them women, have formal accreditation. Yet they should not be denied their right to report through writing, video, or photography due to unreasonable restrictions,” it added.
Is it ok for a newspaper to publish an oped article written with AI? This has become the question of the hour for news people after the writer of a Wall Street Journal oped and the page editor both accepted and defended doing it. The writer simply said, “I write everything using AI now for the same reason I use a calculator when I do math problems.” The paper’s editorial page editor Paul Gigot said, “AI is a fact of modern life…nobody can doubt that his op-ed is his genuine opinion.” However, when Nieman Lab asked editors at 24 prominent newspapers in the US, none of them were willing to follow Gigot down that path. Most of them said some variation of this: “Our audience is paying for the words and thoughts of human beings.”
Columbia University’s journalism school has suspended its M.A. programme, and plans to offer an online course in its place. However, it’s M.S. course in Journalism, which is older than the M.A. and is said to be more ‘foundational’, is still on offer. Jelani Cobb, dean of Columbia Journalism School, said that the administration had “initiat[ed] a critical evaluation” of the M.A. curriculum. “To give this review the focus it deserves, we are temporarily pausing admissions for the upcoming admissions cycle.” Reuters reported that roughly half of enrolled M.A. candidates were international students. Uncertainty in immigration policies and visa challenges under the Trump administration caused “a sharp drop” in international applications to Columbia, and contributed to the program’s pause, the report said.
OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, has reportedly entered into content partnerships with two major news publishers, while deals with two more are said to be in the pipeline. According to a report on Exchange4Media, OpenAI has publicly announced partnerships with Bennett Coleman & Co, publisher of The Times of India and the Economic Times, and with the Indian Express group. The monetary value of the deals has not been disclosed but E4M cited industry estimates of $5 million a year to BCCL and $3 million a year to the Indian Express. Several other publishers are said to have approached OpenAI after this.
Media-state relations are good indicators of the functioning of democracy. In this context, it might be of interest to note that a US district judge has told the Trump administration that the president’s ban on three media outlets was likely unconstitutional. Reuters reports that the judge has ordered the White House to return reporters’ press passes and blocked officials from enforcing the ban for 14 days. He also rejected the government’s assertion that national-security concerns motivated the ban.
Indian Express reveals major rift in Election Commission
The Indian Express, on 23rd September, published a major exposé on the differences within the three-member Election Commission that emerged in recent months, during which it has been carrying out Special Intensive Revision of voter lists. The report cites internal records and interviews with officials to say the Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar on several occasions overruled written objections raised on grounds of legality by the two Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi. The Commission is a constitutional body under Article 324, made up of the Chief Election Commissioner and two Election Commissioners who are equal in rank. The CEC is first among equals and does not have the power to decide alone. Below are some of the revelations:
[…] in May, Joshi had warned on file that [New Voter registration form] Form 6 could not be changed in this manner [i.e., asking whether parents / grandparents of a new voter existed on the voter list of last SIR] without the government amending the rules, and Sandhu had agreed. The change was made anyway.
Sandhu and Joshi have formally objected, on record, at least 14 times over the last 10 months — four times on a single day — to decisions taken and orders issued, they say, without their knowledge.
Joshi and Sandhu wrote separately to the Cabinet Secretary complaining about changes in work allocation that, in effect, removed a layer of oversight of the IT backbone for the electoral rolls.
Last week, the Commission told the court that there were 38 lakh appeals pending before the tribunals: 22.21 lakh filed by deleted voters seeking to be restored. The other 16.10 lakh were filed against voters the judicial officers had included, seeking their deletion. The Commission did not say who filed those. This was the issue flagged by Sandhu — about the Commission appealing against voters whom judicial officers had included. In August, he wrote to Commission officials asking, “Who was authorised to file these appeals on behalf of ECI, and by whom?” and “Who actually filed these appeals on behalf of ECI?” He recorded that neither he nor Joshi nor the current Chief Electoral Officer of West Bengal had been informed about the basis or process of filing the appeals.
Yet another govt. dept. to hire social media agency
The trade and industries department (DPIIT, part of Union Ministry of Commerce) is looking to engage a social-media agency for a period of two years, with the monetary value of the contract pegged at Rs. 4 crore. The selected agency is expected to handle content creation, content response and moderation, campaign management, response management, help-desk support, reporting and analytics. The agency will manage communication in Hindi and English, on platforms including Facebook, X, Instagram, WhatsApp and YouTube. The agency has to develop visual and video resources for DPIIT’s digital communication, including fresh photography and short-form video production involving fresh shoots. (18 Sep.)
The Hindu forgoes Rs. 20 lakh from Dera ad
For The Hindu, the fallout from carrying a full-page disinformation advertisement issued by Dera Sacha Sauda on the front page of its north India editions on 12th September continues. After issuing an apology, the newspaper has reportedly said it would not raise a bill for the ad. The monetary value of the ad has not been disclosed but industry estimates put in the range of Rs. 20 – 25 lakh.