BlackBerry Messenger has been cited as the main organisational tool for the London riots, with Tottenham MP David Lammy even suggesting it be shut down until order is restored. Research in Motion has had previous run-ins with the law in India, as Prashant Iyengar explained in this article for Index on Censorship magazine in June
Shalabh Mani Tripathi, Bureau Chief of Hindi news channel IBN, has claimed that he was beaten by police for his reporting on a medical officer found dead in a jail hospital. Tripathi alleges that he was dragged into a car, interrogated about his “wrong and sensational” reports and beaten. Journalists in Lucknow protested outside the Chief Minister’s residence until it was announced that the officers involved had been suspended pending further investigations.
Jyotirmoy Dey, the investigations editor for the daily paper Mid day based in Mumbai was shot dead by four men on 11 June. He had recently written a piece on an oil mafia that had been selling tainted fuel. Dey was cremated on Sunday 12 June and police are currently investigating the incident.
For almost 20 years, artist MF Husain was threatened and his work abused. Salil Tripathi says goodbye to a controversial and spell-binding master (more…)