It isn't clear if Rajan Narayan was forced to resign or he resigned because his column, Stray Thoughts, was stopped by the management. Is Herald No. 1 paper in the state as Rajan claims? I always felt that Navhind Times was ahead of Herald in circulation. If at all Herald is leading, I would be keen to know since what year. Are papers in Goa audited by an independent agency or rely on print runs? Narayan himself may be guilt of playing politics. Now that he is a victim of it, I am not sure how many will rally to his cause. Why did the Herald management buckle under pressure? No govt. ads or for some other reasons. I remember even the Bandodkar govt was not releasing ads to Uzvadd under Evagrio Jorge. Not sure if Jorge resigned under pressure or if he was forced out. Newspapers often come under government pressure, including here in Canada. When the National Post was taken over by the CanWest Group, which is supporter of the Liberals, its editor, Ken Whyte, a right-winger, faced a dilemma. Ultimately, he was forced out. The National Post was started by Conrad Black, who owns The Telegraph in England, and other papers. He is a Tory. The paper lost lot of money and Black had little option but to sell. I hope Narayan succeeds in his new venture. There has been weeklies in Goa before and most of the went under. I am not sure if there's one now. If the government excercises undue power over the newspapers, it's a bad omen for journalism in the state. How to fight such intrusion and interference is a problem for management. Unfortunately, journalists get sandwiched in between. Most of them have loyaltiies to the profession. Only a few are there for reasons other than journalism. As an editor, the temptation to be wooed by government officials through their largesse is great. If one falls for such temptation and makes personal gain, then the objective of journalism suffers. How many before Narayan have been subjected to such pressure and, ultimately, firing should be detailed by the journalists union. An independent study would also be welcomed into such incidences.
Eugene Correia __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com ########################################################################## # Send submissions for Goanet to [EMAIL PROTECTED] # # PLEASE remember to stay on-topic (related to Goa), and avoid top-posts # # More details on Goanet at http://joingoanet.shorturl.com/ # # Please keep your discussion/tone polite, to reflect respect to others # ##########################################################################
