FN: Frederick Noronha’s blog

Vavraddeancho Ixtt, the only Konkani weekly THAT HAS BEEN IN CONTINUOUS PUBLICATION since 1933, CONCLUDES its platinum jubilee
celebrations with a special closing ceremony function ON COMING MONDAY.

In 1933 Vauraddeancho Ixtt, a Konknni weekly was started by Fr. Arsencio   Fernandes and Fr.Graciano Moraes. It is still run by the Pilar Society till date.  Today Vauraddeancho Ixtt is the only weekly of its kind published in this script and language.

AT A FUNCTION TO BE HELD on December 22, 2008 at Pilar Seminary Annexe at 4 pm, GOA’S REVENUE Minister Jose Philip D’Souza will be the chief guest for the function while editor of Renovocao and Diocesan Centre for Social Communications Media, Fr Francisco Caldeira will be the guest of honour. The Superior General of the Society of Pilar, Fr Tony Lopes will preside.

On the occasion, V Ixtt awards will be distributed to several Konkani writers and those who have contributed towards the Konkani language and Goan culture. Besides, young Konkani writers and social activists, who have been closely associated with the Konkani weekly and Goa, will also be felicitated.

Prizes will be distributed to the winners of various competitions conducted during the V Ixtt platinum jubilee celebrations.

The highlights of the programme will include the release of the special issue, almanac and the launch of the new ‘V Ixtt‘ supplement. The cultural programme will comprise of platinum jubilee song, violin instrumental with piano accompaniment, raag, comedy skit, dance and a mando.

The programme is open for the general public.

Started in 1933 as the Church attempted to retain its links with the workers in a world fast turning secularised and politicised, the weekly was to reach out the working class and people at the grassroots to educate, inform and educate them on issues like “Communism vis-a-vis religion”.

However, over the years, and as it gained wider popularity, the scope extended to the coverage of social, political, cultural and religious themes. V Ixtt can boast of a glorious past as one weekly that provided news and views that satisfied the reading appetite of a large readership in Goa   and Mumbai.

Having run by priests and the Society of Pilar, its credibility  and respect always remained consistent. In recent years, its editors have been young priests of the Society of Pilar, like Fr Peter Raposo and Fr Feroz Fernandes, who managed the publication while in their 20s and 30s.

Ixtt’s contribution to the freedom movement of Goa is worth the mention.

Ixtt under the aegis of the Society of Pilar followed a line of thought  closer to the aspiration of the freedom movement of our Motherland India and Goa. It was on the Vespers of the independence of India that V Ixtt began to publish from the precincts of the old Monastery of Pilar, where its editorial office and press was housed.

The weekly enjoyed quite good freedom to express itself without rigorous Portuguese censorship upto the early 50’s. However, the picture started  changing after the Liberation of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and the freedom struggle movement to liberate Goa from the clutches of the Portuguese.

“During this period, the Press buckled under the pressures of rigorous  Portuguese censorship. Nothing could be published in Goa without getting it censored by the Portuguese Police with the rubber-stamp of approval that read ‘Visado pela censura’ (Seen by the Censor),” says former editor Fr Peter Raposo, in an essay tracing the history of Romi Konkani journalism in Goa.

Ixtt, under the editorship first of Fr. Conceicao Rodrigues (1944-54) and later of Fr. Jeronimo Pereira (1954-69), had to face insurmountable pressures to toe the Portuguese line. In order to survive most of the times, Ixtt maintained silence towards the policies of Salazar the Portuguese dictator without however openly
criticizing the Portuguese Government, which would be suicidal.

But this silence itself was construed as opposition to the Portuguese Sovereignty in Goa.

On August 12, 1961, three months before the liberation of Goa, the Governor Vassalo da Silva, by his decree, suspended the publication of Ixtt for 90   days as a punishment for not being patriotic towards Portugal and showing  pro-India tendencies. Thus Ixtt was the only paper of Goa which remained   firm and suffered for its nationalistic aspirations.

Today Ixtt still continues to be popular.  At present Ixtt has almost 7000 regular subscribers and in fact this number is increasing. Ixtt was online since 1999 sharing a link on Goacom.com, today it has its own website (http://www.v-ixtt.com).

Tags: Ixtt, Konkani, newspapers, Goa

Some views I presented in some corner of cyberspace:

The editor-writer relationship is a crucial one, close yet fraught with misunderstandings.

Before burning bridges, we need to evaluate carefully whether it’s worth it.

Personally, I would prefer to keep quiet when something doesn’t work, rather than to come across as someone who is “complicated to work with”.

There *are no* standards to go by, more so when we try to span different worlds — the commercial and the non-commercial, India and North America, Goa and her diaspora, print and cyberspace.

The approach that works for me is to try and be flexible with my editors. (I hope writers treat me similarly when I don the editorial cap occasionally. With writers, I try to be accomodative, and to pay them with gratitude and feedback when I can’t do so with money.) If things turn too bad, then I would follow the Biblical dictum of wiping the dust of my feet and moving on. (Look who’s quoting….)

Tags: journalism, media, editors

Joel’s pictures on Flickr.com … got some interesting links via this page: http://www.flickr.com/people/52243088@N00/

Links to some interesting groups here:

Joel’s Goa Pics’ public groups

Tags: photos, goa, flickr

Has anyone of you run into the new GEO? Vol I Issue I is just out, and available at Varsha’s (Panjim). Probably elsewhere too.

GEO is a German magazine, for the first time being published in English, and that too in India. I could call it a German National Geographic, but it’s probably better. The photographs are superb. Take a look at the “mouse lolly” below, and zoom in to read the caption!

What was a pleasant surprise was to see GoaWriter Himanshu Burte’s article prominently displayed. Nice piece, fantastic images. Himanshu’s article is about the “Trading Places”. He writes: “The extraordinary architecture of three of India’s most distinctive trading communities tells a rich and evocative story about the power of pleasure and the pleasures of power on the cusp of modernity.” Nice visual tourism of Shekhawati, Bohra land, and Chettinadu.

It’s a good investment of your hundred rupees. Specially, if like me, you too prefer to experiment with Vol I Issue I numbers when they come out. I liked GEO.

Tags: publishing, india, magazines, GEO

Just received the March 2007 issue of CRITIQUE (‘A review of Indian journalism’) edited by my long-time-friend-whom-I’ve -never-met Alok Tiwari of Nagpur.

This issue has a striking cover depicting a prominent Indian editor of the ’seventies and ‘eighties, Shamlal. “There was no editor like him, and there would never be another one in the same league. Shamlal’s demise leaves the heavily de-intellectualised journalistic world (in India) much poorer.”

The cover story is on Page 10, and also includes tributes on Page 12 to 17. It is titled “Death of an Editor”. Says the intro to this article: “When the editor Sham Lal died many journalist also saw their own death in that process. They realized that the newspapers for which they give their working lives have no use for them the moment they step out of their working premises.”

Writes Vinod Mehta, another editor whose work I admire: “What is the difference between the (Indian) editor of the 1970s and 2007? Simple yet profound. The 1970s editor clocked in at 10 and clocked out at 6.30. He read voraciously, talked to like-minded friends and scholars, furiously debated issues, checked and re-checked information for veracity and poured out the distilled wisdom onto the Edit Page. He did not make speeches at seminars, anchor TV shows, visit cocktail parties, take part in book discussions, judge fashion shows, wear sharp clothes. The editor was not yet a celebrity. He was neither seen nor heard. He was just read….”

Other articles from this issue:

* Shame on the Indian media
* Seven media workers killed in Lanka
* Avoid cross fire, RSF tells Indian journos
* SEBI no to Independent’s higher stake in Jagran
* Editor’s guild condemns ULFA
* Three Iranian journos on way to India held
* Blackstone group gets stake in Eenadu
* IFJ skcampaign to free Lankan journalist
* ‘Editorial side must remain independent’ — Die Zelt deputy editor
* South Asia Free Media Assn for relaxed visa regime
* Caltas Fitness acquires Cinemaya
* Press Commission set up for India
* TOI: the most exciting media brand
* Booming economy (but) poor business journalism: Superficial coverage abounds as ‘pink’ papers step in.
* In Mumbai (Bombay), India’s financial and media capital, the Hindustan Times has launched its financial journal Mint, while Metro Now is a joint venture between former rivals Bennett, Coleman and Co and HT Media Limited.
* The business of it all.
* Censorship is state control of private life: But Indian art tradition treats sex with respect.
* First person: The bank robber who met literary deadlines Peter Wayne on Jean Genet’s Thief’s Journal
* Mere news gets stale: Independent turns a viewspaper.
* Indian politician George Fernandes spikes Bofors.

For subscription and other details: critiquejr@hotmail.com critiquejr@yahoo.com

See cover of the latest issue:
http://flickr.com/photos/fn-goa/487912874/

Title: Professional’s The Right to Information Act, 2005 (22 of 2005)
Publisher: Professional Book Publishers
Genre(s): Law/Bare Act
Price: Rs 45 Year Of Publication: 2006
Reviewed by FN http://fn.goa-india.org

This 53-page booklet contains the ‘bare act’ of India’s fairly new Right to Information, a law that has evoked a lot of expectations among society here.Besides the six chapters of the RtI Act itself, it also contains relevant excerpts from other laws and rules.

There are the rules on the ‘regulation of fee and costs’ of the RtI act (how much you should pay, the Central Information Commission (Appeal Procedure) Rules on how you need to get redress when the government doesn’t release information, the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha parallel rules on fees and costs, the postal address of the Central Information Commission, an eight-page list of Central public information officers, and a contrast with the colonial-framed Indian Official Secrets Act, 1923.

This reasonably priced book is what you need, if you want the basics about the RtI Act of India. I picked up a copy without hesitation, beause the officially-sold bare act — with no frills — of the law alone in Goa cost Rs 40 just a little while ago! Fortunately, now the selling price of this government publication here has been reduced to a more nominal figure (after citizens raised the issue).

For those wanting a brief introduction to a potentially-useful law, this privately-published booklet is worth a reference or a buy. For those in Goa, you might still get a copy from the Shri Nagesh Book Agency at the Saraswati Mandir Building.

Title: Universal’s Handbook on The Right to Information Act 2005
Author: P K Das
Publisher: Universal Law Publishing Co
ISBN: 81-7534-476-8
Price: Rs 350
Pages: 460+xvi pp
Genre(s): Law/Bare Acts
Reviewed by: FN http://fn.goa-india.org

Another of those compiliations, on India’s relatively new Right to Information Act, ironically, filling in a gap of not-so-easy-to-access official information on this topic. This is a thicker version of other “bare acts” (as the plain-text of the law is called), and contains a lot of details and parallel laws.

Apart from the Right to Information Act of 2005 itself, it contains laws like the Official Secrets Act of 1923, the Public Records Act of 1993, the Freedom of Information Act of 2002, Supreme Court judgements on the Right to Information, varied State laws (including Goa’s) on the RtI, related rules, and more.

It’s comprehensive, neatly printed, and fairly slickly produced. After a 14-page brief introduction, it goes straight to the laws. A large chunk of the book is devoted to the Supreme Court’s and High Courts’ decisions on the RtI.

One section that strikes you as being particularly useful is the ’specimen forms for obtaining informations’ (sic).

But overall, this seems a rather lawyer-focussed book… or, at best, one meant at the ’serious information activist’. If you believe that you need to understand the logic of this law and related laws, then it might be worth an investment. It makes you wonder though why such useful information couldn’t be made available via, say, cyberspace … still an elitist media in a country like India maybe … but at least one that connects a scattered-but-growing number of people across the length and breath of the country (and beyond)!

Congrats to our colleague Satish Kashinath Naik whose daughter Manasi marries Shardul on Nov 7, 2006 at Mahalsa Temple. I knew Satish’s kids… Manasi and Harsh… as real kids. To rag me, Satish would prompt Harsh to call me “Father”. Which he would do dutifully This was maybe a decade-and-half ago. Recently, I learnt that Harsh was the classmate of a friend studying electronics. How time flies all the more reason to use it wisely… Here’s wishing Satish, his wife and the family all the best.

A comment on the recent death of journalist Umesh Mahambre (GUJ
president and Navhind Times chief reporter), with some perspectives on
the media in Goa:
http://puggy.symonds.net/pipermail/goajourno/2006-October/002953.html

You’ve probably heard about OCW, or open courseware. This is the MIT’s attempt at putting out into the public all its course material. For sharing among anyone who wants/needs it (under certain conditions).

If you are a media educator, or even just need to know more about this for your own study, then do visit:
http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Writing-and-Humanistic-Studies/index.htm

Also take a look at this very interesting set of photography
resources: links

Priya Shah, a student from Mumbai, writes in to say that she is currently studying her last year in Bachelors of Mass Media (majoring in advertising) from the K. C College in Mumbai. She adds:

One of the subjects that is taught to us Advertising in Contemporary Society. The Group Project that has been assigned to us for this subject is as follows. We have to study the geographical, social and culture issues in Madgaon (Margao) and Panjim and how they effect advertising and visa- verse. It would be very kind of you if you could also assist us in who we cold talk to regarding radio, TV and Internet advertising in Goa.

Sounds interesting. This is one project that could throw up some useful insights on a little-studied subject.

A young friend (from our local GNU/Linux users’ group in Goa asked me the question, “So how do I write a review?” In return, I pointed him to Slashdot’s guidelines for writing reviews.

But, while searching around, I also came across this fascinating section dealing with O’Reilly’s open books. A very interesting concept.

O’Reilly — a US-based publishing firm that offers it’s latest books to Free Software user groups and members willing to review them — explains it thus: “O’Reilly has published a number of Open Books–books with various forms of “open” copyright–over the years. The reasons for “opening” copyright, as well as the specific license agreements under which they are opened, are as varied as our authors. Perhaps a book was outdated enough to be put out of print, yet some people still needed the information it covered. Or the author or subject of a book felt strongly that it should be published under a particular open copyright. Maybe the book was written collectively by a particular community, as in the case of our Community Press books.

And here’s a very interesting book, Dan Gilmore’s We the Media: Grassroots Journalism By the People, For the People.

This book is described thus: “In We the Media, nationally acclaimed newspaper columnist and blogger Dan Gillmor shows how anyone can produce the news, using personal blogs, Internet chat groups, email, and a host of other tools. He tells the story of this emerging phenomenon and sheds light on this deep shift in how we make — and consume — the news. Journalism in the 21st century will be fundamentally different from the Big Media oligarchy that prevails today. We the Media casts light on the future of journalism, and invites us all to be part of it.”

On Wednesday evening (July 12, 2006), the Goa office of the Comptroller and Auditor General released its annual report for the year-ended March 31, 2005. A hurried overview (while not claiming to be comprehensive) of what the report says is here on Goanet.

This morning (July 13), it was interesting to see the response this story got from the mainstream media in Goa. Given that papers and presspersons have been heavily politicised in recent years — they always were, but this activity took on a new high under the Parrikar regime — the slants were clearly showing.

Herald aka oHeraldo, struggling to maintain its role as a inconsistently critical paper (needing to be critical of the current Congress ruling establishment, but also someone as influential as ex-CM Manohar Parrikar, seen by many here as a CM-in-waiting), puts it about the most bluntly.

Its lead-item, that dominates three-fourths of the top-half of its front-page, says, IFFI’04: CAG nails Parrikar. Financial irregularities involving crores come to light. Another top-of-the-page single column notes that the CAG report raps cops.

Herald adds some background to say: “The expenditure by the Manohar Parrikar government has drawn a lot of controversy and opposition from the public, because of the huge expenditure involved. The CAG report confirms these wasteful expenditure in all areas and states that “huge expenditure was incurred in haste by-passing established tendering procedures, allowing inflated projections to be passed without adequate checks, passing exorbitant costs on consultants/contractors and architects though they lacked justification and transparency.”

It has specific highlights showing what the CAG says about wastage of money — large sums of it — on the obviously-questionable cine-multiplex Inox deal, raod works, road package works, consultants, the contractor and the restorations and upgraded of the Kala Academy.

The Navhind Times, for long Goa’s dominant newspaper player but seeing erosion in that postion coupled with fears of a Times of India. entry into the local market in Goa, had this story: IFFI-2004: CAG pulls skeletons out of government cupboard.

It’s an amazing 26-para report, with a lot of details, but which doesn’t once mention the name of Manohar Parrikar. This means forgetting the politician who staked his reputation in getting IFFI2004 adamantly done his way, and claimed credit for it too. In para 25, there’s just a reference to “the then chief minister of Goa”.

Gomantak Times, owned by the family of the Maratha strongman Nationalist Congress Party politician Sharadrao Pawar, carries the story as a smallish two-column on the bottom of Page 1, titled “IFFI-04: GSIDC plays ‘villain’ in CAG report. Rapped for wastage of funds.”

GT, as the paper is called, has been doing some interesting stories on some issues in recent times. Unfortunately it doesn’t have a website, and simply gave up trying to maintain its presence in cyberspace perhaps not long after the web-savvy former editor Ashwin Tombat ceased being at that slot.

Sunaparant, Goa’s lone Konkani daily paper (though not a widely-read one), plays down the story to a three-column item, with its headline just peeking above the ‘fold’. It talks about the wastages in creating infrastructure for IFFI2004, and leaves it to the reader to recall the politics behind this particular event. Interestingly, Sunaparant’s main story for the day is about how every house in Goa will get hi-tech, with 10MB connections by March. Am I just too skeptical, or do we have an infinite capacity to buy hype?

Navprabha, the Marathi-language sister publication of The Navhind Times, carries CAG as the top-of-the-page 1 story, with a red-coloured headline, but in a smaller size. It reads: “04chya IFFImulay 13 kotichi fatka’.

Tarun Bharat, an earlier Belgaum-based paper now with a Porvorim office and considered the closest to the BJP (till recently, see more on this below), has two-thirds of its front-page still devoted to the Mumbai blasts, a couple of days after the event. The remaining one-third goes to a report on a pro-Marathi meet in Panjim on July 15, Rane’s talk of a law against communalism, and an attack in Porvorim. Poor CAG and all the work put it; it only makes it to Page 3, with a bland heading that IFFI2004 lead to “vaifal kharcha”.

Gomantak, the Marathi sister-publication of the Gomantak Times, with the Pawar link too, in contrast, makes this a Page 1 lead story, with a large-sized headline. It describes the IFFI2004 expenditure as “aanathiya kharcha”.

Recently-launched Gova Doot has been perceived as a front-publication for the BJP, a perspective it has strongly sought to deny, has space for the Mumbai blasts (with an Advani photo thrown-in) to dominate half its frontpage, Other stories promise a heavy anti-English protest on July 15, and other stories emerging out of the legislative assembly.

In an unsual policy on news-priorities, the paper gives ex-CM Parrikar a two-column space to refute the CAG report, even before details of the CAG story are to adequately reach their readers. Parrikar claims there is not a single allegation of corruption or misuse of office. Yeah? Who’s telling whom?

These are procedural lapses, says he. He also argues that his government was not in power for the full tenure which was being looked at by the CAG. By afternoon, 13:41:11 on July 13, 2006, Parrikar tells us through the SMS-based DigitalGoa.com service that the “CAG report is manipulated by Cong govt by not providing adequate information. Governor is also party to it during President’s Rule.” And you thought Goa’s former CM didn’t know how to build up stunning arguments whenever needed to get out of the hot water?

More than the CAG report itself, the responses to it are rather telling.

Now, here’s wishing that this organisation gets its Goa website up in the one-month promised period. Such issues, whether they expose the misdeeds of past rulers or present ones (and you can surely expect the Congress-NCP to leave a deep trail behind!) need a closer look.

One regret is that rulers in Goa become ex-rulers speedily, thanks to political instability. But should this fact allow them to get off the hook so easily?

For earlier posts related to the themes on the media in Goa, please visit http://patrakar.blogspot.com.

You can find posts, among others, to Prasun Sonwalkar, Pamela D’Mello on the economics of watching the football World Cup in Goa, the debate about pensions among journos in Goa, Times of India, Vijay Times and the rumour mill… and more.

This report is about a recent meeting of the Goa press accreditation committee.