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Newswatch has launched a project that will track down news stories that have been overlooked, misreported or self-censored in the mainstream media. It is called Project Blackout and has been based to an extent on Project Censored of Sonoma State University. Right now we are calling for nominations. To be able to nominate a story you must be registered/logged in. About the project: http://www.newswatch.in/blackout/about Guidelines for nominations: http://www.newswatch.in/blackout/guidelines List of nominated stories: http://www.newswatch.in/blackout/nominations/ I look forward to your support in making Project Blackout a success. Regards and best wishes. Subir Ghosh Editor-Publisher Newswatch

The Newswatch site will be offline on July 31, 2009. The is for some routine site maintenance work. The site shall be online again on August 1, 2009. Inconvenience caused, if any, is regretted. Regards.

We are happy to announce the release of newsPRESS — a premium WordPress theme for news websites. Details: http://newspress.newswatch.in/ Demo: http://newspress.newswatch.in/demo/ The newsPRESS theme has been specifically designed for news websites. Highlights: Concept of sections, which overrides categories Lead story for front page Lead story each for all sections Unique front page for every category Attractive menu navigation No changes necessary in WordPress core Each story with own picture/caption/credit setting Option of 2-column vs 3-column setting for stories Clean coding all through Full-fledged demo site for people to browse through All ad blocks designed according to Google hotzone mapping Does away with the blog-sided theme architecture

Newswatch (www.newswatch.in) will remain offline for a few days &mash; tentatively till Sunday, May 17, 2009. We have some major site security issues to look into. The inconvenience is deeply regretted.

Greenpeace aims to further enhance the voice of various campaigns in India and bring forth into the public domain those aspects of public interest issues that are inadequately or not generally covered by the media. To enable better representation of public interest issues in the media on which we campaign, we invite writers and journalists to empanel their names with us and contribute their opinion and views on a range of issues. Greenpeace will share local, national and international information, facts, perspectives and opinions about the issue with empanelled writers and occasionally, when possible provide exclusive leads on developing stories. The objective is to engage with and impact specific policy making through a participatory and democratic process in the country through agenda setting writing and the shaping of public opinion. The criterion:

That was the face of television during the Mumbai attacks coverage. There seems to be as much disenchantment and anger towards TV channelsas much as it is against politicians. Newswatch (http://www.newswatch.in/) has been getting mails by the hundreds, all criticising the coverage for one reasons and another. We, at Newswatch, believe that criticism in itself doesn't mean anything. We prefer to quantify things, for starters. So what we have done is collate questions in the form of a survey. What you have to do is say who's good, who's bad, who's ugly. Nothing like rating those you dislike for whatever reason. There are 34 quesitons in all. It shouldn't take you more than 15-20 mins to answer them all. In any case, there aren't too many mandatory questions. Answer whichever one(s) you can, or want to. Here's the link: http://surveys.newswatch.in/index.php?sid=74549&lang=en Please participate and implore others to do so too.

ABOUT NEWSWATCH: Newswatch (http://www.newswatch.in/) was launched in August 2005 to serve as an online monitor of press freedom and media ethics issues. It also looks at developments in the media industry that are of relevance to journalists. Newswatch believes in maintaining its editorial independence.

Dear colleague, In late February this year, we carried out an informal survey of freelance journalists in India. The questionnaire itself was ad hoc, but the trends were clear—most freelance journalists in this country are perceived to be the stepchildren of the Indian news media. Though some indications are there, we want to come up with concrete numbers. Hence, this—the first ever research study about the status of freelance journalists in India. We want to look at job (in)security, payment defaulters, general working conditions, legal frameworks, copyrights, arm-twisting tactics of news establishments, et al. And for this, we need just 15 minutes of one's time. If you are a freelance journalist, please follow this link: http://surveys.newswatch.in/index.php?sid=84996&lang=en The identities of all respondents would be kept confidential. Regards and best wishes. Subir Ghosh Newswatch India

The Newswatch site is currently undergoing a major revamp. This is the reason, needless to say, why the bulk of the site has remained inaccessible for a while. It is not that the content has been / will be pulled off the site entirely — all the old/existing content is available on a different subdomain here itself: http://oldcontent.newswatch.in/ Since the site restructure is still under way, we might be in a position to incorporate/introduce features that you might want to see on this site. If you have ideas, opinions, suggestions, please use the contact us page to email those to us. The refurbished site should be up and running on March 2, 2008. Regards. Subir Ghosh Newswatch

The Newswatch site is currently undergoing a major revamp. This is the reason, needless to say, why the bulk of the site will remain inaccessible for a while. It is not that the content has been / will be pulled off the site entirely — all the old/existing content is available on a different domain: http://www.newswatchonline.in/ Mind the minute difference in the names. Since the site restructure is still under way, we might be in a position to incorporate/introduce features that you might want to see on this site. If you have ideas, opinions, suggestions, please use the contact us page to email those to us. Regards. Subir Ghosh Newswatch