The Hindu editor-in-chief, N Ram's brother, N Ravi says he has turned the newspaper into an apologist for A Raja
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics/nation/the-hindu-editor-in-chief-n-rams-brother-n-ravi-says-he-has-turned-the-newspaper-into-an-apologist-for-a-raja/articleshow/8053829.cms
CHENNAI: The long battle for leadership inside the family that runs one of India's oldest newspapers, The Hindu , took a new turn when its editor N Ravi publicly criticised his brother and editor-in-chief N Ram for, among other things, "turning the newspaper into an apologist for A Raja." Ravi made those allegations in a mail to all The Hindu group employees on Wednesday night.
By Thursday morning, the virtual world was abuzz with forwards of the mail. The Times group, of which ET is a part, competes with The Hindu in several key markets including Chennai. In his email, Ravi has alleged that Ram has turned the newspaper into an apologist for A Raja through the 2G scam coverage. "Very recently , those of us who were not privy to the deal making learnt to our shock that a major interview with A.
Raja in defence of the telecom licensing policy published on May 22, 2010-that was referred to by the Prime Minister in his press conference--involved a direct quid pro quo in the form of a full page, colour advertisement from the telecom ministry that was specially and hurriedly cleared by the minister personally for publication on the same day in The Hindu. The contrast between such a deed and pious editorial declarations including the campaign against paid news cannot be starker," Ravi said. In a detailed email to ET, Ram pooh-poohed the charges.
"As for the ad or ads in question, I can assure you the editorial people had nothing to do with it or them." He said, "Our editorial people do not solicit advertisements, either from government or corporate bodies or private parties." Ravi, Ram added, "attended editorial meetings during the relevant period, edited editorials on economic subjects, and not once did he propose writing an editorial demanding the resignation of Raja." On the other hand, Ram said, The Hindu did demand Raja's resignation post the CAG report "when enough evidence was in hand."
A Raja, the DMK minister for telecom in the union cabinet, was arrested in February this year for allegedly causing enormous losses to the government by selling cellular phone spectrum or radio waves to telecom companies at throwaway prices. The accusations and Raja's arrest were a huge embarrassment to the Manmohan Singh led UPA government which was forced to agree to the demands from a vociferous opposition for an enquiry by the joint parliamentary committee . On Wednesday, the CBI court dismissed the bail pleas of five senior corporate executives in the scam and remanded them to judicial custody.
Ravi also raised other charges and accused Ram for blacking out or downplaying any news that is less than complimentary to the Chinese Communist regime and termed it as "pro-China tilt" ."And contrary to the practice in any mainline newspaper, the editor-inchief indulging in an unceasing self-glorification campaign, publishing his own ribbon cutting pictures and reports of his activities and speeches with a regularity that would put corporate house journals to shame," he added.
Ram dismissed Ravi's allegations of power grab and unfair treatment and said that the group was following the policy of separating ownership from management. "Separation of ownership and management is a principle many successful organisations maintain , and when it comes to newspaper organisations, eight of the top ten English newspapers in the country have a non-family professional as Editor," his e-mail said.
Friday, 22 April 2011
LiveMint.com reports the happenings at "The Hindu"
http://www.livemint.com/2011/04/22223217/Hindu-directors-may-move-court.html?h=B
Hindu directors may move court over ouster: The board members could contemplate taking whatever course of action that is possible in the case, says managing director N.Murali.
New Delhi: Five members of the founding family of The Hindu newspaper are considering a legal challenge to the move to oust some of them from positions they hold at the newspaper.
“In the next couple of days, we could arrive at decisions on the way forward,” said N. Ravi, a member of the board and editor of the family-run paper. “As of now, we are weighing all options; could be legal, too.”
He is among the board members of Kasturi and Sons Ltd, which owns the paper, who will have to step down if proposals made at an 18 April board meeting are approved.
N. Ram, editor-in-chief of The Hindu and Ravi’s brother, and board members who support him have proposed the appointment of Siddharth Varadarajan in his place. Varadarajan is the national bureau chief of The Hindu. At the same meeting, seven members of the 12-member board voted in favour of the current editorial directors stepping down from their posts.
The five board members opposing the board resolution are Ravi; N. Murali, managing director; Nirmala Lakshman, joint editor; Malini Parthasarathy, executive editor; and Nalini Krishnan. Murali said the board members could “contemplate taking whatever course of action that is possible in the case”. He refused to elaborate.
Parthasarathy declined to comment, but expressed her views on microblogging site Twitter: “Last word has not been said on the Hindu story. A wafer-thin majority cannot hustle substantive structural change in an organization.”
Board members or shareholders against the proposal have the option of seeking legal relief. “If they can prove that there is some mismanagement or oppression, they can get an injunction from the Company Law Board,” said Gauri Rasgotra, a partner at law firm Khaitan and Co., adding that company law protects the rights of minority stakeholders.
“They can also state that the resolution is void and seek an injunction to restrain the company from passing the said resolution,” Rasgotra said, referring to the 18 April resolution that drove Ravi to make the matter public in an email addressed to The Hindu’s 870 journalists on Thursday.
Ram defended himself against the accusations of bias that Ravi made in his letter. It was unfair to make such allegations as it involved the reputation of the newspaper, Ram told reporters in Delhi on Friday. A telecom ministry advertisement, which Ravi had cited in his letter as an example of the paper’s independence being undermined, was carried by 14 other papers as well, Ram said.
Varadarajan said there had been no change in his duties. “I have not got any formal note, and I continue functioning as I was earlier. Things will become clearer when the shareholders meet at the EGM (extraordinary general meeting),” he said.
An EGM of 50 shareholders is to be convened on 20 May to discuss issues related to corporate governance and succession planning. “The meeting will also discuss the new editorial appointment,” said Ravi, referring to Varadarajan’s new position.
Hindu directors may move court over ouster: The board members could contemplate taking whatever course of action that is possible in the case, says managing director N.Murali.
New Delhi: Five members of the founding family of The Hindu newspaper are considering a legal challenge to the move to oust some of them from positions they hold at the newspaper.
“In the next couple of days, we could arrive at decisions on the way forward,” said N. Ravi, a member of the board and editor of the family-run paper. “As of now, we are weighing all options; could be legal, too.”
He is among the board members of Kasturi and Sons Ltd, which owns the paper, who will have to step down if proposals made at an 18 April board meeting are approved.
N. Ram, editor-in-chief of The Hindu and Ravi’s brother, and board members who support him have proposed the appointment of Siddharth Varadarajan in his place. Varadarajan is the national bureau chief of The Hindu. At the same meeting, seven members of the 12-member board voted in favour of the current editorial directors stepping down from their posts.
The five board members opposing the board resolution are Ravi; N. Murali, managing director; Nirmala Lakshman, joint editor; Malini Parthasarathy, executive editor; and Nalini Krishnan. Murali said the board members could “contemplate taking whatever course of action that is possible in the case”. He refused to elaborate.
Parthasarathy declined to comment, but expressed her views on microblogging site Twitter: “Last word has not been said on the Hindu story. A wafer-thin majority cannot hustle substantive structural change in an organization.”
Board members or shareholders against the proposal have the option of seeking legal relief. “If they can prove that there is some mismanagement or oppression, they can get an injunction from the Company Law Board,” said Gauri Rasgotra, a partner at law firm Khaitan and Co., adding that company law protects the rights of minority stakeholders.
“They can also state that the resolution is void and seek an injunction to restrain the company from passing the said resolution,” Rasgotra said, referring to the 18 April resolution that drove Ravi to make the matter public in an email addressed to The Hindu’s 870 journalists on Thursday.
Ram defended himself against the accusations of bias that Ravi made in his letter. It was unfair to make such allegations as it involved the reputation of the newspaper, Ram told reporters in Delhi on Friday. A telecom ministry advertisement, which Ravi had cited in his letter as an example of the paper’s independence being undermined, was carried by 14 other papers as well, Ram said.
Varadarajan said there had been no change in his duties. “I have not got any formal note, and I continue functioning as I was earlier. Things will become clearer when the shareholders meet at the EGM (extraordinary general meeting),” he said.
An EGM of 50 shareholders is to be convened on 20 May to discuss issues related to corporate governance and succession planning. “The meeting will also discuss the new editorial appointment,” said Ravi, referring to Varadarajan’s new position.
Wednesday, 20 April 2011
Save the Chennai based "The Hindu" Newspaper
The following letter was sent to the employees of The Hindu, the Chennai based newspaper on April-20,2011.
Letter from N. Ravi, Editor, on the recent happenings in The Hindu
April 20, 2011
Dear colleagues,
Even as we are entering the second, and what might turn out to be a prolonged, phase of conflict and turbulence in the institution, I write to seek your understanding.
In a shocking display of bad faith that has left me deeply anguished, N. Ram and some of the directors at the meeting of the Board on April 18, 2011 have sought to remove me and appoint as editor Siddharth Varadarajan who joined The Hindu in 2004.
You are all aware that I have been working in a wholly professional capacity for several decades ever since I joined the newspaper as a reporter in 1972. During this period, I have been fortunate to enjoy your cooperation and help in taking the newspaper forward. After 1991 when I took over as editor, our team transformed The Hindu from a Chennai-centred daily with just one page of local news to a well recognized national newspaper with extensive local and state coverage spread over four pages, and attractive features. We started a lively engagement with the leading issues of the day with extensive coverage and diverse viewpoints. We sought to uphold editorial integrity, seeking accountability from institutions and public officials without fear or favour.
Though the economy then was not so buoyant as during the later period, between January 1991 and June 2003, the circulation of The Hindu increased from 4,52,918 copies (July-December 1990) to 9,33,458 copies (January-June 2003) or by 4,80,540 copies or 106.1%. In the more recent period, The Hindu has been losing market share, and from being level with the Hindustan Times, it has now fallen far behind that newspaper. Findings from the most recent market survey present a depressing picture of reader perception of unappealing content and a pronounced bias towards the left.
It is a matter of public record that N. Ram, Editor-in-Chief, was to retire on May 4, 2010 on turning 65 and I was to take over as Editor-in-Chief under the arrangement agreed upon. However, in a shocking display of bad faith, Ram went on to renege on his commitment to retire and the whole process of editorial succession came to a standstill.
During the conflict created by Ram’s breach of faith, Ram and a group of directors on the Board removed the powers and responsibilities of N. Murali, Managing Director in a vindictive move that was overturned by the Company Law Board, Chennai Bench that also came out with a severe indictment that their action was lacking in probity, good faith and fairness. Barely four months after the indictment, Ram and his group of directors have turned on me with the same lack of probity, good faith and fairness and have sought to remove me and impose a plan of editorial succession that is totally at variance with the longstanding tradition and practice in the institution and is also contrary to the directions of the Company Law Board.
Almost a year past the agreed retirement date, his position having become untenable in the face of the Company Law Board order, Ram seems bent on taking all the editorial directors—most are in their 50s--into retirement with him with a scorched earth policy to ensure that no one in the family succeeds him. Instead of coming up with a succession plan, he and some of the other directors have come up with a plan of wholesale removal. In a sudden change of rules and under the specious plea of separating ownership from management, along with my removal as editor, Nirmala Lakshman is to be forced to “step down” as joint editor and Malini Parthasarathy as executive editor.
Apart from the basic unfairness of the removal, the move seeks to entrench several of the distortions that have crept into the editorial framework since 2003 when Ram was appointed Editor-in-Chief by stealth over the protests of four of us. Among the issues that I have raised with the other directors during the discussions in the Board and outside are: the unmerited coverage of certain political favourites on specific directions; excessive coverage of the activities of the left and some of its leaders; for reasons that are bound to emerge sooner rather than later, turning the newspaper into an apologist for A. Raja through the 2G scam coverage, remaining deafeningly silent on his resignation in the face of mounting evidence even when demanding the resignation of Suresh Kalmadi, Ashok Chavan and Yeddyurappa in similar circumstances; pronounced pro-China tilt, blacking out or downplaying any news that is less than complimentary to the Chinese Communist regime; and contrary to the practice in any mainline newspaper, the Editor-in-Chief indulging in an unceasing self-glorification campaign, publishing his own ribbon cutting pictures and reports of his activities and speeches with a regularity that would put corporate house journals to shame.
The Hindu as an institution had in the past valued its editorial integrity over all else. In the recent period, editorial integrity has been severely compromised and news coverage linked directly to advertising in a way that is little different from paid news. A meaningless distinction has been sought to be made between walls and lines, and the walls between editorial and advertising are sought to be replaced by “lines” between them. Very recently, those of us who were not privy to the deal making learnt to our shock that a major interview with A. Raja in defence of the telecom licensing policy published on May 22, 2010—that was referred to by the Prime Minister in his press conference--involved a direct quid pro quo in the form of a full page, colour advertisement from the Telecom Ministry that was specially and hurriedly cleared by the Minister personally for publication on the same day in The Hindu. The contrast between such a deed and pious editorial declarations including the campaign against paid news cannot be starker. To continue with such practices, the editorial structure is sought to be changed, with the editor being made subordinate to an executive board comprising a majority of business side executives. The undermining of the primacy of the editorial function is an attack on the very soul of The Hindu. In the context of these distortions that have crept into actual practice, the high sounding code of editorial values that is sought to be publicised now would seem no more than empty rhetoric.
This round of turbulence comes at a time when all manner of investors are looking to gain influence and control over the media, and competition is increasing with newspapers striving to attract the attention of readers through better, more contemporary and enriched content. As part of the journalistic team, all of you have contributed so much to the growth of The Hindu and are vitally interested in the task of moving forward in a highly competitive environment even while observing the highest standards of editorial integrity. I feel strongly that when a distorted picture has emerged based on selective leaks, information on the happenings cannot be restricted to the confines of the boardroom and all the journalists as stakeholders need to be taken into confidence.
It is in this spirit that I am sharing my views with you all. I also write to you with the confidence that the unfair and untenable move will not be allowed to prevail. In the task of upholding the editorial principles that are so dear to all of us, I appeal for your support and understanding.
Yours sincerely,
N. Ravi
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