Esha News Monitoring Services Private Limited with their research and analysis television monitoring team has found out TEZ TV was the first to break the news through ticker at 2202hrs and IBN 7 gave the first visual of the Mumbai Terrorist Attack on the Taj Hotel at 2228 hrs.
Top 5 Channels broadcasting the news flash of Mumbai Terrorists Attacks
Time News Channel
22:02 TEJ TV
22:03 AAJ TAK
22:04 SAHARA SAMAY
22:06 ZEE NEWS
22:06 IBN 7
Top 5 Channels broadcasting the first visuals of Mumbai Terrorists Attacks
Time News Channel Location
22:28 IBN 7 Taj Hotel
22:30 BBC Firing at Oberoi
22:31 AAJ TAK Oberoi
22:32 HEADLINES TODAY Leopold
22:32 IBN LOKMAT CST
Source: Esha News
Esha News has compiled this Television Monitoring Intelligence Report on Mumbai Terrorist Attacks after carefully 24x7 tracking and monitoring of the television coverage across 130 television channels. Television Monitoring Intelligence Report highlights the brand visibility on the numerous television networks.
Facts about Mumbai Terrorist Attack news coverage
2202hrs TEJ TV first to flash the news
2228hrs IBN 7 gave the first visual of Taj under attack
BBC first (International News Broadcast) to telecast the news
Something has bothered me as I have been watching the TV channels. Everyone is stationed outside Taj and a little bit the Oberoi but we hardly get a glimpse of the VT station and the victims there. The first 51 victims were there.I spoke to someone who has not been able to get his relatives body out for 15 hours. His relative was a bhelpuriwallah.
Our media is making invisible the poor once again. I wish someone had spoken of the terror of monetary superiority in a city that puts on display plenty of it. It is intimidating to even watch the Bombay people invited to comment on TV-they know each others names, the all speak fluent English, they all were lunching and dining on a regular basis at these places, they say they want all politicians to stay out. That is very dangerous, because the politicians are the only link that the poor have with governance and if politicians are weakened , so is our democracy. It seems that the trend in thinking among the bold and beautifil is that if uniformed people have to protect the lifestyles of the elite, so be it.
There was absolutely no introspection of why these targets.As always, the intelligence of the terrorists is ignored, their will to counter the hegemony of wealth and power.There are many factors at play and it would be too patronizing to write off the terrorists as any one simple thing and to reduce the dynamic of the bombings to money and by implication envy, blind instinct, poverty, etc? .
More backlash is expected and the promise of vendettas will deafen the ears of calm and peace.
--
Ruchira Gupta,
President, Apne Aap Women Worldwide
www.apneaap.org,
D-56 Anand Niketan,
New Delhi-21,
India-110021
Global economic recession will have an adverse impact on funding to fight HIV and AIDS, but India with its "robust" banking system should not worry too much on this count, says a top UNAIDS official.
"So far the funds provided by donors have not been impacted. They are providing us funds. But it may go down in the future," UNAIDS Executive Director Peter Piot told IANS during a visit to India.
The country is home to 2.5 million HIV-positive patients, including 70,000 children below the age of 14.
But Piot said India has nothing to worry about as far as generating funds for prevention and treatment of HIV and AIDS is concerned. "Your banks are robust and doing well."
"If the economic situation of a country is bad, it affects its social structure too. The result is poverty, which means an indirect spread of HIV and AIDS," said Piot.
He said he was basing his observations on past experience when global funding for the fight against HIV and AIDS had gone down when Japan and Nordic countries like Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden faced financial trouble in the 1990s.
"I have seen it happening when countries experience economic downturn. In Japan, after their financial crisis in 1990, they cut development assistance by 60 percent.
"Japan is still recovering, though the Nordic countries have recovered and they have started giving aid," said Piot, who is also an under secretary general of the UN.
His greatest worry is that governments will cut social sector spending first, which will have a strong impact on HIV and AIDS. "The cut would impact the poorest countries who would not be able to run their otherwise sponsored AIDS programmes," he said.
Piot, who will complete his term in December after having led the organisation since 1994, said in developing countries, governments may have less income due to recession, which will mean their people will become more vulnerable.
"There could be an increase in sex work and the subsequent fear then is an increase in HIV and AIDS. Usually, in such situations, women are the most vulnerable," he said.
There are an estimated 33 million people living with HIV worldwide, while 2.7 million people were newly infected in 2007. About two million people died of AIDS last year. Monday is observed as World AIDS Day.
UNAIDS gets funds from a number of countries, Holland and Sweden being the biggest contributors. Various foundations, including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and various development agencies are the other donors.
Twenty seven countries, including the Netherlands, Britain, the US, Sweden, Norway and Ireland, were the biggest donors to UNAIDS in 2007.
Said Piot: "Funding is saving lives. Also, it has shown a high return on investments. Fewer people would be impacted with it, which means good investment.
"If they interrupt the treatment and prevention of HIV and AIDS (by cutting down on funds) there would be many people dying of it and obviously it would mean higher bills to pay. They have to act now otherwise they will have to pay later," Piot said.
At the moment, close to four million people all over the world are on anti-retrovirals, but about eight million more need it, he said.
The sight of fire leaping out of Taj hotel and its gutted rooms - as terrorists ravaged the grand heritage building in Mumbai - made Anilbhai Bhatt, 65, feel that his childhood had been consigned to flames.
"As a child, I always used to go there in the evening with my friends to play on the large courtyard in front of the hotel. We stayed clear of the hotel because it was out of bounds for us," Bhatt told IANS.
Every Mumbaikar, rich or poor, has a kind of affinity with the Taj. It is a hotel unmatched in India in terms of its regal opulence, sophisticated grandeur and discreet grace.
Every one of them is saddened today that the hotel that stood unsullied for 105 years has been made to crumble by terrorists who struck Wednesday at severalprominent places in the city and carried on the assault for 60 hours.
"Though I was born in Fort in south Mumbai and lived there till I got married, I never had an opportunity to go inside the Taj Hotel," rued Bhatt, a retired employee of a jewellery firm in Mumbai's popular jewellery market at Zaveri Bazar.
For countless people who visit Mumbai everyday, Taj is on their must-see list, though they cannot afford a simple cup of tea there. Even these visitors are pained to see the devastation wreaked by terrorists on the 105-year-old building.
Said Pradyut Sarkar from Silchar in Assam: "I first visited Mumbai two years ago. Like all visitors to the city, I had gone to the Gateway of India and the Taj Mahal Hotel at the Colaba sea front.
"I have seen many heritage buildings in Kolkata, but I was awestruck by the imposing structure of the Taj and the old world charm it exuded. I feel sad that the magnificent hotel has now been defaced and damaged so badly."
The Taj hotel was one of the city's most famous and photographed buildings.
Scores of people in Mumbai and many living elsewhere in the country, who have never set foot in the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower Hotel, and Hotel Trident-Oberoi, are now upset that these two landmark luxury hotels facing the Arabian Sea should be the target of terrorists.
As inveterate party-goers Anil Dharker and Prahlad Kakkar said it is as if "a beautiful, charming virgin has been raped at gun-point by brutes".
Taj regulars are upset that the beautiful carpets laid all around the hotel's interiors and on the floors of each one of its 565 rooms are now blood stained, and damaged.
Actor-activist Rahul Bose said he could not bear to see the draperies of the hotel being stained with blood, the carefully arranged crockery strewn around the floors.
"The priceless antique paintings that adorned the walls are now either hanging in skewed angles or splotched with ugly gun-shot marks," he sighed.
"I wonder if I would be able to go to the Taj to cover any entertainment event there with the same happy feeling as I used to do until now. I will be haunted by memories of the fierce gun battle that raged continuously for three days," said entertainment journalist Indramohan Pannu.
The feeling is echoed by others who visited the heritage Taj regularly.
Stanley Fernandes, an employee of a now-defunct automobile publication, who lives at Mahim in central Mumbai, woke up with a jolt in the morning of Nov 27.
Until a few years ago, he used to regularly visit one of the second floor rooms in the Taj to take briefs from his employer, Kishu Gidwani.
Gidwani had migrated to India after the partition in 1947 and since then had been living in the Taj till 1983. After making the Taj his abode for 36 long years as a 'permanent guest', he later shifted to the National Sports Club of India at Worli in south-central Mumbai.
"Although Gidwani passed away some years ago, somehow I dreamt that he was lying in one of the rooms in a pool of blood," Fernandes said.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Sunday announced the setting up of a Federal Investigating Agency and measures to strengthen maritime and air security in the wake of the terrorist savagery in the country's financial capital Mumbai.
"In the face of this national threat and in the aftermath of this national tragedy, all of us from different political parties must rise above narrow political considerations and stand united. We should work together in the interest of the country at this critical juncture," he said in his opening remarks at an all-party meeting here.
Manmohan Singh convened the meeting to take stock of the security situation and ways to strengthen the intelligence machinery in the country following three days and three nights of Mumbai terror that killed 183 lives and injured over 300.
While noting that "several measures are already in place to deal with the situation", he underlined that much more needed to be done "and we are determined to take all necessary measures to overhaul the system".
"We are further strengthening maritime and air security for which measures have been initiated. This will involve the navy, the Coast Guard and the coastal police, as well as the air force and the civil aviation ministry.
"The anti-terrorist forces of the country will be further strengthened and streamlined. The National Security Guard (NSG), the principal anti-terrorist force of the country, will be given additional facilities and the size of the force is being augmented. Steps have also been initiated to establish another four NSG hubs in different parts of the country. Additionally, the special forces at the disposal of the centre would be appropriately utilised in counter-insurgency operations."
NSG commandos fought pitched battles against the terrorists, who India says came from Pakistan, after the heavily armed gunmen took control of two luxury hotels and a Jewish centre, killed many in cold blood and took many more hostages. Two NSG commandos died in the operation.
The government has also finalised a set of legal measures based on the recommendations of the Administrative Reforms Commission which includes the setting up of a Federal Investigating Agency, the prime minister told some 20 political leaders from the treasury and opposition benches.
Manmohan Singh said that unlike the recent terrorist attacks across the country, the Mumbai nightmare was different in several aspects.
"It was an attack by highly trained and well-armed terrorists targeting our largest city. They came with the explicit aim of killing large numbers of innocent civilians, including foreign visitors. They sought to destroy some of the best known symbols of our commercial capital.
"The ordeal at Mumbai, which occupied the attention of the entire nation, has finally come to an end. All of us share the grief of those who have lost their loved ones in this dastardly and brutal attack and also the pain and anguish of those grievously wounded.
"We cannot lessen their grief. But we will do all we can to alleviate their suffering. I give you my solemn assurance that we will look after the needs of those who survive this horrible tragedy."
Saluting the bravery of the security forces who fought the terrorists in "exceptionally difficult circumstances" and freed hostages from three places, Manmohan Singh noted: "They tried their utmost to save innocent lives at great personal risk. Twenty officers and men made the ultimate sacrifice by laying down their lives. The entire nation owes a debt of gratitude to these men that we can never repay."
He hoped that the discussions at the meeting would lead to a consensus on steps required to be taken.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Home Minister P. Chidambaram, Defence Minister A.K. Antony, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Railway Minister Lalu Prasad and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders V.K. Malhotra and Jaswant Singh were among those attending the meeting at the prime minister's residence.
Samajwadi Party leaders Mulayam Singh Yadav and Amar Singh, Communist Party of India-Marxist general secretary Prakash Karat, and D. Raja and A.B. Bardhan of the Communist Party of India also attended the meeting.
The meeting took place barely hours after Shivraj Patil resigned as home minister taking moral responsibility for the terrorist attack.
Setting up a Federal Investigating Agency is among the steps the government has finalised to prevent a repeat of the Mumbai terrorist attack, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced at an all-party meeting here Sunday evening.
Here's a list of the measures:
# Setting up a Federal Investigating Agency;
# Tightening the maritime and air security, which will involve the navy, Coast Guard and the coastal police, as well as the Air Force and the civil aviation ministry;
# Anti-terrorist forces of the country will be further strengthened and streamlined;
# The National Security Guard (NSG) will be given additional facilities and the size of the force to be augmented;
# Steps taken to establish another four NSG hubs in different parts of the country;
# Special forces at the disposal of the central government to be used in counter insurgency operations.
The Delhi operations of the Sakaal Times, an English daily brought out by Maharashtra's leading Sakal media group, were closed down Sunday allegedly without informing the employees in advance. The group's management has denied the charge.
Many staffers who came in to work Sunday morning found the office closed with a terse notice pasted on the main door stating: "The editorial work carried out at Delhi is no longer required to be continued."
"As a result, the operations are stopped forthwith and the staff is being released. They need not attend office from today."
Sakaal Times is published from Pune while the group also runs a popular Marathi daily, Sakal.
Confirming the closure, editorial director of Sakal Papers Anand Agashe told IANS in Pune: "The operations of the Sakaal Times' Delhi bureau have been suspended for now."
He said: "The overall market crash has entailed drastic cut-downs." Agashe said he could not comment on the decision to close the Delhi operations since "the decision was administrative".
There were around 70 employees in Delhi, including editorial staff, who camped at the gate for several hours, angry over the management's decision to close down the Delhi operations a mere six months since Sakaal Times was launched May 7.
Sakal Papers' Director, Human Resources and Operations, Pradip Khire denied the charge of the staff that they had not been informed about the impending closure.
"It was communicated to them that their services are no more required and their dues are being settled," Khire told IANS in Pune.
He said: "Some pages of Sakaal Times were being produced in Delhi and those operations have been shifted to Pune. Since we are also reducing the number of pages, we won't require the staff that we had engaged in Delhi."
The employees in Delhi, meanwhile, instantly constituted an action committee to protest the lock-out.
K.K. Laskar, the photo editor who has now become the convenor of the action committee of Sakal Times staff, told IANS: "The closure is illegal and unethical. We will take legal action. This is a test case for all workers in the print industry to fight."
A senior editorial staff said: "None of us knew the edition will be closed down like this. We were neither informed nor given the option to relocate to the head office in Pune."
An initial few were laid off some time ago and 12 people were told their services were no longer required. "The rest of the editorial team, including photographers, editors, reporters and designers, was all in the dark," he said.
A reporter with the paper said: "I was in the office till Saturday midnight. Till then, there was no intimation by the management. Everything was functioning normally and when I reached office today afternoon, it was all locked."
"We may not get even this month's salary," she said.
Indo-Asian News Service
Home minister Shivraj Patil, under tremendous criticism over a spate of terrorist attacks in the country since last year, has resigned
Home minister Shivraj Patil gestures as he addresses mediapersons after a cabinet meeting in New Delhi on Thursday. (AFP Photo)
in the wake of the Mumbai terror strikes. Patil has said that he felt obliged to take "moral responsibility" for the brutal attacks in Mumbai, an official government source said.
Finance minister P Chidambaram will take over as the new home minister and the finance ministry will now be under the direct charge of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The CWC, which met here on Saturday night, gave the marching orders to Shivraj Patil.
There was unanimity in the CWC that the political face of the government can be saved only with a drastic overhaul.
Chidambaram, who had an earlier stint in the internal security department, was the obvious choice to succeed Patil and the PM's charge of the economy is expected to bolster confidence in the country's economic management.
The massive collateral damage of the commando operation at Taj, Trident and Nariman House is being blamed on the delay and inadequacy of the response of the MHA in pressing the NSG into service.
Patil, who had offered to step down at the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting on Saturday night, sent his resignation to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Sunday morning, sources said.
The 74-year-old Patil was inducted into the Union Cabinet despite his defeat from Latur in Maharashtra in the 2004 Lok Sabha polls. He has been a target of the opposition as also the detractors within the party over his handling of the internal security situation in the country.