Citizen Matters and politics – our charter

As some of you know, ABIDe member and urban affairs strategist Ashwin Mahesh is running for a seat in the Karnataka Legislative Council under the graduates constituency this month. He is campaigning on a Lok Satta party ticket.

We must also let you know that Mahesh is one of the directors of Oorvani Media, the firm that publishes Citizen Matters (this print and online magazine covering Bangalore) and India Together, the national e-magazine covering public affairs and development.

All over the world, it is true that politicians starting media outfits, and media, have tended to play a dubious role in politics. We know questions may linger in your mind about Citizen Matters too, and we are writing this editorial to tell you about our charter.

Citizen Matters is a newsmagazine being built and expanded on the premise that independent journalism is worth pursuing and cherishing. Such media is as worthy of pursuit as the entry of public-minded people in politics itself. All three promoter-directors – Subramaniam Vincent, Meera K and Ashwin Mahesh – are committed to this.

How do we practice this? There is no magic. Mahesh, for example, recuses himself from the editorial review process for any stories that he is involved in or has interests in. This is similar to a judge recusing himself or herself from a case based on conflict of interest. All our stories on the MLC race so far have been edited by a different editor and Mahesh has had no say except being quoted. As a second and necessary practice, we also do full disclosure that he is a director at the firm, in the articles themselves.

Citizen Matters has an editorial charter, and in line with this, at no time will you see us being partisan to candidates. We will, however, write editorials giving you our opinion on politics and elections. Our opinions will be separate from our reporting, as must be for all news organisations.

Comments:

  1. Divya Harave says:

    Kudos! yes, I did notice all your disclaimers ๐Ÿ˜‰

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Similar Story

The Why of Citizen Activism

In an earlier post, I wrote about the rise of the citizen entrepreneurs. Thought Iโ€™ll share why these active citizens do what they do. I am including myself in this club because I still volunteer occasionally. Many of our team members are engaged in their own local issues (but we ensure that is independent of our work at Citizen Matters!).ย  Satisfaction First of course, is the immediate sense of empowerment โ€” that we get when we start doing something. Whether or not there are results to show. Sometimes there is a feeling of being better than the rest, because hey,…

Similar Story

Partnering with Canadian varsity to report on urban resilience

It's yet another milestone in the journey of Oorvani Foundation. You may have read about our joint initiative with Radio Active Community Radio 90.8 MHz - Co Media Lab. The community media lab serves as a resource centre, newsroom and a space for dialogues and discussions for community collaborations. The past few months now, Co Media Lab has been organising workshops for public and for students. Co Media Lab is hosted at Jain University, and supported by the University. (More details here.) We are happy to share news of an exciting new project of the lab - a partnership with…