owas Reliance Takes Over Natwork1a: Is This The Death Of Media Independance? - Forbes Reliance Takes Over Network18: Is This The Death Of Media Independence? MAY 30,2014@ 02:36PM 46,949 viEWs Megha Bahree CONTRIBUTOR write about business and development in India and its neighborhood. FOLLOW ON FORBES ad = Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own, FULL BIO V In two words? Quite likely. India’s largest company Reliance Industries Ltd., which is owned by India’s richest man Mukesh Ambani, announced Thursday that it was taking over one of India’s largest media companies—Network 18 Media and Investments Ltd. Network18 owns TV channels (including CNBC TV18, CNN-IBN, CNN Awaz), websites (firstpost.com, moneycontrol.com), magazines (including the license for Forbes India), entertainment channel (Colors, MTV and Homeshop Entertainment) among other businesses. RIL said it’s board approved funding of 4,000 crore rupees (or roughly $730 million) to Independent Media Trust (IMT), of which RIL is the sole beneficiary” for taking over Network:8. (You can read the financial details of the deal here.) Network18’s CEO, CFO and COO quit in the days preceding Thursday's announcement. Earlier today the company’s founder and managing director Raghav Bahl and his wife, a director at the company, announced their exit as well, while there are strong rumors doing the rounds that the news division’s top editorial team too is on its way out. Indian newspaper Mint cited a few employees who described the situation as a “hostile” takeover. itplwwu forbes comisitesmoghabtr 600 405/30raliancetakes-cver-network 8-s-this-the-ceath-of- media independence! wowas Reliance Takes Over Network's This The Death Of Media Independance? - Forbes Anger, panic and pandemonium aside, the takeover is a strategic move for RIL which is expected to launch its 4G network later this year and can use the wide range of content produced by Network:8 to feed its telecom play. In its press release RIL said: “The acquisition will differentiate Reliance’s 4G business by providing a unique amalgamation at the intersection of telecom, web and digital commerce via a suite of premier digital properties. This takeover, once combined with RIL’s telecom business, makes the combined group likely bigger than media baron Rupert Murdoch’s empire in India and bigger than any other media group in India. And that should raise some serous questions about it. Recommended by Forbes MOST POPULAR “If India’s biggest corporate conglomerate is also India’s biggest media company, what does it do to diversity of opinion, plurality of opinion, what it does do to unfavorable news coverage?” asks Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, an independent journalist and teacher who was a member of the Press Council of India where he co-authored a piece on “Paid News: How corruption in the Indian media undermines democracy.” To be sure, India has several thousand newspapers and about 900 tv channels and a thriving social media. Despite that, there are only a handful of media companies that dominate the market and mainstream media still has a significant role in setting the agenda. “What happens when big business interests get into the media business?” says Thakurta. “They influence what comes out into the public, what is heard and read... [Suddenly] You have your large business groups, conglomerates determining what people read, hear, watch. It does raise concerns and questions about what happens to the voices of not just those who are contrary to RIL, but the marginalized?” While the Network18 deal may be the biggest media deal in !ndia, it is a very tiny part of the giant that is RIL. But the deal is important {or other reasons, biplwwu forbes comsitesmoghabbr 600 405/30raliance-takes-cver-network 8-s-this-the-ceath-of- media independence! onowas Reliance Takes Over Network's This The Death Of Media Independence? - Forbes points out P. Sainath, an independent, award-winning journalist. “Tt has the power to reach into every drawing room; the powe’ to tell you what to read, see and think,” he says. “How will they [the Network18 journalists] have any chance of doing a decent story on the KG gas deal [where RIL has the rights to dig for gas and is in dispute with the government], the Radia tapes [taped telephone conversations between publicist Nira Radia and a former telecom minister and senior journalists where she's lobbying on behalf of several big corporate clients], how will they cover any damn thing? The greater the monopolization and corporatization of media, the less the space for smaller voices, differing voices, dissenting voices.” RIL made its first investment in Network18 in January 2012 with a minority stake in the company via IMT. At the time it said it was merely an investor, recalls Thakurta. “Now that Chinese wall has come crashing down,” says Thakurta. “Earlier the people who were investors are now the people who call the shots.” Critics of the deal have also raised concerns about how this will impact the media’s coverage of India’s newly elected government. India’s corporate sector endorsed-and donated to-Narendra Modi and the BJP’s election campaign, So what are the chances that media companies—owned by some of those same corporate houses-will encourage independent reporting of its favored Prime Minister and government? “Once upon a time the media took its role to question people in power very seriously,” says Sainath. “Media was the adversary. It would take on those in positions of power, whether in government or the corporate sector. Time alone will tell how that adversarial role will exist under these sort of corporate deals.” Comment on this story O° Report Corrections Reprints & Permissions bitplwwu forbes comsitesmoghabty 6070 405/30raliance-takes-cver-network 8-s-this-the-ceath-of- media independence!owas Reliance Takes Over Network's This The Death Of Media Independance? - Forbes SEE ALSO Advertisement NEW MEDIA COMPANIES MEDIA COVERAGE MAJOR MEDIA COMPANIES NEW MEDIA SERVICES MEDIA CONSULTANCY MEDIA EXPOSURE MEDIA DIRECTORY NEW MEDIA PRODUCTION Promoted Stories by Gravity Kalydeco, For Cystic Fibrosis, Wins First Annual Forbes Breakthrough Drug Award DEC3,2015@ 02:20PM — VIEWS hitplwwu forbes comsitesmoghabbr 6670 405/30raliance-takes-cver-network 8-s-this-the-ceath-of- media independence! arowas Reliance Takes Over Network's This The Death Of Media Independance? - Forbes Matthew Herper FORBES STAFF @ i cover science and medicine, and believe this is biology's century FOLLOW ON FORBES f¥D = FULL BIO V ‘Modidata’s Bryan Spielman with Vertex’s Fred Van Goor and Jeffrey Leiden (Photo: Glen Davis) Kalydeco, a treatment for cystic fibrosis developed by Vertex Pharmaceuticals verx-6.56% with support from the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation , was awarded the first Forbes Breakthrough Drug Award today for dramatically improving the lives of patients and conquering a scientific challenge that had vexed researchers for decades. The award was presented to Jeffrey Leiden, Vertex’s chief executive, and Fred Van Goor, a scientist who played a key role in inventing Kalydeco at the Forbes Healthcare Summit in New York. “This drug is the first effective treatment for a deadly disorder (cystic fibrosis),” says Steven Nissen of the Cleveland Clinic, one of an expert panel convened to pick an honoree. “Although I do not care for these children, I am btpilwwu forbes comisitesmoghabty 600 405/30raliance-takes-over-network 8-s-this-the-ceath-of- media independence! a7ovran0ts Reliance Takes Over Network ls This The Daath Of Mei Independence? Forbes well aware of the devastating effects of this disease on patients and their families.” Helping me choose, aside from Nissen: Peter Bach, of Memorial Sloan- Kettering, who has criticized the pharmaceutical industry’s pricing practices; Richard Evans, of SSR Research, a long-time industry analyst; Bernard Munos, a consultant who studies why it is so difficult to invent new medicines. I voted, too. The panel unanimously chose to look at a period of several years, because not every year brings a breakthrough and some bring two. And we chose not to. consider medicines until they had been on the market for a few years, because sometimes new drugs turn out to be either less or more important than they seem. Each panelist made his own choices, which we then discussed, We ranked the contenders based on that voting. Recommended by Forbes MOST POPULAR Kalydeco was the clear winner, appearing high on each judge’s list and getting a total of four stars on our rating scale.. But there were other important medicines approved during this time period, too. The runners up, in descending order: *** Eliquis, from Bristol-Myers Squibb smy-152% and Pfizer pre +o.0o% Awhole class of blood-thinning pills offer patients at high risk of blood clots or strokes alternatives to warfarin, the 60-year-old mainstay that requires constant monitoring. Some data indicate they may lower the risk of stroke more than warfarin. The panel opted to pick Eliquis, which it deemed the best of these new blood thinners, over Pradaxa from Boehringer Ingelheim, which was the first to reach the market. Comment on this story PAGE 1/2 | Continue> O° Report Corrections FS] Reprints & Permissions bitplwwu forbes comsitesmoghabbr 600 405/30raliance-takes-over-network 8-s-this-he-ceath-of- media independence! arowas Reliance Takes Over Network's This The Death Of Media Independence? - Forbes SEE ALSO Advertisement NEW MEDIA COMPANIES MEDIA COVERAGE MAJOR MEDIA COMPANIES NEW MEDIA SERVICES MEDIA CONSULTANCY MEDIA EXPOSURE ‘ORY NEW MEDIA PRODUCTION Promoted Stories by Gravity hitplwwu forbes comisitesmoghabtr 66170 405/30raliance-takes-cver-network 8-s-this-he-ceath-of- media independence! m7