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Saturday, September 16, 2006

Chaitanya Kalbag : Ex-Reuters Journalist Creates Ripples In Indian Media

Many newspapers (especially in India) have been reeling under the post-globalization developments --- advertorials, crass commercialization, embedded journalism, the vanishing line between the news and the advertisements, etc. --- And almost reconciling to the fact that the power centre has shifted from the Editor's office to the Management.

Here comes a refreshing news that one of India's largest-selling newspapers, The Hindustan Times, has appointed a former top Reuters journalist as its Editor-in-Chief.

Chaitanya Kalbag, brings with him nearly two decades of experience with the Reuters, and a reputation of fearlessly protecting his editorial turf from the unwanted forays of marketing/advertising/management guys.

He is known to be outspoken and, it is learnt, from the day he took over the charge at the Hindustan Times (HT) the staff has been on an extra alert. During the past six or seven years the HT and its arch rival, The Times of India (TOI), had earned notoriety for trivialising news. The editorial staff was totally demoralised and had almost buckled under the diktat of the management.

Both the HT and the TOI had in recent years come down several notches
in their professional standing by sidelining the editors and handing over the real power to the marketing and advertisement chaps. The newspapers have been turned into virtual tabloids competing with one another in displaying fashion models and publishing vulgarity and trivia at the cost of important news.

Chaitanya's appointment has raised a lot of expectations. His background and recent pep talk to the HT staff hold a promise to bring back the glory that once belonged to the editorial wing of a newspaper. But will he abe able withstand the pressure from the well entrenched management fellows? Let us see.

Chaitanya was the Reuters' Managing Editor, Head of Editorial Operations, Asia. He joined Reuters in 1983 as a correspondent in New Delhi, India. He moved to Manila in 1987 and in 1988 became a Chief Sub-editor on the Hong Kong economic desk.

In 1991 he moved to Tokyo and in 1993 he was appointed Editor, News Production, Japan. His next post as Editor, News Production Asia was based in Hong Kong. There he was responsible for the quality of all text news output from Asia including output from all editing desks.

In 1997 he became Bureau Chief, India where he was responsible for all text, television and pictures coverage from India, Nepal and Bhutan. He then became Managing Director, Reuters India Limited and Manager South Asia, based in Mumbai. In this role he was the senior Reuters company official for all eight South Asian countries, including Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

He was also responsible for the recruitment, safety and security, and career development of nearly 600 journalists in 33 bureaus in 22 countries stretching from Afghanistan to New Zealand.

Prior to joining Reuters, he worked in Bombay (Mumbai) for a small Indian newspaper, then went on to edit and produce Transindia, a monthly newsmagazine for Indians living in the United States.

Chaitanya Kalbag first moved to New Delhi in 1978, and held senior writing positions at two magazines --- New Delhi and India Today. He won the Rajika Kripalani Young Journalist Award in 1977, the Sanskriti Award for Journalism for 1982, and the India Today-PUCL Human Rights Reporting Award in 1983. He was included in An Anthology of Bombay Poetry, 1977.

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