----- Original Message ----From: Dr.

Leo Rebello To: Secretary PCI ; Mumbai Newsline Sent: Wednesday, December 22, 2004 5:42 PM Subject: Complaint against Mumbai Newsline

Secretary, Press Council of India, New Delhi

I am reproducing below the letter which has been published as the Letter of the Day by the Indian Express (Bombay Edition) on 22 December, 2004 and my original letter emailed to them on 17th December. Apart from grammatical mistakes, shoddy editing, there is deliberate twist and mischief in the published letter. The words and sentence marked red is NOT my opinion and the editor has NO right to put words in my mouth. In a Judgment given by the British Press Council, it was held that the Editor can only edit for clarity, but CANNOT change, re-write, twist, turn or mutilate the original letter. Please compare the published letter with my original letter and the mischief is obvious. I am an established writer and consumer activist and this shoddy letter spoils my image. This is either deliberate or shows the incompetence of the editor. The part where I am questioning the editor's mischief in quoting a spineless aviation expert is deleted and so is the part wherein I say that airlines in India routinely indulge in this type of inadequate air-conditioning. This amounts to manipulating public opinion and protecting Jet Airways for obvious reasons. It is about time that the Press Council of India considered this issue of editorial indiscretion or mischief and editors publishing ONLY views which suit them or turning, twisting, mutilating, censoring reader's views. Letters column is the voice of the people and as the famous saying goes vox populi, vox dei. Please treat this as a formal complaint and issue notices to the Indian Express under intimation to me at the earliest. Thanking you. Yours truly, Dr. Leo Rebello Individually and as the President of All India Letter Writers Association (Regd). 28/552 Samata Nagar, Kandivali East, Mumbai 400101. Tel. 28872741 Email : leorebello@vsnl.com Website : www.healthwisdom.org Enclosures 3, as as under : 1.. Letter published by the Indian Express in its issue dated 22nd December, 2004. 2.. Letter sent for publication by Dr. Leo Rebello on 17th December, 2004. 3.. A special review of the book Pen Power on the silver jubilee of AILWA

Following is the text of the letter published in the Indian Express on 22nd December 2004. They had no business plying (sic) the craft
Sir: This is with reference to 'MLAs lose their cool on Jet flight' (MN, December 14). I personally (sic) think Jet Airways had no right plying (sic) an aircraft with a faulty air-conditioner.

Apart from being a health hazard to the lives of the passengers on board, it was also a violation of IATA regulations and DGCA rules. Improper cabin pressure is extremely dangerous, especially for the old, infirm, infants, those with high blood pressure or heart ailments and even for asthmatics. Also, if the ministers in boards (sic) wanted the flight grounded, the pilot should definitely have concurred - atleast out of respect for the lives of the VIPs on board.

This is the original letter sent to Indian Express

----- Original Message ----From: Dr. Leo Rebello To: Mumbai Newsline Cc: CM, Maharashtra Sent: Friday, December 17, 2004 1:36 PM Subject: Irresponsible Comments should be avoided Editor, Mumbai Newsline, Mumbai Apropos ministers NOT allowing Jet Airways to fly and insisting on changing the flight and one anonymous (read spineless) expert from Civil Aviation saying that "opening the door amounts to terrorism", I have this to say as a regular air traveller. Jet Airways has now become worse than what Indian Airlines was once. Not running air-conditioning till the flight takes off is playing with the health and lives of the passengers and against IATA regulations and DGCA rules. If the cabin air pressure is not proper it unsettles the passengers especially old, infants, infirm, those with high BP, heart insufficiency and asthmatics. If the Ministers asserted with grounding of such an aircraft and tried to open the door when the Captain (read driver) of the aircraft refused inspite of VIPs being on board, shows the callous attitude of the captain and the airlines. It is about time that the DGCA authorities looked into this usual racket of airlines trying to save fuel by not running the air-conditioning when the aircraft is stationary. Many years ago, late Dr. Mrs. Roshan Captain (of the Himalaya Drug Co. and one of the sixth highest income tax payers in India), had in a similar situation threatened to jump off the aircraft as she could not bear the heat and suffocation. She was about 75 and had later sued the concerned airline in the consumer court for deficiency in service. Publishing puerile letters (as a letter of the day) or quoting a spineless expert who is talking through his hat is not responsible journalism. Best Wishes Dr. Leo Rebello

the Press Council of India on Monday censured two leading Gujarati dailies, Sandesh and Gujarat Samachar, for publishing 'scurrilous' reports during last year's communal carnage in Gujarat. The full council met in New Delhi [ Images ] under the chairmanship of Justice K Jayachandra Reddy, a retired Supreme Court judge, and endorsed the findings and recommendations of an inquiry committee. The inquiry committee had held its sittings in Ahmedabad [ Images ] on April 28 and 29 to examine eight complaints against Sandesh and Gujarat Samachar. The committee also examined 16 other complaints against some English newspapers, including The Hindu, The Times of India [ Images ], Hindustan Times, The Telegraph and Deccan Chronicle. These complaints were, however, closed with advice to the press to be more diligent in gathering facts and restrained in presenting them. The committee initially thought of issuing a warning to Sandesh and Gujarat Samachar, but later decided that the two dailies deserved nothing short of a 'censure'. The inquiry committee expressed its 'displeasure' over the boycott of its sittings by Gujarat Samachar. The paper also did not respond to the council's notices on five of the six complaints against it. The inquiry committee expressed its 'displeasure' over the boycott of its sittings by Gujarat Samachar. The paper also did not respond to the council's notices on five of the six complaints against it. There were six complaints against Sandesh and it sought to take refuge behind the plea that it had carried the reports 'in good faith'. As recommended by the committee, the council censured both Sandesh and Gujarat Samachar "for the infraction of the norms of journalistic conduct in some of the reports". The council also chose the occasion to advise the media, including the electronic media, "to introspect on its role in the coverage of these riots, learn from its errors, and ensure that in future at least its reportage serves to douse the passions of divisive forces and encourages the people of this country to rise above the divisions of caste and creed". The inquiry committee report, which was endorsed by the full council, pulled up Sandesh for being 'negligent' in publishing on March 1, 2002, a report titled 'Dead bodies of two young women found in very distorted condition'. The report claimed that two girls abducted from the Sabarmati Express had been found dead with their breasts cut off. Sandesh's defence was that the report was "published in good faith and with an intention to caution and alert the public at large to take precautionary steps and also to protect members of the society after taking necessary note of the news". It also claimed that the same report was carried by several other newspapers.

The inquiry committee noted that "even though the reported incident had been publicly denied and this denial reported by another paper, Sandesh did nothing to inform its readers about the same". Sandesh was also censured for another report of March 6, 2002, which said that a group of pilgrims returning from the Hajj were carrying RDX and other explosives for mounting attacks on Hindus. The report had added that terrorists, on orders of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence, were just waiting for the Hajj pilgrims to return to begin their attacks. The committee held that the report "appeared aimed at creating a sensation in the surcharged atmosphere" as "facts therein did not conform to the information given out by the concerned authorities". Stopping short of a blanket condemnation of Sandesh and Gujarat Samachar as suggested by senior journalist Batuk Vohra in an article, the committee said it "did not appreciate the headlines like 'Godhra killings a challenge to the rise of Hindutva' in February 28, 2002, issue of Gujarat Samachar or even some of the later reports/articles that exhorted Hindus to rise as a class against the Muslims". The committee noted that "a greater onus lies in times of crisis on regional media rather than the national media in restoring the faith of the public in the law and order situation and encouraging communal harmony and amity". Among the complaints received by the Press Council against the two Gujarati dailies was one by the Citizens of Ahmedabad against Sandesh for encouraging violence. Other complaints accused both dailies of publishing "misleading and inflammatory reports in March-April 2002 and playing a criminal role in spreading riots in Gujarat after the Godhra violence". A memorandum from the Citizens of Ahmedabad, which was accepted by the Press Council as a complaint, had cited not one or two, but as many as 17 'bogus' reports and headlines in Sandesh written in 'provocative and instigating language'. The editor of Sandesh claimed that these reports were "published by all other newspapers in the state and repeatedly aired on TV channels". In its conclusion, the council noted that the Gujarat riots gave "a terrible shock to India's fair secular name. It was a national shame. There is no need to reiterate the norms that media has to adhere to in such situation."