A movie-style hostage crisis played out in Mumbai after a 45-year-old social entrepreneur held 17 children, aged 12-15, a 75-year-old woman and his staffer hostage for two hours at a recording studio in Powai Thursday afternoon after calling them for auditions for a web series. A police commando team stormed the studio following failed negotiations and shot him in the chest after he fired from an air gun. Hot off the Press Rohit Aarrya, who had been living in a relative’s flat in Chembur over the past few days, released a video saying he wanted “simple answers” to some questions and threatened to set the place ablaze if there was any move to challenge him. In the clip, circulated to many media outlets, he said he was not a terrorist and only wanted “to be heard”. “Instead of dying by suicide, I have held some children hostage,” he said. At no stage did he elaborate on his motives, reported Hemali Chhapia and V Narayan for The Times of India. The incident occur

  The Calicut Press Club has announced the winners of the much-awaited Mushtaq Awards, honouring excellence in sports journalism and photography. R. Samban, Idukki bureau chief of Janayugam, has been conferred with the Mushtaq Sports Journalism Award for his series titled Evide Marayunnu Teejwalakal, published in Janayugam from September 19 to 23, 2024. Malayala Manorama’s Ernakulam unit photographer Jibin Chempola received the Sports Photography Award, Manoramaonline reported Each award carries a cash prize of Rs 15,000 and a citation. The awards were instituted in memory of renowned playwright P.A. Muhammed Koya, popularly known as Mushtaq, in collaboration with the Kozhikode District Football Association. The Mushtaq Awards celebrate outstanding contributions to sports media, recognising journalists and photographers who bring regional sporting stories and personalities to the forefront.

Bengaluru’s City Civil and Sessions Court has issued a temporary injunction restraining several media outlets and digital platforms, including The News Minute (TNM), from publishing or circulating any allegedly defamatory content against Reporter Broadcasting Company Private Limited, the owner of Malayalam news channel Reporter TV. According to The News Minute, the Kochi-based company said in its suit that the defendants had used social media platforms to share private photos and videos, allegedly to tarnish the channel’s reputation. It also sought the removal of all reports mentioning criminal cases involving its current owners. The injunction names major media houses and tech giants such as Google LLC, Facebook, Instagram, The Hindu, Times of India, Indian Express, and Malayalam channels including Manorama News, Asianet News, Media One, and News 18 Kerala. TNM has been asked to take down four URLs, including reports on the “rotten mango” phone scam and the Muttil tree fel

In a move to encourage sustained coverage of environmental concerns, the Directorate of Environment and Climate Change, Manipur, will soon roll out an annual award recognising journalists who bring climate and ecological issues to the forefront. According to Eastern Mirror, director Dr. T. Brajakumar shared that the Best ReporterAward for Climate Change Reporting will be launched next year, likely to coincide with the observance of World Wetlands Day on February 2. The announcement was made during an interaction with fellows of the 6th State Level Media Fellowship Programme (2025–26), held at the Directorate’s conference hall in Porompat, Imphal. This year’s fellowship focuses on “Alien Species in Manipur — Linking to Climate Change.” The programme, organised by the Media Resource Centre in association with the State Climate Change Cell, featured insights from leading experts including Prof. T. Shantibala of the Central Agricultural University, Dr. M. Haripriya from Ma

Network 10 is planning to cut its current affairs program 10 News+ to 30-minutes next year. The decision follows months of soft ratings since the show’s June debut, with the new lineup designed to strike a balance between serious journalism with family-friendly entertainment in the early evening slot. According to a story in Mediaweek this morning by Makayla Muscat, 10 News+, which replaced The Project, was introduced with the promise of a fresh, modern take on nightly news. However, early figures told a different story. The show opened to just 191,000 viewers in the five-city metro ratings, compared with 961,000 tuning into Nine News and 905,000 for Seven News in the same timeslot. By the end of its first week it was watched by just 138,000 viewers nationally. Despite the shorter runtime, staff were told there will be no job losses associated with the change. The program will continue to be anchored by former Seven Network journalists Amelia Brace and Denham Hitchcock.  

Bookings are now open for the 2025-2026 Google workshop aimed at small-to-medium Australian and New Zealand-based public interest news organisations.  The program will be run by proven experts in AI experimentation and implementation, Other Labs, in association with The AI Training Company. Building on similar programs run over 2023 and 2024, the program will lead publishers through a 16-week process to: Inspire news organisations to create impactful editorial and business experiments through training sessions focused on examples of Google’s generative AI products, expert advice from Google’s product team, and industry-leading speakers Design and execute experiments using AI tools, with news organisations supported by expert industry mentors Showcase impact by tracking results, documenting experiments in case studies and creating editorial and safety principles Example projects developed during previous programs have included:   Creating a monthly AI audio news wrap

Welcome to Friday and let's start with The Australian Financial Review this morning which somewhat uncharacteristically has a man jumping on a trampoline, but fear not it is still a finance-linked story. Say hello to Max Marchione who is on the front page because he's also in the Young Rich List, included today as a glossy insert in the paper and 25-year-old Marchione debuts at number 91 with a net worth of $53 million. He founded an app called Superpower which apparently is now worth some $300 million. Not to put a dampener on things, but doesn't it look a bit dangerous trampolining near the edge of that tall building? Still, I suppose you don't get rich by not taking risks.   Not to be outdone - News Corp's Daily Telegraph has a list of its own too today, and in many ways it's very similar to the Nine offering - 250 Young Entrepreneurs. Sarah Simpkins pens a story on that. Back to the AFR and a story close to its remit is the latest on the James Hardie situation after