Editorial -Media Freedom -Asianet November 19, 2004
IT Company Creates Hurdles for KM for reporting about the role of Resort Owner and Channel Director in the Kiliroor Sex Scandal
DUBAI - November 18 2004 Keralamonitor.com (KM), an independent investigative news portal, has been offline for the last few days due to certain reasons beyond the editor's control. Keralamonitor.com which is hosted in a server company affiliated to the leading TV channel (Asianet) has been facing technical problems, which the company claims is due to "technical problems". KM has strong reasons to believe that the channel company and a big business lobby from the Gulf region have been deliberately working together to keep the website down. The ulterior motive behind keeping the site down is to silencing KM, especially after we reported about the channel director K P Mohan and his friend and companion Kuwait Chandy, the Congress leader from Alappuzha and others who are accused in the Kiliroor sex scandal. While the IT company repeatedly shut downs KM site, its employees claim it is not deliberate. For three days the site could not be updated as the company did not give details about the technical changes introduced recently.
KM started operations about four years back from the Gulf region as a simple website was originally registered with Keralaonline.com, a Kerala based server Company which was later taken over by Asianet. The site has been running smoothly for the last three years and the major technical problems started only in the last six months. When Keralaonline.com was taken over by the channel group, KM continued to host the site with the same server company due to the group's reputation and popularity. However, on a number of occasions, the server company has shut down the site, thereby denying its readers from different parts of the world accessing our reports. Accidentally, the recent technical problems facing the website started after the website published a couple of sensational stories about the Kiliroor sex scandal and Kozhikkodu Ice Cream Parlour case in which a few prominent NRKs including the channel director are accused. According to exclusive reports filed by KM, the name and political connections of the Alappuzha Resort owner (Thomas Chandy) where the girl was sexually assaulted was clearly mentioned. The channel director is also accused of meeting the girl in the resort owned by a former Kuwait NRK who duped the Indian School Kuwait also. The site faced "technical problems" when it reported about the Kovalam Hotel Scandal in which a prominent NRK from Oman is involved. It also faced "technical problems" when the diamond smuggling case involving a leading business group was reported. As one reader rightly put it. "Someone is playing dirty tricks with the site. Occasionally it is not available. This is a recent phenomenon."
Even though KM editor tried to clarify about the "technical problems" facing the website with the senior officials of the server company, they did not give a proper explanation for frequently shutting down the site. Most of the time, the technical staff did not care to attend phone calls and kept the site down for three days. According to the explanation given by the company, the site was down due to technical problems or "hard ware" problems. However, IT experts say that such issues can be solved easily and there is no need to shut down the site frequently, that also for days. Surprisingly, these "technical problems" have not affected the functioning of the company's own website (asianetglobal.com/keralaonline.com or the channel website. In the first week of August the site was down for a few days and when the editor contacted C M Radhakrishnan, the General Manager of Asianet Dataline, associated with Asianet Satellite Communications in this regard, this was the reply given. "Our website http://www.keralamonitor.com is hosted with Asianet Web service for the last four years. In the last three days the site is down and despite repeated emails and phone calls, it is not rectified. This is the first time that I am having such major problem with the server. Being a news portal from the Gulf region updated regularly, I request you to rectify the problem as soon as possible. I would also like to know the reason for keeping the site down for two days," said the KM editor's communication. However, there was no proper reply from the company and the problem started again and again. The latest "technical problem" occurred after the server was changed twice.
Due to the bold style of reporting and the investigative nature of stories filed by the website its popularity has been increasing. Starting with a few web pages and handful of visitors, traffic to the site has grown tremendously. According to the server company's statistics, KM receives several thousand visitors. "In the recent past, whenever the site published a sensitive story, the site was shut down and the normal explanation from the server company was technical snags. The site had no problem in the first three and half years of operation and recently it's server was changed two times. One month after renewing the account and domain registration in August, the company started creating other hurdles like demanding additional payment for increased bandwidth use etc. This is in contradiction with the communication received by the editor from the technical team who promised to host the site without any additional payment for expanded bandwidth usage. The demand for additional payment was made when the site published a report about the reasons for the channel not publishing the sensational revelations by Rejina, the main victim in the Kozhikkodu Ice Cream Parlour Case against the state industry minister Kunujalikutty. The site was put down on a number of occasions when the site filed stories about a diamond dispute involving a leading business group, sex trafficking stories and stories related to the controversial channel director and Kovalam Hotel deals.
According to Asianet Dataline, the web hosting company, Keralamonitor.com received 17,99,365 hits within three and half months from April 19 2004 to August 1, 2004. Till August the site received nearly 1,00,000 page views in a month, which is not a mean achievement for the portal which began four years back with a few web pages and visitors. The sites popularity has been growing as it reported many human interest stories and crime reports about overseas Indian community in Oman, UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Even though there are many newspapers and channels catering to the overseas Indian community in the Gulf, this website has attracted many browsers.
It was also the website which published stories linking the Kuwait Indian School scandal in which the channel director and the resort owner jointly duped the Indian community of several crores of Indian rupees. The site has also reported the role of a leading gold merchant in the Gulf region and a leading businessman's role in these sensitive cases. It is to be noted that the site has been reporting about the growing sex trafficking from Kerala to the Gulf region, in which more than 1000 Kerala girls are reportedly trapped. The latest in this series is a young nurse from Kummanam in Kottayam, who was brought to Dubai by the sex mafia to work as a prostitute without her knowledge. Many media organizations are being silenced in one way or another by the powerful mafia that controls smuggling and sex trafficking.
KM editor has devoted much time and money to develop the website as an independent news portal. The website was also in the lime light when the business lobby in Oman tried to transfer the then Indian Ambassador to Oman, K M Meena who was against commercialization of education and illegal exploitation of the Indian community by E.Ahmed and Galfar Mohammed Ali, who are illegally running the school as a private property. While it is supposed to be a community school, the duo are running it as a private business, charging the highest fees, squeezing ordinary parents. The website has been regularly reporting about rampant corruption, nepotism and corruption in Indian Schools in Oman and other Gulf countries. The website also published stories about the Indian School Kuwait Scandal in which one of the channel directors was a culprit. The portal editor would resort to all available means to ensure the smooth functioning of the site and assure its readers that he would not succumb to such pressure tactics and intimidation. At a time when the media in every part of the world is being subjected to harassment and violent attacks, KM reiterates its commitment to follow its chosen path and remain as a champion of freedom of expression.
Editor
Keralamonitor.com
http://www.weblokam.com/pravasi/news/0406/14/1040614037_1.htmThis is the latest explanation from the Server Company About Shutting Down the Site:
Dear Sir,
This is in continuation to our last email regarding the hard drive problem we had with one of our server in US data centre. As we have mentioned in that mail, the hard disk replacement has been done on the scheduled time : 17th Nov 04 @ 5:00 PM IST. We had the backup of of mails & website content till 2.30 PM and restoration work has completed by 7:00 PM IST. During this period outgoing mail service got affected but as most of the MTA keep mails at least for 3 days, none of your mails will be lost.
Unfortunately, on 18th Nov 04 the same I/O error started popping up. Subsequently, the mail service and http service stopped working. This sort of repeated hardware failure was unprecedented and we had to take an immediate shut down again. We have arranged a new server in another data centre and completed the configuration within 3 hours. The content migration & mail accounts from the latest backup (18th Nov 04 @ 2:00 PM IST)has also been done by 19th Nov 04 2:00 AM IST.
Eventhough, the sites and mail traffic resotred by then, some of our customers reported intermitent smtp service (outgoing mail) problem today morning. All those issues have been sorted out and every thing is working perfectly now.
We understand the difficulty you might had due to the server shut down. Our sincere appologies for the inconveniece caused.
Thank you for your patience and co-operation.
Regards, Asianet Websupport,
Asianet Satellite Communications Limited
Area Office, Pangode, Thirumala P O
Thiruvananthapuram - 695 006, Kerala, India
Fitting Tribute to two great Indians: Vaikom Mohammed Basheer and K.P.Mohan
DUBAI - The third issue of Sambashanam, yet another Publication headed by the Gulf Malayali Intellectual giants like great Malayalam novelist N.T.Balachandran, D.Vinayachandran and other dignitaries is released here. Filled with many intellectually stimulating reports, a special report by a prominent writer from Dubai will not miss the readers attention . What will shock any sensible reader with the basic minimum standards of public morality and integrity will be an item which is appearing on page 42.
This special item is part of a detailed critical report about the media culture among Gulf Malayalis. The author has done a wonderful job by interviewing prominent journalists from different Gulf countries. The item that will humiliate any sensible person who is aware of the current socio-political scenario in the state and Gulf region quotes the late legendary writer Vaikom Mohammed Basheer, who has apparently praised the current Asianet editor K.P.Mohan when he was working as a reporter with the Kuwait Times. There is no doubt that Kuwait Times is one of the first English papers in the gulf which published the first overseas alayalam Newspaper in the Gulf region. In his report, Bashir has praised K P Mohan as a historical phenomenon (Aaarshabharatha Sambavam). If Bashir was alive to witness what happened in the Indian School Kuwait or other scandals which are currently being discussed by the mainstream media, he would have definitely changed his opinion about Mohan.
Fortunately for Mohan, Bashir did not survive for long to see the real colour of this intellectual giant . Everyone including the editor D.Vinaya Chandran and N.T.Balachandran and the reporter know very well the current status of K P Mohan in an average Keralite's mind. It is an open secret that he has duped many ordinary Indian school parents by taking away their hard earned money. It is part of the magazines editorial freedom to publish anything, but some readers have questioned how such a controversial personality can be given a larger than life image in a publication which is claimed to be above the average Ma publications?
This report is released at a time when the Kiliroor sex scandal investigation is focused on a prominent private channel director who is accused of sexually assaulted a minor girl. The report rightly points out many grey areas of media culture and in one section it points out that parents have to give Dhs.3000 to Dhs.5,000 as a reward to put their daughters cinematic dance clippings in the channel shows. Is it not a continuation of the serial, cinematic dance culture developed by the private channels through which the Kiliroor sex scandal victim Saari S.Nair and the other minor girl Anekha from Kaviyoor have been lured? The report also says that the private channels spend more time airing the lumpen capitalists and their public activities. It also says that a number of Kothazhathu associations invite the channel and radio representatives to get media attention for their insignificant events. (click Images) By trying to portray K.P.Mohan as a historical phenomenon with a larger than life image, Sambashanam magazine has demoted itself to the status of any other Kothazhathu associations or Ma publications in the Gulf. By equating Mohan with other prominent journalists featured in the report, the magazine has demoted itself to the status of any other associations which seek undue publicity through the channels?
KM Exclusive
E.Ahmed and K P Mohan in Secret Deal to Negotiate with Kuwait Government to relax Punishment in Indian School Scam
The first exclusive interview with Rejina, the main witness in the Kozhikkodu Ice Cream Parlour sex racket, was taken by an enthusiastic young reporter of Asianet Deepa. However, she has got a severe jolt in her career when the relatively young rival channel India vision aired it a few seconds after her superiors killed the story. The exclusive story was video graphed in the Calicut Studio of Asianet and transported to the head office in Thiruvananthapuram for telecasting. Nobody knows what happened to the contents of the exclusive videos taken by this lady reporter with much pain . It is learned that the tape was about to be played a few minutes before India Vision started airing it when the chairman of the channel himself personally intervened to stop it. What prompted Reji Menon, the promoter of the first major television project in India, and the editor K.P.Mohan to take such a drastic decision? Full Report
Cinematic Dances: Light, Camera Action:
KOTTAYAM - A leading private channel organises special cultural programmes in each district headquarters and in Kottayam, the center of Kiliroor Sex Scandal, they do conduct such shows. A number of cinematic dance training centers have sprang up in the town and the dance teachers lure the young, good looking and smart girls who enroll themselves for cinematic dances. With the help of the lady music teacher or a good looking smart guy, the channel-dance-icecream-sex- racket lures girls by promising them a chance to present programmes in the culutural programmes organized either by the channel or its agents.
The girl's mother will also be influenced by the teacher, offering a good role in the "show". Once the girl and her mother fall for it, they take her to a "camera test". The fifteen years old Anakha who committed suicide along with four other members of the family used to be a cinematic dance student in one of the dance centers in Kottayam. A youth leader who has been running a parallel college in Kottayam Town (Saji, Director, a Private College in Kottayam) is suspected in the Kiliroor sex scandal.
He has been questioned by the Police. This criminal network also lures girls who are enrolled in the private colleges. The college offers degrees of any universities in South India for a fee. Once in a while the director takes the girl students to Banglore for "entrance" tests, admission or real examinations. Accidentally, the girl who died in Kiliroor sex scandal was selected as Ms. Kottayam. She was to act in a serial for which Latha Nair took her to the Alappuzha Resort owned by the former NRK from Kuwait, a close friend of the channel director. A studio owner in the state capital is also part of the criminal network.
On a particular day when Saari was taken to the Alappuzha resort, a secret meeting of the ruling party was in progress. The agenda of the meeting was the removal of Antony as chief minister and replacing him with Oommen Chandy. No wonder the new chief minister Oommen Chandy playing all dirty games to protect other Chandy who owns the resort. Muslim League sources who are unhappy about the Congress leadership have hinted the name of some of the Congress leaders who attended the secret meeting. The channel director who has started his career as a youth congress leader has been an aspiring candidate. If the Kuwait Indian School scandal was not exosed, K P Mohan would have been a Congress candidate. Same is the case with Thomas Chandy, more popular as Kuwait Chandy. With the new sex scandal, their chances of becoming a people's representative are remote. It is reported that the minor girl was taken to the resort, gave juice and returned home totally tired.
Two-handed 8 years for embezzlement
A Kuwaiti court recently sentenced two people to eight years in prison for embezzling KD 150,000 belonging to the Indian Community School, according to an announcement by Kairali TV in Kerala, India. The report said that K.P. Mohanan, currently managing editor of Asianet TV channel, and Mathew Philip, were sentenced in absentia. Their accomplice, Thomas Chandy, was reported to have been fined KD 5,000 for his complicity in the crime. Kuwaiti authorities issued an arrest warrant last year through Interpol for K.P. Mohanan, who left Kuwait for India and joined Asianet after the crime was discovered. According to Indian security officials, Mohanan cannot be arrested and extradited to Kuwait due to the lack of an extradition treaty between India and Kuwait. Mohanan, once served as a trustee of the Indian Community School. Mathew Philip, who also served as chairman of the school, escaped to India after he was released on bail.
KAMAL NATH MOOTS JOINT STUDY GROUP ON COMPREHENSIVE ECONOMIC COOPERATION AGREEMENT WITH RUSSIA
Shri Kamal Nath, Union Minister of Commerce & Industry, has proposed the setting up of a Joint Study Group on a possible Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement between India and the Russian Federation with a view to enhancing bilateral trade and economic relations. The Deputy Prime Minister of Russia, Mr. Alexander D Zhukov, welcomed the proposal mooted by Shri Kamal Nath during an hour-long meeting with the Russian delegation here last evening and said that such an expert Group would impart a fresh impetus to trade between India and Russia. Recalling the strong trade ties that India traditionally had with Russia, Shri Kamal Nath called for substantive steps to reverse the declining trend in the volume of trade between the two countries and urged Russia to step up its imports of tea, tobacco and manufactured goods from India. Mr. Zhukov suggested the establishment of joint ventures in Russia based on tobacco sourced from India. Shri S.N. Menon, Commerce Secretary, was present at the meeting along with Shri Kawal Sibal, India’s Ambassador to Russia and other senior officials.
Mr. Zhukov, who is in India ahead of the forthcoming visit of President Putin, said that Russia hoped to become a member of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) by 2005 and would be keen to cooperate with India in the WTO.During the discussions, Shri Kamal Nath flagged the issues relating to the high duty differential on import of bulk and packaged tea which discouraged export of quality package tea to Russia and the grant of Geographical Indication (GI) status for Darjeeling tea. The differential duty structure was meant to be temporary and hence, India has been seeking its revocation. The issue of GI for Darjeeling tea is being pursued with the Russian side during the ongoing negotiations for their accession to the WTO. Shri Kamal Nath conveyed India’s concern over dwindling tobacco exports to Russia, especially since Russia had traditionally been the single largest overseas market for Indian tobacco.The potential for cooperation in diamonds was also discussed as India is the largest processing centre for rough diamonds, while Russia is one of the world’s largest producers of rough diamonds.
The Russian side expressed concern over anti-dumping investigations in India against certain goods of Russian origin and requested recognition of market economy status for Russia for anti-dumping purposes. Shri Kamla Nath allayed the apprehension expressed by Mr. Zhukov by pointing out that no anti-dumping investigations had been initiated involving Russia by the Directorate General of Anti-Dumping (DGAD) since November 2003 and hence, the concern on this account was not based on any specific decision of the DGAD.India’s exports to Russia amounted to US $ 708.68 million in the year 2003-2004, showing a decline of 0.66 % compared to 2002-2003, while imports from Russia stood at US $ 959.51 million.
Is it Kuwait Chandy who owns a tourist resort in Alapapuzha? Chandy and a cotery of NRKs from Kuwait are already notorious for their involvmenet in the Indian School Kuwait case in which a few crores have been duped... Watch this space for KM Special Report.
FDI Limit Raised for Domestic Airlines More News
K.M.Abbas- Kuzhur Wilson, budding Writers share Thirumuttam Award
Letter from KM Reader: Everything that Glitters is not Gold!!!
Finally we are hearing it and a hearty “Mabrook” to Kerala Monitor for showing the guts to write it. We used to wonder how this particular Jeweler was starting outlets almost over half the globe when traditional jewelers like Josco, Bhima were still in the same old position. When the Hawala case came up we thought may be at least now the bubble will break – anyway I hope more journalists will show courage to bring out the truth. Meanwhile we should stop purchasing from such outlets, the least we can do as responsible citizens. When we blame politicians and businessmen of corruption we conveniently forget the fact that we are to be equally blamed since we elect them and we buy from them. They are not from the next world but from our own community. So I guess we have to change first. Discuss
Strong Political Patronage in Kerala to protect scamsters
The arrest of Thomas Chandy, who is credited with political ambitions and is a known financier of the Congress party, was welcomed by the new managing committee of the 40-year-old school and the school's Council of Elders consisting of Babu Thumpamon, K.T.V. Ramakrishnan and Punnose Padickal as also several social activists. Chandy fell into the police net on his return to Kuwait after a sojourn in Kerala. Mohanan cannot be formally extradited from India in the absence of an extradition treaty between the two countries. However, according to Babu Thumpamon, the Kuwaiti authorities had sought Interpol's help to track him down. Chandy was a known supporter of Kerala Congress leader K.Karunakaran and his son Muraleedharan. According to one report, he allegedly paid Rs. 20 lakh to finance just a support rally of the Congress leader. (above Kuwait Chandy)
In one instance of misappropriation established by the Kuwaiti investigators, ambassador Nair is accused of allegedly transferring school funds KD1114,481 (Rs160 million) and its compound interest from 1990 to 1998 to the private accounts of Mathew Philip, Mohanan and S.Z. Shah, a Gulf-based businessman, who was treasurer of the Ad Hoc Committee formed by the ambassador. In June 1998, Mohanan opened an account with the Bank of Kuwait and the Middle East (BKME) to deposit the transferred funds. It is said to have subsequently become the mother account for various other dealings. It was from this account that Mohanan transferred KD 32,500 to Mathew Philip's account. It is alleged that Ambassador Nair and First Secretary Sanjeev Kumar received KD30,000 and KD20,000 respectively in cash from Mohanan's withdrawal of KD50,000 from his account.
