''Open'' is an Indian English-language weekly magazine. It was launched on 2 April 2009 by the Open Media Network, the media venture of

RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group (also known as RPSG Group) is an Indian multinational conglomerate headquartered in Kolkata. The founding was the result of a divestiture by RPG Enterprises in 2011. The Group's businesses include power and energy, ca ...

.Open- About us
''openthemagazine.com''. Retrieved 14 March 2013 The current managing editor is P. R. Ramesh and the editor-in-chief is S. Prasannarajan. Previous editors were Sandipan Deb and

Manu Joseph Manu Joseph (born 22 July 1974) is an Indian journalist and writer. He is the former editor of ''Open (Indian magazine), Open'' magazine. Life and career Manu was born in Kottayam district, Kottayam, Kerala, and grew up in Chennai. His father J ...

History

The Open Magazine was conceptualised by Sandipan Deb, who joined Open Media Network after having worked for several years at ''

Outlook Outlook or The Outlook may refer to: Computing * Microsoft Outlook, also referred to as ''the classic Outlook'' an e-mail client and personal information management software product from Microsoft * Outlook for Windows, also referred to as ''the ...

'' and '' Financial Express.'' He left in August 2010, reportedly to pursue personal interests. After Deb left,

took over as the Managing Editor. Hartosh Singh Bal was appointed as the political editor and

Rahul Pandita Rahul Pandita () is an Indian author and journalist. Early life Rahul Pandita is a Kashmiri Pandit born in the Kashmir Valley. In 1990, at the age of 14, he had to leave the Valley along with his family as part of the Exodus of Kashmiri Pandi ...

was an associate editor. In November 2013, Hartosh Singh Bal was sacked. According Manu Joseph, the magazine's proprietor,

Sanjiv Goenka Sanjiv Goenka (born 29 January 1961) is an Indian billionaire businessman and investor. He is the founder and chairman of RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group, RPSG Group, headquartered in Kolkata. He also owns the Indian Premier League, IPL cricket team Luc ...

, felt that Bal's writings and appearances on television were resulting in him "making a lot of ... political enemies." Joseph himself resigned soon afterwads, and P. R. Ramesh became managing editor. Citing several instances of "press censorship", including the controversial firing of Hartosh Singh Bal, a July 2014 editorial in the ''New York Times'' commented that: , the editor-in-chief is S. Prasannarajan. Rajmohan Radhakrishnan was its publisher until 2014 and was succeeded by Mohit Hira. After his exit in 2016, Manas Mohan was appointed in his place but left after nine months and was replaced by Ashok Bindra in 2017. Neeraja Chawla joined as the CEO of Open Media Network in 2018.

Controversies

A report in ''

The Indian Express ''The Indian Express'' is an English-language Indian daily newspaper founded in 1932 by P. Varadarajulu Naidu. It is headquartered in Noida, owned by the ''Indian Express Group''. It was later taken over by Ramnath Goenka. In 1999, eight y ...

'' in April 2012 concerning government apprehension about army movements was criticised in ''OPEN'' by the then editorial chairman of ''

'',

Vinod Mehta Vinod Mehta (31 May 1941 – 8 March 2015) was an Indian journalist, editor and political commentator. He was also the founder editor-in-chief of ''Outlook'' from 1995 to 2012 and had been editor of publications such as '' The Pioneer'', ''The S ...

, in an interview with Hartosh Singh Bal. Mehta called the story a mistake and a "plant". In May 2012, the ''Express'' sent a legal notice to Open asking for an apology, for the contentious story to be removed from the online edition, for ''OPEN'' to pay 500

crore Crore (; abbreviated cr) denotes the quantity ten million (107) and is equal to 100 lakh in the Indian numbering system. In many international contexts, the decimal quantity is formatted as 10,000,000, but when used in the context of the India ...

s to the ''Express'', and for the journalists who wrote the contentious ''Express'' story. In 2014, after Bal, Joseph, and Rahul Pandita had left, the magazine issued a clarification and expressed regret for the Mehta column. Mehta, Bal and Joseph then complained that the new editorial team of ''OPEN'' had violated journalistic norms because they had not been contacted before the issue of the clarification and that there was no way for ''OPEN'' to make the claims it was making in its clarification. During the premiership of

Narendra Modi Narendra Damodardas Modi (born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician who has served as the Prime Minister of India, prime minister of India since 2014. Modi was the chief minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Par ...

and his

Bharatiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; , ) is a political party in India and one of the two major List of political parties in India, Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. BJP emerged out from Syama Prasad Mukherjee's ...

, ''OPEN'' has been accused among others by the Indian

media watchdog Media may refer to: Communication * Means of communication, tools and channels used to deliver information or data ** Advertising media, various media, content, buying and placement for advertising ** Interactive media, media that is inte ...

Newslaundry ''Newslaundry'' is an Indian media watchdog that provides media critique, reportage and satirical commentary. It was founded in 2012 by Abhinandan Sekhri, Madhu Trehan and Prashant Sareen, all of whom earlier worked in print or television jo ...

of biased and uncritical promotion of Modi and his

Hindu nationalist Hindu nationalism has been collectively referred to as the expression of political thought, based on the native social and cultural traditions of the Indian subcontinent. "Hindu nationalism" is a simplistic translation of . It is better descri ...

political causes.

References

External links

*{{official website, http://www.openthemagazine.com/ 2009 establishments in Delhi English-language magazines published in India Magazines established in 2009 Magazines published in Delhi News magazines published in India Political magazines published in India RPG Group Weekly magazines published in India RPSG Group