A Rejoinder to Mathrubumi's fabricated report

We sent the following rejoinder to Mathrubumi but Mathrubumi has not
carried our rejoinder. We are recording our rejoinder in our website.

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This is with reference to your report in Mathrubumi on Monday , March 22 , 2010 by NS Binu Raj.

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PRESS NOTE
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This is with reference to the report publushed in Mathrubumi daily on Monday , March 22 (written by Shri N S Binu Raj)

Ref: http://www.mathrubhumi.com/online/malayalam/news/story/221531/2010-03-22...

We are deeply saddened that a paper of repute like Mathrubumi is giving way to such malafide and defamatory reports. Before constructing such a report, the reporter should have at least followed some basic journalistic norms by getting the version of the concerned person, in this case our democratically elected General Secreatry Shri Kiran Chandra of the Free Software Movement of India. The report says Shri Kiran Chandra (who is also a member of board of directors of FSF-India a sister organisation of Free Software Foundation, headed By Richard Mathew Stallman)is a representative of a IT company , Novell. We would be keen to know what proof you possess to this effect? Why otherwise this report has published outright lies? We demand an apology from the reporter and the newspaper and request you to correct this mistake by publishing our version of the story, failing which we will be left with no option but take legal action.

Below are some of the reports on the event published by Independent bloggers and newspapers of repute.

http://ideasareimmortal.blogspot.com/2010/03/national-conference-on-free...
http://ideasareimmortal.blogspot.com/2010/03/nc2010-day-2-and-free-softw...
http://www.deccanherald.com/content/59304/making-sense-unjust-world.html
http://www.thehindu.com/2010/03/19/stories/2010031961140300.htm
http://www.thehindu.com/2010/03/20/stories/2010032064330300.htm
http://www.thehindu.com/2010/03/21/stories/2010032154350500.htm
http://beta.thehindu.com/news/cities/Bangalore/article245413.ece
http://www.deccanherald.com/content/58966/free-software-movement-gaining...
http://bangalore.citizenmatters.in/events/show/2260-a-run
http://bangalore.citizenmatters.in/events/show/2210-national-conference
http://beta.thehindu.com/news/article261275.ece

We are a free software movement and we are not concerned with the political affiliations of its members. Members of all political parties and non members are all welcome to join the movement. There are indeed professors and academicians from institutions like IISc , IIMB, IIIT were part of this conference and some of them were elected as office bearers of the Free Software Movement of India. This is mis representation and we want to know why we shouldn't take legal action against you for publishing baseless allegations.

The conference was sponsored by companies and public institutions. We have been in constant dialogue with the president of Free Software Foundation , Boston , Mr. Richard M. Stallman , the founder of Free Software movement, on the criteria and basis for accepting sponsorships for this conference. We have been functioning on his advice and guidance (and your reporter may feel free to directly contact him to confirm, if you desire so).

It may be interesting for you to refer to the site https://my.fsf.org/donate/patron/. You can see the names of the sponsors, which includes some of the monopolies as your report says. This is the patron page of the FSF, Boston. Taking support doesn't construe dilution of the free software message and the founder of this movement has clarified it many times. We have only followed the practices of the free software foundation.

You may please be informed that, we had invited the chairman of the FSF, India, Dr G Nagarjuna to the conference and he couldn't attend only because of prior commitments. One of the working group members of FSF India Abhas abhinav ,who is from Bangalore, had participated in one of our sessions in the conference. These show the report has been entirely fabricated and biased. We appreciate the work of FSF India and hope that our work will add to theirs. Shri VS Achuthandan, honorable Chief Minister of Kerala, couldn't participate because of the election code of conduct and so was the case with the Karnataka Minister Shri Katta Subramania Naidu).

We once again request you to uphold journalistic ethics in reporting.