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It is a coincidence that Orissa is celebrating her 74 years of statehood just a few days before the Assembly and General elections. The time is a great reminder for our political leaders to realize and fulfill the dreams of our founding fathers, who dedicated their lives for the cause of Orissa.

At 74, Orissa is very young, charismatic, dynamic and energetic. The passing years are the years of learning and self-introspection. Beating all odds, the state has sailed forth to make her people happy and prosperous.

Orissa played a pivotal role in the industrial development of modern India. Of the total mineral resources of India, Orissa has 99 percent of Chromate ore, 92 per cent of Nickel ore, 65 per cent of Graphite and Pyrophylite, 66 per cent of Bauxite, 31 per cent of Mineral sand, 32 per cent of Manganese, 28 per cent of Iron ore and 24 per cent of coal within its geographical boundary. These natural resources were extensively utilized for the industrial development of India after the country was freed from the British imperialism.

We have to admit with deep pain that Orissa is regarded as one of the poorest states in India with nearly 48% of our population; figuratively 17-28 million people are below the poverty line. The industrial development has remained limited to memorandums of agreements. The debt burden has touched Rs. 42, 000 crores by 2008. The state is finding it very difficulty to provide salary to its employees. Naxal menace has further made the situation worsen. At present, nearly half of the state is under Naxal threat.

In this context, I humbly request to all the political leaders and people of my state to join hands for the creation of a new Orissa, the Orissa free from poverty, malnutrition, unemployment and starvation death. It would be that Orissa, which will stand tall in the all fronts of development.

Bande Utkal Janani.

Bhagaban Sahu.

If the government had given green signal to IPL, then the sporting event would not have shifted (sorry Outsourced) to South Africa. In that case, the government would have been come under fire from a section of our political leaders that how irresponsible the government is! For, it has shown enthusiastic in Cricket when the country is testing her democracy.

So, which IPL should be given utmost priority?

It is surprising that Lalit Modi and other franchise owners have not realized, which everybody has predicted that the 15th general election would be held in April-May 2009 after the United Progressive Alliance government managed to survive the confidence vote on July 22, 2008. It would clash with the IPL schedule, which was fixed from April 10- May 24.

In any case, IPL is a mega sporting event in the sub-continent. It has brought name and fame to Indian Cricket at the international level and entertained millions and millions of cricket lovers. At the micro level, the IPL has successfully tapped the local sporting talents. At a wider prospective, the event has further added feathers to India’s dream run to join the elite of global super powers.

After the resounding success of the inaugural edition of IPL, the BCCI has learnt it very well how to use IPL as money-spinning tool effectively. So, also the franchise owners! The IPL is predicted to bring the BCCI income of approximately US$1 billion, over a period of five to ten years.

Buoyant by the hyper-commercialism of IPL, BCCI approached the UPA government to provide necessary security arrangements for the event. When the Home ministry declined, BCCI came down heavily on the government. Adding twist to the developments, BJP politicized the issue for the reasons best known to its leaders.

India is a role model in Asia because of her vibrant democratic tradition. And the general election is an integral part of that vibrant tradition. Indian elections especially the Lok Sabha election have always attracted considerable international attention. In the 2004 general elections, nearly 670 million people cast their vote to elect a government. The number of voters were twice that of the next largest, the European Parliament elections. The upcoming election will be the world’s largest election exercise.

It is also equally true that the 15th general election will be the most complex exercise in the backdrop of recent terror attacks, which have created much havoc in the minds of people. In order to make the exercise successful, the government must create an atmosphere of peace and tranquility where the voters can feel secure. To ensure that, the government need platoons and platoons of paramilitary and police forces both the central and State governments. This is just one side of the story.

Right to vote is not merely a political right as enshrined in our Constitution. It goes beyond that. Voting power makes the people feel the real and equal sense of citizenship to choose their representative and parties who are going rule them for another five years. The citizens should exercise this power with utmost care. They must keep a vigilant eye at the political parties. They should actively participate in the democratic process.

In this context, I am really happy that the second edition of IPL will be held in an oversea country. And it will not catch much media attention and not dominate the prime time television coverage. Atleast, we can stay away from cricket fever during the time of elections. After all, IPL is noting but a shrewd combination of sport and business.

Bhagaban Sahu is a New Delhi-based journalist. He is specialized in Orissa affairs. The above article was first published in his blog.

IRONY is that people always think journalists know everything and flood them with questions when any issue is in debate. And during elections, journalists are psephologists. This common perception often puts me in trouble. I escape very tactfully. I was in discussion with my friends on the current political scenario in Orissa. As usual they went on asking me several questions. Who is going to be the next Chief Minister of Orissa? Which party will win maximum number of Assembly and Lok Sabha seats? Will the Congress back to power in Orissa? What will happen to the BJP after snatching tie with its decade old friend BJD?

‘Time will determine everything’, was my simple answer. They expected predictions from me. Being in media, we should not propagate any political party. This is the ethics of journalism, which I have learnt from my teachers and professional gurus. I asked my friends a simple question- Who will lose in the upcoming elections? The answers I got are BJD, BJP, Congress, NCP and so on. I was not satisfied. My answer was voters.

It is the voters who will be the ultimate losers. For, they are confounded, if not confused towards the rapidly changing political equations in the state politics. The answer was somewhat strange to them all. Let me prove my argument.

Bijoy Mahapatra is the most worried man. For, he has been betrayed twice. When BJD-NCP leaders cherished their pre-poll alliance, Mahapatra babu took no time to resign from the NCP. The Presidentship of the Orissa unit of NCP was held by him from the very beginning when his party Orissa Gana Parishad (OGP) merged with Sharad Power’s outfit to expose the ruthlessness of Naveen Patnaik.

Upset Bijoy said,

I have been fighting the misrule of the Naveen Patnaik government for the last nine years. How can I have any relationship with a person against whom I have all along been waging a battle?

It was the year 2000. Orissa was in full swing for Assembly elections. Mr. Mahapatra was a BJD leader then. He was considered a trusted lieutenant of former chief minister late Biju Patnaik and headed many important departments when Biju babu was the chief minister from 1990-1995. He was nominated as a BJD candidate for the Patkura constituency in Kenderapara district for the 2000 Assembly election. But on the last date for the filing of nominations Naveen Patnaik chose somebody else. Naveen’s calculated action gave Mahapatra little time to complete the formalities required to contest even as an independent.

Within six months of his expulsion, Bijoy Mahapatra formed a new outfit, the Orissa Gana Parishad (OGP) and merged with Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in 2007. The alliance determined to wipe out BJD.

At one point of time, the NCP leaders were the strong critic of BJD government and garbed much public attention. Now, NCP is an ally of BJD. There is every possibility that Mahapatra babu may join BJP. So, who is confused here? Voters. Aren’t they?

Let’s proceed from this and discuss about the political campaign. It is better to begin with Naveen Patnaik.

The BJD chief kicked up his poll campaign from his home district, Ganjam. Addressing a gathering in Gopalpur, he said,

I and my party feel free after snapping ties with the communal BJP.

Mr. Patnaik added that the people of Orissa knew that it was the BJP, which was guilty of “betrayal after enjoying power for a long time due to the alliance [with the BJD].”

He said the BJP leaders decided much earlier to end the alliance. “So, on March 7 night they preferred to go to the Raj Bhavan and withdraw support to the government even while seat-sharing talks was still on.”

His entire speech was aimed at reinstalling faith among the people by justifying his decision to ending relationship with the BJP. However, Naveen did not raise issues that people expected from him.

Being head of the incumbent government, Naveen should have projected achievements of his government and future strategies for the development of Orissa. He should have explained his government’s steps to curb out unemployment problem, which forces thousands and thousands of people to join the army of migrants each passing day. He should have talked about the MOUs which his government signed in the last 10 years. He should have also discussed about the necessary steps to stop starvation death and farmers’ suicide in the state. At least, he should have bothered about the long standing local problems, like development of Gopalpur sea beach, implementation of water projects, road connectivity, tourism and so on. None of these issues were raised in the campaigning.

Not surprisingly, the BJP which has also started its election campaign did not raise the issues which should be publicly discussed. The party was part of the ruling coalition for the last 11 years. So, who can better know the drawbacks and hidden agenda of BJD than BJP?

In its first election campaign as dubbed ‘Vijay Sankalp’, flamboyant BJP leader Sushma Swaraj known for her oratorical skills and quick adaptability to other languages addressed the massive gathering in the state capital. She gave her introductory remarks in Oriya before changing her tune to Hindi. Well. It is the first attack on Naveen Patnaik on language front.
Naveen’s apathy towards Oriya language despite in power for the last 11 years is indeed regrettable considering the ethos of the state. No one can deny that Orissa as a separate state was craved out of language revolution.

In her lengthy speech, Swaraj did not highlight the drawbacks of the incumbent government. She only lamented the breakup of the BJP-BJD alliance. If Sushma was not familiar to Orissa politics, then the other leaders like Biswabhusan Harichandan, Juel Oram, Kharavel Swain, Dharmendra Pradhan, Manmohan Samal, Surama Padhi, Chandan Mitra and State Unit Chief Suresh Pujari should have exposed the loopholes that the incumbent government conceded at the developmental fronts.

While development and industries had remained limited to memorandums of agreement, the promised goal of creating 10 lakh jobs in 10 years’ time has remained a distant dream. The state’s debt situation had gone up from Rs 18,000 crores in 2000 to Rs 42,000 crores in 2008. The day is not far when the state exchequer will be hardpressed to pay the salary of its employees. In the past nine years the Naxalite menace had spread to 18 of the 30 districts in the state. While 76 policemen had fallen to rebel bullets, some 132 civilians were killed in red attacks. These are the real political issues, which the leaders are overlooking.

Perhaps, it is first time in Orissa’s electoral history, we see such a meaningless campaign where the ideological lines are so blurred and parties have shown the kind of flexibility that would make a trapeze artiste turn green with envy.

Bhagaban Sahu is a Delhi-based journalist. He is specialized in Orissa affairs. The above story was first published in his blog.

Public memory may be very short, but those who are close to Naveen Patnaik can not forget the blunder that his father late Biju Patnaik committed in 1995.

Biju joined hands with Left parties in the 1990 Assembly election and claimed a landslide victory for the Janata Dal. The Janata Dal-Left ally won 125 of the 147 Assembly seats. He was elected Chief Minister for the second term.

In 1995 Assembly election, he snapped ties with Left parties and fought alone. Despite popular waves across the state, Biju could not come to power because Janata Dal had to accept defeat in more than 50 constituencies where the dominance of the Left parties was strong. And Biju’s dream run for third time CM was shattered. Now, his son Naveen took a similar step by ignoring importance of BJP for the forthcoming elections. Before jump into any conclusion, let me present a brief profile of BJD.

BJD is a different entity. Unlike other political parties in India, BJD is not a product of political movement or revolution. It is largely based on Biju legacy, the legacy withhold Congress supremacy in Orissa, which is otherwise referred as political laboratory for the grand old party. The BJD was formed in 1997 to keep the legacy vibrant.

Apart from Naveen’s clean image as projected in the media, BJP’s association with BJD in 1998 was another strong factor for the growing popularity of the regional outfit in the state. Both BJD and BJP were united to topple their enemy number one- Congress and they did it a number of times.

In the 1998 general elections, its first, the BJD won nine of the 12 seats it contested and the BJP seven of nine seats. In the 1999 Lok Sabha polls the BJD won 10 of the 12 seats it fought and the BJP all the nine it contested. In the February 2000 Assembly elections, the alliance bagged 106 of the total 147 seats - the BJD winning 68 of the 84 seats it contested and the BJP 38 of 63. Despite dual anti-incumbency factors both at the centre and state, the coalition recorded record victories both in the Assembly and General elections in 2004.

Thus, Naveen’s unilateral decision to break the alliance with BJP seems to be a blunder considering the fact that the recent development has taken the state towards a triangular battle where BJD is bound to face strong competition from both Congress and BJP.

Unlike previous elections where ‘development’ was the major issue, the 2009 elections will be fought on religion. And undeniably Kandhamal violence will become the major issue for the political parties.

After the pogrom against the Christian community, Naveen realized that the BJP could turn out to be an electoral liability in some parts of the State. Despite its initial failings, the Patnaik government came out with a rehabilitation package for Kandhamal victims and allowed Christian voluntary organisations to distribute relief in the affected areas in an effort to heal the wounds.

When both the parties sit for seat sharing, Naveen was very tactful. He remained firm on his demand to field BJD candidates in nearly 80 percent of the Assembly and Lok Sabha seats, even though a series of efforts led by BJP high commands for compromise.

Going by Naveen’s track record, it is clear that the BJD chief has always scored over crisis. His latest move is aimed at distancing his party from the communal agenda of the BJP and the Sangh Parivar.

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Such a superstitious incident has popped up from Orissa.18-month-old Sangula, a tribal of Jajpur district married the village bitch. The marriage ceremony was performed at a Hindu temple with all the rituals observed at traditional weddings. The bride (village bitch) was decorated with bridal attire.

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Let me speak the first thing first. It is first time that Orissa Pradesh Congress will have four working presidents including the Pradesh Head, K.P Singh Deo. Other three are Union minister Chandrasekhar Sahu, MLA Lalatendu Bidyadhar Mohapatra and the former Union minister Bhakta Charan Das. Apart from that, former Union minister Srikant Jena has been appointed as the chairman of the PCC’s campaign committee.

The Congress High Command is leaving no stone unturned to restore its lost glory in the eastern state. It was apparent from Rahul Gandhi’s two consecutive visits to the state last year. The AICC general secretary covered nearly half of the state and meet the tribals personally. Thus, the removal of four-time chief minister JB Patnaik and appointment of tribal leader Rama Chandra Ulaka as legislative party leader is considered major boost to woo the voters in the tribal belts in upcoming elections.

The three-member AICC team comprising Maken, Union Minister Narayan Swami and senior leader Janardan Dwivedi observed the moods of people and Congress MLAs in the state. Based on their findings, Union Minister of State for Urban Development and Orissa in-charge Ajay Maken proposed the name of Singh Deo, which was approved by party president Sonia Gandhi.

From the above developments, it is more or less apparent that the JB fraction has been overlooked to energize the struggling Congress.It is widely believed that the clean image of six-time MP K.P Signh Deo would help in their mission. Now the vital question, can Congress stop Naveen making hat-trick?

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But despite all these, news and commercial television in India is relatively still young but its juvenile character has not much to do with its youth. It rather hinges on the milieu in which is has taken shape, the context of globalisation and the compelling compulsions of media economics. Little surprise a two-hour browse of some news channels can leave you exasperated, if you were looking to find some news in it. Today news channels show everything other than news — astrology, Bollywood, crime, travel shows, horror shows and celebrations of celebrities. For many channels, content has been reduced to the 4 C matrix of crime, cricket, cinema and celebrities.

Indian television drama

Television is drama par excellence and in the last one year, the major events that one has witnessed include the 60-feet-fall of Prince, kissing escapades of starlets Rakhi Sawant and Shilpa Shetty, series of sting operations, insensitive portrayals of biologically deformed children and twins, might of Khali, ghosts haunting people and houses, occult and mystic tales, soothsayers’ predictions and so on.

From a purist’s perspective all this imply degeneration in television content, for news has certain ethics and sanctity which seems to have been massively compromised. Drama has replaced serious discourse and news has been buried deep inside the trivial and tantalizing.

The biggest headache for launching a satellite channel is programming software for round the clock broadcast. For this, newsgathering is a major task for the 24-hour news channels. To cater to this task, the emerging electronic channels have tried to make an attempt to cover all the incidents irrespective of position, location and time. These channels have not only revolutionized the concept of news on Indian television but also changed the news format. Before 1990s, Doordarshan had total monopoly on news on Indian television but they had also turned the news programs into a dull and boring exercise. Now the private channels have made the news into a glamour product. On the positive side, the strong point of all news bulletins today is their topicality, objectivity, glossy editing and high-quality visuals. News has traveled a long way from the DD era. From Local events to International events, breaking news to news analysis, television soap to page3 news, every happening comes under purview of news.

Doordarshan presented the news in a very politically correct manner. All controversial issues were pushed under the carpet. The ruling government had a strong hold on television broadcasting. Doordarshan news bulletins were unable to provide much international news to the national viewers. Objectivity had been the first casualty as news was invariably slanted to suit the party in power. The news was liberated from the confines of the DD newsroom and gained in objectivity and credibility when New Delhi Television (NDTV) produced ‘The World This Week’ in 1988.
In 1989, it also produced India’s first live televised coverage of the country’s general elections. The critical and commercial success of the coverage set a new standard for Indian television. And after the Gulf War the media panorama changed forever.
This is the period when satellite channels concentrated on entertainment programmes for their respective channels. Doordarshan still ruled the most coveted area ‘news’.
But Doordarshan’s monopoly was broken in 1992, when private television channels infiltrated into the Indian boundaries. In the beginning of 1990s, the private channels offered only entertainment programmes.

Doordarshan had faced stiff competition in news and public affairs programming with international channels like BBC and CNN. In February 1995, NDTV became the country’s first private producer of the national news ‘News Tonight’, setting a new landmark for Indian television because of its on-the-spot reporting with pertinent visuals. In the same year, TV Today Network occupied a 20 minutes slot on DD Metro channel and aired a Hindi and current affairs programme ‘Aaj Tak’.

But keeping the demand of infotainment programmes in mind, the media houses started to produce news magazines, entertainment magazines and news programmes for different channels.
And now, news channels are booming with sky being the limit. That day is not far away, when we will get a satellite news channel for every major city in India. Now news is not restricted to political happenings. Anything, which is strange or disgusting, is news. There are no rigid rules, which define news.
So, what exactly is the definition of news? According to the Webster dictionary, the classical meaning of news is :
a. A report of recent events, b. previously unknown information, c. something having a specified influence or effect
b. A material reported in a newspaper or news periodical or on a newscast , b. matter that is newsworthy.
In an amazing disclosure, QW Naqvi, News Director of Aaj Tak said that in today’s scenario, the ambit of news has expanded. Thus, the definition of news is actually determined by the viewers, and the news channels have to decode this and provide news accordingly.
LN Goel, Director & Vice Chairman of Zee Group says, “Since news does not consist only of information and happenings, content is a bigger set of this subset. It also constitutes views, discussions, initiative surveys, debates, investigations etc. So content has all these elements and since news is not only confined to political happenings, content also has entertainment, sports, religion etc in its fold”.
Here lies the problem: all news channels’ TRPs are rated together. As a result, channels sticking to a healthy news format are bracketed with those who indulge in sensation, and manage to garner higher TRPs, thanks to higher viewership. As a result ads and revenues are lost to other serious news channels, leaving them unable to compete. Thus, even if they don’t wish to, they have to join the sensational bandwagon forming a vicious cycle.
To compete with entertainment and sports channels, many news channels have increased their quota of cricket, cinema and crime to an extent that more than two thirds of their content is based on these three components.
Channels, and especially Hindi news players have also started to innovate and experiment. They started to look for inclusion of non-news elements in order to broaden their reach and appeal. There was the consideration that if there are six members in a typical family between the age group of 6 to 60, they all needed to be tapped. Cinema and cricket were the first imports given their long affiliations with the Indian psyche. Information and gossip from Bollywood started to hog the prime slots of news channels and everything, from a torn ligament of an Indian actress to the kissing escapades of an item girl, began getting minute attention. Crime was the next big thing on news channels and its presentation was wrapped with drama of such high intensity that it could give even the worst commercial producers of Bollywood a run for their money. All this was happening in the name of audience demand. News was fast losing its sheen.

This was not the end. Soon more experiments followed. Micro issues of family and even individuals started to dominate news space. Marital disputes, for instance, were brought to the fore and husbands and wives were made to sit for hours in studios talking about their problems. News channels suddenly turned into arbitrators and dabbled into issues such as adoption and extra marital affairs and even the dispute between a daughter-in-law and her mother-in-law. All this was justified in the name of an activist media, which was out there to resolve personal disputes and moral dilemmas. This was still not the end.

The next trend was endless portrayal of ghost stories and tantriks (black magic). Stories of how ghosts haunt a house in Bihar or how a small child of a snake-charmer played with a snake in Tamil Nadu were narrated with utmost sincerity in the name of news, and for hours together. News was getting fast replaced with the trivial and mundane.

And when a six-year-old boy Prince fell down in a 60-feet pit a village in UP, news channels went berserk. For two days, most of the news channels beamed live pictures from ground zero, tracking every moment of the “Breaking News” till the child was rescued by personnel of the Indian army. News television had turned into saviours as well.

Experiments went unabated. What followed next was a spate of sting operations in a bid to expose corruption in many places. And alas, in their zest to present their audience with the most sensational and curious, they brought notoriety and disrepute to television. Little surprise the Government of India in a historic and bold move imposed a ban of one month on a Hindi news channel which had falsely implicated a Delhi-based government school teacher and portrayed her as someone who was forcing her school girls into prostitution. News was getting bizarre and intolerable.

As if all this was not enough, now channels have taken upon themselves to aid the police in cracking murder cases. News channels went crazy talking about the recent double murder in Noida, Uttar Pradesh, of a 14-year-old girl and her domestic help, allegedly committed by her father. It was a gruesome incident alright and police was baffled as much as the general public about the nitty gritty of the case. News channels baffled them further by turning into detectives The funny sight of journalists, posing as amateur detectives dissecting the case and the numerous posers put to the police made a mockery of news besides botching up the case further and putting the Police under unnecessary media pressure. The audience was left gasping. Where has news disappeared? Trivilisation of television news today seems complete and hitting a point of no return.

Where does it go from here? If the marketeers’ perspectives are to be believed, and it would be unfair if we did not consider these, the trend is likely to get further accentuated in the months to come.

According to media analyst, News channels should hot have any ratings. The strength and perceived credibility of a news channel will become its brand equity.
According to the CMS Media Lab, the time spent on political news in the year 2007 has come down by more than 50 per cent. Political news coverage by Hindi news channels has dipped from 23.1 per cent in 2005 to 10.09 per cent in 2007.
On the other hand, sports, entertainment, crime and human interest news have managed to almost double up from 27.9 per cent in 2005 to 53.1 per cent in 2007. At the same time, agriculture, education, health and environment-related news have not seen any net change; their coverage has been as insignificant in 2007 as earlier.
Besides, the entertainment industry has grown tremendously, and they have realised the power of news channels. They are marketing their products through news channels, and all the big films have them as media partners.
News broadcasters also feel that serious stories without any element of drama have a short life in the Hindi news space. In all this soap box entertainment, the real issues effecting 80% of our population of course takes a back seat.
This progressive shrinkage in News Channels’ coverage on social and developmental issues reflects media’s growing apathy to these vital concerns, which in turn prevents these issues from getting their due attention from the public, government, policy makers and other stakeholders.

The News Broadcasters Association (NBA) has issued a missive to all bordcasters, in which it broadly explains the code of ethics and broadcasting standards for Television news channels. The missive also covers the fundamental principles and the principles of self regulation as part of the code. Fundamental principles state news should not be selected on the basis of promoting or hindering either side of any controversial public issue. It also states that news shall not promote or be designed on beliefs, opinions or desires of interested parties.

Truth will be a defence in all cases where a larger public interest is involved, and in even these cases, equal opportunities will be provided for individuals involved to present their point of view.

Under the clause of sting operations, the code says that News channels should not allow sex and sleaze as a means to carry out sting operations. It further states that sting operations should only be carried out as a tool for getting conclusive evidence of wrong doing or criminality and that there is no deliberate alteration of visuals, or editing or interposing done with the raw footage in a way that it also alters or misrepresents that truth or presents only a portion of the truth.

If not then television will become what an American actor and comedian Groucho Marx once said, “I find television very educational. Every time someone turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book.”

Reg Walker’s eight year old pet, Coal who lost his left paw to a cancer a year ago, can now walk and run like other dogs with the help of a £10,000 bionic leg. The bionic leg has been implanted using a new technology called Intraosseous Transcutaneous Amputation Prostheses (ITAP), which enables skin to grow around a metal pin to which the leg is attached. The ITAP technology was used to provide artificial limbs to the survivor of London 7/7 bombing.

Watch this: This is the second major operation on the animal, which will certainly provide vital clues for the further development of prosthetic techniques.

Word Around the Web:
Noel Fitzpatrick who operated Coal was quoted in Local London while saying,

“This is unique in that its the world’s only implant into which skin and bone grow. It is the holy grail of research.”

Via: Daily Mail

A security firm has claimed that Vonage VoIP service is vulnerable to security threats. The hackers can intercept VoIP calls made to the Vonage customers. The shocking revelation may put the VoIP startup into trouble, which is already down with legal controversies.

Reuter has covered the observation of security firm, Sipera Systems. The security firm has firmly claimed that hackers can lead eavesdropping, spam, spoofing and denial-of-service (DoS) attacks towards Vonage VoIP customers due to poor security systems.

The security firm has warned Vonage about the security threat a month ago. However, there was no respond from the company, reports Reuter.

Vonage declined to comment on the latest development, which is very likely to ruin company’s image as a pure play VoIP service provider in USA.

Image: Nedshaw