In its 13-year history, the Outlook Group has earned an industry-wide reputation for editorial freedom and integrity.
Monika Halan’s insinuation that "the Outlook Money Awards are being used to fulfil the advertising goals of the group" is baseless and defamatory.
1. The Outlook Money awards have been in existence for the past seven years. Monika Halan herself has been on the jury in earlier years and has had no occasion to find fault. The marketing side of Outlook is not part of the jury; the editor always is. The OLM awards in contention were handed out in October and the editor’s resignation has come in January, which tells its own story. Moreover, LIC was not the winner of the 2008 awards; SBI and ICICI were.
2. The Outlook Group takes great pride in having successfully kept the editorial side of the operations separate and distinct from the business side, while pursuing the group’s editorial and commercial goals in harmony. We treat the allegation of "direct management intrusion" in editorial matters with the contempt it deserves.
