Media in Goa refers to the newspapers, magazines, radio stations, cable and television networks and online media in India's smallest state (3700 square kilometres, population 1.6 million). Over the past two-and-half decades, the Goa-linked online media (both in the diaspora and from the region) has also grown. Background Over the years, the media has changed dramatically from its early 20th century beginnings as a battlefield for influential lobbies within the local Catholic society (including caste-based elites, or politically divided groups) which were largely controlled by influential and educated local elites. After the end of Portuguese rule in 1961, new newspapers were set up, which were aligned to the influential local mining lobby. This too has changed in recent years, with some sections of the media becoming more politically aligned, or linked to major business houses both within Goa and its neighbourhood (particularly Maharastra). Media in the 1960s Till 1961, and the end of Portuguese-rule in Goa, Portuguese-language newspapers, including dailies and an eveninger, dominated the local market. There was an end to censorship after the demise of the Portuguese regime, but most of the earlier newspapers (except O Heraldo) shut down during the decade. As an official report put it in 1971: "With the integration of the former Portuguese enclaves in the Indian Union, the people of the territory started enjoying the fundamental rights including the freedom of press guaranteed by the [Indian] Constitution." Around 1961, there were ten newspapers and journals (both daily and of differing periodicity) -- seven in Portuguese, two in Konkani and one in Marathi. However, the situated changed soon. Within the first decade of the change and "their number shot up to 26 in 1965". But, as the official text puts it, "some of them could not obviously sustain the effervescence and the number declined to 19 which are being circulated now [as of 1971]." Languages The most widely read newspapers in Goa tend to be published in the English and Marathi languages, with the widely spoken local language of Konkani not receiving much coverage. Konkani-versus-Marathi linguistic battles have led to rivalry between these two language camps around the 1980s. There is friction between the users of the official Devanagari script and the Roman, or Romi script users of Konkani. Newspapers and magazines English-language newspapers in Goa comprise: O Heraldo (The Herald), Goa's oldest newspaper, formerly a Portuguese language daily owned by the family of