Media
Regulation in India has always been a topic of hot debate. People both within
this industry and outside have had varying opinion if the media should be
self-regulated or not. Some favor having a regulatory body for both print and
broadcast mediums, as they believe that self-regulation in India is too
far-gone; some others suggest that having a regulatory body will curb media’s
freedom thus restricting the power of Freedom of Speech.
The first
opinion that stands in favor of having a regulatory body for media, addresses
issues like sensationalism, factual errors, media ownership, violation of
privacy, etc. This faculty of thoughts says that media has often indulged in
sensationalism and talked of cricket, crime and cinema as the most important
news beats ignoring/ giving less importance to the other beats. This is
particularly true, as the news coverage is such that linkup stories of Virat
and Anushka make it to the breaking news where as the latest scientific
breakthroughs don’t even find a space in the headlines. Similarly there have
been many factual error cases that have eventually led to defamation lawsuits
while some were avoided because of a public apology. Vogue, New York created a
huge controversy by mistakenly calling Assistant Secretary
of State Dan Baer an interior designer. This created a huge buzz on social
media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. Big and reputed names like New York
Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, The Australian, etc. were first
to comment on the mistake so pointed out. It was only when Vogue published a
public apology did the storm fade away.
Another
school of thoughts argues that only self-regulation will help the media and its
future in India as the problem is not with the media but with the perspective.
One of the major problems that we are facing today is of bias and neutrality. Bias and neutrality cannot be eliminated by
any system. It is embedded in individual editors and media persons as much as
in the institutions that own them. The best one can achieve is transparency in
declaring one's interests and biases. This is what ownership rules should focus
on. Network18, which publishes Firstpost and several digital and
TV news platforms is owned by the Reliance group. The corporate money came in
as the group needed a financial bailout. This information needs to be put out
before the public instead of keeping it in the maze. Another important issue is
of cross- media ownership. TRAI wants to prevent media houses from being
dominant in both TV and print. While this may have been relevant in the age
when these media were dominant and could influence public opinion unduly, in
five years' time, when broadband penetrates most of the world, anyone with a
phone, camera or basic equipment can upload news and stuff anywhere. Print and
TV will be less dominant in media and news dissemination will be fragmented and
multi-sourced. Trying to restrict media ownership in such a dynamic environment
may not prove to be much of a help.
In the
middle of the two contrasting views of black and white, there is a group of
people who believe that Indian media is behaving like the ‘angry- teenager’ and
that it needs rules and regulations that are not supervised by the government.
It suggests that the Indian media is still in the nascent stages of its
maturity and needs to learn a thing or two from the
western media. ‘Lessons from those efforts should be adapted to
the Indian context to frame a draft regulatory policy and circulated among the
stakeholders’- The Hoot. Another reckoned newspaper, The Hindu also suggests
that India media needs regulation and not control. ‘I want regulation of the media, not control.
The difference between the two is that in
control there is no freedom, in regulation there is freedom but subject to
reasonable restrictions in the public interest. The media has
become very powerful in India and can strongly impact people's lives. Hence it
must be regulated in the public interest’- The Hindu.
With regulations comes
responsibilities, with control comes authority. Controlling media with only
further corrupt the very ethics of Journalism and curb creativity. On the other
hand, having a proper set of guidelines ensuring transparency, respect for
privacy and democracy will ensure smooth functioning of the media.
REFERENCES:
4. http://thehoot.org/web/Does-media-need-self-regulation-3-0-/6971-1-1-19-true.html
