India

(IFJ/IFEX) - The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) is concerned by the proposed Broadcasting Services Regulation Bill, 2006, which seeks to give the government greater power over the media, places restrictions on cross media ownership and hints at strict content regulation for news channels. There are concerns that the Information and Broadcasting Ministry will have greater control...

New Delhi, July. 9 (PTI): Trial by media has come under the scrutiny of an official committee drafting the proposed broadcasting code and guidelines which recommends that broadcast service providers (BSPs) "should avoid" such activism since "a man is innocent till proven guilty by law". The guidelines, drafted by a sub-committee under the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, feels that "news...

The preparation of a draft Broadcast Services Regulation Bill, 2006, should occasion no surprise. It has been a long time coming. Broadcasting in India has been subject to executive guidelines rather than any comprehensive statutory regulations ever since cable and satellite television were permitted in the early 1990s. A Supreme Court judgment in 1995 formally decreed that the airwaves were...

There is little doubt that there is a serious problem with the content of the print and broadcast media in India today. Apart from the fact that more and more time and space of the media is devoted to carrying commercial advertisements, much of the remaining content too has become trivial, inane, and debasing, essentially containing violence, sex and gossip meant to titillate and serve the baser...

If sex, religion and caste are to be taken together, more than two-thirds of the top media professionals in the country come from less than 10 per cent of the population. Hindu upper caste men, who are barely 8 per cent of the country's population, have a majority share of 71 per cent among top media professionals in the country. These findings are from the same survey of the social profile of key...

The Centre, under severe criticism for its plans to regulate the electronic media in the country, has allayed fears over the contents of the proposed Broadcast Bill, and said that the government is committed to press freedom and that the legislation is meant to facilitate and develop the content of broadcasting in an orderly manner. A STING THAT STILL HURTS SOME: Tehelka chief, Tarun Tejpal (right...

NEW DELHI: Unhappy with the draft that has been prepared on content regulation, information and broadcasting secretary SK Arora has asked the panel responsible to rework it. Though no specific reasons were cited, the ministry is apparently unhappy with the way some of the issues have been dealt with as also the length of the 65-page draft, which is seen as being too unwieldy. Earlier in the week...

MOSCOW: India's Dainik Jagran newspaper has built its reputation on its relationship with its readers - all 19.1 million of them. This was revealed at the World Association of Newspapers (WAN) annual congress and World Editors Forum meeting, held in Moscow, Russia, last week. Sanja Gupta, editor & CEO, Dainik Jagran, India, said that as the newspaper with the world's largest readership, the Hindi...

New Delhi, May 29: Wage Boards for Journalists and Non-Journalists will be constituted "very soon", Union Labour Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao said today. This assurance was given by Rao to a delegation of Indian Journalists Union (IJU), which met him, to press for their demands, including the setting up of new wage boards for the newspaper industry employees. Admitting that the constitution of the...

New Delhi: In a move that will strengthen the public forum Citizen Journalist, that CNN-IBN provides to the citizens of India, IDEA cellular has joined hands with the channel and will enable the masses to use their mobile platform to report news of all genres- sports, general interest and entertainment. People can now report news items of importance from various parts of the country by sending in...