Union Information and Broadcasting Minister S. Jaipal Reddy, Press Council Chairman and prominent media personalities have advocated self-regulation by the media at a national round-table on "Should there be a Lakshman Rekha for News Media?" here on Wednesday.
Inaugurating the meeting, Mr. Reddy advised the media to do "collective and cool introspection," besides building up its credibility. The Government should not get into the affairs of the press and maintain a respectable distance. The "Lakshman rekha" should be drawn by the press and not by the Government.
The meet was organised by the Andhra Pradesh Press Academy and the Centre for Media Studies.
The Minister said the media scene in the country had undergone not only a "dramatic" change but also a "traumatic" one. The volumes had gone up but the values had come down.
Referring to "trivialisation" of news, he advised the print media not to compete with electronic media in "glamourisation." The problems of the rural people and the poor hardly "get mentioned" and there was an urban bias in the media.
Allaying the fears expressed by Ch. Ramoji Rao, Chairman of the Eenadu group, Mr. Reddy clarified that the proposed regulatory authority would not interfere with the news content but would look into issues such as obscenity. It would be completely autonomous.
Chairman of the Press Council of India Justice G.N.Ray too preferred self-regulation by the media. Pointing out that the right to freedom of expression was not unbridled and was circumscribed by "reasonable restrictions," Mr. Rao favoured a media drawn "Lakshman rekha."
The Editor-in-Chief of Asian Age and Deccan Chronicle, M.J. Akbar, called for introspection by the media. Veteran journalist Kuldip Nayar opposed the establishment of any regulatory body by the Government and called for appointing a media commission to look into the relationship between owners and journalists.
"Bogus concept"
Rajdeep Sardesai, Editor-in-Chief of India Broadcast News, deprecated the tendency to trivialise news by TV channels and said self-regulation was a "bogus concept." He favoured the formation of an autonomous regulatory body to make the print and TV media "clean up their act."
Social activist Swamy Agnivesh suggested a "mediawatch group" comprising eminent citizens. President of the People's Union for Civil Liberties K.G. Kannabiran favoured self-regulation. PCC president K. Keshava Rao, Prof. Shanta Sinha, Secretary MV foundation, D. Amar, Chairman, A.P. Press Academy, and N. Bhaskar Rao, Chairman, Centre for Media Studies, spoke.
