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indiantelevision.com Team
NEW DELHI : Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni today said that self-regulation by the electronic media has to be given a chance as this was a surer way of improving things than forcing regulations on the television or radio channels.
Soni said the progress of action against channels may appear slow, but the government had offending channels to go off air for short periods even as she added that she would not like to cancel the licence of any channel, though the Ministry had the power to do so.
She was responding to Press Council of India Chairman Justice Markanday Katju who said he had seen the self-regulation of TV channels working effectively and 90 per cent of the software on television channels was entertainment and just ten per cent dealt with crucial issues facing the nation.
She was giving her inaugural address at the 9th Annual Summit on Entertainment and Growth organised by ASSOCHAM, Focus 2012 on ?Digitization for Inclusive Growth?, where Justice Katju delivered the keynote address. Several awardees of the National Film Awards were felicitated by Film Federation of India President Vinod K Lamba. Two documents ? ?Digitizing Indian Broadcasting? by ASSOCHAM and Centre for Media Studies, and ?Digital Transformation in entertainment and media? by ASSOCHAM and PwC ? were also released.
She admitted that in the desire for growth, it was unfortunate that some provisions of the Cable TV Networks (Regulation) Act had been overlooked by the media, but she said that self-regulation could help to correct this malaise.
Soni also justified digitisation of cable addressable systems and the sunset dates as she said any delay will only help the direct-to-home operators. She said that it would also bring in transparency and get over the dependence of channels on television rating points (TRPs) which were based on studies in less than 10,000 TV households. Cable operators must not lose sight of the fact that DTH was growing at the rate of around one million households per month.
She said that the government had had exhaustive consultations with stakeholders on all issues including the carriage fee, and the main aim of the new regulations had been to benefit the consumer.
She said the biggest benefit of digitisation would be that the viewer would be able to choose channels of his or her choice out of 900 channels on offer.
Referring to the National Film Awards given yesterday which showed a resurgence of regional cinema, she announced that all award-winning films would be shown on Doordarshan.
Answering another point made by Justice Katju, she said that while the malaise of paid news existed it was difficult to detect.
Earlier, Justice Katju was unsparing in his criticism of the media which he said worked only as a commercial enterprise which had blocked progress and had no care of the consequences on the people. He said the media had lost a sense of propriety and was diverting from the real issues.
He was categorical that self-regulation would not work and it was necessary to bring in a regulatory body which was statutory but not headed by anyone in the government. Stressing that he was a great votary of freedom of the media, he said he wanted regulation, and not control.
He said freedom of the press was like a knife which could be used to help or stab the people. At a time when 90 per cent of even the educated believed in casteism and superstition, it was very wrong for TV channels to propagate this through various serials, commercial advertisements, and the presence of so-called sages.
"Astrology is pure nonsense, but gets high TRPs and so media stoops to this low level," he added.
While Article 19(1)(a) is always referred to whenever the channels feel their freedom is being trampled upon, they forget the mention of promotion of scientific temper in the Fundamental Duties listed in Article 51.
He said cricket had become the opium of the masses in a country which saw an average of 47 farmer suicides a day and 47 per cent of the children were under-nourished.
Lamba said in his address called for a consultative committee of the film industry and the Ministry so that thorny subjects could be ironed out.
He said though the issue of service tax had been ironed out to an extent by the government, there were many other problems afflicting the film industry. He wanted the centre and states to help the growth of regional cinema.
He said the present losses because of piracy amount to around Rs 4.3 billion, but he was confident this would come down with newer technologies coming in.
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