Foreign ownership of newspapers and television channels in a complex society like India is not desirable, celebrated journalist and author Sir Harold Evans said here on Thursday.Delivering the fourth K C Mammen Mappillai Memorial Lecture, Evans, a former editor of The Sunday Times of London, said the ownership of media by conglomerates had “yet to prove a blessing to journalism anywhere”.“I do not want to sound xenophobic — there should be no custom barrier for ideas and information. But I’d suggest newspapers and broadcasting media in complex, sensitive societies like India, in particular, would not be well served by foreign ownership that is blind to the tradition and subtleties. In fact, these foreign owners see culture only as a marketplace and inevitably become a focus of resentment,” he said.Evans, who edited The Sunday Times for 14 years from 1967 to 1981, was talking from personal experience. Following the takeover by Rupert Murdoch in 1981, Evans shifted from The Sunday Times to The Times from where he resigned in just one year owing to policy differences.“My experience and observation is that conglomerates hate the risk, expense and discord inevitable in investigations of any kind, of which the investigation of corruption and violence are the riskiest.The risk to loss of advertising, disfavour with the authorities or with associated businesses, and of course any businesses in which the conglomerate is itself involved,” he said.He pointed out that most of the best newspapers in the world were not owned or managed by conglomerates but by families who regard them as public trust.Talking on “The Freedom of the Press in an Age of Violence”, Evans said the media was faced with a perplexing situation in today’s world.“If you publish the hideous videos of beheading jihadists, circulate or display the image of a hooded hostage, are you doing exactly as the killers wish — creating terror by becoming a tool of terror? Or are you exposing the jaws of the beast? Are you exercising freedom or are you indulging in the pornography of violence?” he asked, reflecting on the dilemma faced by journalists.Evans, who was voted as the greatest newspaper editor of all times by British journalists, while strongly advocating the freedom of the press, also asked journalists to exercise restraint and recognise limits, especially in conflict situations.“Freedom of the press is a moral concept or it is nothing,” he said. “Speaking personally of challenges to human rights, I would rather be photographed by a hidden surveillance camera than travel on a train or bus with men carrying bombs in their backpacks. “I would regard being blown to bits on the street as less of an intrusion on privacy than having an identity card.”
