I&B minister vows to liberate official media

He was echoing what Prime Minister IK Gujral said in an interview with Vir Sanghvi on Star Plus on Friday. Gujral said the “approach to media should be positive not negative, not to close society”. Decisions, he added significantly, should not be taken by bureaucrats or the Government. “There should be intellectuals, artists, poets and painters to spell out what we should do in this direction.”

Reddy also said his priority was “liberty”. He would like “to liberate the Ministry from the Minister”. He stood for optimal autonomy and had an open mind on all points of view. He did not accept the view that the Bill had already been under discussion for almost two years and therefore should be considered final.

He said he as well as the Select Parliamentary Committee, it was referred to, would listen to all points of view before giving a final shape to the Bill, as it was a “major piece of legislation”. He did not want to pre-empt public opinion on provisions such as uplinking facilities, entry of foreign media or Direct-To-Home TV.

He said he would try to get the Bill passed in the monsoon session or definitely by the end of the winter session. He added he wanted authorities like the Broadcast Authority of India to be autonomous and therefore have a minimum number of government officials.