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Journalism of Courage
A ban, by its very nature, is a blunt instrument that exerts a putative force that’s often completely disproportionate to the offence. Yet Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi has displayed an appalling partiality for such a measure. Days after the TV channel, ‘Live India’, was banned by ministerial fiat for a month for having staged a fake sting operation, Dasmunshi wants private radio station, Red FM, switched off for a week for airing a pejorative remark against Gorkhas.
Two bans within the short span of a few weeks is a record that V.C. Shukla — in those heady Emergency days when he was the official Goebbels of the Indian air waves — would have envied. Of course, Dasmunshi does not recognise himself as authoritarian and never fails to express his great commitment to media freedoms. However, many of his actions as a minister contradict his self-image and the latest ban invoked against Red FM is testimony enough. Whether the ban will or will not come into force is to be decided by the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal today — and we hope that better sense prevails in the appellate body than it has in the ministry — but either way, there can be no getting away from the sorry intent behind the ministry’s move.
‘Offences’ like the one committed by Red FM can be dealt with in ways that are far less repressive and far more effective. In fact, not only has the concerned radio jockey apologised for his offending remark, not only has Darjeeling-based Prashant Tamang — whose emergence as a winner in a music talent show inspired the comment in the first place — clarified matters, the radio station has publicly decried it and plans to take action against the offender. Earlier this week, the Association of Radio Operators of India also set up a committee to formulate a self-regulatory content code for private FM radio broadcasting. Self-regulation has always been more effective in ensuring offence-free content than arbitrary bans. But the I&B minister appears far too anxious to capitalise on the political dividends of this unfortunate episode to catch the right signal.
