Media self-regulation has not worked: Khurshid

While some speakers like Union Law Minister Salman Khurshid and former law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad made a case for media regulation,several senior editors argued that a free media was paramount to a democracy and any effort to regulate it,especially by the government,did not bode well for the country.

Khurshid said his government did not support the idea of regulating the media but he said self-regulation by the industry was not working either. He said the media needed to be accountable for the freedom it had been given.

Referring to the Supreme Courts proposal on guidelines for reporting court proceedings,he said even the judges needed some guidelines for themselves.

He suggested that the court proceedings be telecast live over the internet so as to avoid any chances of misreporting. Khurshid clarified that the Supreme Courts efforts were limited to legal correspondents and the government had no intention to extend them to the entire profession.

While Prasad also emphasised the need to regulate media excesses,he defended its freedom and said it should not be tampered with. Prasad held the television rating points TRP system as the bane of the broadcast industry.

In a session moderated by T N Ninan,chairman and editorial director of Business Standard,Raghav Bahl,founder and editor of Network18 Group,said medias excesses were no more and no less than the excesses displayed by various other sections of society.

He said medias actions needed to be viewed in the larger context of what has been happening in society and should not be judged in isolation. He also pointed out that plurality and competition in the Indian media gave it a much-needed balance,yet it could do with some course correction in the manner of its reporting,especially regarding the government and its agencies.

Shekhar Gupta,Editor-in-Chief,The Indian Express,said there was no threat to the fraternitys freedom from the government; the threat,instead,was from within. He said journalism had become the most incompetent profession in the country and arrogance,incompetence and greed had become the defining traits of journalists. It was this inner weakness that had made them defensive of their position and apprehensive of any efforts on the part of the government to regulate them,he said.

Some journalists,he said,were overwhelmed by the responsibilities that freedom brought and were too afraid to exercise their freedom,thus,seeking to be put on a leash.

The other panelists in the session included Ajay Upadhyay,consulting editor,Amar Ujala,and N Ravi,former editor of The Hindu.

In the following session on paid news,former chief election commissioner S Y Quraishi highlighted the extent to which the phenomenon of paid news had penetrated the industry and spoke of efforts needed to rein it in. This session was moderated by Prasar Bharati chairman and journalist Mrinal Pande.

The seminar was attended by various current and former senior editors and journalists.