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indiantelevision.com Team
Mumbai: A parliamentary committee?s recommendation to bring the news industry - both print and TV - under a media council to clamp down on the beast called ?paid news? has got the news TV industry?s goose.
The committee also recommended that the Press Council of India should be revamped to keep a close tab on print media?s love for paid news. In case, this is done, it is imperative that another statutory body be set up to monitor electronic media.
The committee had insinuated that this was necessary as industry?s self regulation mechanism had failed to check the menace of paid news.
The News Broadcasters? Association (NBA) is quite clear that such high handed measures are not needed. Says NBA president & NDTV group CEO Narayan Rao: "With all due respect to the parliamentary committee, I beg to differ. I believe self-regulation is the best way forward. The late Justice Verma?s committee has done a fabulous job in this respect. The mechanism of self regulation has been working well over the years."
Seconding Rao is IBN7 editor-in-chief Ashutosh, with a caveat. Says he: "Self regulation should be encouraged and should be extended to the areas of regional journalism as well."
Rao highlights that paid news is a beast that can be tamed and there are mechanisms within the NBA to keep it in check. "There is an advisory on our website and we have a code of ethics for the broadcasting industry. If there is any instance of paid news, we take very strict action against it."
The parliamentary committee has recommended that media owners or other interested parties should not be a part of the proposed media council.
Ashutosh believes that this could prove to be quite unhealthy for the fourth estate. "Any form of regulation which is funded and undertaken by the government specially in the political system of India, is dangerous for a democracy," he says.
"The Indian constitution and the judiciary guarantee the press its freedom to speech and expression. Any step which curbs this is totally counter-productive and undemocratic," adds a pretty agitated BAG Network chairperson and MD Anuradha Prasad.
Rao says rather than harping on paid news, the focus of the entire news broadcasting ecosystem - including the government - should be on reworking its flawed business model. "There is a high dependence on ad revenue which promotes the menace of paid news. The faulty rating system, the TRP rat race and the lack of subscription revenues are the areas that we should focus on."
