Regulating Media: Series of Articles by "Reader`s Editor" in The Hindu

Regulating media - I 

(http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/Readers-Editor/regulating-media-i/article4041225.ece)

In India, the crisis came with the communal mobilisation in the run-up to the desecration of the Babri Masjid in 1992. A section of the media became the mouthpiece for bigotry and carried a series of inflammatory articles. The Union Government sought the opinion of the Press Council of India regarding “whether a procedure can be laid down to ensure that newspapers/magazines censured by the Press Council for breach of guidelines in connection with communal writings, can be deprived of incentives from government, such as advertisements et cetera, and whether the Press Council would be in a position to suggest what action should be taken when it holds a newspaper/magazine guilty of breach of guidelines.” 

Regulating media — 2 

(http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/Readers-Editor/regulating-media-2/article4064954.ece)

The 1990s also witnessed the power of the “paparazzi.” The death of Princess Diana was solely blamed on the media. Her brother, Earl Spencer, said: “I always believed the press would kill her in the end. But not even I could imagine that they would take such a direct hand in her death as seems to be the case.” Former editor of The New York Times and a celebrity columnist for that paper A.M. Rosenthal wrote: “Someday, I believe, the words of Earl Spencer will hang in the private offices of publishers, network chiefs, and print and electronic editors worthy of any respect or trust.” Then came the new charge against the media that it was in the tight, vice-like grip of spin doctors. The unparalleled power wielded by Alastair Campbell, also described as the super spin doctor, as the Director of Communications and Strategy for Prime Minister Tony Blair, further eroded the gloss on media. The Teflon coat was slowly wearing away.

Regulating media – 3 

(http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/Readers-Editor/regulating-media-3/article4088170.ece)

Jeffrey Dvorkin, Executive Director, Organization of News Ombudsmen, raises rather an alarming question: “The sacred independence of the press and the media in general has been an unquestioned attribute of free societies. Democracy is based on that independence and along with it, the duty of care of news organizations to have the freedom to write and broadcast what they deem appropriate without either government approval or condemnation. But what if, in a digital age, that assumption connecting journalism to democracy, is just outmoded, if not plain wrong?”

Regulating media - 4 

(http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/Readers-Editor/regulating-media-4/article4109063.ece)

Justice Katju irked broadcasters when he wanted them to come under the purview of the PCI, and the print media when he sought more powers to the PCI. In a resolution the PCI asked “the Union government to amend the Press Council Act, 1978, by bringing the electronic media within the purview of the Act, renaming it as The Media Council, and giving it more powers.” He also infuriated a section of the digital media activists as the resolution explicitly demanded that social media too come under the ambit of the PCI.

5) Regulating Media-5
http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/Readers-Editor/regulating-media-5/article4133848.ece

There is a context to Justice Markandey Katju’s demand for more powers to the Press Council of India (PCI) and to widen its ambit to include electronic media and social media. The 2009 general election witnessed a unique convergence of vested interests — undue political advantage due to unscrupulous reporting practice — a phenomenon called paid news. The PCI formed a two-member subcommittee comprising Paranjoy Guha Thakurta and K. Sreenivas Reddy to examine the full import of the paid news scandal.

6)  Regulating Media-6

http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/Readers-Editor/regulating-media-6/article4156925.ece

Since 2006 the Readers’ Editor of this newspaper has been functioning as a self-regulator. The readers and the editors of this newspaper were unequivocal in endorsing its role in upholding cardinal principles of good journalism. It is worth reiterating some of the key elements that govern the Readers’ Editor. “By virtue of the terms of appointment, he or she is independent of the Editor, the editorial personnel, and the editorial process. The key objectives of this appointment are ‘to institutionalise the practice of self-regulation, accountability, and transparency; to create a new visible framework to improve accuracy, verification, and standards in the newspaper; and to strengthen bonds between the newspaper and its millions of print platform and online readers’.” If this system is extended across all media houses, I am sure the chorus to rein in media will lose its bite.

7) N. Ram`s Essay: Sharing the Best and the Worst: The Indian news media in a global context (http://www.thehindu.com/news/resources/sharing-the-best-and-the-worst-the-indian-news-media-in-a-global-context/article3971672.ece)

 The Indian press is more than two centuries old. It has always been a highly political press. Its strengths have largely been shaped by its historical experience and, in particular, by its association with the freedom struggle as well as movements for social emancipation, reform, and amelioration.The long struggle for independence; the sharp ideological and political divides; controversies and battles over social reform; radical and revolutionary aspirations and movements; compromising as well as fighting tendencies; and the competition between self-serving and public service visions of journalism –these have all found reflection in the character and performance of the Indian press over the truly long term(Ram 2000: 242).Even in the pre-Independence context, the press learned to act like a player in the major league political and socio-economic arena, despite its well-known limitations in terms of reach in society, financial viability, professional training, and entrepreneurial and management capabilities.This rich history accounts for the seriousness, relevance, and public-spirited orientation of the press at its best.

8)Alan Rusbridger, Editor, The Guardian delivers the 2011 Orwell lecture – video

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/video/2011/nov/11/alan-rusbridger-orwell-lecture-2011-video

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