It is disheartening to note that Press Council of India (PCI) chairman Justice GN Ray has had to lament that the media has become ‘‘a commodity’’ and that “paid news syndrome is a sad commentary on its functioning’’. He said this while delivering the keynote address on the ‘‘Changing Face of Indian Media’’ in Hyderabad on November 16. The PCI chief’s remark that distortion of news solely for monetary considerations has become a usual feature in the media today, has shocked many.
A well-informed public is the foundation of a democratic process. The media should be guided by highest possible professional standards, and reporting of news should be factual, accurate and objective. But on the contrary, the media, it seems, has shifted gears from a being a mirror to the people to becoming a parallel interest group. It is a matter of grave concern that the media, like other institutions, has also ‘‘succumbed to the vice of malpractices and corruption”. Only a few journalists are committed to journalistic values and ethics. Fearless reporting, a legacy of pre-independent days, is today conspicuous by its very absence. Journalists have perhaps compromised their fearlessness with the socio-politico-economic establishments, and the interest of the weaker sections of society is inappropriately projected, as observed by the PCI chief.
In this context, the private electronic media should also keep in mind the judgement delivered by the Supreme Court in February 1995 holding, inter alia, that “airways constitute public property and must be utilized for advancing public good. No individual has a right to utilize them at his choice and pleasure and for purposes of his choice including profit...’’
In the light of the above, it is time the media mended its ways.
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