NEW DELHI, Jan 18: Noting that the media today faces the difficult task of being ‘competitive’ and ‘fair’ at the same time, Information and Broadcasting Minister Arun Jaitley today said the former today faces the challenge of credibility. “Media today has the responsibility to be fair, credible and educative on sensitive issues and has the onus of maintaining credibility,” Mr Jaitley said while delivering the inaugural JS Verma lecture on ‘Freedom and responsibility of the media’. Criticising the media for invading privacy of individuals and running parallel media trials in many cases, Mr Jaitley said, “privacy of individuals is a part of their life. It must be respected.
“Relations between husband and wife must be carefully reported. Parallel media trial must be avoided in high profile cases, where media supposes guilt before the trial, must end.” The comments of Union Minister come close on heels of Congress MP Shashi Tharoor blaming the media for being prosecutor, judge and jury in his wife Sunanda Pushkar’s death case. “Its not to put a blanket ban on these matters. However, some trial courts are under tremendous pressure, when its a high profile case,” Mr Jaitley said.
Media’s desire to be in news during insurgency events and terrorist activities needs to be pondered upon, he noted. “Reporting during insurgency is critical. Compare 9/11 vs 26/11, Pakistan handlers were being told about the location of security forces.
“There should be regulation regarding this. This is something the Government is serious considering,” the Minister cautioned. Noting that in this age of social media, where media houses are under pressure on maintaining TRPs, there is a considerable challenge before it to maintain quality and credibility of news. “Digital media needs to be even more careful. Also, in times of social tension, media must be careful,” he added. Mr Jaitley said the challenge for news channels today is even greater because they have to divide resources between news collection and news distribution.
“The cost of news distribution is very high, which is why the cost of circulation becomes very high. Therefore, many channels have to carry out a cut in news collection, which in turn impacts news gathering,” Mr Jaitley said. (UNI)
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