NEW DELHI, Jan 29: A regulatory framework, which is able to keep pace with the latest changes, is a prerequisite for orderly development of any sector including the media, Union Minister Manish Tewari said today.
Tewari further said the government needs to be given certain flexibility to deliver better. He also asked broadcasters to introspect as to what kind of a regulator could best serve the needs of the country.
“What troubles me essentially as a lawyer is whether regulation has been able to keep pace with the march of technology,” Tewari said at a conference organised by the Broadcast Engineering Society here.
“When I talk about regulation, it is not that I am a control freak or the government is a control freak. But for the orderly development of any sector it is a prerequisite that there should be an enabling regulatory architecture, an enabling statutory architecture, which is able to keep pace with change as it unfolds,” he added.
The Information and Broadcasting Minister said that as a liberal he leaned towards self-regulation, but also went on to highlight certain related issues.
“While I have no difficulty when the freedom of speech extends even to the right to offend, I think the right to offend is something which is intrinsic to the entire paradigm of freedom of speech.
“But then there has to be a corresponding remedy to it and that’s why in the social media space also…We need to make a distinction between the right to privacy and the right to anonymity,” he said.
Tewari further said media resented any form of government regulation and this belief was shared by the civil society.
“I think, maybe the time has come for us to introspect, whether government also needs to be given a little bit of flexibility, a little bit of creativity, a little bit of latitude…
“Unfortunately that culture of risk taking which is important to build nations, which is important to build societies, which is important to renew institutions which have held us in good stead over the past couple of decades have fallen victim to a very conservative discourse which is a complete anathema – which makes people risk averse,” he said. (PTI)
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