A bill on media regulation was proposed by Meenakshi Natarajan, a Lok Sabha MP called the "Print and Electronic Media Standards and Regulation Bill, 2012",. It aims at establishing a regulatory authority with powers to impose a ban or suspend coverage of an event or an incident that may pose a threat to national security from foreign or internal sources. However, she was not present in the Lok Sabha and so the Bill was not introduced.
There has been opposition to the bill on the ground that the press should be accorded freedom and there should be no attempt to gag the media.
Though it will be appropriate to regulate the media, the regulation must not be absolute. No right can be absolute, every right is subject to reasonable restrictions in the public interest. Any action or restriction on action of the media shouldn’t adversely affect the security of the state, public order, morality, etc.
I totally support the bill. Such a bill was so much required at the time of Mumbai attack when the media was sharing the movement of force on the tv, which helped the terrorists in a big way! However, as you said, the regulation must not be absolute. Besides, an impartial committee comprising of officials from various scope should be there to execute the regulation in an impartial manner.
ReplyDeleteVery concise and interesting article. Nicely written!