[Reader-list] PM calls for review of media policy

[Shivam]

http://in.news.yahoo.com//041005/43/2h4j6.html

PM calls for review of media policy
By Indo-Asian News Service

New Delhi, Oct 5 (IANS) Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Tuesday called for a 
review of India's media policy, saying it was necessary in today's era of 
information revolution and the opening up of the country's economy.

"We need to ensure that there is a suitable framework for freedom of 
competition to be meaningful for all players in the media sector," the 
prime minister told a gathering of women journalists and other members of 
the fourth estate.

"A review of our media policy is therefore necessary, both in the context 
of changes consequent to the information revolution, and in the light of 
the incremental process of opening of the Indian economy," he said.

Addressing a few hundred members of the Indian Women's Press Corps (IWPC) 
and other invitees on its 10th anniversary at the Taj Palace Hotel here, 
Manmohan Singh said his government had constituted a group of ministers on 
the issue.

The group, chaired by Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee, had been asked to 
advise the government on how to create a fair and balanced policy 
framework for the media sector.

"Our government welcomes the possibility of discussing the policy towards 
investment in our media with representative bodies such as IWPC," he said.

"I have little doubt that greater professionalism can be ensured in media 
by allowing the winds of competition to blow freely across sectors of the 
media."

Manmohan Singh said there was a need to create a "more equitable, 
gender-neutral" society in the country.

He said the government would work towards achieving it with assistance 
from NGOs and organisations like IWPC.

"Let me assure you that our government is committed to the realisation of 
these fundamental objectives," he said.

Manmohan Singh said it was an interesting historical fact that IWPC's 
establishment coincided "with a momentous transformation of the Indian 
media".

He said the emergence of organisations like IWPC was yet another 
manifestation of the process of broadbasing of the media.

"This process is plainly visible in the TV channels that we watch, and in 
the newspapers that we read today, and the country is the better for it," 
the prime minister noted.

He, however, said that despite considerable progress in reducing gender 
biases, some distance remained before one could say that women had 
successfully broken through the proverbial glass ceiling.