[Reader-list] Whither Self-Censorship? Media Councils? Censure?

[Kshmendra Kaul]

Dear Rakesh
 
Totally agree with your words "The freedom of speech has an inherent duty within it that people should speak the truth, and what they are not sure about, they should state that it's their opinion." 
 
While this has it's own dimensions in Private Domains, here (I hope you agree) we are talking 'Free Speech' in the Public Domain and especially by the Media.
 
Howsoever Free we might desire Freedoms should be, there cannot be any Unconditional Freedom because that would for sure lead to exploitation. All Freedoms have to be regulated for sake of the cliche 'One entity's Freedom ends where another entity's Freedom begins'  
 
Think about the functioning of Capital Markets under the Free Market Economy regimes. They have (in India) regulatory overseeing by RBI, SEBI and the Stock Markets themselves. Yet a 'SATYAM' took place because the regulatory institution of External Audit failed (either by collusion in the fraud, or by not doing the due-diligence). But the first regulatory requirement is the Internal Audit which was totally corrupted in the case of 'SATYAM'. 
 
Whenever we talk about Press Freedom (Media Freedom), accountability to or answerability to the the requirements or injunctions of any external regulatory regimes is anathema to most.
 
Where is this Self- Audit, Self-Regulation, Self-Censure by the Media in India? Some institutions do exist, but their effectiveness can be judged by the regularity with which the Media Freedom is abused either blatantly or subtly. 
 
It is unfair to ask for an individual or a group to approach the Courts for castigating this abuse of Freedom indulged in by the Media. Unfair to expect an individual or group to match the physical and financial stamina of a Media organisation who (I am quite certain) would have Lawyers on retainership if not in actual employ.
 
Should the State step in with a Media Regulator? That might be seen as and would lead to censorship.
 
What then is the solution?  
 
Kshmendra    


--- On Sat, 4/25/09, Rakesh Iyer <rakesh.rnbdj at gmail.com> wrote:

From: Rakesh Iyer <rakesh.rnbdj at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Fwd: Fw: Complaint against DNA's coverage of recent rape case in Mumbai
To: kshmendra2005 at yahoo.com
Cc: "reader-list at sarai.net" <reader-list at sarai.net>, iradcrea at yahoogroups.com, vikalp at yahoogroups.com, "Birth India" <india.birth at gmail.com>, "Shilpa Phadke" <phadkeshilpa at gmail.com>
Date: Saturday, April 25, 2009, 8:40 PM


Dear all

As per the blog and the news link given, it is utterly shocking for some, but for me this is only a further fall into the depths to which our morality as a society has sunk. Today, with the cut-throat competition and the kind of rhetoric our society and many among us have fallen to, this is only the next stage of the levels to which we can sink. 

What shocks me so much is that why didn't people register a case against the DNA, at least as a public interest litigation? After all, at least that could have been done, with the SC today spending more time in deciding these PIL's rather than other cases. Surely, that could have been done to take the DNA to task for publishing such reports. Equally, the courts should have also taken suo-motu cognizance of the case and punished the newspaper. 

This is not only for this particular case; it has happened in many cases. 

During 2002 riots, Gujarati newspaper 'Sandesh' gave false news items like some Shiva temple destroyed somewhere or some other Hindu killed, when there were none. Not less than the PUCL report proved it to be a bag of lies. Here too, nothing happened. 

Similarly our AIMIM also has indulged in various riots for which they spread brilliant rumours, in old areas of Hyderabad. 

The point is not that some people consider rape an entertainment first; some fools and  hoodlum attitude-bearing people will always be born in a society or will be created. The larger issue is that these should not be allowed to conduct blasphemous acts which tantamount to spreading lies and falsedoms or wrong methods. 

The freedom of speech has an inherent duty within it that people should speak the truth, and what they are not sure about, they should state that it's their opinion. Resorting to lies is an insult to this freedom. 

Regards

Rakesh