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Inaugurating a two-day seminar on media policy at the Indian Institute
of Mass Communication - just before attending a Group of Ministers
(GoM) meeting on convergence issues of regulation - Prasad said
that technology has completely changed the media environment today.
He said, no government can stop the march of technology - it can
only delay it, and even the delay "would be disastrous".
According to Prasad, in the past four years, the I&B ministry
has taken a number of initiatives like revision of policies on foreign
direct investment (FDI) in print (both news and non-news), syndication
arrangements, uplinking guidelines, DTH, CAS, community radio and
FM privatization and so on.
But, he said, all these initiatives have been "reactive, rather
than prospective". He said, "The reach of technology is
overpowering, altering all boundaries of relationships but we must
juxtapose our policies with these technological changes. The government
wants to come out with a National Media Policy looking at the media
scene 10 or 20 years ahead."
Prasad said the fast emerging situation has posed certain very
important questions like creation of monopolies, cross-media restrictions
and survival of small and medium newspapers.
"Globalisation, no doubt, is important and we cannot but be
a part of it. But the face of globalisation has to be humanized,"
Prasad said.
Referring to content in the media ,the minister said that the
multiplication of media and proliferation of television channels
has necessitated the need of an independent regulator for broadcasting
sector.
But, he made it clear that the government has no role in this and
has no intention to control the media. He said, the best course
would be self-regulation but regretted that all his pleas to implement
that in relation with objectionable ads on liquor and tobacco on
TV channels, have fallen flat. This has strengthened the view to
have a regulator, he pointed out.
Prasad said, it has to be seen whether the regulator would be under
the proposed Convergence Commission or a separate broadcasting regulator.
In this regard, Prasad said, though he is all for the freedom of
press and creativity, the rights of the recipient - the viewer or
the reader - also cannot be ignored.
The issue is to find out a way to juxtapose self-regulation with
the over-powering commercialization, Prasad said, continuing that
the great divide among the stakeholders in the broadcasting sector
only highlights the need for an independent regulator that can help
bridge this divide.
The minister also appealed to the media to lend its support to the
economic reforms and said there is no escape but to carry out internal
economic reforms.
The need is to educate the people about the benefits of reforms
and enlist their support.
The I&B ministry's secretary Pawan Chopra gave an overview of
the three sectors of information, broadcasting and film and explained
the recent polices initiatives of the government.
The two-day seminar would have five sessions and would review the
existing elements of Media Policy - the available framework, need
for having a Comprehensive Media Policy', elicit the opinion of
stakeholders across the spectrum and formulate policy recommendations
and broad strategies for future deliberations.
The seminar is the first in the series of such events proposed to
be held in all parts of the country to generate a nationwide debate
and evolve a consensus before drafting the National Media Policy.
Those invited to participate include the CEOs of media houses, senior
editors and journalists, media critics, press institutions and organizations,
non-governmental organisations, political representatives, members
of Parliament, advertising experts, economists and broadcasters.
Participating in the discussion, the government's principal information
officer Sahab Singh said that new ideas must be developed and more
positive measures must be taken to shake up the ad-hocism in policies
and the prevailing inertia.
The responsibility of evolving a media policy, which is workable
and progressive, also rest as much with the media as with the government,
he said. He felt that the mature Indian press will shoulder this
responsibility in having a document to guide in the media domain
in the
form of a National Media Policy.
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