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NEW
DELHI: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) will
submit to the government its recommendations on media ownership
within a month.
“After
going through the suggestions of all the stake holders, we
will take four week’s time to present our recommendations
on media ownership,” said Trai chairman Nripendra Mishra.
Trai
had organised an open house discussion here today with the
stakeholders on media ownership.
The
very idea of controlling media ownership drew a lot of flak
from several stakeholders.
Bennett
Coleman & Company vice president legal Adesh Jain said,
“The Constitution of India allows freedom of speech and
expression and controlling media ownership would mean restraining
the freedom of speech and expression. Also, the literate Indian
is accessing media across multiple formats - be it radio,
television, newspapers, Internet, billboards, etc. He does
not select the service provider based on ownership, but follows
what he likes. Therefore, just because one media group owns
various media assets does not mean that it will capture the
mind of the individual comprehensively across all formats.”
Echoed
Consumer Voice executive director Bejon Mishra: “The
government of India should encourage competition in the market
for further development of the broadcast industry. Instead
of restricting the reach of media, the government should regulate
for fair play. The Indian broadcast industry is at a nascent
stage while most markets like USA and UK are already mature;
so it would be wrong to try and fit the global policies into
the Indian broadcast industry.”
Essel
Group EVP Arvind Mohan clarified that the diversity in India
would make it difficult for private broadcasters to dominate
the market.
Earlier
in the consulation paper issued on 23 September, Trai had
stressed the need to lay down a holistic and clear cut approach
towards cross-media and ownership restrictions for the future
growth of these sectors. This was in response to the Ministry
of Information and Broadcasting which had on 22 May asked
Trai to submit its recommendations on the need for cross media
and ownership restrictions for radio, broadcasting and print
medias.
The
issues under consideration are cross media ownership across
different segments of media such as print/ television/ radio
(horizontal integration); cross holding restrictions to prevent
consolidation including ‘vertical integration’ within
a media segment such as television or radio; market share
in the city/state/country within each media segment; and cross
control/ownership across telecom and media segments.
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