Friedrich-Naumann-Stiftung für die Freiheit - "Media Ethics: Fact or Fiction"

Friedrich-Naumann-Stiftung für die Freiheit - "Media Ethics: Fact or Fiction" [Druckversion]

"Media Ethics: Fact or Fiction"

The venue is the Amphitheatre of India Habitat Centre, Lodhi Road, New Delhi at 6:30 PM on 14th July, 2006.People’s Forum was back again with another interesting topic this month and this time on “Media Ethics: Fact or Fiction”.

The growing erosion of values, the code of conduct for the media, how should the reporting be done, extreme commercialization of the media etc, etc – these issues were debated and discussed in the monthly serial organized by the Rajiv Gandhi Institute for Contemporary Studies, Rajiv Gandhi Foundation and the Friedrich-Naumann-Stiftung.

To discuss the issue of Media Ethics, three distinguished personalities of the media world were invited. These were Justice G.N. Ray, Chairman of the Press Council of India, Ms. Chitrita Sanyal, first woman Secretary General of Press Club of India and A.K. Bhattacharya, the group managing editor of Business Standard.

Justice G.N. Ray in his opening remarks said that India is fortunate where the Media enjoys Freedom of Expression and this is an accepted norm. The media has worked on code of conducts set by the peers and have remained within the Lakshman Rekha. There is no regulatory or controlling authority imposed on the Media and the government has stayed out of control of the media. However, the deep erosion of values in life has perculated to into the Media as well. Excessive sensationalisation and commercialization had added to this erosion. News must be presented without being tainted though, the views might be different. Media should be able to function independently and not controlled by the Government but by their own peers, he stated. Negating the fact that Press Council of India was a toothless tiger, he pointed out that there were instances where the Press Council of India had taken stringent steps against issues which were against the public interest and how the media had reported about them.

Ms Sanyal also lashed out at the media when she said that the Television Channels and even the Print Media have not stuck to Ethics. The role of the media is not to be negative. Due to the commercialization of media, the TRP ratings have been responsible for the quality of reporting going down. Media is at the receiving end both from the public and the government. She underlined the fact that as Society has suffered, so Media being a part of the society has also suffered.

A.K. Bhattacharya declared that Media Ethics existed and Media as an industry had come up in the last decade or so. However, this Industry was marked by three peculiar characterstics. These are that Media is a product sold twice, Media organizations per se have followed a monolithic structure and the people in the Media are not integral to the organizational running of the paper.

The Business Model is such that almost 80% of the revenue is generated by way of Advertisements. And this fact, where the consumer is getting a product where he has only a negligible amount to pay makes the whole structure complex. Therefore, it becomes all the more difficult to judge which news is paid news and which news is editorial news. The role of the Press Council of India is to play a balancing act.

Definitely, the Media ought to remain Free from Government controls and surely, it would be in the interest of the society if the Media could understand its role and play an all important role in defining the values of the society. As the values in the society have gone down, why can’t the Media play an intervening role to actually revive those values ...