With the Supreme Court stepping in to lay down coverage norms in media, the information and broadcasting ministry deciding to accord high priority to content code and News Broadcasters Association (NBA) setting up a high powered team to facilitate self regulation, the ball of content code is now in three courts.
More than any media market in the world, what should flow into the drawing rooms is a very contentious topic in India. Every evening, 380 channels vie for the attention of about 500 million Indians. This is the world?s most competitive media market where channels are desperate to adopt almost all possible trick to gather eye ball and the consequent ad revenue. Meanwhile, another 200 channels are vying for permission to launch services.
While the I&B ministry mulls an umbrella code that will set guidelines for news and entertainment channels, the Supreme Court is looking at the news content. Also at stake is the independence of the news media,which is a constitutional right.
G Krishnan, president, NBA and CEO, Headlines Today told FE, ?The SC has taken this decision with the Arushi murder case in mind. The media has to come together on this and explain to the court that media?s role in this case is a rarest of rare examples in the history of media coverage. Even for the mistakes done my media, the police and the misleading investigation was partially responsible. We have to appeal to the court that it wouldn?t be appropriate to take decision by generalising media?s role based on this exceptional case.? The case involved the alleged murder of a teenaged girl in Noida, that created a massive interest among th public and the media.
Earlier this month the secretary of I & B ministry, Sushma Singh had said that the ministry will accord high priority to the content code issue and will look at reviewing the existing draft content code to suit the changing times. The ministry claims it has received over 240 complaints of content code violation from individuals, civil society organisations and other watchdogs in the past few years. The ministry had sent 80 plus show cause notices and warnings to broadcasters in the same period.
Responding to the complex demand, the apex industry body of private news broadcasters, NBA, on Friday constituted a News Broadcasting Standards (Disputes Redressal) Authority to enforce its code of ethics and broadcasting standards. A nine-member body chaired by Justice J S Verma, former Chief Justice and former NHRC chairperson consists of eminent personalities from various walks of life like historian Ramachandra Guha, sociologist Dipankar Gupta, former Nasscom chief Kiran Karnik, and economist Nitin Desai. It also has representative from the media like India TV managing editor, Times Now editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami.
The authority, becoming operational from October 2, will typically take on public?s grievances over television content. But how would the ministry respond to the initiative. Krishnan said, ?The government has appreciated the move. However, we expect the ministry to demonstrate necessary patience required and show faith in private players. It is not possible to find instant solutions to problems related to content. We have put in place the necessary set up, it will take some time to deliver?.
The Indian television industry has a turnover of Rs 22,600 crore in 2007, growing at a cumulative healthy rate of 21% over the last four years. It was Rs 19,120 crore in 2006.
The NBA had released a code of ethics for the broadcasters this April in support of its stance of self regulation. Krishnan said that with the constitution of this body, NBA has successfully completed the second stage of its promise. Responding to the nature of coverage of the Arushi case which in some cases were prurient, the Supreme Court in a public interest litigation, has issued notices to the Centre, Uttar Pradesh government, the Press Council of India, The Times of India, Hindustan Times, NDTV, Aaj Tak and CNN-IBN, seeking their response on laying down norms and guidelines for the print and electronic media in covering criminal cases where investigation is pending. The Bench, consisting of Justice Altamas Kabir and Markandey Katju has also asked Additional Solicitor-General, Gopal Subramaniam to assist in this case. In the order, Justice Katju said, ?We will lay down guidelines on media coverage. We are not concerned about media criticising us?.
Acknowledging the role of media, he said ?We are for media freedom. What we are saying is there is no absolute freedom.? The matter will come up for hearing on September 23.
Currently, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India regulates on carriage issues of broadcasting sector, while there is no such body to regulate on the content related issues. The Broadcasting Bill proposes a body -Broadcast Regulatory Authority of India to deliberate on content related issues. Trai also recently sought content regulation power from the ministry. The industry on the other hand has always preferred self regulation.It is this vaccum that sends the content code ball to so many courts.