The parliamentary panel on Information and Technology (IT) has recommended a slew of reforms for traditional and digital media platforms, ranging from seeking a definition of what constitutes an “anti-national” attitude to asking the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I&B) to come up with a better system for evaluating television rating points and introducing dedicated laws to combat fake news, according to reports.
The report, set to be tabled in the winter session of the Parliament, addresses instances of media violations of the code of conduct of ethics in the form of paid news, fake news, TRP manipulation, media trials, sensationalism, and biased reporting, the Hindustan Times has reported. “These have placed a big question mark on the media’s credibility in the minds of people which is not a good sign for the healthy democracy. A healthy democracy thrives on participation of the public, which is only possible through circulation of accurate information by responsible media,” a person familiar with the developments told HT.
The report applauds the government for implementing new social media and intermediary guidelines, but it also requests feedback from the I&B ministry on how well the objectives of implementing them were met. “The Committee hopes that these guidelines will go a long way in regulating digital media content and both the ministries will work coherently and in tandem to ensure that the code for ethics is followed by digital media also,” HT quoted the person in the know, as saying.
The panel has also been informed that discussions are underway to create an umbrella statute for the media sector that would cover print, electronic, and online platforms. The proposed law would apply to print and electronic media, digital media, cinema, and even so-called over-the-top (OTT) platforms like Netflix and Hotstar, according to reports.
The committee has also noted continued concerns about fake news in some newspapers, the report says, adding that it found that “erring newspapers tend to repeat the same mistakes”, even after being censured by the Press Council of India (PCI), till action is taken by the Bureau of Outreach and Communication (BOC) to withhold government advertisements to that particular newspaper for a certain period of time as per the Government of India’s Policy.
A total of 105 cases were censured by the PCI between 2016 and 2020, with 73 of them resulting in BOC suspensions. The report says the committee would expect the ministry/PCI to strengthen the PCI’s enforcement mechanism so that all of its orders are followed. It has also suggested that the PCI’s membership be expanded to include people from multiple states in order to ensure fair representation.
According to the above-mentioned person, the PCI also informed the panel that the media body received several complaints about electronic media, but no action was taken because it did not fall under their purview. “As a result, PCI believes it is prudent to establish something “parallel (to PCI)” for the entire media, i.e. newspapers and periodicals in print or other form, e-newspapers, news portals, social media, and any other platform of news dissemination, in addition to electronic media,” the report quoted the person as saying. “The PCI has recommended to the government that a single piece of legislation be enacted to cover all of the aforementioned media, in accordance with the Press Council Act of 1978,” they added.
Referring to rule 6(1)(e) of the Cable Network Rules, 2014, which prohibits the broadcasting of anything that promotes ‘anti-national attitudes,’ the panel has also suggested that term be broadly defined to avoid ambiguity in interpretation, the report says.
The parliamentary committee has also expressed dissatisfaction with the current TRP measurement system, drawing the ministry’s attention to recently reported episodes of TRP manipulation by some TV channels rigging the devices used by BARC.
Read all the Latest India News here
Comments
0 comment