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Media should opt for self-regulation: Speakers

Staff Correspondent

BHOPAL: Speakers who participated in a panel discussion on "Media and Regulation" at the National Law Institute University here on Thursday were unanimous in asserting that there should be censorship of films and television progammes that are not only sexually explicit and hurt the sensibilities of the common man but also incite violence. They also spoke in favour of adequate regulatory mechanism to protect people's privacy.

The Director of the National Law Institute, Moolchand Sharma, said in his concluding remarks that the media would have to regulate itself. He emphasised that "inside check is as efficient as outside check". For the larger society, he said, no regulation would work without the media playing its role.

He described the media as a social, political, economic and financial power. "Similarly law, education and religion also have their own power and help in building consent. The media should not be seen in isolation," he said, adding that it was for all sections of society to play the regulatory function.

Giving direction to the discussion, Prof. Ghayur Alam said that media, to a large extent, was becoming judgmental and the question was who would regulate the media. Prof Mukesh Shrivastava lapped this up by asking, "where does media derive its legitimacy from?"

During deliberations on these questions, it was pointed out that the media should focus on information dissemination as well as act as a watchdog in larger public interest. It was also emphasized that news columns should not be editorialised.

"The rules for film certification cannot be made very rigid as that would lead to plenty of legal complications," said one of the speakers, who added that the decisions of the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) were often subjective and hence it was very important to ensure that people with good image, standing and credibility were appointed as Censor Board members.

The President of Jus Culture (Law and Culture Cell of the National Law Institute), Anuj Puri, who conducted the discussion, said that in recent times privacy of certain individuals had been a major issue as far as undercover journalism was concerned.

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Media should opt for self-regulation: Speakers

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