UNIVERSITY ROUNDUP
Mass media should be accountable: Sanjaya Baru
Expert speak: Prime Minister’s Media Advisor Sanjaya Baru participating in a seminar organised by the Department of Communication and Journalism, Osmania University.
Prime Minister’s Media Advisor Sanjaya Baru advocated the need for media institutions formulating a code of conduct to keep a vigil on institutions of governance. He was speaking at a national symposium on, ‘Media and Good Governance’, organised by the Department of Communication and Journalism, Osmania University.
He further said that active, honest and free media can play a pivotal role in good governance. “This will also be applicable to the media,” Dr. Baru said, adding that media should be accountable to readers and viewers. He regretted that despite the appeal from the Securities and Exchange Board of India, media, especially the business newspapers, failed to evolve a code of conduct to govern its journalists.
Though the media has expanded in the last decade, it failed to provide quality coverage. Therefore, the media ought to improve its quality of reporting with honesty, integrity and analysis, Dr. Baru said.
Former Chief Election Commissioner J. M. Lyngdoh, who was the chief guest, said representative democracy has become non-accountable to the masses. There is a growing interest of media in governance, he said, but the media failed to raise issues of public importance. It has established a multi-path communication between the voter, public representative and the Government. The invasion of the electronic media with its intrusive coverage has helped media to intervene in governance more effectively.
Jyotirmay Sharma, Department of Political Science, University of Hyderabad, said there is a crisis of citizenship, which the media and governance should be concerned about. “Media today is facilitating undemocratic discussions and regretted that television suffers from the tyranny of sound bytes”.
UoH
P.L. Vishweshwar Rao, principal of Arts College, presided while Padmaja Shaw, head of the department, introduced the theme of the seminar.
To focus on the study of social exclusion in order to provide inputs to policy makers, the University of Hyderabad (UoH) started Centre for the Study of Social Exclusion and Inclusive Policy (CSSEIP). It is the one of the few universities in the country to have this UGC-sponsored centre.
Vice-Chancellor Seyed E. Hasnain, who inaugurated the centre, appreciated the UGC for initiating in time the academic intervention to address the issue of social exclusion.
He added that except a few individuals who achieved great success a lot of the sections remain discriminated and excluded from the economic, political, educational and social spheres. G. Nancharaiah, former Vice-Chancellor of Ambedkar University, Lucknow, briefed the historical background of this UGC’s initiative.
N. Sudhakar Rao, director of the centre, specified the objectives and functions of the centre.
P. Venkata Rao, dean-in-charge, School of Social Sciences, highlighted the forms of discrimination in different parts of the world.
R. Ravikanth Reddy
in Hyderabad
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