Caveat to news channels, demand raised for a comprehensive media council
Guwahati: With satellite news channels in the country attracting
growing criticism over their content and slant of reporting as well
as presentation, Journalists’ Forum Assam (JFA) has reiterated its
long standing demand for upgrading the existing Press Council to Media
Council of India so as to bring electronic media and rapidly upcoming
digital media platforms under its ambit.
Exclusiveness of news channels because of their availability in
television sets (where digital outlets are still invisible) in
millions of households across the country will not sustain for long as
new technological advancement is making it possible to offer the same
space for selected and exclusive news based portals with full
audio-visual content.
Lately both Reliance Jio and Airtel have revised their broadband
plans, offering unlimited data (read around 3.3 TB per month) to their
customers. Jio Fibre and Airtel Xstream Fibre are seemingly offering
100 GB data per day which should be plenty for an Indian household for
data consumption.
Both the service providers are expected to offer hundreds of Indian
news channels with sports, entertainment, educational, etc content
related outlets. Even a number of news portals will be included in Jio
and Airtel broadband plans helping them to showcase their content in
television sets as well (without depending upon DTHs and cable
operators).
“So it is high time to have a comprehensive Media Council armed with
greater regulatory powers so that necessary guidelines can be
formulated,” said JFA president Rupam Barua and secretary Nava
Thakuria, adding that the largest democracy should not waste further
time in recognizing the news channels and news related portals under
the domain of Working Journalist Act (of India).
