Regulation of Electronic Media - - The Targeted Saints

In less than 2 decades Indian media has grown exponentially. In 1991, there were only a handful of channels and they were owned by the national broadcaster Doordarshan and apart from that there were just the BBC World service and VOA (Voice of America), since then the scene has changed beyond recognition thanks to thriving joint ventures taking place between Indian entities and foreign owned channels like Star, Zee and NDTV among many others. These new collaborations along with international, national and local broadcasters have multiplied by bacteria on a Petri dish! These channels, websites and news portals are run by powerful elite who have an interest in news that is published in newspapers and media channels they own. There is no overseeing body to oversee operations and news published by any of these media outlets. This has at times scared people and raised concerns  about censorship that is largely absent in electronic media. It has brought infamy to many including religious saints and social workers such as Asaramji Bapu.

In case of print media, The Press Council of India governs the conduct of what is published in print, but electronic media does not to date have anything comparable to the PCI. Despite concerns being raised to bring electronic media under the purview of PCI nothing concrete has happened till date. As a result of that a lot of harm has come and until a competitive body is formed there are very little hopes of electronic media refraining from circulating manufactured evidence for their personal gains. One such case of the Indian media doing harm than good is shameful handling of the Ishrat Jahan murder case. The Intelligence Bureau created fake evidence against the young student to which it admitted publicly, but the media could not lose out on the fact that the news was helping media companies generate immense public interest and hence money.

Even when irregularities and inconsistencies appear, the corrupt media houses that bend the truth for their benefit do not get anything more than a cursory finger wag or symbolic warnings that do not serve any purpose. The complicated, corrupt and unregulated media is not playing the role it was expected to, instead it is brining money into the coffers of these media bodies. The issue of regulating electronic media by the state is a sensitive one because doing so would be an anathema to democracy where putting media under the direct control of the state is not ideal or desirable. The desperation of the media houses to satisfy its need for TRPs do not stop at sullying dignitaries or leaders it goes beyond destroying the moral fabric of the society as well, hence some sort of legislation in electronic media is imminent.