Public Interest?

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The State must get over its control mentality...

There appears to be a strange sense of déjà vu every time you watch or hear the Union Minister for Information & Broadcasting ‘reassure’ the nation that he is not keen on controlling the content that flows out of the dozens of private news channels across the country. In the same breath, the Minister criticises the news channels for peddling sensational news. Twice in 2007, Priya Ranjan Das Munshi has banned the telecast of two general entertainment channels for having the gall to show obscene visuals to the vast masses of India. In the backdrop of the growing intolerance of the Indian society towards freedom of speech and expression, the musings of the I&B Minister appear even more alarming.

There is no doubt that some news channels are making a mockery of the very word ‘news’. Stories of love affairs between professors and students, of a snake chasing a woman endlessly, of a man forecasting the precise time of his death, or even of a starlet claiming to be the wife of Abhishek Bachchan do stretch credibility. There is no doubt that television news channels in India are sometimes literally going berserk while providing breathless round-the clock coverage of trivia. Yet, it is incomprehensible to even think that the I&B Ministry and the bureaucrats in the ministry start dictating what ‘proper’ news is; and what isn’t. The logical destination of this creeping censorship would be a throwback to the dark days of Emergency, when freedom of speech and expression was trampled upon and destroyed. The Minister must recognise the fact that the freedom of the media is non-negotiable and that he cannot invoke tired old clichés like ‘public interest’ to try and gag the media as and when his whims take over. During the British Imperial rule, the State frequently invoked ‘public interest’ to perpetuate Imperialism and throttle voices of protest. After Independence, the Indian State took over the job of dictating what ‘public interest’ is. The I&B Minister really has no business to tell news channels that they should refrain from using terms like ‘Meena’ and ‘Gujjar’ while covering the recent upheaval in Rajasthan. How will telling it as it violate or disturb ‘public interest’?

Frankly, ‘public interest’ has become a bit of a joke as the term merely provided a fig leaf to hopelessly corrupt bureaucrats and politicians to shield themselves from scrutiny and accountability. That’s why you find bureaucrats not complying with requests under the Right To Information Law by blandly stating that ‘public interest’ is involved. The Minister must realise that bad old days of control and more control are over. A democracy needs a free media.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2007

An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

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