JAIPUR: The Press Council Chairman Justice R.S Sarkaria Nov.7 said punitive sanctions were “antithetical” to freedom of the press and its responsible functioning.
Justice Sarkaria said this while inaugurating a seminar on “Press Council of India Performance and Problems” organized by the Public Relations Society of India (Rajasthan chapter).
Justice Sarkaria said: “Responsibility is the offspring of ethics and ethics are anchored in the conscience of the journalist. Therefore the realization could come only from within and cannot be imposed by law.”
Referring to the suggestions made by the Minister of Information and Broadcasting to the third international conference on Press councils and similar bodies at New Delhi recently that “the council should be equipped with punitive powers or “teeth” through an amendment of the statute. Justice Sarkaria said the very suggestion cuts at the root of the concept of “self-regulation” on which press councils the world over depended.
He said the very idea of self-regulation by the press was expounded by no less a person than Mahatma Gandhi who was an eminent journalist in his own right.
Justice Sarkaria said news should be published after proper verification of facts and presented with due caution so as to create an atmosphere congenial to communal harmony amity and peace At the same time sensational provocative and alarming headlines were to be avoided, he added.
He said the council had compiled an updated but succinct norm titled “A guide to journalistic ethics” as guidance for journalists.
The third international conference on press councils held at New Delhi in which 10 countries Participated had by a unanimous resolution commended this guide to other councils the world over for emulation.
He pointed out that the council had always come to the rescue of the press for freedom of press whether it was the Press Bill as sault on journalists or pre-censorship or Bills concerning the press.
Prof. Nandalal Tirka Head of the Department of Makhanlal Chaturvedi Nationa University for Journalist Bhopal in his key note address said the responsibility of the council was to preserve the press freedom and suggest improvement in standard of newspaper and agencies.
Prof. Tirkha said the Press Council was founded on the principle to help the press and guard its freedom.
Article extracted from this publication >> November 27, 1992
