NEW DELHI: The ruling National Front’s proposal for an autonomous Doordarshan and All India Radio envisages government Ownership of the media, “but no kind of government control,” Froat’s manifesto committee chairman Surendra Mohan said.
Participating in a panel discussion over all India radio escape from the fact that such expressive electronic media should be owned by the government. “But ownership should not lead to control, in functioning,” Mohan said.
He said government control of the media in the country had always been controlled by ruling party and more specifically controlled by certain individuals in that party. This had vitiated the functioning of the electronic media, and the Front wanted to end this, he said.
Other participants in the discussion included All India congress Committee I (AICCI) General Secretary V.N. Gadgiland journalist Prem Bhatia, Pran Chopra, another journalist, was the moderator.
Mohan said his personal view was that making Doordarshan and All India Radio accountable to Parliament would amount to bringing these media in a sense within some control of the government.
Gadgil said autonomy in itself would not guarantee the kind of independent functioning that was desired. He was for functional autonomy, the form of which would be secondary, he said.
Clanfying his concept of functional autonomy, Gadgil suggested the drafting of a code and guidelines for media functioning by a committee of independent people.
This code can be modified by adding or subtracting points, but should not be radically altered, he said.
Mohan said independent corporations comprising the electronic media could be made accountable to a board of trustees appointed by men of integrity like the Chief Justice and the Chairman of the Union Public Service Commission.
Mohan said the trustees could be changed periodically to ensure that no monopoly existed.
He also spoke of regional corporations which could be owned by the government and run by organizations with licenses from the government.
Gadgil said one lacuna in the trustee proposal was that it could work only if the trusteeship was coupled with some kind of power. The trustee should have power to take action on the executives heading the corporations.
Journalist Prem Bhatia said he did not think total autonomy could work. “Accountability of the government for the performance of the media cannot be allowed to be escaped,” he said.
Bhatia said if power and responsibility of the media were separated, the government would be turned into an institution which had all the responsibilities but no power, and therefore a via media would have to be found.
Gadgil said an independent corporation set up by statutes must be answerable to parliament. This did not mean that it should be answerable to the political party in power, in which case the credibility of the media would be affected. Public control of the media must remain with parliament.
Mohan said, parliament, “need not be brought into the picture.” Just as it did not discuss the conduct of the election commission, the Chief Justice or a subjudice matter the functioning of the media need not be brought into the purview of the parliament.
Article extracted from this publication >> December 22, 1989
