PRESS UNDER PRESS

By Sabyasachi Amitav


Recently we all celebrate the Press day i.e 16th of November which is symbolic of a free and responsible press in India. This was the day on which the press council of India started functioning as a moral watchdog to ensure that not only did the press maintain the high standards expected from this powerful medium but also that it was not fettered by the influence or threats of any extraneous factors. The national press day on November16 every year is commemorated in befitting manner by the council.

The fundamental objective of journalism is to serve the people with news, views, comments and information on matters of public interest in a fair, accurate unbiased, sober and decent manner. Towards this end, the Press is expected to conduct itself in keeping with certain norms of professionalism universally recognized.

Journalism not just a challenging field, its a passion to transcend all the odds and difficulties to gather news and get the people all informed. Journalists never bothered to leave their lives at stake while gathering news from the site of accidents, millitant attacks, natural disasters or explosions. Many have lost their lives in this process too. The mission continues and will continue for ever.

The ominipresent Media be it Print or electronics, has turned the world in a global village with emphatic acknowledgement of need for a suitable mechanism to enforce the ethics expected to be followed by it without any undue hindrance being pressed on it functioning. The develeopment of technologies made it possible to inform the entire world about any single incident occurred at any part of the world. But while doing so, the media itself has sidelined its own ethics or self regulation. And it has became a topic of discussion now. Now lets look at some of the key guidelines that media should follow ...

1.The Press shall eschew publication of inaccurate, baseless, graceless, misleading or distorted material.

2.The Press has a duty to restraint in hazarding their own opinion or conclusion in branding any persons as 'cheats' or 'killers' till it established.

3.The Press shall not concerning a person's home, family, religion, health, sexuality, personal life and private affairs are covered by the concept of PRIVACY excepting where any of these impinges upon the public or public interest.

4.Newspapers/ News Channels should not publish/ display anything which is obscene, vulgar or offensive to public good taste.

5. News should not to be sensational/ provocative and must justify the matter printed or broadcasted under them.

6. The media shall make every possible effort to build bridges of co-operation, friendly relations and better understanding between India and foreign States. At the same time, it is the duty of a newspaper to expose any misuse or undue advantage of the diplomatic immunities. Imaginary facts, or ferreting out or conjecturing the non-existent should be scrupulously avoided.

7.Facts, facts and yet more facts are vital and they should be checked and cross-checked whenever possible until the moment the paper goes to press.

Freedom of press appeared to be a simple preposition but it involves a number of arguable issues includes freedom to whom. Undoubtedly a free press plays an important role in a democracy. The press demands freedom all the time, it cried its best during the emergencies, the government suppressions of the media. On the other hand, media is suffering from the to-be-the-best syndrome. Today, there is cut-throat competition in the media. And to be the first, they seldom violate its own ethics. It crosses the lines of its limit saying they have the right to inform the people.

The recent times, Indian media is covering SEX at its most priority. Be it therecent surveys done by top news channels. The media has invaded privacy. But can there be privacy of an individual if his act affects public life? The media has been blamed for invading 'privacy' not only in this country but also all over the world particularly the Mecca of journalism - United Kingdom. The tabloids there have played havoc with lives of well-known people. The only difference is that in Britain the tabloids do the 'dirty' job, here almost any publication or broadcaster does it. Indian media can possibly be accused of tabloidisation but whether it can be accused of violation of ethics remains the moot question.