Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday, on the National Press Day, said that the Narendra Modi government is committed to the freedom of Press and opposed attempts to “throttle” it.
Extending his greetings, Shah tweeted: “Our media fraternity is working tirelessly towards strengthening the foundations of our great nation. The Modi government is committed to the freedom of Press and strongly oppose those who throttle it.”
The Home Minister also lauded the efforts of the media in the fight against ongoing coronavirus pandemic, mentioning that it had played a “remarkable role”.
In a message at a webinar held by the Press Council of India on the occasion, Union Minister Prakash Javadekar reiterated that “freedom of Press is the cornerstone of our democracy”, but also stressed that it is a “responsible freedom”.
He said that television media should have its own self-regulatory body, while adding that suggestions have already come to make a code of conduct holding news channel accountable. “TV media should have its own self-regulatory body. An agency headed by Justice AK Sikri has been made to regulate news channels but many of them aren’t its members. Suggestions have come in to make code of conduct holding news channel accountable,” said Javadekar.
“OTT (over the top) platforms don’t have any regulatory body neither they have self-regulation. There’s a variety of content on these platforms ranging from good to bad. The media fraternity should themselves take initiative to set an example of responsible freedom,” he added. There is no law or regulatory body that governs online content or OTT platforms. There has been a strong argument in favour of content regulation on the OTT platforms.
The government recently issued an order bringing online films, audio-visual programmes and online news and current affairs content under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.
“Freedom of the press is the soul of the public system. Freedom of the press is of great importance. Presently freedom of the press is being discussed again in the country…even I had tweeted that the way press freedom is coming under attack, it is not good,” said Javadekar.
The Union Minister further stated, “What is the matter of TRP? The advertisers need a guide as to when and where they should give the advertisements to gain more traction. We never interfered in this willingly but now we have to interfere and we have also appointed a committee to eliminate the possibility of manipulation.”
November 16 is celebrated as National Press Day since the Press Council of India was established on this day in 1966.