Media is a business like any other: Manish Tewari

New Delhi: To give more teeth to the media watchdog, the government on Friday said it will amend Press Council of India Act to empower it to suspend accreditation of a journalist or editor and registration of a publication besides stopping advertisements if they abuse their independence. “The government is considering amendment in the Press Council of India Act,” Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari said in Rajya Sabha while replying to a resolution made by a member. [caption id=“attachment_663270” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari. PTI[/caption] He said the amendment, which was in the draft stage, would empower the Press Council of India (PCI) to direct authorities in states to suspend distribution of a publication and government advertisements to it for a period up to six months. Tewari said the proposed amendments include granting powers to the PCI to “suspend accreditation of journalist or editor for a period up to three months” and in case of non-compliance it may direct suspension of registration for a period of up to a fortnight. He said amendments in the Act were to make it more adaptable to the changing times. “We would like to ensure that this Act is made more effective so that it becomes more concurrent and adaptable to the times,” Tewari said. He said, “These are contentious issues and there is need for a consensus not only within Parliament but also outside.” Noting that there were mechanisms and frameworks within different sections, the Minister asked YS Chowdhary (TDP) to withdraw his resolution seeking formation of an independent and empowered regulatory authority capable of taking action against erring media. Chowdhary later withdrew his resolution on the Minister’s assurance. Tewari denied that government was not taking action on ‘aberrations’ in media and said it was ready to deal with them and not “let the media off the hook.” “Parliament has over a period of time enacted legislation which provides mechanism as an exercise on media…it is not that the government is letting the media off the hook,” he said, noting that it was wrong to say that Press Council of India does not have the authority to take action. The Minister noted that “vibrancy and robustness” of Indian media has also acted in broad-basing and strengthening democracy. Stating that media was like any other business, the Minister said, “It may sound lousy but media is a business like any other business in the world and unfortunately in this business the revenue models are flawed.” Chowdary later said that media was like any other business which also had regulators and cited the examples of SEBI being brought in place of Controller of Capital Issues (CCI) to regulate new equity issues. He also cited the example of private hospitals which ran like a business but cannot be allowed to play with public lives. Chowdary also lamented that media is supposed to give news and not “convert stories into news”. “It does not mean they will run unethical business,” he said, while withdrawing the resolution moved by him. Moving his resolution, Chowdary said women are portrayed in poor light through obscene and vulgar pictures and demanded that there should be entertainment free from obscenity, vulgarity and violence. He also demanded a ban on media trial. Rama Jois (BJP) and Prabha Thakur (Cong) also supported the resolution. PTI