Press Council Chairman Dr Katju supports NUJ (I) demand of strong Media Council(Detail Page)

New Delhi (August 28): A high level delegation of National Union of Journalists(India) todasy called on the Chairman of Press Council of India Dr.Justice (retd) Markandeya Katju in New Delhi. The delegation whichcomprised of NUJ (I) secretary general Ras Bihari, veteran leaders Dr.NK Trikha, Rajendra Prabhu and Press Council Member Upala Laxman, DJA president Manoj Verma, discussed with the Mr. Katju various issued concerning the mediapersons.# Mr Katju assured the delegation to present its memorandum before the next Press Council meeting. He said the Press Council stronglysupports the creation of a strong Media Council and the PCI sent a proposal to this effect to the government only yesterday.In the memorandum, the NUJ (I) strongly pleaded the case of working journalists for better living conditions. About the Media Council the memorandum appreciated the Mr Katju for taking up the demand publicly. It urged him to chalk out a programme to effectively press it beforethe Government.# The second raised in the memorandum was the rapid growth of cross-media ownership which is threatening Press freedom. “There are very subtle ways the corporate world is taking over the media—one way is to enter into private agreements by which newspaper owners promise to promote corporate products while the corporate entity promises long term advertisement contracts to the newspaper or the group. This is never made public but it exists in the case of many newspapers,” the memorandum said.# The issue of paid news was also taken up. “The newspaper virtually surrenders its independence to the highest bidder disregarding the erosion of its credibility. A further extension of this is compelling working journalist employees to canvas either for advertisements or lump sum payments for carrying press releases and press conference reports. In some cases newspapers virtually auction their reporter assignments to people in the moffusil who are no journalists at all. The so-called reporter makes lump sum payment or promises to the newspaper and covers this up by charging people from near and far for carrying their items,” the memorandum added.# About the challenges to Press freedom from new technologies like online news, user based news inserts, etc, the NUJ (I) delegation said the damage some of these technologies could do was recently illustrated in the morphed pictures of communal victims circulated on the social networks. “The Council should set up special groups to consider the impact of such technologies and suggest what oversight could be brought in for the healthy functioning of these without compromising on freedom of expression. The guidelines for journalists and cross checking of user based news items and photos are necessary,” the Memorandum said.# The delegation also brought to the notice of Dr Katju that several newspapers are now-a-days are published without printing the names of Chief Editor. “This is against the Press law. We had brought up this issue before the Council in the 90s and some action was taken but there was no follow up. We request that the Council force the Government to take action against newspapers that violate the Press law by withholding the name of the editor. We also request you to initiate an enquiry into the proportion of space that could be devoted to advertisements in newspapers in the interests of the readers and quality of newspapers. A largely advertisement sheet cannot claim to be a newspaper and seek benefits from the authorities on one count or another,” the memorandum concluded.#