The government on Monday asked private television channels to be more responsible on telecasting riots in Rajasthan over the demand of Gujjars for reservation under Scheduled Tribes category. But, said no restrictions would be imposed on journalistic freedom to report events.
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Information and Broadcasting Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi said the media should also report the initiatives to restore peace as incident is reported. “I don’t want to interfere with your (media) judgement. But, my appeal is that the incidents which have taken place five days ago should not be shown repeatedly,” he said.
Munsi met representatives met of about 20 channels in the morning after Home Ministry raised objections over the television coverage of riots in different parts of Rajasthan. Home Ministry had raised its objections to coverage in certain news channels through a communication on Saturday saying television channels had not helped in restoring peace.
Barkha Dutt, Managing Editor NDTV 24x7, said, they agreed not to show old footage without ‘proper context’ but resisted any move of government imposing restrictions. “We were of the view that any type of regulation should come from the industry itself and not from outside,” she said.
Munsi, however, said that self-regulation was welcome but whether it is being done or not, it was for the media to decide. “Governments’ initiative to restore peace should be equally reported,” he added.
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The television channels did not agree to certain government suggestions like not naming castes involved in the conflict and doing stories on relations between Gujjars and Meenas have mended. “Those days are gone when names of the communities involved in clashes was not given,” she said. The channel representatives also said they cannot do premature news reports or stories falsifying bonhomie and complained that Rajasthanaccess to information was limited .
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The television channels did not agree to certain government suggestions like not naming castes involved in the conflict and doing stories on relations between Gujjars and Meenas have mended. “Those days are gone when names of the communities involved in clashes was not given,” she said. The channel representatives also said they cannot do premature news reports or stories falsifying bonhomie and complained that Rajasthanaccess to information was limited .
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Munsi said bad publicity for Rajasthan could adversely impact international tourists coming to India. “Rajasthan occupies great place in international tourism sphere. The booking for the forthcoming season has just started and the media coverage can show the state in a bad light,” he said, while making an appeal to channels to show restraint while covering Gujjar-Meena conflict.
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.
