With the proliferation of new and emerging media like Internet, Internet TV and FM radio, the government is seriously considering a proposal to set up a commission to frame comprehensive guidelines to cover all media.
The charges of irresponsible reporting by some TV news channels following the Mumbai attacks in November last year has stirred the government into taking a fresh look at emerging media and ways to regulate them.
The proposal for setting up a media commission on the lines of earlier such exercises initiated by former prime ministers Jawaharlal Nehru and Morarji Desai was discussed at a recent meeting of consultative committee meeting of parliamentarians.
The meeting was chaired by Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Anand Sharma.
The minister assured that he will take it up before the cabinet and discuss it with the prime minister, Hannan Mollah, Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) MP and a member of the committee, told IANS on Sunday.
"The last two media commissions were set up primarily with the print media in mind. In the last two decades, the media has grown a hundred times and new forms have emerged that require regulation," Mollah said. "It will be unfair to just focus on TV news channels. The media landscape is more diverse now," he stressed.
{{/usCountry}}"The last two media commissions were set up primarily with the print media in mind. In the last two decades, the media has grown a hundred times and new forms have emerged that require regulation," Mollah said. "It will be unfair to just focus on TV news channels. The media landscape is more diverse now," he stressed.
{{/usCountry}}"A proper media commission with a wider term of reference should be set up to deal with diversified media. Other members also agreed with the proposal in view of new security issues and terrorist threats," Mollah said.
Other members of the consultative committee of MPs who attended the meeting Feb 9 included Kirip Chaliha, S Mallikarjunaiah, Bharatkumar Raut, Ahmed Saeed Malihabadi and Dr V Maitreyan.