Responsible freedom is the prerogative of media

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Noted mediaperson and chairman of the Media Development Foundation and Asian College of Journalism Shashi Kumar has said that if media or the fourth estate is to be regulated, it will be losing its very reason for existence.He said that responsible freedom was the privilege of the media.  Delivering the keynote address at a seminar on “Threats to media freedom: The real and the imagined,” on the occasion of the observance of the  National Press Day, organised under the aegis of the Kerala Press Academy here on Wednesday, Shashi Kumar said that in our country press represented the problems of the people. People expect the press to tell the truth however uncomfortable it might have been today. Referring to the remarks by Press Council chairman Justice Markanday Katju that media must be regulated, he said that such moves should be fought tooth and nail. He said that any move to regulate and create borders to the media should be protested. He pointed out that Katju had stated that the freedom of press was an oxymoron. However, he said that the present trend in the visual media of celebrating the pregnancy and the birth of the child of a superstar must have prompted anyone to make such comments. Also the people are witness to  the way the electronics media getting into conclusions. No channel or any media institution, in that case, has the right to stigmatise a person to the extent of himself dreading to go out with his family.Reminding the peril inherent in the motive behind profit maximisation in the media industry, Shashi Kumar said that if profit becomes the mantra and journalism becomes a corollary, there was something wrong with the dispensation.Instead of focusing on the profit motive, the media industry should be driven by the values of journalism, he said. “Convergence of power politics and profit maximisation is typified by RupertMurdoch. Whatever freedom of press we enjoy now is the freedom by default,” he said. Shashi Kumar said that if the government enacted any draconian Bill curtailing the freedom of the press now, he doubts the people en masse would come out into the street to fight shoulder to shoulder with the journalists as had happened during the days of Emergency. “It is important for us to be brutally frank about it and regain the lost ground," he said. Information and PRD Minister K C Joseph inaugurated the seminar.  Speaking on the occasion, he said that in a democracy no institution should claim unrestrained freedom. In the time of visual media, even the agenda of the Assembly is getting decided on the basis of the reports appeared in the media. And there are instances of planting such reports  in the media eying to hog the limelight. In the frantic run for sensationalism nobody bothers for accountability and cross-check the facts, he said. Press Academy chairman N P Rajendran presided. Sebastian Paul, ex-MP, and Malalayala Manorama Editorial Director Thomas Jacob spoke.