“Like adequate education, freedom of expression is no longer a political nicety, but a precondition for economic competitiveness,” or so mused American creative thinking great, Alvin Toffler. Well, leave aside economic spirit, judging by the events that have transpired in the last month, I don’t quite believe it is even a political nicety in our country anymore. Case in point is the Broadcasting Services Regulation Bill 2006, devised purportedly by the Information & Broadcasting Ministry with the noble objective of thwarting the emergence of monopolies in Indian media.
Fair enough... you would presume, and probably not tender it much consideration beyond what media tycoons of the land now have to contend with, with the draft intending to fix a ceiling on cross-media ownership – across broadcasting and cable networks, radio and DTH – portending a realignment of shareholding structures. But sneak a glance into what lies beneath, and the proposed bill bears in its fold some extremely tyrannical legislations.
According to the plan, “In the event of war or a natural calamity of national magnitude, the Central Government may, in public interest, take over the control and management of any of the broadcasting services or any facility connected therewith, suspend its operation or entrust the public service broadcaster to manage it, in the manner directed by the Government for such period as it deems fit.” Further, the draft also contains provisions for penalising and repealing licenses of those breaching its instructions, besides a prearranged ‘content code’ for all broadcasters to incorporate!
If you thought that was enough already, the bill recommends the founding of a Broadcasting Regulatory Authority of India (BRAI), with an official on the payroll of the Government as its Secretary/CEO. Surprise Surprise! And if this didn’t suffice, here’s more: If, at any time, a broadcaster’s service is “considered prejudicial to friendly relations with a foreign country, public order, communal harmony or security of the state,” brother BRAI could brandish its sword and snatch your right to air your programme, temporarily or better still, for keeps.
Every sanctioned BRAI administrator – as wide-ranging as a district magistrate, sub-divisional magistrate or police commissioner – according to the bill blueprint, would wield the clout to inspect, search, and seize broadcasting equipment on receipt of complaint, or restrict service providers from playing or replaying a show or channel “if it is not in conformity with the prescribed content code, or if it is likely to promote feelings of disharmony or of enmity, hatred or ill-will between religious, racial, linguistic or regional groups or castes or communities or which is likely to disturb public tranquillity.”
And if the draft bill were ever to materialise into an Act, it’s ‘Hasta la Vista , Baby’ to sting journalism, hidden cameras and media revelations of concerns involving high-flying politicos or celebrities, without “identifiable public interest reason.”
And here’s the mother lode – the Government, in consonance with the draft, will not only embrace the privilege to frame fresh regulations for the media as and when it pleases, but the proposed BRAI-officials’ adventures cannot even be contested in the court! Well, where does one even begin to fathom or react to this brilliant masterstroke of media management? Were it not so horrendously high-handed, it might even have been hilarious.
It’s nothing short of a grim reminder of times during the Emergency (1975-77), when newspapers were obligated to relinquish their subject matter for shearing by the Government, before it decided what was ‘suitable’ for printing. Today, when we are well and truly living in the information age, with the media more often than not proving the one sane source and link to transparency, this sort of all-encompassing command to the state could effectively castrate the spirit of the free press, with tenets of the bill open for exploitation to the hilt by the powers that be.
The words of the Honourable I&B Minister, Shri Priyaranjan Dasmunsi, “I can say with responsibility that the bill will be a media friendly, progressive legislation not seen anywhere in the world,” seem true only in the final clause. Very few places on the planet indeed, would have even heard of such a prejudiced regulation. Worse still is the initial unilateralist attitude with which the ministry first approached the matter – never at first consulting media concerns nor industry representatives – instead proclaiming the draft bill would neither be “diluted” or “polluted.”
Almost equally baffling was the I&B minister’s volte-face on television, urging that the provisions of the bill did not seek to address established national channels, but to curb the unmitigated multitude of cable operators and regional networks that have emerged in areas of unrest in the country.
We’ve seen it before; the stark reality is that every Government or ruling authority of whichever kind in the universe would rub its hands in glee with the prospect of controlling the media, for it’s perhaps the one inexorable opponent that brings the elements of accountability and transparency – or at least fear of these – to any administration’s operative proclivities. So, be it subtle stratagems of smothering the media by forbidding news on FM radio or mercilessly ripping away parts from felicitated films or relegating television programming to ‘Universal’-rated themes or outright asphyxiation of the media, it might as well not ring as too much trepidation.
I think the truth lies bare before us all: Be it the Tsunami in South India, the earthquake in Kashmir, the floods or the blasts in Mumbai, media-persons were at the heart of each calamity much before anyone else decided to awaken. The courageous new avatar of journalism in India
And while it is fortunate enough that the current broadcast bill may not finally be tabled in this monsoon session of Parliament and with any luck, die a natural death (much like it’s predecessors in 1998 and 2000), the burden of duty is now on the shoulders of the country’s media and broadcasting industry to organise and present unitedly a solution that is put in order with a degree of finality.
One would submit that private television – and media as a whole today – is driven to a large extent by corporate advertising, and content many-a-times ventures into the realm of the mindless and the crude, but overriding measures such as this draft bill can hardly be expected to act as alleviative
measures. The remedy, in my opinion, is for the private broadcasting community to mutually craft a code of conduct on programming, with an autonomous media body designated to implement its guiding principles. There lies too ominous the probability of compromise of justice in giving the bureaucracy, police and the Government the right to interfere blatantly with media functioning, anywhere in the world.
Free speech is not just a fundamental right, but more aptly the most sacred of all rights, devoid of which, neither would any hunt for truth be possible, nor the discovery of any truth valuable…
Wriiten On:
17-10-2006
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