GUJ calls for National Media Commission and Media Council

Panaji, Dec 18 (UNI) Goa Union of Journalists (GUJ) today urged the Centre to constitute National Media Commission and Media Council of India to study the problems confronting the print and the electronic media in the light of their phenomenal growth over the years.

The GUJ also sought codification of privileges of the Members of Parliament and the legislature so that it could avoid clash with the freedom of the media in due course with the former becoming sensitive in the light of various exposures by the media.

Participating in a one-day seminar on ''Ethics in Journalism'', organised by the GUJ in collaboration with the State Department of Information and Publicity, experts pleaded more in favour of ''self-imposed ethics and guidelines'' than imposing them from a government ''regulatory body'' that often result in gagging the media.

Bombay High Court former judge NarendraChapalgaokar said adherance to a code of conduct was necessary these days when the media of the missionary spirit of the pre-independence era was degenerated to commercial interests of the modern era.

Lashing out at the electronic media for its role in glorifying violence, violating privacy and projecting entertainment with break-neck competition, the judge depolred that there was no official regulatory body to check this perversion.

One such body to regulate both the electronic and the print media was necessary as the existing Press Council of India (PCI) has jurisdiction over the print media only.

However, self-regulation of conduct by all media platforms was preferred to an official regulatory authority, he said.

Former Union Minister Ramakant Khalap, now chairman of the state planning board, also favoured self-imposed code of conduct, while advocate Subhash Naik George was against contract system of employment in the media.

Advocate and NGO leader Satish Sonak objected to the Press Council of India's suggestion to the media against making personal allegations of lack of ability or integrity against a judge.

He concurred with the PCI's recommendation against foreign travel opportunities abroad offered by private corporate houses construed as inducements.

Senior journalist Y Bala Murali Krishna voiced against the growing menace of ''plagiarism'' of news in the media and unethical practice of lifting even photographs violating Copy Rights Act.

He sought immediate setting up of a high-powered National Media Commission to look into the whole gamut of the media, including the electronic media.

The first National Press Commission appointed in 1952 was headed by Justice Rajadhyaksha and the second in 1980 by justice Mathew.

With tangential growth witnessed in different media, there was a need for appointing the National Media Commission to study the status of the media, he said.

Editor of Tarun Bharat Kiran D Thakur and senior journalist Flaviano Dias chaired two different sessions on the subject.

UNI BM/SD KD ND1608