Manish Tewari suggests common exam, license for journalists

New Delhi, Aug 20: I&B Minister Manish Tewari on Monday said the media industry should consider holding a common exam for journalists, on the lines of that conducted by the Bar Council, after which they could be given licence to pursue the profession.

"I think a good starting point would be that rather than possibly prescribing a curricula which is then standardised across institutions, possibly the media industry could think about at least having a common exam.

"Like you have a bar exam, like you have a medical exam or exams which are conducted by other professional bodies, which then issue a license, which enables you to pursue your profession," Tewari said at an event here.

He said doctors and lawyers need licence to practice and there may be a case for allowing standardisation in the media industry as it attracted people from various professions.

Tewari said there were good institutions to train journalists, but there were also "fly-by-night" operators in the media eduction sector. He said professionals from diverse fields would not resent the idea of a common exam.

"It would bring a certain amount of standardisation across the media space," Tewari said while speaking at the event organised by CMS Academy here.

Press Council of India head Justice (retd) Markandey Katju had earlier raised the demand for minimum qualifications for journalists.

Tewari also said TRAI should look into the demand of news channels to extend the time frame for implementing the 12 minute ad-cap till the final phase of digitisation.

"I think it will be possibly worth the while of the regulator to seriously look into some of the issues which they have raised and see if they can give them a road map which is synchronous with digitisation, so that we can have a seamless implementation of both digitisation and the statutory remit," Tewari said.

PTI