ELECTIONS '98
COMMENTARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ARCHIVES

Press Council chairman warns of growing monopoly in world media

Press Council of India chairman Justice P B Sawant today expressed concern over the growing monopoly of press barons over the media, and termed it ''detrimental to the interest of democracy and freedom of the press''.

Justice Sawant said the trend was not confined to developed countries alone.

More than 30 per cent of news circulation was concentrated in the hands of ''three individuals'' in the world, he said, adding that monopoly control was spreading in newspapers, news agencies, and studios in the developing nations.

The PCI chairman was addressing a press conference in New Delhi on the eve of the two-day international conference of world press councils, convened by the PCI as part of the golden jubilee celebrations of India's Independence.

The world's leading mediapersons and heads of press councils will participate in the conference beginning April 4, to suggest ways and means to set up a transnational complaints machinery. It will deliberate on the right to privacy, apart from reviewing the performance of the world and Indian press during the last 50 years.

The World Association of Press Councils is an umbrella organisation of press councils and similar bodies committed to championing the cause of free speech and freedom of a responsible press. Justice Sawant is also chairman of the WAPC.

The judge said increasing monopoly in the media was resulting in the ''suppression of information and the spread of half-truths''. This is what was done during the recent US-Iraq war, he added.

He said diverse sources of information could be generated to check the ''menace'', as in all democratic states freedom of expression is recognised as an inviolable human right.

He said the conference assumed significance in the wake of worldwide condemnation of the media's intrusion into the private lives of public figures. ''The trend is so far confined to the developed countries. But it may invade India and other countries,'' he cautioned.

On the need for evolving an international code of ethics for journalists, the PCI chairman said the move was necessary as both the electronic and print media the world over was selling obscenity, sex, violence and pornography for commercial purposes.

He said the job was not a difficult one as the media press councils the world over had drawn up their respective code of ethics for journalists and many ethical guidelines were the same.

He, however, hastened to add that while the media press councils in the UK, Japan, Australia, the Philippines and Thailand were members of the world body, China and the United States had not joined as yet.

The PCI chairman said the conference will also take cognisance of ''homogenisation of cultures'' through satellite channels on the developing nations. The setting up of transnational complaints machinery will help in this direction, he remarked.

Justice Sawant said the move was necessary because of "hate campaigns, insinuations to create tensions and conflicts in different countries. There were also complaints of misrepresenting information to push the economic and political agenda of countries.

The media's involvement in ''propaganda games" endangered peace, unity and fraternity among the nations. It did so by giving negative publicity and spreading half-truths as the BBC did by showing conflicts in Bosnia as part of the agitation in the Kashmir valley.

UNI

Tell us what you think of this report