05 May Freedom of Press : A tool to strengthen democracy
Freedom of Press : A tool to strengthen democracy – Today Current Affairs
Context :
India falls 8 positions to 150th rank in RSF 2022 World Press Freedom Index. World Press Freedom Day is celebrated on 3rd may every . On this occasion , we should analyze the degrading ranking of freedom of media .
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Introduction
- Media is known as the fourth pillar of democracy . Other three pillars are executive , legislative and the Judiciary. If these three pillars destroy democracy , only free media protects the democracy by providing the information to the public .
- The concept of the press was involved not only to collect the information but also to criticize the government . Media originated as a tool to criticize the government. In the Indian context we had to fight for hundreds of years to secure its freedom. Therefore , the freedom of the press must be ensured in any democratic country.
- If we have a poor ranking at international level, we should think how to remove the obstacles which are brought in front of the freedom of press . We have to find out the tools through which maximum freedom of the press could be ensured . The poor ranking of India in the World press freedom index paints a negative portrait among democratic countries . And If we have lower ranking in World Free press Index in comparison to our neighboring countries . It must be thinkable.
The parameter on which this WPFI is based on : The Hindu Analysis
There are 5 parameters on which this ranking is based on
- Legal framework
- Political context
- Economical Context
- Safely of journalist
- Socio cultural content
Among these parameters , India is ranked worst on this parameter of the safety of journalists. Safety regarding their job, regarding their personal security. India’s ranking on this parameter is 163. Therefore these journalists have to work as a puppet of their editors and the management of the media groups and if the media groups are the pro government, these journalists have no dare to write anything against the will of their management .
Besides job security, journalists have to face Psychological or emotional distress that could result from intimidation, coercion, harassment , surveillance , doxing (publication of personal information with malicious intent ) , degrading or hateful speech, smears and other threats targeting journalists .
In such a situation How e can think about the authentic and impartial news and information which we are getting . The Hindu Analysis
The parameter legal framework defines the degree to which journalists and media are free to work without censorship or Judicial sanction . Since our country is a democratic country therefore the constitution provides more rights to journalists legally . On this parameter, however, India’s ranking is satisfactory. It is the 120 in the world. However Government always tries to censor the contents which are against the government on the ground of sedition and many sections of the IPC of the British time are still functioning to frame charge against journalist
The parameter Political context defines the degree of support and respect of the media autonomy vis-s-vis political pressure from the state or from other political actors . On this parameter India has 145 ranking in the world. Only few media channels like NDTV and press The Hindu have authentic regarding to provide news to public and some channels and the press world without any political pressure and they have dare to criticize the government’s policies
The Parameter economical context defines the economic constraints linked to governmental policies (including the difficulty of creating a news media outlet, favoritism in the allocation of the state subsidies ) . Besides it depends on the economic contranis linked to non-state actors (advertisers and the commercial partners ) as well as it also linked to the business interest of the media owners . On this parameter, India’s ranking is also bad. This is 149 . The Hindu Analysis
The parameter Socio Cultural context defines social constraints resulting from the denigration and attacks on the press based on such issues as gender, clss , ethnicity and religion . However the ranking of India on this parameter is 127 but it is still satisfactory
Why Indian Media is biased
Most of the media houses in India are run by the big big businessmen of the India and it is obvious that business man works only for the profit . No businessman would work in loss making ventures for a long time. Therefore , these media houses have to write in the favor of those Industrialists and institutions from where they get the financial support and the advertisement . These media houses shows those news which would be demanded by the public. Therefore for the TRP, every media channel is competition . In the cat run of the media channels for the TRP, the real news and the real issues have been lost . If the demand of the viewers would be changes the nature of the media houses may change .
How to increase this ranking and What government and people should do to strengthen the impartiality of our media
- To strengthen democracy, our media should be unbiased and impartial . But the question remain , how the media houses would be unbiased. We should remove all those obstacles which are there in front of the freedom of the press. Among of those , the economical context is the most important parameter. Government should ensure that media houses would be subsidized in case of economic loss and without any partiality the government would give financial support to all media houses .
- Another important parameter is the security of media houses. The job of the journalist must be secured . They should not be fired at any cost during their services period . They should be provided personal security in case of any threat . Once the security of the journalist would be ensured , up to maximum extent the media houses can be made more impartial and unbiased
Today Current Affairs
Conclusion
As per the above discussion, it has been observed that the credibility of the Indian press is continuously declining at international level. In world Free Press Ranking, India rank is 150, which is continuously trending downward . It is the issue of concern and the government should find out the measures how to increase this ranking in future so that credibility of Indian media and democratic values could be increased . In the above discussion some measures have been suggested but this is the duty of the people and the politicians to bring this issue to the stage of debate . So that new measure could be discover in the well being of the Indian media
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Source : The Hindu
GS PAPER II, Essay
plutus ias daily current affairs 05 May 2022 Hindi
Plutus IAS Current Affairs Team Member
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