The freedom of young media is a mere notion than a pre-disposed fact, amidst the democratic set up of India.

 The Indian Constitution does not have any law, which codifies, freedom of press as it implicitly covered under the fundamental right to speech and expression. The freedom of media in India is debatable issue. It has always been endangered. The classic example of the devastating state of the same was the imposition of emergency by the Indira Gandhi Government in 1975. Media was asked to bend however it crawled said L. K. Advani, Opposition Leader, Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP). However there were newspapers, which did challenge the autocratic rule through their editions namely Indian Express and Statesman. These were the two newspapers, which voiced against the tide of authoritarianism, which rested for almost two years in the country.

It’s a new era today. The threat to the freedom of media is not external or any government agency or from the Information and Broadcasting Ministry. It is within the organization.

 Journalism is beyond profession however media is now a million dollar industry. It is not the editor who heads the organization; it is the CEO of a company who decides what makes news? Selling editorial spaces to the corporate houses has given rise to a new section of media, which subsist on ad-revenue.

 The broadcast channels have made the situation shoddier. The definition of ‘Breaking News’ has gone for a complete toss. It flashes every other, second. The news that is covered by mainstream news channels do not highlight the developmental issues the country and its 70 percent rural population. The news is more of urban in nature, which has scoops from politics, bollywood and cricket. It is games of TRP where the more you expose you are bound tow win. It is simple, all you got to do is have an item girl getting married or you have a reality show where in you get paid for describing your sex life. It would not be accurate to describe it as freedom of press. The standard are not poor but the delivery of the ‘final product’ is pitiable. Interestingly these channels get the maximum TRP ratings. The demand –supply argument falls into picture however one seldom questions whether the sample portrayed represents the contemporary India?

Freedom of young media invites Internet under its purview. News websites, Blogs, have resulted into convergence. A publication now, has e-paper, news website with videos on it, for example, Times Group. It is the sum of freedom in a dysfunctional democracy like India where convergence is picking pace noticeably.

The concern in the today’s media atmosphere is from the level of absence of intra democracy with in a media organization. The corporate-ad-editor nexus has threatened the very meaning of Journalism as a profession.

Freedom of Media on the Indian soil has redefined many issues. It has outlived the government’s autocratic rule and is now battling the intra- organizational command, which has lead to its unfortunate standard. However one has to notice that in spite of emergency, there were organizations that were ‘professional’ in challenging the rule, one can wait for the dawn for revival, which will attempt to critically question its VITALITY OF EXISTENCE.

 

20 SEPTEMBER, 2009