Council for self-regulation by meda on anvil: Ambika Soni

Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Ambika Soni addressing the 7th State Annual Meet of the Chandigarh Punjab Union of Journalists, in Chandigarh on February 13, 2011.

Union Information & Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni today said self-regulation was the only way forward for maintaining the credibility of the media, Union Information & Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni today said a Council for the purpose was on the anvil.

This was the most intelligent and independent method of regulation while maintaining the freedom of the press, she said at the 7th State Annual Meet of the Chandigarh Punjab Union of Journalists (CPUJ) in Chandigarh today.

Ms Soni said the Council would comprise a Chairman, who would either be a retired Chief Justice of a High Court or a retired Judge of the Supreme Court and 12 other members, consisting of four representatives of the broadcasters, four from civil society and one each from the National Commission for Women, National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, National Commission for Schedules Caste and Scheduled Tribes and fourthly a representative of the National Commission of the affected party.

Talking about the implementation of the recommendations of the Majithia Wage Board, Ms Soni said that it would be her endeavour to ensure that not only the recommendations of the Board are accepted but the anomalies are also taken care of so that maximum possible benefit could be given to the mediapersons, who are doing a commendable job especially those who are reporting at the district levels.

She further assured that nobody can force the government to accept any unjustified demands. She completely favoured the demand for treating Chandigarh at par with the other metros for the purpose of allowances proposed by the Wage Board.

Going through the charter of demands presented by CPUJ, Ms Soni informed them that at the Central level the Ministry of I&B had constituted a Rs. 10 crore Journalist Welfare Fund out of which nearly 90 lakh rupees per year are spent towards helping the journalists in case of any illness, accidents, disability or casualty occurring during their course of the work.

In Delhi the government was also providing Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS) facility to all the Centrally-accredited journalists, she added. She informed that her Ministry was formulating an insurance scheme based on the pattern of an insurance scheme for journalists in Kerala, which would be sent to the state governments for implementation in their respective states.

Referring to the issue of paid news, the Minister said that this had become a matter of concern which was also impacting on the credibility of news reports being filed by the journalists. Media, she said, had played an important role in upholding democracy in the country and paid news was becoming a threat to this effort.

She said that the government had constituted a Group of Ministers under the chairmanship of Fnance Minister Pranab Mukherjee to take a holistic view of this issue where all the points of view would be considered and a forward approach would be found.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr Pawan Kumar Bansal, Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Science &Technology and Earth Sciences called upon the newsmen to be agents of social change despite the fact that they were facing a lot of challenges from different quarters. The Minister assured the mediapersons who were gathered on the occasion that he would provide all possible support for ensuring that the recommendations of the Wage Board are accepted. He also assured the CPUJ of support in their efforts to find office space in Chandigarh.

Mr Suresh Akhouri, President, Indian Journalists Union called upon Ms Soni to ensure that all the hurdles in the way of implementing the positive recommendations of the Wage Board are cleared to enable the journalists to take maximum advantage of the report. The contract system, he said, was also adversely affecting the newspersons.

In his welcome address, Mr Vinod Kohli, President, CPUJ spoke about the various welfare activities being done by the Union in the state of Punjab.

NNN