Watchdog restricts entry of political parties, corporates in media

To ensure unbiased dissemination of news and views, the broadcast regulator has restricted entry of political parties and corporates in television and newspaper business.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) Tuesday released the "Recommendations on the Issues relating to Media Ownership", which propose a single independent media regulatory authority for television and print media.

"The regulatory body should consist of eminent persons from different walks of life, including the media. It should be manned predominantly by eminent non-media persons," the recommendation said.

The job of the media regulatory authority will be to check and impose penalties for "paid news", "private news" and issues related to editorial independence.

"The entities (political bodies, religious bodies, urban, local, panchayati raj, and other publicly funded bodies, and central and state government ministries, departments, companies, undertakings, joint ventures, and government-funded entities and affiliates) to be barred from entry into broadcasting and TV channel distribution sectors," TRAI said.

It said an exit route option should be provided in case permission to any such organisation has already been granted.

With respect to the "media regulator", the authority said: "Government should not regulate the media; there should be a single regulatory authority for TV and print mediums; the regulatory body should consist of eminent persons from different walks of life, including the media. It should be manned predominantly by eminent non-media people."

Commenting on corporates entering media, it said: "On grounds of the inherent conflict of interest, the authority recommends that ownership restrictions on corporates entering the media should be seriously considered by the government and the regulator."

The recommendations said the news and current affairs genre is of utmost importance and direct relevance to the plurality and diversity of viewpoints and hence "should be considered as the relevant genre in the product market for formulating cross-media ownership rules".

It also said the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (a commonly accepted measure of market concentration) should be adopted to measure the concentration in a media segment in a relevant market.

TRAI also said: "The arm's length relationship between Prasar Bharati and the government be further strengthened and that such measures should ensure functional independence and autonomy of Prasar Bharati."