Letters: Media's accountable too

This refers to the report “Editors Guild raps new Press Council chief” (November 2). The new chairman of the Press Council of India, Justice Markandey Katju’s criticism of the media, particularly TV channels, is not totally misplaced. He has rightly reminded us that in a democracy everybody is accountable and no freedom is absolute. The media cannot be an exception and it should introspect on its limits and responsibilities.

The live content on 24x7 TV channels leaves no scope for scrutinising and editing, and there is little sense of timing, priority, proportion and objectivity in reporting and debating issues. TV debates are merely shouting matches between rivals. Also, there should be some prescribed ratio between the content and advertisements in news channels, which are virtually dominated by advertisements these days.

M C Joshi, Lucknow

Readers should write to:
The Editor, Business Standard,
Nehru House,
4, Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg,
New Delhi 110 002,
Fax: (011) 23720201;
letters@bsmail.in
All letters should have a postal address and telephone number