Flawed Media Policy

First, does it genuinely reduce government control over broadcasting? Second, does it prevent the concentration of monopoly power in broadcasting? The answer to the first question is no, because the independent broadcasting authority which is going to be set up will be answerable to the central government and will be manned by officials of the ministry of information and broadcasting. This is a strange way of interpreting the term `independent. For this reason alone, Parliament needs to send the bill back for redrafting. However, as far as preventing monopoly power is concerned, the bill does take a few steps forward, albeit only as far as television is concerned. Thus it seeks to prevent cross-holdings between the print and the electronic media, which are not allowed in many other countries. It also allows foreigners to invest in private TV channels (but is conveniently silent on the issue of foreign investment in the print media). Simultaneously, by allowing private operators to uplink directly to satellites, it would nullify the effect of a 112 year-old law which had given the government the sole right to do so. This law, it will be recalled, was successfully used by Doordarshan to muscle in on the cricket World Cup broadcasts last year. However, the most important consequence of this could be on the dissemination of news by electronic means as the virtual monopoly of Doordarshan gets eroded over time. Diabolically, however, the draft bill is silent on radio, which suggests that those who are not rich enough to own TV sets will have to get their news and entertainment from the government. The poor are left with no choice. There are also a number of other flaws of detail and definition in the bill such as how to approach cable operators, how to deal with sporting events, licensing procedures etc which would need to be rectified. While tackling the detail, the government will end up creating a host of new difficulties.

Whence the main question: why have such a bill at all? Why not simply set up an independent broadcasting authority with statutory powers and let it get on with the job of framing the ground rules under which all players, including Doordarshan and All India Radio, will operate? Such laws as need to be passed could emanate from this authority, rather than the government which has a vested interest.