Technology would defeat Emergency in 2016, says Jaitley

Jaitley's remark comes at a time when the BJP has been attacking the Kejriwal govt over its advertising budget

Information and Broadcasting Minister Arun Jaitley on Friday said the idea of any curbs on the freedom of media has been rejected by society and in this age, because of technology, this is not even possible. “If the Emergency, instead of 1975, had been brought in 2016, technology itself would have defeated it,” he said.

Jaitley said the definition of the term ‘news’ has been changing. He said the “camera had a preference for capturing certain kind of things. If there is good weather, good rain or a good harvest, it would not make news. But if there is drought and earth is torn that camera can capture and it becomes news.”

He said foreign channels give a package of news in their bulletins but Indian channels show only a single news story throughout the day, whether it has a huge importance in the context of actual reality or not.

He further added, “selective and excessive” advertising by a state government was being used as a tool for political bribery — a reference to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government.

“Today any state gets the right to disburse excessive and selective advertising, a trend which is being witnessed for the first time, under which friends are rewarded and opponents punished. So the power of selective and excessive advertising is used.... I raised a question — will such advertising become political bribery or political incentive?” Jaitley asked.

Jaitley did not name any party but his remarks come at a time when the Bharatiya Janata Party has been attacking the Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP government in Delhi over its advertisement budget.

Speaking at an event organised by Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)-linked Inderprastha Vishwa Samvad Kendra, Jaitley said he used to feel the “era of censorship or pinching pockets had ended”, but the first symptoms of a new method are being witnessed in the country. He said he felt if this experiment of “selective and excessive advertising” succeeds, then “all states will do it”.

“And those people, who are critics of the ideology which I support, their stunning silence is most eloquent,” he said.

Referring to the Constituent Assembly, he said the two media personalities in it — Ramnath Goenka and D B Gupta — had emphasised on aspects related to the need to preserve commercial independence of media.