Regulatory authority for non-news content: Jaipal

Union information and broadcasting minister S Jaipal Reddy today said that the role of the regulatory authority that has been contemplated for the electronic media by the Centre would be limited to just non-news content, especially content related to obscenity.

Inaugurating a national-level roundtable conference on 'Should there be a Lakshman rekha for media' here on Wednesday, the Union minister said that the proposed authority would be completely autonomous and quasi-judicial and would have nothing to do with news.

He allayed apprehensions of media personalities on the possible tinkering by the government with news and current affairs programmes on television channels in the name of regulation.

With regard to drawing a line for the overall conduct of the media, he said, "it should be left to the media itself".

A 'Lakshman rekha' should be drawn by media itself and not by politicians or the Parliament. One thing the government should not do is to get into the affairs of the press, Reddy said.

Trivialisation and glamourisation of content, urban and elitist bias, declining quality, non-focused approach towards social problems like corruption and lack of credibility are some of the other areas of concern, the minister pointed out.

Most of the participants, including media baron Ramoji Rao, strongly advocated for self regulation to check irresponsible journalism.