In her column "Home truths for the home minister" (Media Scope, March 5), Vanita Kohli-Khandekar provides a convincing analysis of the root cause of poor news reporting, tracing it to the quality of media ownership. However, the home minister's threat to crush the media has purely survival concerns. In a democracy when the objective of a government shifts from quality checking to controlling media, it foretells a sense of insecurity and a threat to the government's existence. Indira Gandhi did it during the emergency of 1975. Rajiv Gandhi's similar effort to throttle the press during the Bofors issue was aborted under protest. Now faced with a media onslaught, the United Progressive Alliance government's tolerance for free media is also shrinking.
The government model of free news reporting can be found in the official radio channels including Vividh Bharati. As a regular listener of the All India Radio news, I am appalled by the suppression of unpalatable-to-the-government but important news. Vividh Bharati spends nearly half the time during popular programmes propagating government-sponsored schemes ad nauseam. Radio channels have greater reach among electorally vital populace than TV channels. No wonder the government is reluctant to let private parties enter the business. While the government wants to crush the media, people share the author's concern that the quality of reporting needs to be improved.
Y G Chouksey Pune
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