Noting a “certain deficit in transparency in the functioning” of the Modi government, the Editors’ Guild of India on Tuesday said diminishing access to information to journalists and the media ran against the grain of democratic functioning in an age of openness, transparency and right to information.
The Editors’ Guild issued a statement to this effect after a meeting of its executive committee. The Guild articulated the hope that Ministers and officials would continue to be as forthcoming with the media as they were while marking the government’s completion of 100 days in office, and that the Prime Minister would interact with the Indian media as well on the lines of his interactions with the international media.
Appreciative of the increasing use of the social media by the new government to get its message across, the Guild, however, maintained that a “top-down, one-way interaction” in a country with limited Internet connectivity and technological awareness could not be the only answer for large masses of readers, viewers and listeners.
“By delaying the establishment of a media interface in the Prime Minister’s Office, in restricting access to Ministers and bureaucrats in offices, and in reducing the flow of information at home and abroad, the government in its early days seems to be on a path that runs counter to the norms of democratic discourse and accountability,” it said.
While maintaining that every government is entitled to choose a media strategy that best suits its philosophy and interests, the Guild said: “Debate, dialogue and discussion are the essential ingredients of a democratic discourse.”
Urging the government to see the news media — with its diversity, varied viewpoints and multiple functions — as a valuable interface with the democratic constituents, the Guild said the public would be well served by professional journalistic practices as identifying sources and getting elucidation and reactions from persons in office and outside.
