Liberhan suggests setting up of tribunal or regulatory body to control press

A-12, DEL-300605, JUNE 30, 2009: New Delhi: M S Liberhan, Chairman of the Liberhan Commission which probed the 1992 demolition of Babri mosque in Ayodhya, while submitting the report to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at PM's residence in New Delhi on Tuesday. PTI Photo by Subhav Shukla NICAID:112309089

The Liberhan Commission Action Taken Report has suggested that a tribunal or a regulatory body be formed to deal with complaints against the press and media and said journalists ought to be given licenses for practising their profession.

“There is a dire need for a body on the lines of the Medical Council of India or the Bar Council of India which has a permanent tribunal which can entertain and decide complaints against individual members of the press corps or against newspapers, TV or radio channels as also media conglomerates,” the ATR said.

The government has stated that it will ask the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and Ministry of Law to examine the desirability and feasibility of establishing a tribunal or a regulatory body.

The Commission has expressed concern that the Press Council of India as it exists today, has “no authority to hear complaints” on questionable reporting and punishing erring journalists.

Justice Liberhan has also recommended that a statutory body be set up to oversee the media in the country.

“It is highly desirable that journalists ought to be granted licenses just like the practitioners of other learned professions and ought to be subject to disciplinary action, including suspension of the rights to work as journalists on grounds of proven professional misconduct,” the report says.