The South Asia Media Commission India has expressed deep concern over the suggestion of a government-appointed committee to use official advertisements to manage the media.
The suggestion is contained in the report of the Sri Krishna Committee, formed by the Union government to study the Telangana issue. Part of a secret note, it comes to light in a judgment of the Andhra Pradesh High Court on a petition on issues arising out of the committee's report.
The suggestion, according to the Media Commission, seeks to legitimise a practice, used stealthily by the authorities, especially in the States, against sections of the media considered inconvenient. It demands that the suggestion be rejected forthwith by the government.
The Media Commission commends the High Court for firmly opposing the suggestion, making known its disapproval of the mechanism to arm-twist the media, K.K. Katyal, president of the South Asia Media Commission, said in a statement here. The court considered as “disturbing” the following suggestion by the committee to the government — “The print media is hugely dependent on the government for advertisement revenue and if carefully handled can be an effective tool to achieve this goal.”
The Media Commission could not agree more with the following comment of the High Court: “Whatever be the circumstances under which a person in the government may have thought of using the government advertisements as a mechanism to arm-twist the media, such an idea ought not to have occurred to the committee in general, or to the individual members thereof, in particular.
“One would only wish that the members of the committee hailing from the legal fraternity and social sciences were not aware of these contents of the report. However, if these passages have gained their entry into the report, with their knowledge, the people would have nothing more than, to lament.”
