Wake up Hanuman

Journalists comment on everything under the sun. But when someone comments on their profession they let loose a furious fusillade flaunting the slogan ‘Freedom of media in danger’. Most condemn even the suggestion for a public debate on the issue of media regulation and media responsibilities.

No one can deny my credentials as a strong supporter of media freedom wherever and whenever it was threatened, whether in Maharashtra, J & K, Bihar, Delhi, West Bengal or elsewhere. But at the same time I have also called for media responsibility What is wrong in that? Every social activity has to be regulated, because man is by nature a social being, as ‘Aristotle said. So our freedom cannot go to the extent of damaging society. No freedom can be absolute, it is always subject to reasonable restrictions in the public interest. It follows that every profession has also to be regulated.

I am against control of the media, but am in favour of regulation, the difference between the two being that in control there is no freedom, whereas in regulation there is freedom but, subject to reasonable restrictions in the public interest.

My latest suggestion for prescribing some minimum qualifications for journalists and regulating the schools of journalism has also resulted in a fierce denunciation from many quarters. So let me explain my view.

       Journalism is a profession. When a professional field is at an undeveloped stage there is no need for formal  training or a formal qualification. For instance, in Europe uptothe 18th Century and early 19th Centuries, when medical science was still relatively undeveloped, there was no formal qualification required to become a doctor. One sat with a doctor (usually one’s father), saw how he worked, and got advice from him, and became a doctor. Our hakims and Vaids usually learnt from their father by watching him work, and learning from him.

But when medical science became a developed field the need for formal training and formal qualification became imperative. The same is true of other professions like law, teaching, chartered accountant, etc.

It is true that one learns journalism in the field. But one learns much of the legal profession too in the field, after one has obtained a law degree. Why then have the requirement to have a law degree for becoming a lawyer? Why have the requirement to have an M.B.B.S. degree to become a doctor? Why not just allow a person to sit with a lawyer or doctor, watch him work for a few years, and become a lawyer or doctor? The answer is that when the field has become developed there is imperative need for formal training where the theoretical principles and basic skills are taught. Later, when one has completed this formal course and obtained the formal qualification, one will no doubt learn a lot in the field, but without this basic formal training one may not be able to become a skilled professional.

 It is true that there have been many great journalists without a formal training or qualification. But they have been great inspiteof not having this, notbecause of not having it. There must have been many journalists who remained mediocre and did not flower into great journalists because they lacked a formal training in their profession.

Nowadays many persons enter into the field of journalism with little or inadequate training in journalism, and this often leads to negative effects because such persons often do not maintain high standards of journalism. Since the media has an important influence in our lives, and since the field of journalism is now quite developed, the time has now come when some formal qualification should be prescribed for those wanting to become journalists.

Regarding the view that one learns journalism only by entering in the field, a senior journalist Mr. Vinod Sharma, in a recent Rajya Sabha T.V. panel discussion (The Big Picture) said that nowadays what one learns on the job is trickery, making improper compromises, saving one’s job rather than saving one’s conscience, etc. So should one not be taught ethical principles in journalism? Where will one learn this since what is taught in the field is often the reverse?

In the Institutes and departments of journalism, which have sprouted all over the country, many technical and ethical skills in journalism are taught. These will no doubt be  of great use when later, having completed the course and obtained the qualification, one enters the field.

Also, this is the age of specialization. To report on financial matters, for example, one has to have at learnt a rudimentary idea of finance, and similarly one should have a rudimentary idea of medical science, law, history, literature, agriculture, labour matters, etc. All this knowledge can be provided in a good school of journalism.

        Unfortunately many of the departments and Institutes which have mushroomed all over the country lack proper teaching staff, proper facilities and infrastructure. Hence I have requested the committee constituted by me to look into this matter and give their recommendations.

         The committee constituted by me will study the matter in detail and everyone is welcome to give their suggestions to it. The Press Council can also organize a seminar for this purpose, invite the media persons and others to give their views. After the committee submits its report I will place it before the Full Press Council. The Council may accept the report or reject it or accept it with modifications. If the report is accepted, with or without modifications, I will send it to the Central Government, which may accept or reject it, or accept it with modifications. If the government does not reject it, it will be sent to Parliament, which, as is the usual procedure, send it to a select committee. The select committee, after considering it, will then send its recommendations to Parliament, which may accept it or reject it or accept it with modifications. It will become law only when the President gives his consent.

From the above it is evident that my suggestion is not creating a law (which indeed I have no power to create), and it will have to pass through several procedural stages before it becomes law, (if it does at all). What then is all the hullabaloo about? Can one not even make a suggestion? 

It is time that mediapersons realize that I am not their enemy but their friend. I regard the media as Hanuman, who had forgotten his duties and powers, and I am the Jambavant reminding it about the same.  

( Published in The Indian Express on March 25,2013 )

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