The debate is on whethere it was good riddance for NBA or would it mar a case for self regulation. Let the debate continue, but nothing great is likely to come out of that.
Self regulation of tv channels in India will not work, we knew it and we know it. It did not work for the print media, where there is the Press Council of India, a body in which there are a number of senior pressmen, but it does hardly work. Nobody cares for it. This, when we feel that print media is much more mature. Some papers have ombudsmen, but have you heard any story about an ombudsman pulling up a correspondent/ columnist/ newspaper?
Then if you thought that self regulation will work for the wild tv world of India, you were mistaken. The self-preservation instinct in the face of fierce competition will not allow even the so called sophisticated and ethical channels to keep meeting the guidelines. The difference will be in what a channel perceives as its USP. Let me explain. Some channels excel in pushing obscurantist ideas and superstitions, and for them it is their USP. We, the liberal minded people do not like that stuff. Now come to a channel which is very news-nosed and would not carry such stuff but would not blink an eyelid when it comes to showing gory details of a massacre. Another one would repeat ad nauseum a remark by a politician which it edits out of context. A prominent anchor of a newsy channel is supposed to have invited enemy attention by prompting a soldier to fire a shot for getting a good visual. Many papers, more so the tv channels, serve the agenda of some party or lobby or powerful indivisual and we do not even suspect that we have been brainwashed with a hidden vested interest. What self regulation you are talking about?
Irony is that such channels raised hell when there was only a talk of evolving guidelines for televisions during crisis situations. In fact the government must come out with regulatory mechanism on the lines of Press Council. PCI must be strengthened and either it should be given powers over tv or a parallel organisation must be set up to curb abuse of the freedom of press by television channels.
