Watching the Watchdogs-Moral Basis for a Broadcast Regulatory Authority

Abstract

Media freedom, in a liberal democracy, is linked to its social obligations of keeping the people informed and educated on events and issues in a fair, objective and unbiased way. But, changes in the media environment sometimes disturb the balance between the media's goals as an industry and its social obligations as a profession. When the media ignore its social obligations of fulfilling the public trust, especially under the driving influence of its business goals of profit prioritisation or partisan interests, national governments find opportunities to cross the threshold of the media's domain and attempt to create mechanisms to regulate their functioning. Such interventions are often viewed as attempts to negate the protection of l, and potential threats to media freedom. The Indian government's attempts to create a ‘Broadcast Regulatory Authority, ostensibly to protect the public from the negatives impacts of, what it calls the debasing media content, has induced apprehension among the media and guardians of its freedom. The Indian media's campaign against the proposed regulatory authority, seen as an expression of their genuine concern for media freedom, is termed by the government as the media's over-reaction on the issue. It is alleged that the differing interpretations of the provisions of the propose bill, leaves much scope for their misuse to curtail the hard earned media freedom, a liberal democracy cannot afford do without. In view of the existing law in India including the constitutional provisions, the landmark legal judgments, research studies, and views of experts, this paper makes an attempt to find out the rationale for any regulatory framework, both from legal and moral perspectives. This article argues that even if it is legally tenable, in no case a regulatory framework should be allowed to infringe on media freedom to an extent beyond what is reasonable under the circumstances in question. But, the onus is on the media to honor its social obligations, failing which it may face the risk of weakening its legitimate claim for freedom.