Autonomy Demand In Media Democracy

The Country is now celebrating the worlds biggest carnival of Democracy. The largest
democratic exercise is about to meet an end on 16 of this month, though less than the quarter of
this exercise is still to go on. Amidst all allegation and counter allegations in these political frays,
a fresh controversy rakes up at large towards the fourths pillar of our Constitution. BJPs PM
nominee Narendra Modis Interview to Door Darshan has sparked off escalated controversy all
over the nation. The allegation is that Some part of the Interview maliciously edited out with
political motivation over his daughter like remark to Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. Under severe
criticism from all fronts, The CEO of Prasar Bharati Jawahar Sircar has somehow accepted the
allegations, taken responsibility for the controversial editing and pointed finger towards the
Ministry of I&B and Minister Manish Tiwari on the issue of Autonomy to the Government owned
Public Broadcaster. Some report says Sircar has called a final decision on formal inquiry into the
event which is going to be held on today(Monday). He criticized the unwanted government
interruption and Authority in key administrative issues like appointments, promotion,
assignments etc are under the I&B Ministry, which rises question mark on its impartial
credibility. After which Modi came on twitter conveying his concerns about the TV channels
struggle to maintain its professional freedom.
The Opposition leader in Rajya Sabha , Arun Jetly has termed this as the pre emergency
situation where there is a serious concerns over free speech and other media activities. None
can forget those black days during June in 1975 when former PM Indira Gandhi imposed
emergency. Fundamental rights remained suspended and censorship imposed on press and
electronic medias. Its all known fact that how a grave political passion driven by high
enthusiasm to the power post results to safeguard ones own political and personal interest lead
such unconstitutional exercise to come fore. The current situation is not that much intense but
similar. Every step the ruling party taking makes controversy as intended to counter their
opponents is a clear show of power hungry attitude. Be it its desperate prompt to grill Modi or
raking up snoopgate episode and putting an enquiry where there is less than two week span
forming new electoral government.
The congress in last 10yrs rule facing sever anti incumbency against it as there is a
perception created among the people that they did not perform. Escalated scams, overloaded
corruption charges, price rise, high inflation, unemployment, policy paralysis and overall
misgovernance are issues these are clearly going against the government and the ruling party
has failed badly to convince its citizens despite very personal effort by Dynastic Gandhi family.
The more Interesting thing is that the PM Dr. Manmohan Singh on whose shoulder UPA ran
conjugative two full terms is nowhere in campaign trail. The longtime vacuum created by him in
media space and in public space has intelligently occupied by Narendra Modi and the team
BJP. His massive campaign throughout the country, oratory power, strong leadership qualities
and development mantra has caught the cord of hope among the people. This makes the
people in power desperate to down show the uprising rivals. This leads to media war between
two traditional rivals arising concerns about medias impartialness and unbiased stand. The

recent controversy is a mere reflection of manhandling media powers and forcing it to run on
ones favor. Nations only public media broadcaster Prasar Bharati has failed to ensure its
autonomy. Not only this time, even after 65+yrs of independence it has been the perception
from the beginning that DD and AIR has been used as an instrument to influence people
towards government, whosoever in power by restricting democratic rights and unnecessary
interference in their functioning. Not only the public media broadcaster, many private players in
media house has been accused as news traders in social media users for their biased
inclination towards any particular political party, though these are not officially mentioned.
The concept of Media democracy stands for strengthening public service broadcasting,
turning passive audience to active Participants and promoting democratic ideas and values
through campaigns, events, workshops. To make media more democratic, active and inclusive,
its important to focus on how news are being defined, its principles, ethics and potential
presentations. Instead promoting democratic credentials if it is subjected as a critic to some
part of the society having biased propaganda will only destabilize social threads and a threat to
social integrity. As far India is concerned the private owned entities have a strong subscriber
hold in urban areas as well as some parts of rural area and in rest major part of rural area the
Government owned public Broadcaster Prasar Bharati has its highest subscriber crunches.
Needless to say these rural areas play a decisive role in electoral battle and have major Impact
on forming the government. In this scenario media has a vital role in influencing and polarizing
public perceptions towards any political party. This negativity affects individuals in a Democratic
society. Recognizing the power of media to influence nations political discourse, reform initiative
seeks its accountability and transparency.

We are witnessing the 21st century as the century of Social media and Digital Technology.
According to a new eMarketer report, the maturing growth of social networks in India is about
36% in last year. In subsequent years from 2011 it was 54.8% to 87.3 in 2012 and 127.5% in
last year to this 168.7% in 2014. In a global tread, a strong social media adoption in India since
past few years as business organizations, government organizations and even political parties &
social activists are using social networking sites like facebook, Twitter, instagram, pinterest etc.
The rise of media concern may have the adverse impact on Society but one cant deny its role
of strengthening public service by participating in alternative media and citizen journalism,
empowering individual citizen and promoting democratic ideas through shared information.

Sivaram Nayak
nayaksivaram@gmail.com