shri vinod sharma - Rajya Sabha

also been TV discussions. I think one possible suggestion lies in the direction what
in the UK has been worked out. They have the Press Complaints Commission. If
you talk to journalists there, they are eventually dissatisfied with the outcomes but
they do have code of practice, it is called the code of practice by the Press
Complaints Commission. It is worked out with editors and publishers and yet you
see how tabloids behave. So, there are problems. But they have laid down the
rules fairly, clearly how do you cover violence, how do you cover suicides, conflicts
of interests which are bound in the Indian media. This is only going to be a small
part of the solution. The Press Commission will be a fact-finding exercise, it will be
useful but it will not be able to resolve this question. I think the only answer is to
campaign and raise awareness. We are notorious for not writing about each other.
In this competitiveness I do not think it happens with political parties. But here we
cover up for each other most of the time. Corrupt practices in the media are not
quoted even by their rivals. Some consort is there. So, I think this has to be
brought into open. Unfortunately, we do not have journalisms reviews of the kind,
which expose these things as in the United States or even the UK. We do not have
much media criticism anywhere. But we do have some good journalism schools. I
am associated with one of them. We also have several now. There are schools of
journalism, which can take it up. We have to do exposes in the public arena and
effectively getting whatever media space we can get, and by going out to cyber
space and putting it there, getting politicians to speak up. I think that is the only
real answer. There should be pressure on media to end their delinquencies, their
conflicts of interests, their corruption. Now take the question of these coverage
practices as a concrete example. I think the Election Commission of India has done
it. It is not that they are not aware of it and they have expressed concern about
it. Press Council is formally seized of the matter. I think they are thinking of some
high level conference for media people and politicians to raise the issue, but it will