The Need for a Media Regulator/Media Archive/Registry

By Ramesh Akkineni
The Recent Events in Andhra show how easy it is for a News channel to
destabilize the society. I think News channels are like financial
derivatives which should be controlled and regulated.There should be a
national media registry/archives which record every popular channel
continuously.This will be similar to a 'black box' that an airplane
keeps. It will ensure accountability and check the channels which
'manufacture' the news.

The investment needed to start a channel has come down to about 10
crores and enable many people to start their own channel.The amount of
havoc that a channel can do is immensely greater. With a 10 crore
investment I can influence policy, cause 100s of crores damage to my
rivals, destabilize society etc. This shows that news channels are in
the category of 'fire arms' or a 'driving license' where the user can
cause significant damage to others by improper use. If a society has to
be stable, we must reduce the points of failure. In a multi-cultural
society like us it is easy to blow-up and magnify the differences and
cause civil wars/riots.

By recording all the popular channels and saving the records we have a
document which can show if some channel or person has incited/wrong
fully used the media to his personal profit. Just as there is need for
security for ATMs, we need security for the people who should know
whether they are watching facts or 'opinions' branded as news.

There should be media regulator, similar to TRAI, SEBI, IRDA etc. The
regulator must have significant powers over the news channels to ensure
that news broadcast by the channels is safe to the society. At the very
least the regulator should be able to stop channels which have broadcast
riot-causing, hate inspiring news, with evidence from the archives that
it collects continuously. This will be like security camera that are
installed in public places. We have to increase accountability by the
news channels from what they have now.

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