No regulation to curb press: Rajyavardhan Rathore

NEW DELHI: Expressing confidence in the media’s ability to regulate itself, minister of state for I&B Rajyavardhan Rathore on Friday said there would be no regulation to curb the press but reminded the media of its responsibility.
Speaking in the context of coverage of terror attacks, Rathore said often the media ended up “supporting” terrorists by “publicising” their “small acts”, which spreads fear.
Addressing the convocation ceremony of Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC) here, he, however, said the freedom of press would “never shrink” in the country. The event took place against the backdrop of allegations of “casteist” remarks made against SC/ST students of the institute by some of their peers.
“The curse of the 21st century is terrorism. And the psyche of a terrorist wants greater impact of a small incident. Kill one person and terrify a population of a lakh. A terrorist is aware of the fact that unfortunately who will publicize his small act. The direct cause of panic is fear and there is a portion of us that support the terrorists in spreading that fear into those who don’t support terrorism,” Rathore said.
Referring to the French media’s coverage of the Paris attacks aftermath, Rathore said, “Can you, on their television, pick up one spot of blood? One spot of bullet mark or more importantly a grieving mother, a grieving wife, a grieving daughter? You will not.”
Government cannot “correct” the situation by bringing any regulation as this would be possible only through self-regulation, he said. “One thing is for sure that freedom of the press will never shrink in this country ... the amount of power you wield, through print, electronic and social media, which goes beyond boundaries. Hence, there is amazing amount of responsibility you have,” he said.
He also used the occasion to pay tribute to former TOI managing editor Arindam Sen Gupta who passed away recently. Speaking about the meeting to celebrate Sen Gupta’s life, Rathore said he was impressed to see people from rival newspapers, TV channels and political parties who came there to pay their respects. “The meeting was held in a room double this size and was packed. People from different channels, newspapers, politcial parties were there ... the spoken reputation is the most powerful confidential report anyone can write for you ... your best report card will be the spoken reputation from your colleagues and juniors,’’ he told the students.