DNA Exclusive: Press freedom and changing role of news media in India

Journalism is among the oldest professions on the earth and even at the moment it’s believed that when a society wants to vary very quick, then there is no such thing as a different weapon simpler than journalism. Today is National Press Day and on this event, we are going to attempt to perceive that with time the sting of this weapon has change into blunt, sooner than earlier than or the usage of this weapon by completely different individuals now in response to their very own comfort is being achieved.

The Press Council of India was established on today within the yr 1966 and that’s the reason today is widely known as National Press Day. The Press Council of India displays the work of print media.

India is among the few international locations on the earth the place media has been current for 1000’s of years. Currently, a couple of lakh newspapers and magazines are revealed in India. Every day greater than 17,000 newspapers are revealed in several languages ​​in India and 100 million copies are printed each day. India is the biggest market on the earth for the newspaper. The variety of 24-hour information channels in India is over 400 and that is additionally the best on the earth.

With 56 crore customers, India is the second-largest market on the earth when it comes to social media and China is primary. Sometimes by way of newspapers, generally by way of information channels, generally by way of social media, the individuals of India are surrounded by info on a regular basis and based mostly on this info, you resolve during which route the nation goes.

Talking about trendy India, the primary newspaper to be revealed in India was named Bengal Gazette, which was revealed by an Englishman James Augustus Hicky in 1780. In the years that adopted, newspapers reminiscent of The India Gazette, The Calcutta Gazette, The Madras Courier and The Bombay Herald started to be revealed. But after the primary freedom battle of 1857, the variety of newspapers printed in several languages ​​of India began rising.

At the time of this freedom battle, there was not a lot media enlargement in India that its information may attain each nook of the nation by way of newspapers. But some newspapers in Britain revealed detailed studies on this primary battle of independence. However then this information was first despatched to Bombay by way of Telegraph after which from there to London and it took a number of weeks.

The freedom battle began on May 10, 1857, however a UK newspaper, The Illustrated London News, revealed the information on June 13. The cuttings of the newspapers of that point have been purchased at an public sale by Amit Pathak, a historian from Meerut. Initially, British newspapers have been giving little or no house to the information of freedom battle. But slowly this information began showing on the entrance web page of the newspapers there.

On July 18, 1857, a really lengthy article was revealed on this information within the British newspaper The Illustrated Times. But the attention-grabbing factor is that if this information was revealed in at the moment’s period, then as a result of 24-hour information channels and digital media, this information would attain the British Raj in minutes and by the point the Indian troopers preventing the battle would come out of Meerut and until then Britain would have stopped these troopers by sending their military troops there.

After the revolution of 1857, on the one hand, the variety of newspapers revealed by Indians began rising and the British authorities began implementing censorship on these newspapers. When the peasants of Bengal agitated in opposition to indigo cultivation in 1859, a number of native language newspapers reported on it, however the British authorities started to take strict motion in opposition to these newspapers. And the native language newspapers have been pressurized by making new legal guidelines they usually have been requested to submit a duplicate of it to the British authorities earlier than publishing something.

Under the Press Act enacted in 1910, about one thousand newspapers have been acted upon, 500 newspapers have been banned individually and the editors of many newspapers have been jailed for accusing them of treason. In 1917, Mahatma Gandhi began the Satyagraha motion in India, it was revealed prominently by the newspapers of India and thru newspapers, the need of freedom was woke up within the minds of the individuals of the nation. The British authorities didn’t like this and after a while the Press Emergency Act of 1931 was carried out. Under this, the motion was taken on 1000’s of newspapers as soon as once more.

When the Second World War began in 1939 and Britain dragged India into this battle, the newspapers began criticizing it and the British authorities turned strict as soon as once more on the newspapers of India. News from overseas began to be filtered and in November 1939, when the prisoners in jails throughout the nation went on starvation strike, the newspapers have been advised to not publish the information.

But regardless of the strictness of the restrictions, the newspapers of India didn’t cease printing information in regards to the freedom battle, Mahatma Gandhi’s speeches have been prominently printed, actions like Dandi March and Quit India acquired place within the newspapers, revolutionary Bhagat Singh There was additionally large-scale reporting on the hanging trial and the information of the killing of the martyr Chandrashekhar Azad.

However, when the UK authorities tightened up and prevented the newspapers from reporting the Quit India Movement of 1942, the All-India Newspaper Editors’ Conference at the moment assured the British authorities that they might abstain from publishing its information. But regardless of this, the work of sending info to the individuals didn’t cease, information of the motion began being heard by way of confidential radio messages, and plenty of newspapers began Under Ground Publications.

In 1946, when the interim authorities was established in India and the partition of India and Pakistan was set, the restrictions on the media have been decreased. But then there was a battle between the Hindu press and the Muslim press, which states that when the British was there, the media of India was preventing as one. But as quickly because the British introduced their departure from India, the division of press was began on the premise of faith.

The Bofors scandal occurred within the 90s, the inventory market and the fodder rip-off too however many of the reporting of those scams was additionally achieved by way of newspapers. But quickly a handful of newspapers monopoly on the information was about to finish. After twenty years of Emergency, non-public satellite tv for pc channels entered India, Zee News was India’s first non-public channel, based in 1995. After this, different non-public information channels began to be seen in India.

This scenario turned journalism right into a race, though it had some blissful outcomes in addition to some unhappy magnitude. The good end result was that for the primary time when the issues have been stated within the media they began going deep within the minds of the individuals.

For the primary time because the Kargil battle of 1999, the individuals of the nation watched a reside broadcast of a battle sitting of their houses. This was a interval when the web was additionally increasing in India. News web sites have been additionally being created and individuals who had web amenities examine this battle in particulars on the web. That is, social media began with this.

This was adopted by the incident of Kandahar hijack when terrorists hijacked Flight 814 of Indian Airlines and the terrorists took it to Kandahar. Zee News then reported the incident 24 hours in a row. There was a 9/11 assault in America in 2001 and for the primary time, Indian media lined a world incident on such a big scale. Then in December 2001, the Parliament of India was attacked.

At the identical time, TRP measuring scales have been entered and information channels began making packages preserving this TRP in thoughts. This is the place the decline of content material began within the media to an extent. But throughout this time there have been many such huge incidents when the media diverted consideration from TRP and actually did journalism, whether or not it was the Jessica Lal homicide case, the 2G rip-off information, the coal rip-off was uncovered. Be it the Commonwealth rip-off, or the agitation for Janlokpal and Nirbhaya, the media continued to play its position.

After this, a interval additionally got here when the media shaped and toppled governments within the nation. A particular part of this media began transferring and posting officers with the leaders. Some journalists even began getting ready the checklist of cupboard ministers. The impact of attendance at courts was that giant farmhouses of journalists have been shaped. Some journalists turned homeowners of Media Houses and the media has changed into an trade. Although the media has been within the fingers of massive industrial homes earlier, its purpose has now change into simply profit-making.

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Now social media and OTT Platforms have come after media and these platforms are actually influencing individuals’s ideas and polluting them as nicely. Sadly, individuals want all the knowledge they get from this media free of charge. But it’s best to remember the fact that if you get a product free of charge, then you definitely change into a product your self.