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Written by Krishn Kaushik
| New Delhi |
November 5, 2020 1:58:51 am
On a day the Centre announced a four-member committee, to be headed by Prasar Bharati CEO Shashi Shekhar Vempati, to look into the Television Rating Points (TRP) system and recommend any changes required to make it more robust and transparent, the News Broadcasters Federation (NBF) wrote to the Prime Minister, seeking a “national-level independent body” to “deal with misconduct by professional journalists”.
The NBF is an industry body founded last year by Republic TV editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami.
Incidentally, Republic TV is among media organisations being probed in a case of alleged ‘TRP scam’. Mumbai Police’s case is that some TV channels were allegedly paying to get their TRPs boosted.
The letter, written by NBF secretary-general R Jai Krishna and titled “Request for urgent intervention to uphold the freedom of the press”, is also marked to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, I&B Minister Prakash Javadekar, Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, Principal Secretary to PM Pramod Kumar Mishra, and the Home and I&B secretaries.
It sought the government’s “immediate intervention regarding undue pressure and unreasonable interference by state governments and police departments against news TV channels, journalists and media owners for performing their duty”.
Seeking PM Narendra Modi’s “urgent intervention”, NBF asked the government to “put in place a national level neutral agency with a structured and reasonable standard operating plan, to deal with serious complaints against journalists and media organisations”. The letter stated that a “national-level independent body, on the lines of Bar Council of India, Medical Council of India, Institute of Chartered Accountants, to deal with misconduct by professional journalists, will act as a deterrent against abuse of power by any agency to stifle freedom of press, for protection of journalists and executives of news media organisations…”
Meanwhile, on the issue of TRPs, an I&B Ministry order issued on Wednesday stated that there is a “need to have a fresh look on the (existing) guidelines…” To strengthen procedures for a “credible and transparent rating system, a Committee is hereby constituted to study different aspects of the television rating system in India”, the order stated.
Besides Vempati, the committee comprises Shalabh, professor of statistics, IIT Kanpur; Rajkumar Upadhyay, executive director of the Centre for Development of Telematics -DOT; and Prof Pulak Ghosh of IIM Bangalore.