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New Delhi, Apr.18 (ANI): The impressive growth of Indian media in recent years has not been matched by a similar rise in professional standards, both on the editorial side and in business ethics and practices of media firms, and media accountability, claims veteran journalist and former Media Adviser to the Prime Minister Sanjaya Baru.

Delievering the Second Sharada Prasad Memorial Lecture 2011 here on Sunday, Baru warned that Indian journalism is presently facing a crisis of both credibility and competence.

He said: “In the past few years, we have witnessed increased public scrutiny of the executive, the legislature and even the judiciary. More recently we have witnessed some early signs of a similar scrutiny of the media.. The cynicism and anger that have come to characterize public criticism of the other three ‘estates’ will sooner rather than later be seen in the criticism of the media.”

He further said that each of the ‘four estates’ have from time to time drawn public attention to the short-comings of others. Sometimes three of the four have combined to bring the fourth to heel.

Highlighting and lamenting the problem of quantitative growth outpacing qualitative development in the media industry, Baru said news media has become subsumed into the larger business of information and entertainment, and adds that it has increasingly become a “mish-mash of news, views and plain entertainment” because of a growing dependence on advertising revenues.

He said the recent FICCI KPMG report — Hitting the High Notes on the Indian media sums it up nicely when it says “News is entertainment and entertainment is news! And , the stakes are high.”

He further said that when the distinction between news and views gets blurred, “journalism enters an unchartered territory, where there are as yet no professional yardsticks tio judge either purpose or performance”

He said the integration of businesses is not the only element having a (negative) impact on the media, the far greater worry is the integration of business and politics and vice-versa.

He cites the classical examples of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, where he says there is a “complete backward and forward integration of media business and politics i.e. where the ruling political party dominates all forms of media — print, television, film production and distribution.

He also dwelled on the fact that the concept of editorial freedom is increasingly becoming a thing of the past, and being replaced by a “tyrannical” institution that combines all into one i.e. Owner/CEO/Manager/Shareholder/Editor, where a journalist has virtual no independence or room for appeal.

He said: “Indian journalism is presently facing a crisis of both credibility and competence”, and adds that like the executive, the legislative and the judiciary, it too could face similar public scrutiny and regulation.

Accepting that there is a problem in regulating the media business because of this growing link between political parties and the media and entertainment business, Baru, however, believes that: ” The day may not be far when public opinion will demand more accountability and transparency on the part of media organizations. With public opinion on its side, the executive and/ or the judiciary may well begin to demand such accountability from the business and editorial heads of media organizations, and from prominent TV anchors and columnists, not to mention the regular reporters.”

In conclusion, he says that while Indian media is ripe for regulation, it must look within, intrspect and rediscover its professional values.

This, he says is easier said than done, as thre is often no incentive for such introspection and no reward for mending ways.

Values such as liberalism, pluralism high thinking and simple living are under threat, and Baru believes the media needs to do much more to protect them.

India media, he says needs to move away from the binary world view of “me and you”, and move closer to consensual frameworks of reference in the spirit of “Sarva Dharma Sambhava”, or “Unity in Diversity” in the world of communication. (ANI)