Media Laws in India: An Ominous and Restrictive Power through a Facade of Freedom

This article is in order to discuss the freedom of media in India, with relevance to case laws that have showcased the same. This paper scrutinizes the powers which have been vested to the Press Council of India and private bodies that are self-regulatory in nature while looking into the history of press in India and as well as the history of known journalists in this field. It also takes into consideration the power of social media in the recent past and current scenario in disseminating information to the public. Further, it evaluates the reliability of free flow of information and authenticity of a news item in the existing proliferation of news media. This paper aims to assess the necessity for standards to resolve every issue pertaining to the regulation of news media, particularly the part of self-regulation, and provides some insights towards developing these protocols. Moreover, it looks through the need to have a better system for redressal of complaints from the public. In brief, this paper seeks to verify the effectiveness of the present self-regulation by the media and also the control of the government over the same. Competition in the market has led the media to be a lot more focused on gaining popularity than giving correct news keeping in mind the public interest. The author is also opined that complete control of the media to the government, and also completely self-regulatory system of the media can be harmful in the dissemination of information.