Striking a Balance between Press Freedom and Government Control over Media

India is a democratic country with a system of government in which all the people of the country have the right to voice their own respective opinions. Thus, journalism plays a quintessential role in propagating the same. Freedom of speech is so firmly embedded and established in the Constitution of India through Art. 19 (1) (a) guaranteeing all citizens shall have the right to right to speak and express. With the growing population and its demands in our country, media has become an integral and intrinsic part of the Indian society, Thus along with the executive, legislature and judiciary, media has also become a significant part of our Indian constitution. Throughout the years the press played a potent role in building and developing positive changes in the public interest in issues of all kinds i.e., national movement, social, cultural, political and economic, Thus creating an intellectual contact between the people. It has become immensely important that there must exist a right balance between politics and journalism as the development of a country is entirely implicated with politics, and journalism acts as a watchdog for the people of the country and fulfilling the interest of the public through scrutiny and constructive criticism of politics. It was very adeptly put by justice Louise Brandeis of the US Supreme court that “Freedom to think as you will and to speak as you think are means indispensable to the discovery and spread of political truth.” It is therefore very important to ensure there is no misuse against political control over media by politicians and administrative bodies and make sure that there is development in regulatory safeguards against political control over media in India. Journalism must be at all cost transparent and independent and there must not be governments using fundings to push their agendas and thus creating a biased outlook for the audience