Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 73
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Code Context


        trigger_error($message, E_USER_DEPRECATED);

    }
$message = 'The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 73
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php.'
$stackFrame = (int) 1
$trace = [
	(int) 0 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/ServerRequest.php',
		'line' => (int) 2421,
		'function' => 'deprecationWarning',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => 'The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead.'
		]
	],
	(int) 1 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php',
		'line' => (int) 73,
		'function' => 'offsetGet',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\ServerRequest',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => 'catslug'
		]
	],
	(int) 2 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Controller/Controller.php',
		'line' => (int) 610,
		'function' => 'printArticle',
		'class' => 'App\Controller\ArtileDetailController',
		'object' => object(App\Controller\ArtileDetailController) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => []
	],
	(int) 3 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php',
		'line' => (int) 120,
		'function' => 'invokeAction',
		'class' => 'Cake\Controller\Controller',
		'object' => object(App\Controller\ArtileDetailController) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => []
	],
	(int) 4 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php',
		'line' => (int) 94,
		'function' => '_invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(App\Controller\ArtileDetailController) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 5 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/BaseApplication.php',
		'line' => (int) 235,
		'function' => 'dispatch',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 6 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Runner.php',
		'line' => (int) 65,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\BaseApplication',
		'object' => object(App\Application) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {},
			(int) 2 => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 7 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Routing/Middleware/RoutingMiddleware.php',
		'line' => (int) 162,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Runner',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 8 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Runner.php',
		'line' => (int) 65,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware',
		'object' => object(Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {},
			(int) 2 => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 9 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Routing/Middleware/AssetMiddleware.php',
		'line' => (int) 88,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Runner',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 10 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Runner.php',
		'line' => (int) 65,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware',
		'object' => object(Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {},
			(int) 2 => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 11 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Middleware/ErrorHandlerMiddleware.php',
		'line' => (int) 96,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Runner',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 12 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Runner.php',
		'line' => (int) 65,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware',
		'object' => object(Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {},
			(int) 2 => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 13 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Runner.php',
		'line' => (int) 51,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Runner',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 14 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Server.php',
		'line' => (int) 98,
		'function' => 'run',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Runner',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\MiddlewareQueue) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 2 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 15 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/webroot/index.php',
		'line' => (int) 39,
		'function' => 'run',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Server',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Server) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => []
	]
]
$frame = [
	'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php',
	'line' => (int) 73,
	'function' => 'offsetGet',
	'class' => 'Cake\Http\ServerRequest',
	'object' => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {
		trustProxy => false
		[protected] params => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] data => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] query => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] cookies => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] _environment => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] url => 'latest-news-updates/does-the-media-need-controls-by-tavleen-singh-11043/print'
		[protected] base => ''
		[protected] webroot => '/'
		[protected] here => '/latest-news-updates/does-the-media-need-controls-by-tavleen-singh-11043/print'
		[protected] trustedProxies => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] _input => null
		[protected] _detectors => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] _detectorCache => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] stream => object(Zend\Diactoros\PhpInputStream) {}
		[protected] uri => object(Zend\Diactoros\Uri) {}
		[protected] session => object(Cake\Http\Session) {}
		[protected] attributes => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] emulatedAttributes => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] uploadedFiles => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] protocol => null
		[protected] requestTarget => null
		[private] deprecatedProperties => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
	},
	'type' => '->',
	'args' => [
		(int) 0 => 'catslug'
	]
]
deprecationWarning - CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311
Cake\Http\ServerRequest::offsetGet() - CORE/src/Http/ServerRequest.php, line 2421
App\Controller\ArtileDetailController::printArticle() - APP/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line 73
Cake\Controller\Controller::invokeAction() - CORE/src/Controller/Controller.php, line 610
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 120
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 94
Cake\Http\BaseApplication::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/BaseApplication.php, line 235
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/RoutingMiddleware.php, line 162
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/AssetMiddleware.php, line 88
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Error/Middleware/ErrorHandlerMiddleware.php, line 96
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Http\Runner::run() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 51
Cake\Http\Server::run() - CORE/src/Http/Server.php, line 98

Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 74
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Code Context


        trigger_error($message, E_USER_DEPRECATED);

    }
$message = 'The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 74
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php.'
$stackFrame = (int) 1
$trace = [
	(int) 0 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/ServerRequest.php',
		'line' => (int) 2421,
		'function' => 'deprecationWarning',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => 'The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead.'
		]
	],
	(int) 1 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php',
		'line' => (int) 74,
		'function' => 'offsetGet',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\ServerRequest',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => 'artileslug'
		]
	],
	(int) 2 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Controller/Controller.php',
		'line' => (int) 610,
		'function' => 'printArticle',
		'class' => 'App\Controller\ArtileDetailController',
		'object' => object(App\Controller\ArtileDetailController) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => []
	],
	(int) 3 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php',
		'line' => (int) 120,
		'function' => 'invokeAction',
		'class' => 'Cake\Controller\Controller',
		'object' => object(App\Controller\ArtileDetailController) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => []
	],
	(int) 4 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php',
		'line' => (int) 94,
		'function' => '_invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(App\Controller\ArtileDetailController) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 5 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/BaseApplication.php',
		'line' => (int) 235,
		'function' => 'dispatch',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 6 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Runner.php',
		'line' => (int) 65,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\BaseApplication',
		'object' => object(App\Application) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {},
			(int) 2 => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 7 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Routing/Middleware/RoutingMiddleware.php',
		'line' => (int) 162,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Runner',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 8 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Runner.php',
		'line' => (int) 65,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware',
		'object' => object(Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {},
			(int) 2 => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 9 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Routing/Middleware/AssetMiddleware.php',
		'line' => (int) 88,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Runner',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 10 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Runner.php',
		'line' => (int) 65,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware',
		'object' => object(Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {},
			(int) 2 => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 11 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Middleware/ErrorHandlerMiddleware.php',
		'line' => (int) 96,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Runner',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 12 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Runner.php',
		'line' => (int) 65,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware',
		'object' => object(Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {},
			(int) 2 => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 13 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Runner.php',
		'line' => (int) 51,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Runner',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 14 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Server.php',
		'line' => (int) 98,
		'function' => 'run',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Runner',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\MiddlewareQueue) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 2 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 15 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/webroot/index.php',
		'line' => (int) 39,
		'function' => 'run',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Server',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Server) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => []
	]
]
$frame = [
	'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php',
	'line' => (int) 74,
	'function' => 'offsetGet',
	'class' => 'Cake\Http\ServerRequest',
	'object' => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {
		trustProxy => false
		[protected] params => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] data => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] query => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] cookies => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] _environment => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] url => 'latest-news-updates/does-the-media-need-controls-by-tavleen-singh-11043/print'
		[protected] base => ''
		[protected] webroot => '/'
		[protected] here => '/latest-news-updates/does-the-media-need-controls-by-tavleen-singh-11043/print'
		[protected] trustedProxies => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] _input => null
		[protected] _detectors => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] _detectorCache => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] stream => object(Zend\Diactoros\PhpInputStream) {}
		[protected] uri => object(Zend\Diactoros\Uri) {}
		[protected] session => object(Cake\Http\Session) {}
		[protected] attributes => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] emulatedAttributes => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] uploadedFiles => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] protocol => null
		[protected] requestTarget => null
		[private] deprecatedProperties => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
	},
	'type' => '->',
	'args' => [
		(int) 0 => 'artileslug'
	]
]
deprecationWarning - CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311
Cake\Http\ServerRequest::offsetGet() - CORE/src/Http/ServerRequest.php, line 2421
App\Controller\ArtileDetailController::printArticle() - APP/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line 74
Cake\Controller\Controller::invokeAction() - CORE/src/Controller/Controller.php, line 610
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 120
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 94
Cake\Http\BaseApplication::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/BaseApplication.php, line 235
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/RoutingMiddleware.php, line 162
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/AssetMiddleware.php, line 88
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Error/Middleware/ErrorHandlerMiddleware.php, line 96
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Http\Runner::run() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 51
Cake\Http\Server::run() - CORE/src/Http/Server.php, line 98

Warning (512): Unable to emit headers. Headers sent in file=/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php line=853 [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 48]
Code Context
            if (Configure::read('debug')) {

                trigger_error($message, E_USER_WARNING);

            } else {
$response = object(Cake\Http\Response) {

	'status' => (int) 200,
	'contentType' => 'text/html',
	'headers' => [
		'Content-Type' => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
	],
	'file' => null,
	'fileRange' => [],
	'cookies' => object(Cake\Http\Cookie\CookieCollection) {},
	'cacheDirectives' => [],
	'body' => '<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
        "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
    <link rel="canonical" href="https://im4change.in/<pre class="cake-error"><a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr67f0ff64df197-trace').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr67f0ff64df197-trace').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none');"><b>Notice</b> (8)</a>: Undefined variable: urlPrefix [<b>APP/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp</b>, line <b>8</b>]<div id="cakeErr67f0ff64df197-trace" class="cake-stack-trace" style="display: none;"><a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr67f0ff64df197-code').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr67f0ff64df197-code').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none')">Code</a> <a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr67f0ff64df197-context').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr67f0ff64df197-context').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none')">Context</a><pre id="cakeErr67f0ff64df197-code" class="cake-code-dump" style="display: none;"><code><span style="color: #000000"><span style="color: #0000BB"></span><span style="color: #007700">&lt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">head</span><span style="color: #007700">&gt;
</span></span></code>
<span class="code-highlight"><code><span style="color: #000000">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&lt;link&nbsp;rel="canonical"&nbsp;href="<span style="color: #0000BB">&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">Configure</span><span style="color: #007700">::</span><span style="color: #0000BB">read</span><span style="color: #007700">(</span><span style="color: #DD0000">'SITE_URL'</span><span style="color: #007700">);&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$urlPrefix</span><span style="color: #007700">;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$article_current</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">category</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">slug</span><span style="color: #007700">;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;</span>/<span style="color: #0000BB">&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$article_current</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">seo_url</span><span style="color: #007700">;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;</span>.html"/&gt;
</span></code></span>
<code><span style="color: #000000"><span style="color: #0000BB">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">&lt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">meta&nbsp;http</span><span style="color: #007700">-</span><span style="color: #0000BB">equiv</span><span style="color: #007700">=</span><span style="color: #DD0000">"Content-Type"&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">content</span><span style="color: #007700">=</span><span style="color: #DD0000">"text/html;&nbsp;charset=utf-8"</span><span style="color: #007700">/&gt;
</span></span></code></pre><pre id="cakeErr67f0ff64df197-context" class="cake-context" style="display: none;">$viewFile = &#039;/home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp&#039;
$dataForView = [
	&#039;article_current&#039; =&gt; object(App\Model\Entity\Article) {

		&#039;id&#039; =&gt; (int) 10929,
		&#039;title&#039; =&gt; &#039;Does the media need controls? by Tavleen Singh&#039;,
		&#039;subheading&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;description&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
As a humble cog in the vast and wondrous machine of the Indian media, I want to extend my personal thanks to Justice Markandey Katju for his recent comments. He has been berated by the Editors Guild for his &amp;lsquo;tendentious and offensive&amp;rsquo; remarks, but my own view is that we owe the new Chairman of the Press Council a small debt of gratitude. It is true that in his interview to Karan Thapar, he used unusually strong language. He described journalists as illiterate ignoramuses who lacked &amp;lsquo;knowledge of economic theory or political science or literature or philosophy.&amp;rsquo; Phew! Justice Katju must have a high opinion of his own erudition to speak this way. But, this is not what I want to thank him for. I want to thank him for admitting publicly that the Government of India (and doubtless all our state governments) use their advertising campaigns, not for the public good, but to control the press. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
When he told Karan that he would like the electronic media to be brought under the Press Council so that he could deny government advertisements to misbehaving TV channels, I could hardly believe my ears. Those of us who cover government and politics in Delhi have known forever that the Ministry of Information &amp;amp; Broadcasting uses government advertising to control newspapers, but nobody, to my knowledge, has admitted this openly.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
If the government uses its advertisements to coerce newspapers into printing only good news about the government, it amounts to press censorship. It is a tactic Indian officials learned in the days when the Soviet Union was our role model. It is a tactic that has no place in today&amp;rsquo;s world in which the Internet has made censorship almost impossible even in totalitarian countries like China. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
On a personal level, Justice Katju has done me another favour. I have been waiting for some time to find a week in which I could use this space to draw attention to some very bad things that have started to happen in the media and his insulting remarks provide me with this chance. Of these bad things, the worst is the habit that our news channels have developed of media trials. No matter what someone may have done, they have the right under Indian law to be considered innocent till proven guilty. Our news channels deny them this right and this is not just wrong, it is against the fundamental principles of justice. It is time for those who control our major news channels to come together and evolve a code of conduct.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
If some public figures are treated as guilty till proven innocent by our TV anchors, there are others who are treated with a reverence that is equally disturbing. Anna Hazare comes to mind as someone who was treated this way. As for the Nehru-Gandhi family, it is as if our TV channels had come to a secret understanding to deify them. The Prime Minister is routinely reviled for his indecision and his lack of leadership but the family who gave him his job is treated as sacrosanct. Why? &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Without wanting to sound like Justice Katju, I feel obliged to add that some of the so-called reporters employed by our news channels should have no place in journalism. They rush about hysterically from one sound byte to the next without noticing that instead of reporting a story, they are actually doing no more than shoving their microphones into the faces of different people. There are more than 300 news channels in India now and not one of them seems able to go beyond the manic frenzy of &amp;lsquo;breaking news&amp;rsquo;. When is the last time you saw a truly memorable bit of investigative journalism on Indian television? &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Justice Katju went too far when he described the whole media as ignorant and illiterate but nobody who watches television news on a daily basis can deny that improvement is needed. Junior reporters need basic training in the fundamentals of journalism before they are unleashed on our screens. And, some of our celebrated anchors need to remember that they do not speak for &amp;lsquo;the people of India&amp;rsquo;.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
On account of needing to compete with &amp;lsquo;breaking news&amp;rsquo;, I am forced here to sadly admit that print journalism standards have declined. No longer do we see the sort of investigative stories that this newspaper was once famous for. The only way for newspapers to compete seriously with television is for them to go deeper into a story than is possible in a news bulletin. Sadly, the opposite has happened and, more and more, we see reporters getting stories from &amp;lsquo;sources&amp;rsquo; instead of from their own investigation. But, this must not be taken to mean that we need Justice Katju to whip us into what he considers good behaviour. He definitely needs another job. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&#039;,
		&#039;credit_writer&#039; =&gt; &#039;The Indian Express, 6 November, 2011, http://www.indianexpress.com/news/does-the-media-need-controls/871389/&#039;,
		&#039;article_img&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;article_img_thumb&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;status&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
		&#039;show_on_home&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
		&#039;lang&#039; =&gt; &#039;EN&#039;,
		&#039;category_id&#039; =&gt; (int) 16,
		&#039;tag_keyword&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;seo_url&#039; =&gt; &#039;does-the-media-need-controls-by-tavleen-singh-11043&#039;,
		&#039;meta_title&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;meta_keywords&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;meta_description&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;noindex&#039; =&gt; (int) 0,
		&#039;publish_date&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenDate) {},
		&#039;most_visit_section_id&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;article_big_img&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;liveid&#039; =&gt; (int) 11043,
		&#039;created&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
		&#039;modified&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
		&#039;edate&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;tags&#039; =&gt; [
			[maximum depth reached]
		],
		&#039;category&#039; =&gt; object(App\Model\Entity\Category) {},
		&#039;[new]&#039; =&gt; false,
		&#039;[accessible]&#039; =&gt; [
			[maximum depth reached]
		],
		&#039;[dirty]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[original]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[virtual]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[hasErrors]&#039; =&gt; false,
		&#039;[errors]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[invalid]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[repository]&#039; =&gt; &#039;Articles&#039;
	
	},
	&#039;articleid&#039; =&gt; (int) 10929,
	&#039;metaTitle&#039; =&gt; &#039;LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Does the media need controls? by Tavleen Singh&#039;,
	&#039;metaKeywords&#039; =&gt; &#039;media,Corruption&#039;,
	&#039;metaDesc&#039; =&gt; &#039;

As a humble cog in the vast and wondrous machine of the Indian media, I want to extend my personal thanks to Justice Markandey Katju for his recent comments. He has been berated by the Editors Guild for his &amp;lsquo;tendentious...&#039;,
	&#039;disp&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;As a humble cog in the vast and wondrous machine of the Indian media, I want to extend my personal thanks to Justice Markandey Katju for his recent comments. He has been berated by the Editors Guild for his &amp;lsquo;tendentious and offensive&amp;rsquo; remarks, but my own view is that we owe the new Chairman of the Press Council a small debt of gratitude. It is true that in his interview to Karan Thapar, he used unusually strong language. He described journalists as illiterate ignoramuses who lacked &amp;lsquo;knowledge of economic theory or political science or literature or philosophy.&amp;rsquo; Phew! Justice Katju must have a high opinion of his own erudition to speak this way. But, this is not what I want to thank him for. I want to thank him for admitting publicly that the Government of India (and doubtless all our state governments) use their advertising campaigns, not for the public good, but to control the press. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;When he told Karan that he would like the electronic media to be brought under the Press Council so that he could deny government advertisements to misbehaving TV channels, I could hardly believe my ears. Those of us who cover government and politics in Delhi have known forever that the Ministry of Information &amp;amp; Broadcasting uses government advertising to control newspapers, but nobody, to my knowledge, has admitted this openly.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If the government uses its advertisements to coerce newspapers into printing only good news about the government, it amounts to press censorship. It is a tactic Indian officials learned in the days when the Soviet Union was our role model. It is a tactic that has no place in today&amp;rsquo;s world in which the Internet has made censorship almost impossible even in totalitarian countries like China. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;On a personal level, Justice Katju has done me another favour. I have been waiting for some time to find a week in which I could use this space to draw attention to some very bad things that have started to happen in the media and his insulting remarks provide me with this chance. Of these bad things, the worst is the habit that our news channels have developed of media trials. No matter what someone may have done, they have the right under Indian law to be considered innocent till proven guilty. Our news channels deny them this right and this is not just wrong, it is against the fundamental principles of justice. It is time for those who control our major news channels to come together and evolve a code of conduct.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If some public figures are treated as guilty till proven innocent by our TV anchors, there are others who are treated with a reverence that is equally disturbing. Anna Hazare comes to mind as someone who was treated this way. As for the Nehru-Gandhi family, it is as if our TV channels had come to a secret understanding to deify them. The Prime Minister is routinely reviled for his indecision and his lack of leadership but the family who gave him his job is treated as sacrosanct. Why? &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Without wanting to sound like Justice Katju, I feel obliged to add that some of the so-called reporters employed by our news channels should have no place in journalism. They rush about hysterically from one sound byte to the next without noticing that instead of reporting a story, they are actually doing no more than shoving their microphones into the faces of different people. There are more than 300 news channels in India now and not one of them seems able to go beyond the manic frenzy of &amp;lsquo;breaking news&amp;rsquo;. When is the last time you saw a truly memorable bit of investigative journalism on Indian television? &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Justice Katju went too far when he described the whole media as ignorant and illiterate but nobody who watches television news on a daily basis can deny that improvement is needed. Junior reporters need basic training in the fundamentals of journalism before they are unleashed on our screens. And, some of our celebrated anchors need to remember that they do not speak for &amp;lsquo;the people of India&amp;rsquo;.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;On account of needing to compete with &amp;lsquo;breaking news&amp;rsquo;, I am forced here to sadly admit that print journalism standards have declined. No longer do we see the sort of investigative stories that this newspaper was once famous for. The only way for newspapers to compete seriously with television is for them to go deeper into a story than is possible in a news bulletin. Sadly, the opposite has happened and, more and more, we see reporters getting stories from &amp;lsquo;sources&amp;rsquo; instead of from their own investigation. But, this must not be taken to mean that we need Justice Katju to whip us into what he considers good behaviour. He definitely needs another job. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&#039;,
	&#039;lang&#039; =&gt; &#039;English&#039;,
	&#039;SITE_URL&#039; =&gt; &#039;https://im4change.in/&#039;,
	&#039;site_title&#039; =&gt; &#039;im4change&#039;,
	&#039;adminprix&#039; =&gt; &#039;admin&#039;
]
$article_current = object(App\Model\Entity\Article) {

	&#039;id&#039; =&gt; (int) 10929,
	&#039;title&#039; =&gt; &#039;Does the media need controls? by Tavleen Singh&#039;,
	&#039;subheading&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;description&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
As a humble cog in the vast and wondrous machine of the Indian media, I want to extend my personal thanks to Justice Markandey Katju for his recent comments. He has been berated by the Editors Guild for his &amp;lsquo;tendentious and offensive&amp;rsquo; remarks, but my own view is that we owe the new Chairman of the Press Council a small debt of gratitude. It is true that in his interview to Karan Thapar, he used unusually strong language. He described journalists as illiterate ignoramuses who lacked &amp;lsquo;knowledge of economic theory or political science or literature or philosophy.&amp;rsquo; Phew! Justice Katju must have a high opinion of his own erudition to speak this way. But, this is not what I want to thank him for. I want to thank him for admitting publicly that the Government of India (and doubtless all our state governments) use their advertising campaigns, not for the public good, but to control the press. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
When he told Karan that he would like the electronic media to be brought under the Press Council so that he could deny government advertisements to misbehaving TV channels, I could hardly believe my ears. Those of us who cover government and politics in Delhi have known forever that the Ministry of Information &amp;amp; Broadcasting uses government advertising to control newspapers, but nobody, to my knowledge, has admitted this openly.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
If the government uses its advertisements to coerce newspapers into printing only good news about the government, it amounts to press censorship. It is a tactic Indian officials learned in the days when the Soviet Union was our role model. It is a tactic that has no place in today&amp;rsquo;s world in which the Internet has made censorship almost impossible even in totalitarian countries like China. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
On a personal level, Justice Katju has done me another favour. I have been waiting for some time to find a week in which I could use this space to draw attention to some very bad things that have started to happen in the media and his insulting remarks provide me with this chance. Of these bad things, the worst is the habit that our news channels have developed of media trials. No matter what someone may have done, they have the right under Indian law to be considered innocent till proven guilty. Our news channels deny them this right and this is not just wrong, it is against the fundamental principles of justice. It is time for those who control our major news channels to come together and evolve a code of conduct.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
If some public figures are treated as guilty till proven innocent by our TV anchors, there are others who are treated with a reverence that is equally disturbing. Anna Hazare comes to mind as someone who was treated this way. As for the Nehru-Gandhi family, it is as if our TV channels had come to a secret understanding to deify them. The Prime Minister is routinely reviled for his indecision and his lack of leadership but the family who gave him his job is treated as sacrosanct. Why? &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Without wanting to sound like Justice Katju, I feel obliged to add that some of the so-called reporters employed by our news channels should have no place in journalism. They rush about hysterically from one sound byte to the next without noticing that instead of reporting a story, they are actually doing no more than shoving their microphones into the faces of different people. There are more than 300 news channels in India now and not one of them seems able to go beyond the manic frenzy of &amp;lsquo;breaking news&amp;rsquo;. When is the last time you saw a truly memorable bit of investigative journalism on Indian television? &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Justice Katju went too far when he described the whole media as ignorant and illiterate but nobody who watches television news on a daily basis can deny that improvement is needed. Junior reporters need basic training in the fundamentals of journalism before they are unleashed on our screens. And, some of our celebrated anchors need to remember that they do not speak for &amp;lsquo;the people of India&amp;rsquo;.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
On account of needing to compete with &amp;lsquo;breaking news&amp;rsquo;, I am forced here to sadly admit that print journalism standards have declined. No longer do we see the sort of investigative stories that this newspaper was once famous for. The only way for newspapers to compete seriously with television is for them to go deeper into a story than is possible in a news bulletin. Sadly, the opposite has happened and, more and more, we see reporters getting stories from &amp;lsquo;sources&amp;rsquo; instead of from their own investigation. But, this must not be taken to mean that we need Justice Katju to whip us into what he considers good behaviour. He definitely needs another job. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&#039;,
	&#039;credit_writer&#039; =&gt; &#039;The Indian Express, 6 November, 2011, http://www.indianexpress.com/news/does-the-media-need-controls/871389/&#039;,
	&#039;article_img&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;article_img_thumb&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;status&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
	&#039;show_on_home&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
	&#039;lang&#039; =&gt; &#039;EN&#039;,
	&#039;category_id&#039; =&gt; (int) 16,
	&#039;tag_keyword&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;seo_url&#039; =&gt; &#039;does-the-media-need-controls-by-tavleen-singh-11043&#039;,
	&#039;meta_title&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;meta_keywords&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;meta_description&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;noindex&#039; =&gt; (int) 0,
	&#039;publish_date&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenDate) {},
	&#039;most_visit_section_id&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;article_big_img&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;liveid&#039; =&gt; (int) 11043,
	&#039;created&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
	&#039;modified&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
	&#039;edate&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;tags&#039; =&gt; [
		(int) 0 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 1 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {}
	],
	&#039;category&#039; =&gt; object(App\Model\Entity\Category) {},
	&#039;[new]&#039; =&gt; false,
	&#039;[accessible]&#039; =&gt; [
		&#039;*&#039; =&gt; true,
		&#039;id&#039; =&gt; false
	],
	&#039;[dirty]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[original]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[virtual]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[hasErrors]&#039; =&gt; false,
	&#039;[errors]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[invalid]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[repository]&#039; =&gt; &#039;Articles&#039;

}
$articleid = (int) 10929
$metaTitle = &#039;LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Does the media need controls? by Tavleen Singh&#039;
$metaKeywords = &#039;media,Corruption&#039;
$metaDesc = &#039;

As a humble cog in the vast and wondrous machine of the Indian media, I want to extend my personal thanks to Justice Markandey Katju for his recent comments. He has been berated by the Editors Guild for his &amp;lsquo;tendentious...&#039;
$disp = &#039;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;As a humble cog in the vast and wondrous machine of the Indian media, I want to extend my personal thanks to Justice Markandey Katju for his recent comments. He has been berated by the Editors Guild for his &amp;lsquo;tendentious and offensive&amp;rsquo; remarks, but my own view is that we owe the new Chairman of the Press Council a small debt of gratitude. It is true that in his interview to Karan Thapar, he used unusually strong language. He described journalists as illiterate ignoramuses who lacked &amp;lsquo;knowledge of economic theory or political science or literature or philosophy.&amp;rsquo; Phew! Justice Katju must have a high opinion of his own erudition to speak this way. But, this is not what I want to thank him for. I want to thank him for admitting publicly that the Government of India (and doubtless all our state governments) use their advertising campaigns, not for the public good, but to control the press. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;When he told Karan that he would like the electronic media to be brought under the Press Council so that he could deny government advertisements to misbehaving TV channels, I could hardly believe my ears. Those of us who cover government and politics in Delhi have known forever that the Ministry of Information &amp;amp; Broadcasting uses government advertising to control newspapers, but nobody, to my knowledge, has admitted this openly.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If the government uses its advertisements to coerce newspapers into printing only good news about the government, it amounts to press censorship. It is a tactic Indian officials learned in the days when the Soviet Union was our role model. It is a tactic that has no place in today&amp;rsquo;s world in which the Internet has made censorship almost impossible even in totalitarian countries like China. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;On a personal level, Justice Katju has done me another favour. I have been waiting for some time to find a week in which I could use this space to draw attention to some very bad things that have started to happen in the media and his insulting remarks provide me with this chance. Of these bad things, the worst is the habit that our news channels have developed of media trials. No matter what someone may have done, they have the right under Indian law to be considered innocent till proven guilty. Our news channels deny them this right and this is not just wrong, it is against the fundamental principles of justice. It is time for those who control our major news channels to come together and evolve a code of conduct.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If some public figures are treated as guilty till proven innocent by our TV anchors, there are others who are treated with a reverence that is equally disturbing. Anna Hazare comes to mind as someone who was treated this way. As for the Nehru-Gandhi family, it is as if our TV channels had come to a secret understanding to deify them. The Prime Minister is routinely reviled for his indecision and his lack of leadership but the family who gave him his job is treated as sacrosanct. Why? &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Without wanting to sound like Justice Katju, I feel obliged to add that some of the so-called reporters employed by our news channels should have no place in journalism. They rush about hysterically from one sound byte to the next without noticing that instead of reporting a story, they are actually doing no more than shoving their microphones into the faces of different people. There are more than 300 news channels in India now and not one of them seems able to go beyond the manic frenzy of &amp;lsquo;breaking news&amp;rsquo;. When is the last time you saw a truly memorable bit of investigative journalism on Indian television? &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Justice Katju went too far when he described the whole media as ignorant and illiterate but nobody who watches television news on a daily basis can deny that improvement is needed. Junior reporters need basic training in the fundamentals of journalism before they are unleashed on our screens. And, some of our celebrated anchors need to remember that they do not speak for &amp;lsquo;the people of India&amp;rsquo;.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;On account of needing to compete with &amp;lsquo;breaking news&amp;rsquo;, I am forced here to sadly admit that print journalism standards have declined. No longer do we see the sort of investigative stories that this newspaper was once famous for. The only way for newspapers to compete seriously with television is for them to go deeper into a story than is possible in a news bulletin. Sadly, the opposite has happened and, more and more, we see reporters getting stories from &amp;lsquo;sources&amp;rsquo; instead of from their own investigation. But, this must not be taken to mean that we need Justice Katju to whip us into what he considers good behaviour. He definitely needs another job. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&#039;
$lang = &#039;English&#039;
$SITE_URL = &#039;https://im4change.in/&#039;
$site_title = &#039;im4change&#039;
$adminprix = &#039;admin&#039;</pre><pre class="stack-trace">include - APP/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp, line 8
Cake\View\View::_evaluate() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 1413
Cake\View\View::_render() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 1374
Cake\View\View::renderLayout() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 927
Cake\View\View::render() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 885
Cake\Controller\Controller::render() - CORE/src/Controller/Controller.php, line 791
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 126
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 94
Cake\Http\BaseApplication::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/BaseApplication.php, line 235
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/RoutingMiddleware.php, line 162
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/AssetMiddleware.php, line 88
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Error/Middleware/ErrorHandlerMiddleware.php, line 96
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Http\Runner::run() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 51</pre></div></pre>latest-news-updates/does-the-media-need-controls-by-tavleen-singh-11043.html"/>
    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"/>
    <link href="https://im4change.in/css/control.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"
          media="all"/>
    <title>LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Does the media need controls? by Tavleen Singh | Im4change.org</title>
    <meta name="description" content="

As a humble cog in the vast and wondrous machine of the Indian media, I want to extend my personal thanks to Justice Markandey Katju for his recent comments. He has been berated by the Editors Guild for his &lsquo;tendentious..."/>
    <script src="https://im4change.in/js/jquery-1.10.2.js"></script>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="https://im4change.in/js/jquery-migrate.min.js"></script>
    <script language="javascript" type="text/javascript">

        $(document).ready(function () {
            var img = $("img")[0]; // Get my img elem
            var pic_real_width, pic_real_height;
            $("<img/>") // Make in memory copy of image to avoid css issues
                .attr("src", $(img).attr("src"))
                .load(function () {
                    pic_real_width = this.width;   // Note: $(this).width() will not
                    pic_real_height = this.height; // work for in memory images.
                });
        });
    </script>
    <style type="text/css">
        @media screen {
            div.divFooter {
                display: block;
            }
        }

        @media print {
            .printbutton {
                display: none !important;
            }
        }
    </style>
</head>
<body>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0" width="98%" align="center">
    <tr>
        <td class="top_bg">
            <div class="divFooter">
                <img src="https://im4change.in/images/logo1.jpg" height="59" border="0"
                     alt="Resource centre on India's rural distress" style="padding-top:14px;"/>
            </div>

        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td id="topspace">&nbsp;</td>
    </tr>

    <tr id="topspace">
        <td>&nbsp;</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td height="50" style="border-bottom:1px solid #000; padding-top:10px;" class="printbutton">
            <form><input type="button" value=" Print this page "
                         onclick="window.print();return false;"/></form>
        </td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
        <td width="100%">
            <h1 class="news_headlines" style="font-style:normal">
                <strong>Does the media need controls? by Tavleen Singh</strong></h1>
        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td width="100%" style="font-family:Arial, 'Segoe Script', 'Segoe UI', sans-serif, serif"><font size="3">
                <br /><div align="justify">As a humble cog in the vast and wondrous machine of the Indian media, I want to extend my personal thanks to Justice Markandey Katju for his recent comments. He has been berated by the Editors Guild for his &lsquo;tendentious and offensive&rsquo; remarks, but my own view is that we owe the new Chairman of the Press Council a small debt of gratitude. It is true that in his interview to Karan Thapar, he used unusually strong language. He described journalists as illiterate ignoramuses who lacked &lsquo;knowledge of economic theory or political science or literature or philosophy.&rsquo; Phew! Justice Katju must have a high opinion of his own erudition to speak this way. But, this is not what I want to thank him for. I want to thank him for admitting publicly that the Government of India (and doubtless all our state governments) use their advertising campaigns, not for the public good, but to control the press. <br /><br />When he told Karan that he would like the electronic media to be brought under the Press Council so that he could deny government advertisements to misbehaving TV channels, I could hardly believe my ears. Those of us who cover government and politics in Delhi have known forever that the Ministry of Information &amp; Broadcasting uses government advertising to control newspapers, but nobody, to my knowledge, has admitted this openly.<br /><br />If the government uses its advertisements to coerce newspapers into printing only good news about the government, it amounts to press censorship. It is a tactic Indian officials learned in the days when the Soviet Union was our role model. It is a tactic that has no place in today&rsquo;s world in which the Internet has made censorship almost impossible even in totalitarian countries like China. <br /><br />On a personal level, Justice Katju has done me another favour. I have been waiting for some time to find a week in which I could use this space to draw attention to some very bad things that have started to happen in the media and his insulting remarks provide me with this chance. Of these bad things, the worst is the habit that our news channels have developed of media trials. No matter what someone may have done, they have the right under Indian law to be considered innocent till proven guilty. Our news channels deny them this right and this is not just wrong, it is against the fundamental principles of justice. It is time for those who control our major news channels to come together and evolve a code of conduct.<br /><br />If some public figures are treated as guilty till proven innocent by our TV anchors, there are others who are treated with a reverence that is equally disturbing. Anna Hazare comes to mind as someone who was treated this way. As for the Nehru-Gandhi family, it is as if our TV channels had come to a secret understanding to deify them. The Prime Minister is routinely reviled for his indecision and his lack of leadership but the family who gave him his job is treated as sacrosanct. Why? <br /><br />Without wanting to sound like Justice Katju, I feel obliged to add that some of the so-called reporters employed by our news channels should have no place in journalism. They rush about hysterically from one sound byte to the next without noticing that instead of reporting a story, they are actually doing no more than shoving their microphones into the faces of different people. There are more than 300 news channels in India now and not one of them seems able to go beyond the manic frenzy of &lsquo;breaking news&rsquo;. When is the last time you saw a truly memorable bit of investigative journalism on Indian television? <br /><br />Justice Katju went too far when he described the whole media as ignorant and illiterate but nobody who watches television news on a daily basis can deny that improvement is needed. Junior reporters need basic training in the fundamentals of journalism before they are unleashed on our screens. And, some of our celebrated anchors need to remember that they do not speak for &lsquo;the people of India&rsquo;.<br /><br />On account of needing to compete with &lsquo;breaking news&rsquo;, I am forced here to sadly admit that print journalism standards have declined. No longer do we see the sort of investigative stories that this newspaper was once famous for. The only way for newspapers to compete seriously with television is for them to go deeper into a story than is possible in a news bulletin. Sadly, the opposite has happened and, more and more, we see reporters getting stories from &lsquo;sources&rsquo; instead of from their own investigation. But, this must not be taken to mean that we need Justice Katju to whip us into what he considers good behaviour. He definitely needs another job. <br /><br /></div>               </font>
        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td>&nbsp;</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
        <td height="50" style="border-top:1px solid #000; border-bottom:1px solid #000;padding-top:10px;">
            <form><input type="button" value=" Print this page "
                         onclick="window.print();return false;"/></form>
        </td>
    </tr>
</table></body>
</html>'

}
$maxBufferLength = (int) 8192
$file = '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php'
$line = (int) 853
$message = 'Unable to emit headers. Headers sent in file=/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php line=853'
Cake\Http\ResponseEmitter::emit() - CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 48
Cake\Http\Server::emit() - CORE/src/Http/Server.php, line 141
[main] - ROOT/webroot/index.php, line 39

Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 148]
Code Context
            $response->getStatusCode(),

            ($reasonPhrase ? ' ' . $reasonPhrase : '')

        ));
$response = object(Cake\Http\Response) {

	'status' => (int) 200,
	'contentType' => 'text/html',
	'headers' => [
		'Content-Type' => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
	],
	'file' => null,
	'fileRange' => [],
	'cookies' => object(Cake\Http\Cookie\CookieCollection) {},
	'cacheDirectives' => [],
	'body' => '<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
        "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
    <link rel="canonical" href="https://im4change.in/<pre class="cake-error"><a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr67f0ff64df197-trace').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr67f0ff64df197-trace').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none');"><b>Notice</b> (8)</a>: Undefined variable: urlPrefix [<b>APP/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp</b>, line <b>8</b>]<div id="cakeErr67f0ff64df197-trace" class="cake-stack-trace" style="display: none;"><a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr67f0ff64df197-code').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr67f0ff64df197-code').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none')">Code</a> <a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr67f0ff64df197-context').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr67f0ff64df197-context').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none')">Context</a><pre id="cakeErr67f0ff64df197-code" class="cake-code-dump" style="display: none;"><code><span style="color: #000000"><span style="color: #0000BB"></span><span style="color: #007700">&lt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">head</span><span style="color: #007700">&gt;
</span></span></code>
<span class="code-highlight"><code><span style="color: #000000">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&lt;link&nbsp;rel="canonical"&nbsp;href="<span style="color: #0000BB">&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">Configure</span><span style="color: #007700">::</span><span style="color: #0000BB">read</span><span style="color: #007700">(</span><span style="color: #DD0000">'SITE_URL'</span><span style="color: #007700">);&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$urlPrefix</span><span style="color: #007700">;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$article_current</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">category</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">slug</span><span style="color: #007700">;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;</span>/<span style="color: #0000BB">&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$article_current</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">seo_url</span><span style="color: #007700">;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;</span>.html"/&gt;
</span></code></span>
<code><span style="color: #000000"><span style="color: #0000BB">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">&lt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">meta&nbsp;http</span><span style="color: #007700">-</span><span style="color: #0000BB">equiv</span><span style="color: #007700">=</span><span style="color: #DD0000">"Content-Type"&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">content</span><span style="color: #007700">=</span><span style="color: #DD0000">"text/html;&nbsp;charset=utf-8"</span><span style="color: #007700">/&gt;
</span></span></code></pre><pre id="cakeErr67f0ff64df197-context" class="cake-context" style="display: none;">$viewFile = &#039;/home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp&#039;
$dataForView = [
	&#039;article_current&#039; =&gt; object(App\Model\Entity\Article) {

		&#039;id&#039; =&gt; (int) 10929,
		&#039;title&#039; =&gt; &#039;Does the media need controls? by Tavleen Singh&#039;,
		&#039;subheading&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;description&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
As a humble cog in the vast and wondrous machine of the Indian media, I want to extend my personal thanks to Justice Markandey Katju for his recent comments. He has been berated by the Editors Guild for his &amp;lsquo;tendentious and offensive&amp;rsquo; remarks, but my own view is that we owe the new Chairman of the Press Council a small debt of gratitude. It is true that in his interview to Karan Thapar, he used unusually strong language. He described journalists as illiterate ignoramuses who lacked &amp;lsquo;knowledge of economic theory or political science or literature or philosophy.&amp;rsquo; Phew! Justice Katju must have a high opinion of his own erudition to speak this way. But, this is not what I want to thank him for. I want to thank him for admitting publicly that the Government of India (and doubtless all our state governments) use their advertising campaigns, not for the public good, but to control the press. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
When he told Karan that he would like the electronic media to be brought under the Press Council so that he could deny government advertisements to misbehaving TV channels, I could hardly believe my ears. Those of us who cover government and politics in Delhi have known forever that the Ministry of Information &amp;amp; Broadcasting uses government advertising to control newspapers, but nobody, to my knowledge, has admitted this openly.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
If the government uses its advertisements to coerce newspapers into printing only good news about the government, it amounts to press censorship. It is a tactic Indian officials learned in the days when the Soviet Union was our role model. It is a tactic that has no place in today&amp;rsquo;s world in which the Internet has made censorship almost impossible even in totalitarian countries like China. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
On a personal level, Justice Katju has done me another favour. I have been waiting for some time to find a week in which I could use this space to draw attention to some very bad things that have started to happen in the media and his insulting remarks provide me with this chance. Of these bad things, the worst is the habit that our news channels have developed of media trials. No matter what someone may have done, they have the right under Indian law to be considered innocent till proven guilty. Our news channels deny them this right and this is not just wrong, it is against the fundamental principles of justice. It is time for those who control our major news channels to come together and evolve a code of conduct.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
If some public figures are treated as guilty till proven innocent by our TV anchors, there are others who are treated with a reverence that is equally disturbing. Anna Hazare comes to mind as someone who was treated this way. As for the Nehru-Gandhi family, it is as if our TV channels had come to a secret understanding to deify them. The Prime Minister is routinely reviled for his indecision and his lack of leadership but the family who gave him his job is treated as sacrosanct. Why? &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Without wanting to sound like Justice Katju, I feel obliged to add that some of the so-called reporters employed by our news channels should have no place in journalism. They rush about hysterically from one sound byte to the next without noticing that instead of reporting a story, they are actually doing no more than shoving their microphones into the faces of different people. There are more than 300 news channels in India now and not one of them seems able to go beyond the manic frenzy of &amp;lsquo;breaking news&amp;rsquo;. When is the last time you saw a truly memorable bit of investigative journalism on Indian television? &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Justice Katju went too far when he described the whole media as ignorant and illiterate but nobody who watches television news on a daily basis can deny that improvement is needed. Junior reporters need basic training in the fundamentals of journalism before they are unleashed on our screens. And, some of our celebrated anchors need to remember that they do not speak for &amp;lsquo;the people of India&amp;rsquo;.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
On account of needing to compete with &amp;lsquo;breaking news&amp;rsquo;, I am forced here to sadly admit that print journalism standards have declined. No longer do we see the sort of investigative stories that this newspaper was once famous for. The only way for newspapers to compete seriously with television is for them to go deeper into a story than is possible in a news bulletin. Sadly, the opposite has happened and, more and more, we see reporters getting stories from &amp;lsquo;sources&amp;rsquo; instead of from their own investigation. But, this must not be taken to mean that we need Justice Katju to whip us into what he considers good behaviour. He definitely needs another job. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&#039;,
		&#039;credit_writer&#039; =&gt; &#039;The Indian Express, 6 November, 2011, http://www.indianexpress.com/news/does-the-media-need-controls/871389/&#039;,
		&#039;article_img&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;article_img_thumb&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;status&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
		&#039;show_on_home&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
		&#039;lang&#039; =&gt; &#039;EN&#039;,
		&#039;category_id&#039; =&gt; (int) 16,
		&#039;tag_keyword&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;seo_url&#039; =&gt; &#039;does-the-media-need-controls-by-tavleen-singh-11043&#039;,
		&#039;meta_title&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;meta_keywords&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;meta_description&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;noindex&#039; =&gt; (int) 0,
		&#039;publish_date&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenDate) {},
		&#039;most_visit_section_id&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;article_big_img&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;liveid&#039; =&gt; (int) 11043,
		&#039;created&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
		&#039;modified&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
		&#039;edate&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;tags&#039; =&gt; [
			[maximum depth reached]
		],
		&#039;category&#039; =&gt; object(App\Model\Entity\Category) {},
		&#039;[new]&#039; =&gt; false,
		&#039;[accessible]&#039; =&gt; [
			[maximum depth reached]
		],
		&#039;[dirty]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[original]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[virtual]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[hasErrors]&#039; =&gt; false,
		&#039;[errors]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[invalid]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[repository]&#039; =&gt; &#039;Articles&#039;
	
	},
	&#039;articleid&#039; =&gt; (int) 10929,
	&#039;metaTitle&#039; =&gt; &#039;LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Does the media need controls? by Tavleen Singh&#039;,
	&#039;metaKeywords&#039; =&gt; &#039;media,Corruption&#039;,
	&#039;metaDesc&#039; =&gt; &#039;

As a humble cog in the vast and wondrous machine of the Indian media, I want to extend my personal thanks to Justice Markandey Katju for his recent comments. He has been berated by the Editors Guild for his &amp;lsquo;tendentious...&#039;,
	&#039;disp&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;As a humble cog in the vast and wondrous machine of the Indian media, I want to extend my personal thanks to Justice Markandey Katju for his recent comments. He has been berated by the Editors Guild for his &amp;lsquo;tendentious and offensive&amp;rsquo; remarks, but my own view is that we owe the new Chairman of the Press Council a small debt of gratitude. It is true that in his interview to Karan Thapar, he used unusually strong language. He described journalists as illiterate ignoramuses who lacked &amp;lsquo;knowledge of economic theory or political science or literature or philosophy.&amp;rsquo; Phew! Justice Katju must have a high opinion of his own erudition to speak this way. But, this is not what I want to thank him for. I want to thank him for admitting publicly that the Government of India (and doubtless all our state governments) use their advertising campaigns, not for the public good, but to control the press. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;When he told Karan that he would like the electronic media to be brought under the Press Council so that he could deny government advertisements to misbehaving TV channels, I could hardly believe my ears. Those of us who cover government and politics in Delhi have known forever that the Ministry of Information &amp;amp; Broadcasting uses government advertising to control newspapers, but nobody, to my knowledge, has admitted this openly.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If the government uses its advertisements to coerce newspapers into printing only good news about the government, it amounts to press censorship. It is a tactic Indian officials learned in the days when the Soviet Union was our role model. It is a tactic that has no place in today&amp;rsquo;s world in which the Internet has made censorship almost impossible even in totalitarian countries like China. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;On a personal level, Justice Katju has done me another favour. I have been waiting for some time to find a week in which I could use this space to draw attention to some very bad things that have started to happen in the media and his insulting remarks provide me with this chance. Of these bad things, the worst is the habit that our news channels have developed of media trials. No matter what someone may have done, they have the right under Indian law to be considered innocent till proven guilty. Our news channels deny them this right and this is not just wrong, it is against the fundamental principles of justice. It is time for those who control our major news channels to come together and evolve a code of conduct.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If some public figures are treated as guilty till proven innocent by our TV anchors, there are others who are treated with a reverence that is equally disturbing. Anna Hazare comes to mind as someone who was treated this way. As for the Nehru-Gandhi family, it is as if our TV channels had come to a secret understanding to deify them. The Prime Minister is routinely reviled for his indecision and his lack of leadership but the family who gave him his job is treated as sacrosanct. Why? &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Without wanting to sound like Justice Katju, I feel obliged to add that some of the so-called reporters employed by our news channels should have no place in journalism. They rush about hysterically from one sound byte to the next without noticing that instead of reporting a story, they are actually doing no more than shoving their microphones into the faces of different people. There are more than 300 news channels in India now and not one of them seems able to go beyond the manic frenzy of &amp;lsquo;breaking news&amp;rsquo;. When is the last time you saw a truly memorable bit of investigative journalism on Indian television? &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Justice Katju went too far when he described the whole media as ignorant and illiterate but nobody who watches television news on a daily basis can deny that improvement is needed. Junior reporters need basic training in the fundamentals of journalism before they are unleashed on our screens. And, some of our celebrated anchors need to remember that they do not speak for &amp;lsquo;the people of India&amp;rsquo;.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;On account of needing to compete with &amp;lsquo;breaking news&amp;rsquo;, I am forced here to sadly admit that print journalism standards have declined. No longer do we see the sort of investigative stories that this newspaper was once famous for. The only way for newspapers to compete seriously with television is for them to go deeper into a story than is possible in a news bulletin. Sadly, the opposite has happened and, more and more, we see reporters getting stories from &amp;lsquo;sources&amp;rsquo; instead of from their own investigation. But, this must not be taken to mean that we need Justice Katju to whip us into what he considers good behaviour. He definitely needs another job. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&#039;,
	&#039;lang&#039; =&gt; &#039;English&#039;,
	&#039;SITE_URL&#039; =&gt; &#039;https://im4change.in/&#039;,
	&#039;site_title&#039; =&gt; &#039;im4change&#039;,
	&#039;adminprix&#039; =&gt; &#039;admin&#039;
]
$article_current = object(App\Model\Entity\Article) {

	&#039;id&#039; =&gt; (int) 10929,
	&#039;title&#039; =&gt; &#039;Does the media need controls? by Tavleen Singh&#039;,
	&#039;subheading&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;description&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
As a humble cog in the vast and wondrous machine of the Indian media, I want to extend my personal thanks to Justice Markandey Katju for his recent comments. He has been berated by the Editors Guild for his &amp;lsquo;tendentious and offensive&amp;rsquo; remarks, but my own view is that we owe the new Chairman of the Press Council a small debt of gratitude. It is true that in his interview to Karan Thapar, he used unusually strong language. He described journalists as illiterate ignoramuses who lacked &amp;lsquo;knowledge of economic theory or political science or literature or philosophy.&amp;rsquo; Phew! Justice Katju must have a high opinion of his own erudition to speak this way. But, this is not what I want to thank him for. I want to thank him for admitting publicly that the Government of India (and doubtless all our state governments) use their advertising campaigns, not for the public good, but to control the press. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
When he told Karan that he would like the electronic media to be brought under the Press Council so that he could deny government advertisements to misbehaving TV channels, I could hardly believe my ears. Those of us who cover government and politics in Delhi have known forever that the Ministry of Information &amp;amp; Broadcasting uses government advertising to control newspapers, but nobody, to my knowledge, has admitted this openly.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
If the government uses its advertisements to coerce newspapers into printing only good news about the government, it amounts to press censorship. It is a tactic Indian officials learned in the days when the Soviet Union was our role model. It is a tactic that has no place in today&amp;rsquo;s world in which the Internet has made censorship almost impossible even in totalitarian countries like China. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
On a personal level, Justice Katju has done me another favour. I have been waiting for some time to find a week in which I could use this space to draw attention to some very bad things that have started to happen in the media and his insulting remarks provide me with this chance. Of these bad things, the worst is the habit that our news channels have developed of media trials. No matter what someone may have done, they have the right under Indian law to be considered innocent till proven guilty. Our news channels deny them this right and this is not just wrong, it is against the fundamental principles of justice. It is time for those who control our major news channels to come together and evolve a code of conduct.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
If some public figures are treated as guilty till proven innocent by our TV anchors, there are others who are treated with a reverence that is equally disturbing. Anna Hazare comes to mind as someone who was treated this way. As for the Nehru-Gandhi family, it is as if our TV channels had come to a secret understanding to deify them. The Prime Minister is routinely reviled for his indecision and his lack of leadership but the family who gave him his job is treated as sacrosanct. Why? &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Without wanting to sound like Justice Katju, I feel obliged to add that some of the so-called reporters employed by our news channels should have no place in journalism. They rush about hysterically from one sound byte to the next without noticing that instead of reporting a story, they are actually doing no more than shoving their microphones into the faces of different people. There are more than 300 news channels in India now and not one of them seems able to go beyond the manic frenzy of &amp;lsquo;breaking news&amp;rsquo;. When is the last time you saw a truly memorable bit of investigative journalism on Indian television? &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Justice Katju went too far when he described the whole media as ignorant and illiterate but nobody who watches television news on a daily basis can deny that improvement is needed. Junior reporters need basic training in the fundamentals of journalism before they are unleashed on our screens. And, some of our celebrated anchors need to remember that they do not speak for &amp;lsquo;the people of India&amp;rsquo;.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
On account of needing to compete with &amp;lsquo;breaking news&amp;rsquo;, I am forced here to sadly admit that print journalism standards have declined. No longer do we see the sort of investigative stories that this newspaper was once famous for. The only way for newspapers to compete seriously with television is for them to go deeper into a story than is possible in a news bulletin. Sadly, the opposite has happened and, more and more, we see reporters getting stories from &amp;lsquo;sources&amp;rsquo; instead of from their own investigation. But, this must not be taken to mean that we need Justice Katju to whip us into what he considers good behaviour. He definitely needs another job. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&#039;,
	&#039;credit_writer&#039; =&gt; &#039;The Indian Express, 6 November, 2011, http://www.indianexpress.com/news/does-the-media-need-controls/871389/&#039;,
	&#039;article_img&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;article_img_thumb&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;status&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
	&#039;show_on_home&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
	&#039;lang&#039; =&gt; &#039;EN&#039;,
	&#039;category_id&#039; =&gt; (int) 16,
	&#039;tag_keyword&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;seo_url&#039; =&gt; &#039;does-the-media-need-controls-by-tavleen-singh-11043&#039;,
	&#039;meta_title&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;meta_keywords&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;meta_description&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;noindex&#039; =&gt; (int) 0,
	&#039;publish_date&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenDate) {},
	&#039;most_visit_section_id&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;article_big_img&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;liveid&#039; =&gt; (int) 11043,
	&#039;created&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
	&#039;modified&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
	&#039;edate&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;tags&#039; =&gt; [
		(int) 0 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 1 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {}
	],
	&#039;category&#039; =&gt; object(App\Model\Entity\Category) {},
	&#039;[new]&#039; =&gt; false,
	&#039;[accessible]&#039; =&gt; [
		&#039;*&#039; =&gt; true,
		&#039;id&#039; =&gt; false
	],
	&#039;[dirty]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[original]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[virtual]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[hasErrors]&#039; =&gt; false,
	&#039;[errors]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[invalid]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[repository]&#039; =&gt; &#039;Articles&#039;

}
$articleid = (int) 10929
$metaTitle = &#039;LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Does the media need controls? by Tavleen Singh&#039;
$metaKeywords = &#039;media,Corruption&#039;
$metaDesc = &#039;

As a humble cog in the vast and wondrous machine of the Indian media, I want to extend my personal thanks to Justice Markandey Katju for his recent comments. He has been berated by the Editors Guild for his &amp;lsquo;tendentious...&#039;
$disp = &#039;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;As a humble cog in the vast and wondrous machine of the Indian media, I want to extend my personal thanks to Justice Markandey Katju for his recent comments. He has been berated by the Editors Guild for his &amp;lsquo;tendentious and offensive&amp;rsquo; remarks, but my own view is that we owe the new Chairman of the Press Council a small debt of gratitude. It is true that in his interview to Karan Thapar, he used unusually strong language. He described journalists as illiterate ignoramuses who lacked &amp;lsquo;knowledge of economic theory or political science or literature or philosophy.&amp;rsquo; Phew! Justice Katju must have a high opinion of his own erudition to speak this way. But, this is not what I want to thank him for. I want to thank him for admitting publicly that the Government of India (and doubtless all our state governments) use their advertising campaigns, not for the public good, but to control the press. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;When he told Karan that he would like the electronic media to be brought under the Press Council so that he could deny government advertisements to misbehaving TV channels, I could hardly believe my ears. Those of us who cover government and politics in Delhi have known forever that the Ministry of Information &amp;amp; Broadcasting uses government advertising to control newspapers, but nobody, to my knowledge, has admitted this openly.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If the government uses its advertisements to coerce newspapers into printing only good news about the government, it amounts to press censorship. It is a tactic Indian officials learned in the days when the Soviet Union was our role model. It is a tactic that has no place in today&amp;rsquo;s world in which the Internet has made censorship almost impossible even in totalitarian countries like China. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;On a personal level, Justice Katju has done me another favour. I have been waiting for some time to find a week in which I could use this space to draw attention to some very bad things that have started to happen in the media and his insulting remarks provide me with this chance. Of these bad things, the worst is the habit that our news channels have developed of media trials. No matter what someone may have done, they have the right under Indian law to be considered innocent till proven guilty. Our news channels deny them this right and this is not just wrong, it is against the fundamental principles of justice. It is time for those who control our major news channels to come together and evolve a code of conduct.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If some public figures are treated as guilty till proven innocent by our TV anchors, there are others who are treated with a reverence that is equally disturbing. Anna Hazare comes to mind as someone who was treated this way. As for the Nehru-Gandhi family, it is as if our TV channels had come to a secret understanding to deify them. The Prime Minister is routinely reviled for his indecision and his lack of leadership but the family who gave him his job is treated as sacrosanct. Why? &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Without wanting to sound like Justice Katju, I feel obliged to add that some of the so-called reporters employed by our news channels should have no place in journalism. They rush about hysterically from one sound byte to the next without noticing that instead of reporting a story, they are actually doing no more than shoving their microphones into the faces of different people. There are more than 300 news channels in India now and not one of them seems able to go beyond the manic frenzy of &amp;lsquo;breaking news&amp;rsquo;. When is the last time you saw a truly memorable bit of investigative journalism on Indian television? &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Justice Katju went too far when he described the whole media as ignorant and illiterate but nobody who watches television news on a daily basis can deny that improvement is needed. Junior reporters need basic training in the fundamentals of journalism before they are unleashed on our screens. And, some of our celebrated anchors need to remember that they do not speak for &amp;lsquo;the people of India&amp;rsquo;.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;On account of needing to compete with &amp;lsquo;breaking news&amp;rsquo;, I am forced here to sadly admit that print journalism standards have declined. No longer do we see the sort of investigative stories that this newspaper was once famous for. The only way for newspapers to compete seriously with television is for them to go deeper into a story than is possible in a news bulletin. Sadly, the opposite has happened and, more and more, we see reporters getting stories from &amp;lsquo;sources&amp;rsquo; instead of from their own investigation. But, this must not be taken to mean that we need Justice Katju to whip us into what he considers good behaviour. He definitely needs another job. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&#039;
$lang = &#039;English&#039;
$SITE_URL = &#039;https://im4change.in/&#039;
$site_title = &#039;im4change&#039;
$adminprix = &#039;admin&#039;</pre><pre class="stack-trace">include - APP/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp, line 8
Cake\View\View::_evaluate() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 1413
Cake\View\View::_render() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 1374
Cake\View\View::renderLayout() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 927
Cake\View\View::render() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 885
Cake\Controller\Controller::render() - CORE/src/Controller/Controller.php, line 791
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 126
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 94
Cake\Http\BaseApplication::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/BaseApplication.php, line 235
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/RoutingMiddleware.php, line 162
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/AssetMiddleware.php, line 88
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Error/Middleware/ErrorHandlerMiddleware.php, line 96
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Http\Runner::run() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 51</pre></div></pre>latest-news-updates/does-the-media-need-controls-by-tavleen-singh-11043.html"/>
    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"/>
    <link href="https://im4change.in/css/control.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"
          media="all"/>
    <title>LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Does the media need controls? by Tavleen Singh | Im4change.org</title>
    <meta name="description" content="

As a humble cog in the vast and wondrous machine of the Indian media, I want to extend my personal thanks to Justice Markandey Katju for his recent comments. He has been berated by the Editors Guild for his &lsquo;tendentious..."/>
    <script src="https://im4change.in/js/jquery-1.10.2.js"></script>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="https://im4change.in/js/jquery-migrate.min.js"></script>
    <script language="javascript" type="text/javascript">

        $(document).ready(function () {
            var img = $("img")[0]; // Get my img elem
            var pic_real_width, pic_real_height;
            $("<img/>") // Make in memory copy of image to avoid css issues
                .attr("src", $(img).attr("src"))
                .load(function () {
                    pic_real_width = this.width;   // Note: $(this).width() will not
                    pic_real_height = this.height; // work for in memory images.
                });
        });
    </script>
    <style type="text/css">
        @media screen {
            div.divFooter {
                display: block;
            }
        }

        @media print {
            .printbutton {
                display: none !important;
            }
        }
    </style>
</head>
<body>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0" width="98%" align="center">
    <tr>
        <td class="top_bg">
            <div class="divFooter">
                <img src="https://im4change.in/images/logo1.jpg" height="59" border="0"
                     alt="Resource centre on India's rural distress" style="padding-top:14px;"/>
            </div>

        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td id="topspace">&nbsp;</td>
    </tr>

    <tr id="topspace">
        <td>&nbsp;</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td height="50" style="border-bottom:1px solid #000; padding-top:10px;" class="printbutton">
            <form><input type="button" value=" Print this page "
                         onclick="window.print();return false;"/></form>
        </td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
        <td width="100%">
            <h1 class="news_headlines" style="font-style:normal">
                <strong>Does the media need controls? by Tavleen Singh</strong></h1>
        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td width="100%" style="font-family:Arial, 'Segoe Script', 'Segoe UI', sans-serif, serif"><font size="3">
                <br /><div align="justify">As a humble cog in the vast and wondrous machine of the Indian media, I want to extend my personal thanks to Justice Markandey Katju for his recent comments. He has been berated by the Editors Guild for his &lsquo;tendentious and offensive&rsquo; remarks, but my own view is that we owe the new Chairman of the Press Council a small debt of gratitude. It is true that in his interview to Karan Thapar, he used unusually strong language. He described journalists as illiterate ignoramuses who lacked &lsquo;knowledge of economic theory or political science or literature or philosophy.&rsquo; Phew! Justice Katju must have a high opinion of his own erudition to speak this way. But, this is not what I want to thank him for. I want to thank him for admitting publicly that the Government of India (and doubtless all our state governments) use their advertising campaigns, not for the public good, but to control the press. <br /><br />When he told Karan that he would like the electronic media to be brought under the Press Council so that he could deny government advertisements to misbehaving TV channels, I could hardly believe my ears. Those of us who cover government and politics in Delhi have known forever that the Ministry of Information &amp; Broadcasting uses government advertising to control newspapers, but nobody, to my knowledge, has admitted this openly.<br /><br />If the government uses its advertisements to coerce newspapers into printing only good news about the government, it amounts to press censorship. It is a tactic Indian officials learned in the days when the Soviet Union was our role model. It is a tactic that has no place in today&rsquo;s world in which the Internet has made censorship almost impossible even in totalitarian countries like China. <br /><br />On a personal level, Justice Katju has done me another favour. I have been waiting for some time to find a week in which I could use this space to draw attention to some very bad things that have started to happen in the media and his insulting remarks provide me with this chance. Of these bad things, the worst is the habit that our news channels have developed of media trials. No matter what someone may have done, they have the right under Indian law to be considered innocent till proven guilty. Our news channels deny them this right and this is not just wrong, it is against the fundamental principles of justice. It is time for those who control our major news channels to come together and evolve a code of conduct.<br /><br />If some public figures are treated as guilty till proven innocent by our TV anchors, there are others who are treated with a reverence that is equally disturbing. Anna Hazare comes to mind as someone who was treated this way. As for the Nehru-Gandhi family, it is as if our TV channels had come to a secret understanding to deify them. The Prime Minister is routinely reviled for his indecision and his lack of leadership but the family who gave him his job is treated as sacrosanct. Why? <br /><br />Without wanting to sound like Justice Katju, I feel obliged to add that some of the so-called reporters employed by our news channels should have no place in journalism. They rush about hysterically from one sound byte to the next without noticing that instead of reporting a story, they are actually doing no more than shoving their microphones into the faces of different people. There are more than 300 news channels in India now and not one of them seems able to go beyond the manic frenzy of &lsquo;breaking news&rsquo;. When is the last time you saw a truly memorable bit of investigative journalism on Indian television? <br /><br />Justice Katju went too far when he described the whole media as ignorant and illiterate but nobody who watches television news on a daily basis can deny that improvement is needed. Junior reporters need basic training in the fundamentals of journalism before they are unleashed on our screens. And, some of our celebrated anchors need to remember that they do not speak for &lsquo;the people of India&rsquo;.<br /><br />On account of needing to compete with &lsquo;breaking news&rsquo;, I am forced here to sadly admit that print journalism standards have declined. No longer do we see the sort of investigative stories that this newspaper was once famous for. The only way for newspapers to compete seriously with television is for them to go deeper into a story than is possible in a news bulletin. Sadly, the opposite has happened and, more and more, we see reporters getting stories from &lsquo;sources&rsquo; instead of from their own investigation. But, this must not be taken to mean that we need Justice Katju to whip us into what he considers good behaviour. He definitely needs another job. <br /><br /></div>               </font>
        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td>&nbsp;</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
        <td height="50" style="border-top:1px solid #000; border-bottom:1px solid #000;padding-top:10px;">
            <form><input type="button" value=" Print this page "
                         onclick="window.print();return false;"/></form>
        </td>
    </tr>
</table></body>
</html>'

}
$reasonPhrase = 'OK'
header - [internal], line ??
Cake\Http\ResponseEmitter::emitStatusLine() - CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 148
Cake\Http\ResponseEmitter::emit() - CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 54
Cake\Http\Server::emit() - CORE/src/Http/Server.php, line 141
[main] - ROOT/webroot/index.php, line 39

Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 181]
Code Context
                    $value

                ), $first);

                $first = false;
$response = object(Cake\Http\Response) {

	'status' => (int) 200,
	'contentType' => 'text/html',
	'headers' => [
		'Content-Type' => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
	],
	'file' => null,
	'fileRange' => [],
	'cookies' => object(Cake\Http\Cookie\CookieCollection) {},
	'cacheDirectives' => [],
	'body' => '<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
        "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
    <link rel="canonical" href="https://im4change.in/<pre class="cake-error"><a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr67f0ff64df197-trace').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr67f0ff64df197-trace').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none');"><b>Notice</b> (8)</a>: Undefined variable: urlPrefix [<b>APP/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp</b>, line <b>8</b>]<div id="cakeErr67f0ff64df197-trace" class="cake-stack-trace" style="display: none;"><a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr67f0ff64df197-code').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr67f0ff64df197-code').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none')">Code</a> <a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr67f0ff64df197-context').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr67f0ff64df197-context').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none')">Context</a><pre id="cakeErr67f0ff64df197-code" class="cake-code-dump" style="display: none;"><code><span style="color: #000000"><span style="color: #0000BB"></span><span style="color: #007700">&lt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">head</span><span style="color: #007700">&gt;
</span></span></code>
<span class="code-highlight"><code><span style="color: #000000">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&lt;link&nbsp;rel="canonical"&nbsp;href="<span style="color: #0000BB">&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">Configure</span><span style="color: #007700">::</span><span style="color: #0000BB">read</span><span style="color: #007700">(</span><span style="color: #DD0000">'SITE_URL'</span><span style="color: #007700">);&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$urlPrefix</span><span style="color: #007700">;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$article_current</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">category</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">slug</span><span style="color: #007700">;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;</span>/<span style="color: #0000BB">&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$article_current</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">seo_url</span><span style="color: #007700">;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;</span>.html"/&gt;
</span></code></span>
<code><span style="color: #000000"><span style="color: #0000BB">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">&lt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">meta&nbsp;http</span><span style="color: #007700">-</span><span style="color: #0000BB">equiv</span><span style="color: #007700">=</span><span style="color: #DD0000">"Content-Type"&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">content</span><span style="color: #007700">=</span><span style="color: #DD0000">"text/html;&nbsp;charset=utf-8"</span><span style="color: #007700">/&gt;
</span></span></code></pre><pre id="cakeErr67f0ff64df197-context" class="cake-context" style="display: none;">$viewFile = &#039;/home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp&#039;
$dataForView = [
	&#039;article_current&#039; =&gt; object(App\Model\Entity\Article) {

		&#039;id&#039; =&gt; (int) 10929,
		&#039;title&#039; =&gt; &#039;Does the media need controls? by Tavleen Singh&#039;,
		&#039;subheading&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;description&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
As a humble cog in the vast and wondrous machine of the Indian media, I want to extend my personal thanks to Justice Markandey Katju for his recent comments. He has been berated by the Editors Guild for his &amp;lsquo;tendentious and offensive&amp;rsquo; remarks, but my own view is that we owe the new Chairman of the Press Council a small debt of gratitude. It is true that in his interview to Karan Thapar, he used unusually strong language. He described journalists as illiterate ignoramuses who lacked &amp;lsquo;knowledge of economic theory or political science or literature or philosophy.&amp;rsquo; Phew! Justice Katju must have a high opinion of his own erudition to speak this way. But, this is not what I want to thank him for. I want to thank him for admitting publicly that the Government of India (and doubtless all our state governments) use their advertising campaigns, not for the public good, but to control the press. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
When he told Karan that he would like the electronic media to be brought under the Press Council so that he could deny government advertisements to misbehaving TV channels, I could hardly believe my ears. Those of us who cover government and politics in Delhi have known forever that the Ministry of Information &amp;amp; Broadcasting uses government advertising to control newspapers, but nobody, to my knowledge, has admitted this openly.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
If the government uses its advertisements to coerce newspapers into printing only good news about the government, it amounts to press censorship. It is a tactic Indian officials learned in the days when the Soviet Union was our role model. It is a tactic that has no place in today&amp;rsquo;s world in which the Internet has made censorship almost impossible even in totalitarian countries like China. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
On a personal level, Justice Katju has done me another favour. I have been waiting for some time to find a week in which I could use this space to draw attention to some very bad things that have started to happen in the media and his insulting remarks provide me with this chance. Of these bad things, the worst is the habit that our news channels have developed of media trials. No matter what someone may have done, they have the right under Indian law to be considered innocent till proven guilty. Our news channels deny them this right and this is not just wrong, it is against the fundamental principles of justice. It is time for those who control our major news channels to come together and evolve a code of conduct.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
If some public figures are treated as guilty till proven innocent by our TV anchors, there are others who are treated with a reverence that is equally disturbing. Anna Hazare comes to mind as someone who was treated this way. As for the Nehru-Gandhi family, it is as if our TV channels had come to a secret understanding to deify them. The Prime Minister is routinely reviled for his indecision and his lack of leadership but the family who gave him his job is treated as sacrosanct. Why? &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Without wanting to sound like Justice Katju, I feel obliged to add that some of the so-called reporters employed by our news channels should have no place in journalism. They rush about hysterically from one sound byte to the next without noticing that instead of reporting a story, they are actually doing no more than shoving their microphones into the faces of different people. There are more than 300 news channels in India now and not one of them seems able to go beyond the manic frenzy of &amp;lsquo;breaking news&amp;rsquo;. When is the last time you saw a truly memorable bit of investigative journalism on Indian television? &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Justice Katju went too far when he described the whole media as ignorant and illiterate but nobody who watches television news on a daily basis can deny that improvement is needed. Junior reporters need basic training in the fundamentals of journalism before they are unleashed on our screens. And, some of our celebrated anchors need to remember that they do not speak for &amp;lsquo;the people of India&amp;rsquo;.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
On account of needing to compete with &amp;lsquo;breaking news&amp;rsquo;, I am forced here to sadly admit that print journalism standards have declined. No longer do we see the sort of investigative stories that this newspaper was once famous for. The only way for newspapers to compete seriously with television is for them to go deeper into a story than is possible in a news bulletin. Sadly, the opposite has happened and, more and more, we see reporters getting stories from &amp;lsquo;sources&amp;rsquo; instead of from their own investigation. But, this must not be taken to mean that we need Justice Katju to whip us into what he considers good behaviour. He definitely needs another job. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&#039;,
		&#039;credit_writer&#039; =&gt; &#039;The Indian Express, 6 November, 2011, http://www.indianexpress.com/news/does-the-media-need-controls/871389/&#039;,
		&#039;article_img&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;article_img_thumb&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;status&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
		&#039;show_on_home&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
		&#039;lang&#039; =&gt; &#039;EN&#039;,
		&#039;category_id&#039; =&gt; (int) 16,
		&#039;tag_keyword&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;seo_url&#039; =&gt; &#039;does-the-media-need-controls-by-tavleen-singh-11043&#039;,
		&#039;meta_title&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;meta_keywords&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;meta_description&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;noindex&#039; =&gt; (int) 0,
		&#039;publish_date&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenDate) {},
		&#039;most_visit_section_id&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;article_big_img&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;liveid&#039; =&gt; (int) 11043,
		&#039;created&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
		&#039;modified&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
		&#039;edate&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;tags&#039; =&gt; [
			[maximum depth reached]
		],
		&#039;category&#039; =&gt; object(App\Model\Entity\Category) {},
		&#039;[new]&#039; =&gt; false,
		&#039;[accessible]&#039; =&gt; [
			[maximum depth reached]
		],
		&#039;[dirty]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[original]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[virtual]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[hasErrors]&#039; =&gt; false,
		&#039;[errors]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[invalid]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[repository]&#039; =&gt; &#039;Articles&#039;
	
	},
	&#039;articleid&#039; =&gt; (int) 10929,
	&#039;metaTitle&#039; =&gt; &#039;LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Does the media need controls? by Tavleen Singh&#039;,
	&#039;metaKeywords&#039; =&gt; &#039;media,Corruption&#039;,
	&#039;metaDesc&#039; =&gt; &#039;

As a humble cog in the vast and wondrous machine of the Indian media, I want to extend my personal thanks to Justice Markandey Katju for his recent comments. He has been berated by the Editors Guild for his &amp;lsquo;tendentious...&#039;,
	&#039;disp&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;As a humble cog in the vast and wondrous machine of the Indian media, I want to extend my personal thanks to Justice Markandey Katju for his recent comments. He has been berated by the Editors Guild for his &amp;lsquo;tendentious and offensive&amp;rsquo; remarks, but my own view is that we owe the new Chairman of the Press Council a small debt of gratitude. It is true that in his interview to Karan Thapar, he used unusually strong language. He described journalists as illiterate ignoramuses who lacked &amp;lsquo;knowledge of economic theory or political science or literature or philosophy.&amp;rsquo; Phew! Justice Katju must have a high opinion of his own erudition to speak this way. But, this is not what I want to thank him for. I want to thank him for admitting publicly that the Government of India (and doubtless all our state governments) use their advertising campaigns, not for the public good, but to control the press. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;When he told Karan that he would like the electronic media to be brought under the Press Council so that he could deny government advertisements to misbehaving TV channels, I could hardly believe my ears. Those of us who cover government and politics in Delhi have known forever that the Ministry of Information &amp;amp; Broadcasting uses government advertising to control newspapers, but nobody, to my knowledge, has admitted this openly.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If the government uses its advertisements to coerce newspapers into printing only good news about the government, it amounts to press censorship. It is a tactic Indian officials learned in the days when the Soviet Union was our role model. It is a tactic that has no place in today&amp;rsquo;s world in which the Internet has made censorship almost impossible even in totalitarian countries like China. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;On a personal level, Justice Katju has done me another favour. I have been waiting for some time to find a week in which I could use this space to draw attention to some very bad things that have started to happen in the media and his insulting remarks provide me with this chance. Of these bad things, the worst is the habit that our news channels have developed of media trials. No matter what someone may have done, they have the right under Indian law to be considered innocent till proven guilty. Our news channels deny them this right and this is not just wrong, it is against the fundamental principles of justice. It is time for those who control our major news channels to come together and evolve a code of conduct.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If some public figures are treated as guilty till proven innocent by our TV anchors, there are others who are treated with a reverence that is equally disturbing. Anna Hazare comes to mind as someone who was treated this way. As for the Nehru-Gandhi family, it is as if our TV channels had come to a secret understanding to deify them. The Prime Minister is routinely reviled for his indecision and his lack of leadership but the family who gave him his job is treated as sacrosanct. Why? &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Without wanting to sound like Justice Katju, I feel obliged to add that some of the so-called reporters employed by our news channels should have no place in journalism. They rush about hysterically from one sound byte to the next without noticing that instead of reporting a story, they are actually doing no more than shoving their microphones into the faces of different people. There are more than 300 news channels in India now and not one of them seems able to go beyond the manic frenzy of &amp;lsquo;breaking news&amp;rsquo;. When is the last time you saw a truly memorable bit of investigative journalism on Indian television? &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Justice Katju went too far when he described the whole media as ignorant and illiterate but nobody who watches television news on a daily basis can deny that improvement is needed. Junior reporters need basic training in the fundamentals of journalism before they are unleashed on our screens. And, some of our celebrated anchors need to remember that they do not speak for &amp;lsquo;the people of India&amp;rsquo;.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;On account of needing to compete with &amp;lsquo;breaking news&amp;rsquo;, I am forced here to sadly admit that print journalism standards have declined. No longer do we see the sort of investigative stories that this newspaper was once famous for. The only way for newspapers to compete seriously with television is for them to go deeper into a story than is possible in a news bulletin. Sadly, the opposite has happened and, more and more, we see reporters getting stories from &amp;lsquo;sources&amp;rsquo; instead of from their own investigation. But, this must not be taken to mean that we need Justice Katju to whip us into what he considers good behaviour. He definitely needs another job. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&#039;,
	&#039;lang&#039; =&gt; &#039;English&#039;,
	&#039;SITE_URL&#039; =&gt; &#039;https://im4change.in/&#039;,
	&#039;site_title&#039; =&gt; &#039;im4change&#039;,
	&#039;adminprix&#039; =&gt; &#039;admin&#039;
]
$article_current = object(App\Model\Entity\Article) {

	&#039;id&#039; =&gt; (int) 10929,
	&#039;title&#039; =&gt; &#039;Does the media need controls? by Tavleen Singh&#039;,
	&#039;subheading&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;description&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
As a humble cog in the vast and wondrous machine of the Indian media, I want to extend my personal thanks to Justice Markandey Katju for his recent comments. He has been berated by the Editors Guild for his &amp;lsquo;tendentious and offensive&amp;rsquo; remarks, but my own view is that we owe the new Chairman of the Press Council a small debt of gratitude. It is true that in his interview to Karan Thapar, he used unusually strong language. He described journalists as illiterate ignoramuses who lacked &amp;lsquo;knowledge of economic theory or political science or literature or philosophy.&amp;rsquo; Phew! Justice Katju must have a high opinion of his own erudition to speak this way. But, this is not what I want to thank him for. I want to thank him for admitting publicly that the Government of India (and doubtless all our state governments) use their advertising campaigns, not for the public good, but to control the press. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
When he told Karan that he would like the electronic media to be brought under the Press Council so that he could deny government advertisements to misbehaving TV channels, I could hardly believe my ears. Those of us who cover government and politics in Delhi have known forever that the Ministry of Information &amp;amp; Broadcasting uses government advertising to control newspapers, but nobody, to my knowledge, has admitted this openly.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
If the government uses its advertisements to coerce newspapers into printing only good news about the government, it amounts to press censorship. It is a tactic Indian officials learned in the days when the Soviet Union was our role model. It is a tactic that has no place in today&amp;rsquo;s world in which the Internet has made censorship almost impossible even in totalitarian countries like China. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
On a personal level, Justice Katju has done me another favour. I have been waiting for some time to find a week in which I could use this space to draw attention to some very bad things that have started to happen in the media and his insulting remarks provide me with this chance. Of these bad things, the worst is the habit that our news channels have developed of media trials. No matter what someone may have done, they have the right under Indian law to be considered innocent till proven guilty. Our news channels deny them this right and this is not just wrong, it is against the fundamental principles of justice. It is time for those who control our major news channels to come together and evolve a code of conduct.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
If some public figures are treated as guilty till proven innocent by our TV anchors, there are others who are treated with a reverence that is equally disturbing. Anna Hazare comes to mind as someone who was treated this way. As for the Nehru-Gandhi family, it is as if our TV channels had come to a secret understanding to deify them. The Prime Minister is routinely reviled for his indecision and his lack of leadership but the family who gave him his job is treated as sacrosanct. Why? &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Without wanting to sound like Justice Katju, I feel obliged to add that some of the so-called reporters employed by our news channels should have no place in journalism. They rush about hysterically from one sound byte to the next without noticing that instead of reporting a story, they are actually doing no more than shoving their microphones into the faces of different people. There are more than 300 news channels in India now and not one of them seems able to go beyond the manic frenzy of &amp;lsquo;breaking news&amp;rsquo;. When is the last time you saw a truly memorable bit of investigative journalism on Indian television? &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Justice Katju went too far when he described the whole media as ignorant and illiterate but nobody who watches television news on a daily basis can deny that improvement is needed. Junior reporters need basic training in the fundamentals of journalism before they are unleashed on our screens. And, some of our celebrated anchors need to remember that they do not speak for &amp;lsquo;the people of India&amp;rsquo;.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
On account of needing to compete with &amp;lsquo;breaking news&amp;rsquo;, I am forced here to sadly admit that print journalism standards have declined. No longer do we see the sort of investigative stories that this newspaper was once famous for. The only way for newspapers to compete seriously with television is for them to go deeper into a story than is possible in a news bulletin. Sadly, the opposite has happened and, more and more, we see reporters getting stories from &amp;lsquo;sources&amp;rsquo; instead of from their own investigation. But, this must not be taken to mean that we need Justice Katju to whip us into what he considers good behaviour. He definitely needs another job. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&#039;,
	&#039;credit_writer&#039; =&gt; &#039;The Indian Express, 6 November, 2011, http://www.indianexpress.com/news/does-the-media-need-controls/871389/&#039;,
	&#039;article_img&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;article_img_thumb&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;status&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
	&#039;show_on_home&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
	&#039;lang&#039; =&gt; &#039;EN&#039;,
	&#039;category_id&#039; =&gt; (int) 16,
	&#039;tag_keyword&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;seo_url&#039; =&gt; &#039;does-the-media-need-controls-by-tavleen-singh-11043&#039;,
	&#039;meta_title&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;meta_keywords&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;meta_description&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;noindex&#039; =&gt; (int) 0,
	&#039;publish_date&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenDate) {},
	&#039;most_visit_section_id&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;article_big_img&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;liveid&#039; =&gt; (int) 11043,
	&#039;created&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
	&#039;modified&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
	&#039;edate&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;tags&#039; =&gt; [
		(int) 0 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 1 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {}
	],
	&#039;category&#039; =&gt; object(App\Model\Entity\Category) {},
	&#039;[new]&#039; =&gt; false,
	&#039;[accessible]&#039; =&gt; [
		&#039;*&#039; =&gt; true,
		&#039;id&#039; =&gt; false
	],
	&#039;[dirty]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[original]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[virtual]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[hasErrors]&#039; =&gt; false,
	&#039;[errors]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[invalid]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[repository]&#039; =&gt; &#039;Articles&#039;

}
$articleid = (int) 10929
$metaTitle = &#039;LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Does the media need controls? by Tavleen Singh&#039;
$metaKeywords = &#039;media,Corruption&#039;
$metaDesc = &#039;

As a humble cog in the vast and wondrous machine of the Indian media, I want to extend my personal thanks to Justice Markandey Katju for his recent comments. He has been berated by the Editors Guild for his &amp;lsquo;tendentious...&#039;
$disp = &#039;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;As a humble cog in the vast and wondrous machine of the Indian media, I want to extend my personal thanks to Justice Markandey Katju for his recent comments. He has been berated by the Editors Guild for his &amp;lsquo;tendentious and offensive&amp;rsquo; remarks, but my own view is that we owe the new Chairman of the Press Council a small debt of gratitude. It is true that in his interview to Karan Thapar, he used unusually strong language. He described journalists as illiterate ignoramuses who lacked &amp;lsquo;knowledge of economic theory or political science or literature or philosophy.&amp;rsquo; Phew! Justice Katju must have a high opinion of his own erudition to speak this way. But, this is not what I want to thank him for. I want to thank him for admitting publicly that the Government of India (and doubtless all our state governments) use their advertising campaigns, not for the public good, but to control the press. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;When he told Karan that he would like the electronic media to be brought under the Press Council so that he could deny government advertisements to misbehaving TV channels, I could hardly believe my ears. Those of us who cover government and politics in Delhi have known forever that the Ministry of Information &amp;amp; Broadcasting uses government advertising to control newspapers, but nobody, to my knowledge, has admitted this openly.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If the government uses its advertisements to coerce newspapers into printing only good news about the government, it amounts to press censorship. It is a tactic Indian officials learned in the days when the Soviet Union was our role model. It is a tactic that has no place in today&amp;rsquo;s world in which the Internet has made censorship almost impossible even in totalitarian countries like China. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;On a personal level, Justice Katju has done me another favour. I have been waiting for some time to find a week in which I could use this space to draw attention to some very bad things that have started to happen in the media and his insulting remarks provide me with this chance. Of these bad things, the worst is the habit that our news channels have developed of media trials. No matter what someone may have done, they have the right under Indian law to be considered innocent till proven guilty. Our news channels deny them this right and this is not just wrong, it is against the fundamental principles of justice. It is time for those who control our major news channels to come together and evolve a code of conduct.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If some public figures are treated as guilty till proven innocent by our TV anchors, there are others who are treated with a reverence that is equally disturbing. Anna Hazare comes to mind as someone who was treated this way. As for the Nehru-Gandhi family, it is as if our TV channels had come to a secret understanding to deify them. The Prime Minister is routinely reviled for his indecision and his lack of leadership but the family who gave him his job is treated as sacrosanct. Why? &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Without wanting to sound like Justice Katju, I feel obliged to add that some of the so-called reporters employed by our news channels should have no place in journalism. They rush about hysterically from one sound byte to the next without noticing that instead of reporting a story, they are actually doing no more than shoving their microphones into the faces of different people. There are more than 300 news channels in India now and not one of them seems able to go beyond the manic frenzy of &amp;lsquo;breaking news&amp;rsquo;. When is the last time you saw a truly memorable bit of investigative journalism on Indian television? &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Justice Katju went too far when he described the whole media as ignorant and illiterate but nobody who watches television news on a daily basis can deny that improvement is needed. Junior reporters need basic training in the fundamentals of journalism before they are unleashed on our screens. And, some of our celebrated anchors need to remember that they do not speak for &amp;lsquo;the people of India&amp;rsquo;.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;On account of needing to compete with &amp;lsquo;breaking news&amp;rsquo;, I am forced here to sadly admit that print journalism standards have declined. No longer do we see the sort of investigative stories that this newspaper was once famous for. The only way for newspapers to compete seriously with television is for them to go deeper into a story than is possible in a news bulletin. Sadly, the opposite has happened and, more and more, we see reporters getting stories from &amp;lsquo;sources&amp;rsquo; instead of from their own investigation. But, this must not be taken to mean that we need Justice Katju to whip us into what he considers good behaviour. He definitely needs another job. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&#039;
$lang = &#039;English&#039;
$SITE_URL = &#039;https://im4change.in/&#039;
$site_title = &#039;im4change&#039;
$adminprix = &#039;admin&#039;</pre><pre class="stack-trace">include - APP/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp, line 8
Cake\View\View::_evaluate() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 1413
Cake\View\View::_render() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 1374
Cake\View\View::renderLayout() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 927
Cake\View\View::render() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 885
Cake\Controller\Controller::render() - CORE/src/Controller/Controller.php, line 791
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 126
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 94
Cake\Http\BaseApplication::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/BaseApplication.php, line 235
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/RoutingMiddleware.php, line 162
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/AssetMiddleware.php, line 88
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Error/Middleware/ErrorHandlerMiddleware.php, line 96
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Http\Runner::run() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 51</pre></div></pre>latest-news-updates/does-the-media-need-controls-by-tavleen-singh-11043.html"/>
    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"/>
    <link href="https://im4change.in/css/control.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"
          media="all"/>
    <title>LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Does the media need controls? by Tavleen Singh | Im4change.org</title>
    <meta name="description" content="

As a humble cog in the vast and wondrous machine of the Indian media, I want to extend my personal thanks to Justice Markandey Katju for his recent comments. He has been berated by the Editors Guild for his &lsquo;tendentious..."/>
    <script src="https://im4change.in/js/jquery-1.10.2.js"></script>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="https://im4change.in/js/jquery-migrate.min.js"></script>
    <script language="javascript" type="text/javascript">

        $(document).ready(function () {
            var img = $("img")[0]; // Get my img elem
            var pic_real_width, pic_real_height;
            $("<img/>") // Make in memory copy of image to avoid css issues
                .attr("src", $(img).attr("src"))
                .load(function () {
                    pic_real_width = this.width;   // Note: $(this).width() will not
                    pic_real_height = this.height; // work for in memory images.
                });
        });
    </script>
    <style type="text/css">
        @media screen {
            div.divFooter {
                display: block;
            }
        }

        @media print {
            .printbutton {
                display: none !important;
            }
        }
    </style>
</head>
<body>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0" width="98%" align="center">
    <tr>
        <td class="top_bg">
            <div class="divFooter">
                <img src="https://im4change.in/images/logo1.jpg" height="59" border="0"
                     alt="Resource centre on India's rural distress" style="padding-top:14px;"/>
            </div>

        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td id="topspace">&nbsp;</td>
    </tr>

    <tr id="topspace">
        <td>&nbsp;</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td height="50" style="border-bottom:1px solid #000; padding-top:10px;" class="printbutton">
            <form><input type="button" value=" Print this page "
                         onclick="window.print();return false;"/></form>
        </td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
        <td width="100%">
            <h1 class="news_headlines" style="font-style:normal">
                <strong>Does the media need controls? by Tavleen Singh</strong></h1>
        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td width="100%" style="font-family:Arial, 'Segoe Script', 'Segoe UI', sans-serif, serif"><font size="3">
                <br /><div align="justify">As a humble cog in the vast and wondrous machine of the Indian media, I want to extend my personal thanks to Justice Markandey Katju for his recent comments. He has been berated by the Editors Guild for his &lsquo;tendentious and offensive&rsquo; remarks, but my own view is that we owe the new Chairman of the Press Council a small debt of gratitude. It is true that in his interview to Karan Thapar, he used unusually strong language. He described journalists as illiterate ignoramuses who lacked &lsquo;knowledge of economic theory or political science or literature or philosophy.&rsquo; Phew! Justice Katju must have a high opinion of his own erudition to speak this way. But, this is not what I want to thank him for. I want to thank him for admitting publicly that the Government of India (and doubtless all our state governments) use their advertising campaigns, not for the public good, but to control the press. <br /><br />When he told Karan that he would like the electronic media to be brought under the Press Council so that he could deny government advertisements to misbehaving TV channels, I could hardly believe my ears. Those of us who cover government and politics in Delhi have known forever that the Ministry of Information &amp; Broadcasting uses government advertising to control newspapers, but nobody, to my knowledge, has admitted this openly.<br /><br />If the government uses its advertisements to coerce newspapers into printing only good news about the government, it amounts to press censorship. It is a tactic Indian officials learned in the days when the Soviet Union was our role model. It is a tactic that has no place in today&rsquo;s world in which the Internet has made censorship almost impossible even in totalitarian countries like China. <br /><br />On a personal level, Justice Katju has done me another favour. I have been waiting for some time to find a week in which I could use this space to draw attention to some very bad things that have started to happen in the media and his insulting remarks provide me with this chance. Of these bad things, the worst is the habit that our news channels have developed of media trials. No matter what someone may have done, they have the right under Indian law to be considered innocent till proven guilty. Our news channels deny them this right and this is not just wrong, it is against the fundamental principles of justice. It is time for those who control our major news channels to come together and evolve a code of conduct.<br /><br />If some public figures are treated as guilty till proven innocent by our TV anchors, there are others who are treated with a reverence that is equally disturbing. Anna Hazare comes to mind as someone who was treated this way. As for the Nehru-Gandhi family, it is as if our TV channels had come to a secret understanding to deify them. The Prime Minister is routinely reviled for his indecision and his lack of leadership but the family who gave him his job is treated as sacrosanct. Why? <br /><br />Without wanting to sound like Justice Katju, I feel obliged to add that some of the so-called reporters employed by our news channels should have no place in journalism. They rush about hysterically from one sound byte to the next without noticing that instead of reporting a story, they are actually doing no more than shoving their microphones into the faces of different people. There are more than 300 news channels in India now and not one of them seems able to go beyond the manic frenzy of &lsquo;breaking news&rsquo;. When is the last time you saw a truly memorable bit of investigative journalism on Indian television? <br /><br />Justice Katju went too far when he described the whole media as ignorant and illiterate but nobody who watches television news on a daily basis can deny that improvement is needed. Junior reporters need basic training in the fundamentals of journalism before they are unleashed on our screens. And, some of our celebrated anchors need to remember that they do not speak for &lsquo;the people of India&rsquo;.<br /><br />On account of needing to compete with &lsquo;breaking news&rsquo;, I am forced here to sadly admit that print journalism standards have declined. No longer do we see the sort of investigative stories that this newspaper was once famous for. The only way for newspapers to compete seriously with television is for them to go deeper into a story than is possible in a news bulletin. Sadly, the opposite has happened and, more and more, we see reporters getting stories from &lsquo;sources&rsquo; instead of from their own investigation. But, this must not be taken to mean that we need Justice Katju to whip us into what he considers good behaviour. He definitely needs another job. <br /><br /></div>               </font>
        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td>&nbsp;</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
        <td height="50" style="border-top:1px solid #000; border-bottom:1px solid #000;padding-top:10px;">
            <form><input type="button" value=" Print this page "
                         onclick="window.print();return false;"/></form>
        </td>
    </tr>
</table></body>
</html>'

}
$cookies = []
$values = [
	(int) 0 => 'text/html; charset=UTF-8'
]
$name = 'Content-Type'
$first = true
$value = 'text/html; charset=UTF-8'
header - [internal], line ??
Cake\Http\ResponseEmitter::emitHeaders() - CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 181
Cake\Http\ResponseEmitter::emit() - CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 55
Cake\Http\Server::emit() - CORE/src/Http/Server.php, line 141
[main] - ROOT/webroot/index.php, line 39

<head>

    <link rel="canonical" href="<?php echo Configure::read('SITE_URL'); ?><?php echo $urlPrefix;?><?php echo $article_current->category->slug; ?>/<?php echo $article_current->seo_url; ?>.html"/>

    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"/>

$viewFile = '/home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp'
$dataForView = [
	'article_current' => object(App\Model\Entity\Article) {

		'id' => (int) 10929,
		'title' => 'Does the media need controls? by Tavleen Singh',
		'subheading' => '',
		'description' => '<br />
<div align="justify">
As a humble cog in the vast and wondrous machine of the Indian media, I want to extend my personal thanks to Justice Markandey Katju for his recent comments. He has been berated by the Editors Guild for his &lsquo;tendentious and offensive&rsquo; remarks, but my own view is that we owe the new Chairman of the Press Council a small debt of gratitude. It is true that in his interview to Karan Thapar, he used unusually strong language. He described journalists as illiterate ignoramuses who lacked &lsquo;knowledge of economic theory or political science or literature or philosophy.&rsquo; Phew! Justice Katju must have a high opinion of his own erudition to speak this way. But, this is not what I want to thank him for. I want to thank him for admitting publicly that the Government of India (and doubtless all our state governments) use their advertising campaigns, not for the public good, but to control the press. <br />
<br />
When he told Karan that he would like the electronic media to be brought under the Press Council so that he could deny government advertisements to misbehaving TV channels, I could hardly believe my ears. Those of us who cover government and politics in Delhi have known forever that the Ministry of Information &amp; Broadcasting uses government advertising to control newspapers, but nobody, to my knowledge, has admitted this openly.<br />
<br />
If the government uses its advertisements to coerce newspapers into printing only good news about the government, it amounts to press censorship. It is a tactic Indian officials learned in the days when the Soviet Union was our role model. It is a tactic that has no place in today&rsquo;s world in which the Internet has made censorship almost impossible even in totalitarian countries like China. <br />
<br />
On a personal level, Justice Katju has done me another favour. I have been waiting for some time to find a week in which I could use this space to draw attention to some very bad things that have started to happen in the media and his insulting remarks provide me with this chance. Of these bad things, the worst is the habit that our news channels have developed of media trials. No matter what someone may have done, they have the right under Indian law to be considered innocent till proven guilty. Our news channels deny them this right and this is not just wrong, it is against the fundamental principles of justice. It is time for those who control our major news channels to come together and evolve a code of conduct.<br />
<br />
If some public figures are treated as guilty till proven innocent by our TV anchors, there are others who are treated with a reverence that is equally disturbing. Anna Hazare comes to mind as someone who was treated this way. As for the Nehru-Gandhi family, it is as if our TV channels had come to a secret understanding to deify them. The Prime Minister is routinely reviled for his indecision and his lack of leadership but the family who gave him his job is treated as sacrosanct. Why? <br />
<br />
Without wanting to sound like Justice Katju, I feel obliged to add that some of the so-called reporters employed by our news channels should have no place in journalism. They rush about hysterically from one sound byte to the next without noticing that instead of reporting a story, they are actually doing no more than shoving their microphones into the faces of different people. There are more than 300 news channels in India now and not one of them seems able to go beyond the manic frenzy of &lsquo;breaking news&rsquo;. When is the last time you saw a truly memorable bit of investigative journalism on Indian television? <br />
<br />
Justice Katju went too far when he described the whole media as ignorant and illiterate but nobody who watches television news on a daily basis can deny that improvement is needed. Junior reporters need basic training in the fundamentals of journalism before they are unleashed on our screens. And, some of our celebrated anchors need to remember that they do not speak for &lsquo;the people of India&rsquo;.<br />
<br />
On account of needing to compete with &lsquo;breaking news&rsquo;, I am forced here to sadly admit that print journalism standards have declined. No longer do we see the sort of investigative stories that this newspaper was once famous for. The only way for newspapers to compete seriously with television is for them to go deeper into a story than is possible in a news bulletin. Sadly, the opposite has happened and, more and more, we see reporters getting stories from &lsquo;sources&rsquo; instead of from their own investigation. But, this must not be taken to mean that we need Justice Katju to whip us into what he considers good behaviour. He definitely needs another job. <br />
<br />
</div>',
		'credit_writer' => 'The Indian Express, 6 November, 2011, http://www.indianexpress.com/news/does-the-media-need-controls/871389/',
		'article_img' => '',
		'article_img_thumb' => '',
		'status' => (int) 1,
		'show_on_home' => (int) 1,
		'lang' => 'EN',
		'category_id' => (int) 16,
		'tag_keyword' => '',
		'seo_url' => 'does-the-media-need-controls-by-tavleen-singh-11043',
		'meta_title' => null,
		'meta_keywords' => null,
		'meta_description' => null,
		'noindex' => (int) 0,
		'publish_date' => object(Cake\I18n\FrozenDate) {},
		'most_visit_section_id' => null,
		'article_big_img' => null,
		'liveid' => (int) 11043,
		'created' => object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
		'modified' => object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
		'edate' => '',
		'tags' => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		],
		'category' => object(App\Model\Entity\Category) {},
		'[new]' => false,
		'[accessible]' => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		],
		'[dirty]' => [[maximum depth reached]],
		'[original]' => [[maximum depth reached]],
		'[virtual]' => [[maximum depth reached]],
		'[hasErrors]' => false,
		'[errors]' => [[maximum depth reached]],
		'[invalid]' => [[maximum depth reached]],
		'[repository]' => 'Articles'
	
	},
	'articleid' => (int) 10929,
	'metaTitle' => 'LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Does the media need controls? by Tavleen Singh',
	'metaKeywords' => 'media,Corruption',
	'metaDesc' => '

As a humble cog in the vast and wondrous machine of the Indian media, I want to extend my personal thanks to Justice Markandey Katju for his recent comments. He has been berated by the Editors Guild for his &lsquo;tendentious...',
	'disp' => '<br /><div align="justify">As a humble cog in the vast and wondrous machine of the Indian media, I want to extend my personal thanks to Justice Markandey Katju for his recent comments. He has been berated by the Editors Guild for his &lsquo;tendentious and offensive&rsquo; remarks, but my own view is that we owe the new Chairman of the Press Council a small debt of gratitude. It is true that in his interview to Karan Thapar, he used unusually strong language. He described journalists as illiterate ignoramuses who lacked &lsquo;knowledge of economic theory or political science or literature or philosophy.&rsquo; Phew! Justice Katju must have a high opinion of his own erudition to speak this way. But, this is not what I want to thank him for. I want to thank him for admitting publicly that the Government of India (and doubtless all our state governments) use their advertising campaigns, not for the public good, but to control the press. <br /><br />When he told Karan that he would like the electronic media to be brought under the Press Council so that he could deny government advertisements to misbehaving TV channels, I could hardly believe my ears. Those of us who cover government and politics in Delhi have known forever that the Ministry of Information &amp; Broadcasting uses government advertising to control newspapers, but nobody, to my knowledge, has admitted this openly.<br /><br />If the government uses its advertisements to coerce newspapers into printing only good news about the government, it amounts to press censorship. It is a tactic Indian officials learned in the days when the Soviet Union was our role model. It is a tactic that has no place in today&rsquo;s world in which the Internet has made censorship almost impossible even in totalitarian countries like China. <br /><br />On a personal level, Justice Katju has done me another favour. I have been waiting for some time to find a week in which I could use this space to draw attention to some very bad things that have started to happen in the media and his insulting remarks provide me with this chance. Of these bad things, the worst is the habit that our news channels have developed of media trials. No matter what someone may have done, they have the right under Indian law to be considered innocent till proven guilty. Our news channels deny them this right and this is not just wrong, it is against the fundamental principles of justice. It is time for those who control our major news channels to come together and evolve a code of conduct.<br /><br />If some public figures are treated as guilty till proven innocent by our TV anchors, there are others who are treated with a reverence that is equally disturbing. Anna Hazare comes to mind as someone who was treated this way. As for the Nehru-Gandhi family, it is as if our TV channels had come to a secret understanding to deify them. The Prime Minister is routinely reviled for his indecision and his lack of leadership but the family who gave him his job is treated as sacrosanct. Why? <br /><br />Without wanting to sound like Justice Katju, I feel obliged to add that some of the so-called reporters employed by our news channels should have no place in journalism. They rush about hysterically from one sound byte to the next without noticing that instead of reporting a story, they are actually doing no more than shoving their microphones into the faces of different people. There are more than 300 news channels in India now and not one of them seems able to go beyond the manic frenzy of &lsquo;breaking news&rsquo;. When is the last time you saw a truly memorable bit of investigative journalism on Indian television? <br /><br />Justice Katju went too far when he described the whole media as ignorant and illiterate but nobody who watches television news on a daily basis can deny that improvement is needed. Junior reporters need basic training in the fundamentals of journalism before they are unleashed on our screens. And, some of our celebrated anchors need to remember that they do not speak for &lsquo;the people of India&rsquo;.<br /><br />On account of needing to compete with &lsquo;breaking news&rsquo;, I am forced here to sadly admit that print journalism standards have declined. No longer do we see the sort of investigative stories that this newspaper was once famous for. The only way for newspapers to compete seriously with television is for them to go deeper into a story than is possible in a news bulletin. Sadly, the opposite has happened and, more and more, we see reporters getting stories from &lsquo;sources&rsquo; instead of from their own investigation. But, this must not be taken to mean that we need Justice Katju to whip us into what he considers good behaviour. He definitely needs another job. <br /><br /></div>',
	'lang' => 'English',
	'SITE_URL' => 'https://im4change.in/',
	'site_title' => 'im4change',
	'adminprix' => 'admin'
]
$article_current = object(App\Model\Entity\Article) {

	'id' => (int) 10929,
	'title' => 'Does the media need controls? by Tavleen Singh',
	'subheading' => '',
	'description' => '<br />
<div align="justify">
As a humble cog in the vast and wondrous machine of the Indian media, I want to extend my personal thanks to Justice Markandey Katju for his recent comments. He has been berated by the Editors Guild for his &lsquo;tendentious and offensive&rsquo; remarks, but my own view is that we owe the new Chairman of the Press Council a small debt of gratitude. It is true that in his interview to Karan Thapar, he used unusually strong language. He described journalists as illiterate ignoramuses who lacked &lsquo;knowledge of economic theory or political science or literature or philosophy.&rsquo; Phew! Justice Katju must have a high opinion of his own erudition to speak this way. But, this is not what I want to thank him for. I want to thank him for admitting publicly that the Government of India (and doubtless all our state governments) use their advertising campaigns, not for the public good, but to control the press. <br />
<br />
When he told Karan that he would like the electronic media to be brought under the Press Council so that he could deny government advertisements to misbehaving TV channels, I could hardly believe my ears. Those of us who cover government and politics in Delhi have known forever that the Ministry of Information &amp; Broadcasting uses government advertising to control newspapers, but nobody, to my knowledge, has admitted this openly.<br />
<br />
If the government uses its advertisements to coerce newspapers into printing only good news about the government, it amounts to press censorship. It is a tactic Indian officials learned in the days when the Soviet Union was our role model. It is a tactic that has no place in today&rsquo;s world in which the Internet has made censorship almost impossible even in totalitarian countries like China. <br />
<br />
On a personal level, Justice Katju has done me another favour. I have been waiting for some time to find a week in which I could use this space to draw attention to some very bad things that have started to happen in the media and his insulting remarks provide me with this chance. Of these bad things, the worst is the habit that our news channels have developed of media trials. No matter what someone may have done, they have the right under Indian law to be considered innocent till proven guilty. Our news channels deny them this right and this is not just wrong, it is against the fundamental principles of justice. It is time for those who control our major news channels to come together and evolve a code of conduct.<br />
<br />
If some public figures are treated as guilty till proven innocent by our TV anchors, there are others who are treated with a reverence that is equally disturbing. Anna Hazare comes to mind as someone who was treated this way. As for the Nehru-Gandhi family, it is as if our TV channels had come to a secret understanding to deify them. The Prime Minister is routinely reviled for his indecision and his lack of leadership but the family who gave him his job is treated as sacrosanct. Why? <br />
<br />
Without wanting to sound like Justice Katju, I feel obliged to add that some of the so-called reporters employed by our news channels should have no place in journalism. They rush about hysterically from one sound byte to the next without noticing that instead of reporting a story, they are actually doing no more than shoving their microphones into the faces of different people. There are more than 300 news channels in India now and not one of them seems able to go beyond the manic frenzy of &lsquo;breaking news&rsquo;. When is the last time you saw a truly memorable bit of investigative journalism on Indian television? <br />
<br />
Justice Katju went too far when he described the whole media as ignorant and illiterate but nobody who watches television news on a daily basis can deny that improvement is needed. Junior reporters need basic training in the fundamentals of journalism before they are unleashed on our screens. And, some of our celebrated anchors need to remember that they do not speak for &lsquo;the people of India&rsquo;.<br />
<br />
On account of needing to compete with &lsquo;breaking news&rsquo;, I am forced here to sadly admit that print journalism standards have declined. No longer do we see the sort of investigative stories that this newspaper was once famous for. The only way for newspapers to compete seriously with television is for them to go deeper into a story than is possible in a news bulletin. Sadly, the opposite has happened and, more and more, we see reporters getting stories from &lsquo;sources&rsquo; instead of from their own investigation. But, this must not be taken to mean that we need Justice Katju to whip us into what he considers good behaviour. He definitely needs another job. <br />
<br />
</div>',
	'credit_writer' => 'The Indian Express, 6 November, 2011, http://www.indianexpress.com/news/does-the-media-need-controls/871389/',
	'article_img' => '',
	'article_img_thumb' => '',
	'status' => (int) 1,
	'show_on_home' => (int) 1,
	'lang' => 'EN',
	'category_id' => (int) 16,
	'tag_keyword' => '',
	'seo_url' => 'does-the-media-need-controls-by-tavleen-singh-11043',
	'meta_title' => null,
	'meta_keywords' => null,
	'meta_description' => null,
	'noindex' => (int) 0,
	'publish_date' => object(Cake\I18n\FrozenDate) {},
	'most_visit_section_id' => null,
	'article_big_img' => null,
	'liveid' => (int) 11043,
	'created' => object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
	'modified' => object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
	'edate' => '',
	'tags' => [
		(int) 0 => object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 1 => object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {}
	],
	'category' => object(App\Model\Entity\Category) {},
	'[new]' => false,
	'[accessible]' => [
		'*' => true,
		'id' => false
	],
	'[dirty]' => [],
	'[original]' => [],
	'[virtual]' => [],
	'[hasErrors]' => false,
	'[errors]' => [],
	'[invalid]' => [],
	'[repository]' => 'Articles'

}
$articleid = (int) 10929
$metaTitle = 'LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Does the media need controls? by Tavleen Singh'
$metaKeywords = 'media,Corruption'
$metaDesc = '

As a humble cog in the vast and wondrous machine of the Indian media, I want to extend my personal thanks to Justice Markandey Katju for his recent comments. He has been berated by the Editors Guild for his &lsquo;tendentious...'
$disp = '<br /><div align="justify">As a humble cog in the vast and wondrous machine of the Indian media, I want to extend my personal thanks to Justice Markandey Katju for his recent comments. He has been berated by the Editors Guild for his &lsquo;tendentious and offensive&rsquo; remarks, but my own view is that we owe the new Chairman of the Press Council a small debt of gratitude. It is true that in his interview to Karan Thapar, he used unusually strong language. He described journalists as illiterate ignoramuses who lacked &lsquo;knowledge of economic theory or political science or literature or philosophy.&rsquo; Phew! Justice Katju must have a high opinion of his own erudition to speak this way. But, this is not what I want to thank him for. I want to thank him for admitting publicly that the Government of India (and doubtless all our state governments) use their advertising campaigns, not for the public good, but to control the press. <br /><br />When he told Karan that he would like the electronic media to be brought under the Press Council so that he could deny government advertisements to misbehaving TV channels, I could hardly believe my ears. Those of us who cover government and politics in Delhi have known forever that the Ministry of Information &amp; Broadcasting uses government advertising to control newspapers, but nobody, to my knowledge, has admitted this openly.<br /><br />If the government uses its advertisements to coerce newspapers into printing only good news about the government, it amounts to press censorship. It is a tactic Indian officials learned in the days when the Soviet Union was our role model. It is a tactic that has no place in today&rsquo;s world in which the Internet has made censorship almost impossible even in totalitarian countries like China. <br /><br />On a personal level, Justice Katju has done me another favour. I have been waiting for some time to find a week in which I could use this space to draw attention to some very bad things that have started to happen in the media and his insulting remarks provide me with this chance. Of these bad things, the worst is the habit that our news channels have developed of media trials. No matter what someone may have done, they have the right under Indian law to be considered innocent till proven guilty. Our news channels deny them this right and this is not just wrong, it is against the fundamental principles of justice. It is time for those who control our major news channels to come together and evolve a code of conduct.<br /><br />If some public figures are treated as guilty till proven innocent by our TV anchors, there are others who are treated with a reverence that is equally disturbing. Anna Hazare comes to mind as someone who was treated this way. As for the Nehru-Gandhi family, it is as if our TV channels had come to a secret understanding to deify them. The Prime Minister is routinely reviled for his indecision and his lack of leadership but the family who gave him his job is treated as sacrosanct. Why? <br /><br />Without wanting to sound like Justice Katju, I feel obliged to add that some of the so-called reporters employed by our news channels should have no place in journalism. They rush about hysterically from one sound byte to the next without noticing that instead of reporting a story, they are actually doing no more than shoving their microphones into the faces of different people. There are more than 300 news channels in India now and not one of them seems able to go beyond the manic frenzy of &lsquo;breaking news&rsquo;. When is the last time you saw a truly memorable bit of investigative journalism on Indian television? <br /><br />Justice Katju went too far when he described the whole media as ignorant and illiterate but nobody who watches television news on a daily basis can deny that improvement is needed. Junior reporters need basic training in the fundamentals of journalism before they are unleashed on our screens. And, some of our celebrated anchors need to remember that they do not speak for &lsquo;the people of India&rsquo;.<br /><br />On account of needing to compete with &lsquo;breaking news&rsquo;, I am forced here to sadly admit that print journalism standards have declined. No longer do we see the sort of investigative stories that this newspaper was once famous for. The only way for newspapers to compete seriously with television is for them to go deeper into a story than is possible in a news bulletin. Sadly, the opposite has happened and, more and more, we see reporters getting stories from &lsquo;sources&rsquo; instead of from their own investigation. But, this must not be taken to mean that we need Justice Katju to whip us into what he considers good behaviour. He definitely needs another job. <br /><br /></div>'
$lang = 'English'
$SITE_URL = 'https://im4change.in/'
$site_title = 'im4change'
$adminprix = 'admin'

include - APP/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp, line 8
Cake\View\View::_evaluate() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 1413
Cake\View\View::_render() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 1374
Cake\View\View::renderLayout() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 927
Cake\View\View::render() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 885
Cake\Controller\Controller::render() - CORE/src/Controller/Controller.php, line 791
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 126
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 94
Cake\Http\BaseApplication::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/BaseApplication.php, line 235
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/RoutingMiddleware.php, line 162
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/AssetMiddleware.php, line 88
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Error/Middleware/ErrorHandlerMiddleware.php, line 96
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Http\Runner::run() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 51

Does the media need controls? by Tavleen Singh

As a humble cog in the vast and wondrous machine of the Indian media, I want to extend my personal thanks to Justice Markandey Katju for his recent comments. He has been berated by the Editors Guild for his ‘tendentious and offensive’ remarks, but my own view is that we owe the new Chairman of the Press Council a small debt of gratitude. It is true that in his interview to Karan Thapar, he used unusually strong language. He described journalists as illiterate ignoramuses who lacked ‘knowledge of economic theory or political science or literature or philosophy.’ Phew! Justice Katju must have a high opinion of his own erudition to speak this way. But, this is not what I want to thank him for. I want to thank him for admitting publicly that the Government of India (and doubtless all our state governments) use their advertising campaigns, not for the public good, but to control the press. When he told Karan that he would like the electronic media to be brought under the Press Council so that he could deny government advertisements to misbehaving TV channels, I could hardly believe my ears. Those of us who cover government and politics in Delhi have known forever that the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting uses government advertising to control newspapers, but nobody, to my knowledge, has admitted this openly. If the government uses its advertisements to coerce newspapers into printing only good news about the government, it amounts to press censorship. It is a tactic Indian officials learned in the days when the Soviet Union was our role model. It is a tactic that has no place in today’s world in which the Internet has made censorship almost impossible even in totalitarian countries like China. On a personal level, Justice Katju has done me another favour. I have been waiting for some time to find a week in which I could use this space to draw attention to some very bad things that have started to happen in the media and his insulting remarks provide me with this chance. Of these bad things, the worst is the habit that our news channels have developed of media trials. No matter what someone may have done, they have the right under Indian law to be considered innocent till proven guilty. Our news channels deny them this right and this is not just wrong, it is against the fundamental principles of justice. It is time for those who control our major news channels to come together and evolve a code of conduct. If some public figures are treated as guilty till proven innocent by our TV anchors, there are others who are treated with a reverence that is equally disturbing. Anna Hazare comes to mind as someone who was treated this way. As for the Nehru-Gandhi family, it is as if our TV channels had come to a secret understanding to deify them. The Prime Minister is routinely reviled for his indecision and his lack of leadership but the family who gave him his job is treated as sacrosanct. Why? Without wanting to sound like Justice Katju, I feel obliged to add that some of the so-called reporters employed by our news channels should have no place in journalism. They rush about hysterically from one sound byte to the next without noticing that instead of reporting a story, they are actually doing no more than shoving their microphones into the faces of different people. There are more than 300 news channels in India now and not one of them seems able to go beyond the manic frenzy of ‘breaking news’. When is the last time you saw a truly memorable bit of investigative journalism on Indian television? Justice Katju went too far when he described the whole media as ignorant and illiterate but nobody who watches television news on a daily basis can deny that improvement is needed. Junior reporters need basic training in the fundamentals of journalism before they are unleashed on our screens. And, some of our celebrated anchors need to remember that they do not speak for ‘the people of India’. On account of needing to compete with ‘breaking news’, I am forced here to sadly admit that print journalism standards have declined. No longer do we see the sort of investigative stories that this newspaper was once famous for. The only way for newspapers to compete seriously with television is for them to go deeper into a story than is possible in a news bulletin. Sadly, the opposite has happened and, more and more, we see reporters getting stories from ‘sources’ instead of from their own investigation. But, this must not be taken to mean that we need Justice Katju to whip us into what he considers good behaviour. He definitely needs another job.