Media Freedom and Resposibility

February 4, 2006

Media Freedom and Responsibility

By T.S.Khanna

Just as power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely, freedom defies justice and absolute freedom defies justice absolutely.

Because of the boundless opportunities of free expression, the media has started frequently transgressing the limits imposed by the responsibility that goes with freedom. The case in point is the publication of twelve cartoons by a Danish Daily, “Jyllands-Posten”. It is not only the Muslims but also most people in good conscience find such insults to religious prophets offensive. Similar insults have been hurled at other prophets as well as political leaders in the USA. This activity damages the culture and dignity of free societies.

The public needs freedom from pornography, indecencies, insults, incitements, instigation, exaggerations, and lies. The media ignores the goodness in the society and turns criminals into heroes by their twisted criteria of time or space allocation. Their emphasis is to sell more by creating more sensation. The media is now free of conscience, ethics, and sense of responsibility. They are out of self-control. There is an urgent need to control the seditious activities of the media.

It is time to revisit the first amendment of the Constitution (1791) which grants unbridled freedom to the media with an implied assumption that there would be self-imposed controls of responsibility and decency.