Media ethics, web safety on parliamentary panel’s radar

The panel has listed a total of 21 subjects for review in this financial year after its reconstitution last month: ethical standards in media coverage; safeguarding citizens’ rights and prevention of misuse of social/online news media platforms including special emphasis on women security in the digital space, among other topics.

Saubhadra Chatterji and Sunetra Chowdhury, HT,  10 October 2020, New Delhi : A committee of Indian Parliament will, for the first time, debate on issues such as ethical standards in media coverage and preventing the misuse of social media platforms, both pertinent but controversial themes with the government and the Opposition believing that they are at the receiving end of lapses in the two areas.

If nothing, the topics suggest that proceedings of the Standing Committee on Information Technology led by the Congress’s Shashi Tharoor will prove interesting and fractious.

The panel has listed a total of 21 subjects for review in this financial year after its reconstitution last month: ethical standards in media coverage; safeguarding citizens’ rights and prevention of misuse of social/online news media platforms including special emphasis on women security in the digital space; review of the cybersecurity scenario in India; and a review of the functioning and outreach of Doordarshan channels, among other topics.

Standing committees are multi-party panels of Parliament constituted every year to review functioning and issues related to various ministries. While their reports are not binding upon the government, they provide key inputs to policymakers and ensure parliamentary oversight of important areas.

The topic on ethical standards in media coverage comes at a time when there has been some criticism of media coverage — particularly news channels, for its reporting of the Sushant Singh Rajput death case — and when a programme aired on Sudarshan TV was barred by the Supreme Court after it found its content objectionable to Muslims.

On Thursday, while hearing a petition seeking action against TV channels for allegedly disseminating fake news about the Tablighi Jamaat, which became a Covid-19 hot spot in late March, Chief Justice of India SA Bobde remarked: “Freedom of speech is one of the most abused freedoms of recent times.”

The topic also comes up at a time when government believes that there are false narratives against it and the Opposition believes that the government gets far more positive press than it deserves. Earlier this week, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi claimed that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has “captured” several institutions, including the media, and contended: “If the press and institutions are free, this government will not last for long.”

Some of these issues, however, might trigger political divisions in the panel that is no stranger to furious disputes and partisan arguments. Last year, this panel even resorted to voting to decide if it could discuss the WhatsApp snooping case. This year, panel chairman Shashi Tharoor faced the BJP’s ire after he had announced that Facebook would be summoned to depose after The Wall Street Journal reported how Ankhi Das, Facebook’s top lobbyist in India, told colleagues that action against politicians from Modi’s party would damage the company’s business prospects.

The BJP leaders took objection to Tharoor’s announcement and linked it to the Congress party’s stand on the issue. The rift widened to such an extent that BJP MP Nishikant Dubey, a member of the panel, wrote to Speaker Om Birla asking for Tharoor’s removal as chairman.

That wasn’t to be, and when the panel was reconstituted, Tharoor was still its head.

Most importantly, the panel will also seek to have oversight on issues related to citizens’ data security and privacy.

Former parliamentary affairs secretary Afzal Amanullah said: “The Standing Committee on IT is an appropriate forum to discuss the ethical issues about media, and privacy issues especially in the context of women. People are extremely concerned about the way some media and social media have been used for vilification of women and propagation of a certain kind of news.”