By Sachin Murdeshwar
Mumbai:Union Minister for Information & Broadcasting Manish Tewari has called for a robust self regulation regime in the country, to keep pace 
with changing media environment. “Content regulation in the media space is not going to come out of political executive, but will come out of the judicial process. Make self regulation more inclusive and robust to keep out judicial intervention” he said, while speaking at the Red Ink Awards function of the Press Club, Mumbai on Saturday evening.
Mr. Tewari said “with exponential growth in the media space, a paradigm shift has taken place, wherein regulations have to keep pace with changing technologies and have to be universal.” Mr Tewari said the social media has reshaped the media environment today and in effect, there are over 8 crore broadcasters in the form of micro-bloggers, Twitter and Facebook users. The Minister went on to mention the Paradox of Short Fuse, which pits proliferating instruments of dissemination against growing intolerance. He said such a situation creates conflict between Article 19 guaranteeing the freedom of speech and reasonable restrictions to be imposed on it. Elaborating further, he said there was a need for constant introspection so that the self regulation process could be taken forward.
Mr Tewari also observed that the revenue models of Indian media organizations have not been well constructed, which in turn have led to the issues of paid news, private treaties, tyranny of TRPs and sensationalism.
Veteran journalist N Ram, participating in a panel discussion observed that reasonable restrictions were often becoming unreasonable restrictions and jurisdiction of criminal contempt was posing a serious challenge to fearless journalism. He said the phenomenon of paid news and private treaties have resulted in hyper-commercialization of news. Arnab Goswami, moderating the discussion, said media had the right to defend its turf from frequent judicial interventions.
Red Link Life Time Achievement awards to N Ram and Kuldeep Nayar
The Governor of Maharashtra, Mr K Sankaranarayanan conferred the Red Ink Life Time Achievement Awards upon renowned columnist Kuldeep Nayar and veteran journalist and editor N Ram. The award for Kuldeep Nayar was received by his wife Ms Bharti Nayar. The Lifetime Achievement Awards were selected by the managing committee of the Press Club based on a survey of leading and senior journalists from all over the country.
Red Ink Awards for excellence in Journalism were also presented to 20 other journalists from various cities in various categories including Politics, Sports, Media & Entertainment, Health & Environment, Crime, Business, Television Story, Science & Innovation and Photo Journalism. The Red Ink Awards for 2013 received over 900 entries from journalists all across India. Winners were selected by an eminent jury comprising some of the leading names in journalism, films, sports, advertising and communication. Press Club, Mumbai has branded the Red Ink Awards to underline a sharper focus on news and its presentation in correct perspective. The 2013 Awards were dedicated to those Indian journalists who laid down their lives, while pursuing their chosen profession fearlessly, ignoring the risks involved
