Sovereign Control Over Media; Merits and Demerits

From the history of media, dated back to 868 AD, we can trace that media has been responsible for changing society's views for a very long time. The media has the power to change the mind of society and to be the vocal for its audience, no matter the audience belongs to an urban developed area or to a rural area, where the development of the ratio is very low. Media is the eye of every nation in this world and us as an audience has shown credibility to the media. The phrase "the media" began to be used in 1920, when newspapers started publishing and the literate population started reading them, and then at that point sovereign found the way to mold the minds of the society without bloodshed as per the needs.

In ancient India when kings used to make any law, they used to make sure the public knows about the laws and consequences of breaking the law. The king through his councils and councils through their servants were given the duty to inform the public by mouth or by other means available at that time. With time the modes to make information reach to the public kept changing but basic motives and reasons never changed. After the great war i.e. first world war newspapers got their reach among rural areas and people got information about the war. After the war, the growth of the idea of Independence of the press finds a place in the people's minds.

 

Sovereign, since ancient times, imposed a number of restrictions on media or we can say sovereign made their own media house to scrutinize the news, which could be dangerous for their sovereignty.

The main functions of media at the Ancient time:

1. Mediator: - Media performs the main role as a mediator between the sovereign and the public of that country. The media had the support of kings in ancient times and have the support of Ministers at the present time. The servants of the councils were given the orders to take Ideas and laws/orders of the sovereign to public and neither servants nor citizens were allowed to question anything related to law and order. They were asked to follow every word of the king and the consequences of this rigid rule were that all citizens of that country had a sanctioning authority upon them and they didn’t have any rights to ask questions from king directly.  

2. Policy informer: - The informers of ancient time without any debates and without any questions used to take decisions and policies of the king to the public. If questions were asked to the sovereign or fingers were pointed at sovereign, Citizens were liable to punishment.

3. Society influenza: -When the media examines the actions of the government, the nation benefits. Only media have that much power that it can influence the entire nation at the same time but in the ancient times period, the kings used the media to inform the public about only the invariable news and hid the truth from them. There are always two sides of the coin but the king wanted citizens to see only one side coin because the ancient king didn’t want to lose the estates. Kings used the media as the weapon against the revolts and to formulate their propaganda among the peoples.

4. Control the voice of the public: - Media had and Media have the power to influence the country and to control the voice of the public. If we start lying about a fact a hundred times it becomes truth and society accepts that lie as a truth. This happened in ancient times and is happening in today’s world under the supervision of the sovereign.

 

Once the first Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru said “Whatever we may think of the virtues and failings of the Press it is obvious that it plays a very important part in our lives; it molds people’s minds and thoughts and this affects the policies of the government, if not always directly. Therefore, when we have to deal with any major problem, it is important that the Press should- if I say so with all humility- give it right lead….” (Address at the newspapers Editor’s Conference. 4/5/1950). Indian constitution states under article 19 (1) (a) to freedom of speech and expression with reasonable restrictions by the law, which means people have the right to free speech but they have some restrictions which take them back to raise their voice. Once Thomas Jefferson the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809 said “By sharing knowledge and sparking debate, a free press invigorates and educates the nation’s citizens. Freedom will be “a short-lived possession” unless the people are informed”.

The right to freedom in Article 19 guarantees the freedom of speech and expression, as one of its six freedoms. Freedom of speech and expression can be achieved by the freedom of the press. Journalists are the watchdogs—not the cheerleaders of the sovereign. They ignite dialogue on essential issues. They share the truths that powerful people would rather conceal. They are the force that holds our leaders accountable for their actions. They are the reason for the development of free speech, where nobody is scared to question the sovereign for any legislation made by the sovereign. But some laws take that freedom from the citizens such as a sedition charge. In my views, the democracy is the form of government where a person gives his or her ideas which are controversial to the government, sedition charge is labeled on a person by the government and that charge is incapacitated, and democracy starts to doom because people are not free to express their ideas or their theories.

The main problem in the current scenario is that the government itself starts the media houses or in partnership with media, which is not giving a fruitful message to society. Media hides the main intentions of the government behind the making of any law and ordinance. In my knowledge “CORRUPTED MEDIA IS THE PARASITE TO THE NATION”.  If the main agenda or propaganda of the media is only to support the government, then I suppose the nation is in danger. The free press is the need of the society and right or use-full to the public. The verifiable news is our right: the right that is stated in the constitution of India itself under article 19 (1) (a). When people get real, accurate, and verifiable news without any censorship, society becomes more transparent and the sovereign becomes answerable towards the public.

The main demerits of false and fake news are: -

1. Disable to find the true source hence deceitful to the society. Fake or one-sided news is the foremost imposture of the media. The media channel promotes unreal news without knowing the true facts and deceives the nation. Most of every time unreal news led the society towards the end of faith in the opposite party or community. It is the main reason for hatred among people and people losing credibility towards media.

2. Deliberate deception in news is the next evil for the society, such as if a media house or any kind of media follows any specific party of the legislation makers or any the specific community then they deliberately pick up those topics for their viewers who are useful for that party or that community manipulating the disadvantages of those popular groups.  

3. Lack of expertise in the verification or testing of news whether that news was true or false. The experts in today’s media do not want to come forward and share their views because they have lost their trust in media and as a result the media channels take the incompetent person to debate, which leads to providing misinformation or untenable news to society.

In my view, the quick fix to unreliable or fake news spread by media or any other media source is that sovereign shall not collude or participate with media directly or indirectly. Media may be free to criticize the works of the government and to broadcast news without any fear or unfair profit. The media should perform the real role of the fourth pillar of the constitution and citizens shall check the valid news source for each and every news. People have to be aware and validate the news which is aggressive in nature or which has the intensity to change a life. Citizens are the machinery of a nation; the free and faithful media is the right of them.  

Written By:- Advocate S. Vashist  

Edited By:- CS Diksha Soni

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