Article 19(1) of Indian Constitution provides for the freedom of press in India.

The successful survival and flowering of biggest democracy, Indian democracy owes a great deal to the freedom, power and vigor of our press. This was with an underlying motive that our free media, including our largely unfettered press, have a huge role in the upliftment, development and the betterment of the country which is democratic and secular .But the recent developments dont augur good for the Indian media. Often Questions have been raised upon the accountability on part of the Indian media. Questions that still remain unanswered are: 1. Whether media reflects reality or just cooks one on its own? 2. Should media portray an ideal world? 3. What is the overall positive and negative impact of the media upon reality? 4. Ideally what should the role of the media be? 5. Can media actually change reality and has it been able to do so in the past? Media that purports pretends and boasts off to reflect reality has two functions. The first and foremost responsibility is to reflect reality as and how is present in the real world. Other is to help and develop a viable methodology on how to reach a better and meaningful consensus so that reality can be improved. The intent of responsibility is more serious upon mainstream reality media. Unfortunately in India, they fail completely. The reasons can be plenty. For one, they focus on only one aspect or slice of reality and neglect to realize the fact that the impact of the slice of reality that they are projecting is negligible in the larger perspective to the benefit of the whole world. Such media does reflect slices of unavoidable reality sometimesearthquakes, famines, droughtsbut this coverage is so sanitized, so devoid of context, that far from becoming a stimulus for thought and action, it becomes a prey and slave to numb our sense of responsibility. No one can doubt the intrepidity and ability of the Indian media, their guts and ability to do stories in the midst of worst kind of challenges. But exercise caution, restraint and tact they must. Supreme Court in a recent injunction prescribed media guidelines in the Falak episode, bizarre as it was as well as sad for the legacy which India media holds. The media can make or break. Let it make, build and re-build rather than remain automatons in the hands of a sleazy few. Media definitely creates excitement but unfortunately instead of choosing to follow the story on merits, nowadays, it runs after sensationalism and spice and in the process, it forgets whether the thing it is getting involved in so passionately is ethically and morally right or wrong. I will like to cite two recent cases which pose few questions on the teleological, deontological and distributive justice. The Aarushi Talwar murder case is something I start with. Immediately after this barbaric and inhumane episode, the media reported,(unfortunaltely led by a leading newspaper of the country) that she was murdered by her reputed parents because she and her domestic poor man servant objected to the clandestine affairs of her parents, which of course included flagrant love affairs. The media then retracted.The action of media was really a sad incident as there was no facts to back it up and whole focus was to get TRP.There was no compliance to rules of common good. After a couple of years of trial and still going on, the main suspects were exonerated. The case is still oscillating between various courts sand the Talwar parents are pleading not guilty. It has been several years now but the justice hasnt been done by our courts but some of our journalists drew the conclusions on the very first day.It certainly is unfair,unjust both to the parties as well as the people who trust media and loyal to it and put money on its honesty and accountability.

The second case I will like to put is that of the Anna Hazare anti-corruption campaign wherein almost entire country participated and the leading catalyst was media, so much so that children proudly proclaimed that I am Anna and rallies became an order of the day. We dont know what is happening now. For months and even seasons! There was only Anna on our TV sets, magazines every station we surfed, Anna, Kejriwal ,his followers and TV debates on the onset of a new era (whether it ever existed or media synthesized it for TRP)were omnipresent. Now he has stopped featuring in our newspapers and electronic media and no one knows the fate of Anti-corruption bill.The media which boasted of a leader anti-corruption drew itself away as soon as commercial nterests went down and it got more spicy matter to cover and garner TRP points and readership ratings. These are only two of numerous examples that I have given to show how the media creates excitement and loses all interest after creating excitement and tension. Who gains and who loses? It is the sensitive Indian whose loyalty is played with. The fourth pillar of democracy, the media, has never attempted or eve without that, hogged more limelight than it has done in the last few years in India. This is especially true in some barbaric cases like aftermath of the Guwahati molestation incident, when a journalist unethically, morally incorrect, continued to record the act of a teenage girl being ruthlessly molested by a mob for half an hour and to add salt to the wounds, later justified it by saying that he did so to get proofs to enable the authorities to identify and catch the perpetrators of the crime. Following this incident, the dubious role of the media in covering sensitive issues such as these was put to test and is certainly put under radar. Did the media at times exceed its limits and mandate, becoming the news maker and attention seeker instead of playing the role and duty of a news disseminator and fails deontologically? The media is not only the fourth pillar of democracy but also serves the dual role of the backbone of any democratic society. This is because of the fact while the legislature makes the laws, then of course the judiciary interprets it and finally the executive implements it, it is the media which acts as the powerful watchdog of the three pillars. Unfortunately, in the last decade, there have been numerous incidents where the media,unethically both teleologcally and deontologically, has taken advantage of its role then ,be it the case of tabloidization of news, fake sting operation to settle own professional and personal scores, paid news especially during elections(dedicated to the services of servers of the nation!) Without any concrete action being taken against the wrong-doers. It is not that there isnt any watchdog for the media. PCI was set up in 1966 with the object of preserving the freedom of the press and at the same time, of maintaining and improving the standards of the press in India. It is a statutory, quasi judicial body headed by a Chairman, a retired judge of the Supreme Court of India. .Though the genesis behind the formation was noble, its existence is merely gaudy and superficial, serving little or absolutely no purpose. Neither is it serving the duty of representative of the views of the media, nor does it have any real legal power to take any punitive or corrective action against the offending publishers. It has merely been boiled down to an toothless tiger, authority that publishes, then reports analyzing the actions (right or wrong, just or unjust) and words of the media. In April 2012, Congress MP Meenakshi Natarajan ,drafted a Private Members Bill ,Print and Electronic Media Standards and Regulation Bill, 2012 .Though it was circulated in the Parliament, due to unfortunate incidents ,she was absent the day when she was scheduled to

introduce the bill in the Parliament and hence the Bill, till date, has been crying for a consideration. Time is ripe that media starts understanding its very purpose of essence, the freedom it has been granted, otherwise, instead, its accountability will be very soon in the dire states and so will be its prominence.

Ethical Ref. Point

Executive Decisions, Actions ,Choices and Strategies Conforming to: Not Conforming to Factual UnethicalWrong Standards of conduct often lack moral conscience & professional standards Legally Unethical illicit In India ,Such acts dont find any ground e.g. Gagging act during British rule exists no more Teleogically non-desirableUnethical Ethics of cost and benefits is under a delicate balance.Comm ercialisation is killing the social welfare Parenetically Non compliant Doesnt hold in case of Indian media

Executive Statements, Declarations and Reports Verifying Factually Truthful Correct Mostly the media scores high on this although the way it is delivered makes it very obscure and misleading Legally truthful-Valid ? exists here as information being presented to the masses is deviating from accurate state, logical necessity and also conformation for standards is going for toss Teleologically Truthfultruth Often the news being transmitted are not corrected for errors in an attempt to be the first to disseminate the information and there has been a dip in the loyality and trust Parenetically TruthfulIndia Media needs to be appreciated as mostly the pacts and agreements are not violated, atleast,blatantly. Not Verifying Factually falsePCI and ministry of broadcasting regulates the information ,so chances of factually false are rare Legally false-Invalid Information being presented often lacks conscience and too sanitized and at times, immoral and unjust

Ethicality or morality

Data ,Figures and Facts

Factual Ethical Right on the ground that there is conformity with truth

Objective

Laws, Acts and Ordina nces

Legally EthicalLicit PCI act,1978 Artice19 of constitution serve a strong backbone for conforming to morality and professionalism Rules Teleologically of desirable Commo Ethical n God Purpose do exists always with information disseminated but to do justice to that is under threat Codes, Parenetically pacts compliantand e.g. nonagreem disclosure of ents of names in rape busines cases s conduc t Moral Deontologically Standar conforming ds fair

Objective Interpret ative

Teleologically Objective UntruthfulInterpret falsehood atives Though falsehood doesnt exists in literal sense but ethical it dominates as quality of accuracy and logic is abysmal. Parenetically UntruthfulMisrepresentation has happened from time to time but no concrete breach of pacts and agreements happen. Deontologically Non-conformingMorally Dishonest Objective Subjectiv e Interpret ative

Deontologicall y Nonconforming-

Deontologically conforming-Morally Honest

Objective Subjectiv

,Rights and Duties

A big question mark has always been hovering on Indian media as lot of Bias is there in presentation of facts and information

Immoral Sometimes the justification of the actions is not there and also evenness lack along with unethical issues

Rightness or wrongness in actions needs to be elevated to better standards

Certain cases as of Guwahati case were certainly a slap to the morality as principles of rightness or wrong were in tatters.

eImperativ e