Thursday, February 16, 2012

Freedom of Media!!!!

                                                     

This Ad was published on Times of India, (Front page of Bangalore times) on 15 Feb 2012. If the same scene would have been opted in a movie, the movie would have either been categorized as A or UA; however newspaper can opt for such scenes. 

Government had been speaking about screening of media (news channels, news papers and other media); however it always leaves this area to the self discipline measures. 

Can we call the above attempt as a self discipline measure? 

Newspaper is a daily household in most of the parts of our country. They are far easily accessible to children then movies/porn magazines or other material. However I still feel that TOI 'should' understand this moral responsibilities by not publishing such aggressive ads. Indian Govt has always encouraged the freedom of speech and media, because we are not China or Korea; however it seems to be a need to have some policies in place.

Imagine the impact on a 3-4-5 year child after watching such advertisement, and asking odd questions to parents. Long back, I went through a post written by a young blogger. 


It was about different advertisement on television, where in author tried to show the discomfort level among parents while the advertisement of Stayfree, Manforce condom used to be telecasted on television. And indeed a curious boy like me (when I was a kid) will definitely ask his/her mother to tell what exactly these products are used for. (I did ask this question to my papa one day, though I don't remember what he answered)

@TOI: A humble request to try producing more quality content for your newspaper, instead of running behind money and publish such advertisements. You are owner of the major market share of English Newspapers, and it is your responsibility to act within your limits and as per societal needs.

@Indian Govt: Why to go for double standard while you are deciding such scenes as UA/A in hindi film industry, and no media screening for newspapers!!!!

Hemant

6 comments:

  1. When I opened this link, the last thing I expected (or even thought of) was a link to one of my posts... thank you so much.
    As for the post, I am unable to view the ad here at my college but the concern you are voicing is a great step. :)

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  2. I really wanna raise the last question too...

    Newpapers plays a great role in cultivating our charaterss.. its totally absurd to see these types of things in the media.... now a days media had grown to be an ad center rather than keepin ppl updating on the current issue...

    take care
    niya
    niya101.blogspot.com

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  3. Media being 4th pillar in democracy should be self-regulatory and it should understand it's moral responsibility.

    Print Media should be more responsible because watching TV can be controlled by Parents, though newspaper is something which can not be banned as it is seen as knowledge builder..

    Even though i don't see any thing wrong with StayFree and ManForce ads being shown on TV, but in absence of any parental guidance mechanism as we have for Films, it's difficult to make them UA or A Rated, so may be these kinds of adds should not be shown in the mid of a Family daily soap or in a news channel.

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  4. A very well written post Hemant. I agree with you. Years back, we had subscribed for TOI. But because the newspaper started publishing the raunchy photographs of hollywood actresses in it's magazine section and didn't filter it's content, we switched to Hindustan Times and now Hindu. Though sometimes, i feel Hindu is biased for S.India news, still its a newspaper which is for people who are interested in news. TOI has lost it's charm long way back! Be it print media or electric media, we all know it's far away from it's responsibility and doesn't care for it's accountability.

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  5. @Hey All,
    Thanks for dropping by...ur comments make this post more valuable thn before...

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