Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Media Law-


CHEQUEBOOK  JOURNALISM



A cheque is issued to make payment. But in journalism it has a peculiar meaning. Here, a journalist pays money for the right to publish his story. The term “chequebook  journalism is used in a derogatory and negative sense. The understanding is that stories obtained by praying people are not so worthy as those obtained by traditional methods and investigations.
It is defined as the practice of securing exclusive rights to material for newspaper stories by paying a high price for it, regardless of any moral implications. For instance, it may involve paying people to boast of criminal or morally reprehensible activities.
An example of chequebook journalism is the f
amous case where five men were charged with plotting to kill Victoria Beckham, wife of soccer star David Beckham. The media paid money to the witnesses in  the case to get stories out of them.
The trail collapsed as the court decided that the charges of plotting to kidnap were false.  This raised questions about when and whether it is acceptable for the media to pay witnesses in criminal cases for their stories.
The fear is that a witness who has been offered money may be tempted to exaggerate their evidence to justify their fee- or hold something back for publication later.Either way the witness becomes
unreliable.However, those who defend payments to people who may become witnesses in criminal trials argue they are important tool of investigative journalism. They feel that sometimes people just don’t want to tell their stories unless they’re paid.The code of ethics says that payments to people who may become witnesses at a earlier stage are permitted, but only way to get it. Under no circumstances must witnesses be offered more money on the event of a conviction.
Thus, Checkbook Journalism is term used when newspaper and other media pay people to tell their story. It is believed that the truth usually suffers in deals like this. Often the person telling the story will say what the journalists want to hear, in order to get the money.
In many countries, especially the UK and US it is becoming an accepted practice. A section of thinkers believe that it has a corrupting influence. It either encourages exaggeration/ colouring of information or suppresses it, depending upon the situation.  It becomes particularly problematic when these payments are made to source who are witnesses or crime or convicted of crime.

 In India, this kind of journalism is not practiced. Most journalists have disregard for it. Chequebook journalism remains restricted to sleazy tabloids who do not mind paying, say Britney spear’s hair-dresser, a large sum of money for some story about Britney’s love life. In the UK however, cheque-book journalism flourishes. At one level, it is the mainstay of the tabloids. The Sun, The Daily Mirror, The News of the World or The Daily Mail have no hesitation in paying for stories. These could range from the confessions of a high class call girl to something more substantial and significant.
But at another level, it could be an integral part of investigate journalism. If a reporter pays a security guard to gain access to restricted space or it a correspondent pays money to driver to tell him who he drove where, this might be acceptable.

                                                                                                                                                    

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Media Law


The Cable Television Networks 

(Regulation) Amendment Act, 2011

 

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), in its recommendations dated the 5th August, 2010 on "Implementation of Digital Addressable Cable Systems in India" had, inter alia, recommended that " digitalization with addressability be implemented on priority in cable TV services in Non-CAS areas" and, accordingly, recommended a time-frame comprising four phases for switch over from analog system to the Digital Addressable System (DAS) in the cable TV sector. In view of the above-mentioned recommendations of the TRAI, the Central Government decided to introduce digitalization with addressability in the cable TV services in a phased time bound manner on a pan India basis, leading to complete switch off of analog TV services by the 31st December, 2014. 
For the implementation of DAS, certain amendments were required to be made in the aforesaid Act mandating all cable operators to provide programs of all channels, including free-to-air (FTA) channels, in an encrypted form through DAS in a phased manner at specified areas from specified dates to be notified by the Central Government. It is also mandatory that any such notification should give at least six months time to the cable operators for being able to install the necessary digital equipments for migration and educate the subscribers in this area. In order to protect the interest of consumers, it has been proposed to empower TRAI to specify a package
of free-to-air channels, called basic service tier, which shall be offered by every cable operator to the consumers. It is also necessary that every cable operator should offer channels in the basic service tier on a la carte (individual) basis to consumers at a tariff fixed by TRAI.
It has also been considered necessary to carry out certain amendments in the Act for rectifying certain deficiencies noticed during the operation of the Act for the last fifteen years. These, inter alia, include systemization of registration of cable operators, providing right of way to cable operators and permission by public authorities, compulsory transmission of certain channels, inspection of cable network services, prescription of interference standards by the Central Government and empowering the TRAI to specify basic service tier and its tariff.
The Act has come into force from 25thday of December 2011.

Friday, February 15, 2013

Media & Entertainment





 


Media Industry & Indian Entertainment

As it is well observed that Indian Entertainment and media industry is one of the fastest growing sector in India. Media and entertainment industry consist of many different segments under its folds such as; television, print, film, radio, music.

Television segment: 

Television first came to India in the form of Doordarshan (DD) on Sept 15, 1959. Doordarshan is the National Television Network of India and also one of the largest broadcasting organizations in the world.
Indian Television Industry has been in existence for nearly since four to five decades. It is one of the huge industry and has thousands of programs in all the states of India.  Today India boasts of being the third largest television market in the world.

Some Top leading Television Companies:





  • Sony Pictures
  • Zee Televisions
  • Star TV
  • Sahara One media and entertainment Ltd
  • UTV Software Communications Ltd
  • Balaji Telefilms Ltd
     





According to the report released by the Price waterhouse coopers today India's burgeoning Film and Television Industry created nearly 1.8 million jobs and contributes an immense $6.2 billion (Rs 28,305 crores) to the Indian economy. 






Print segment: It comprises of newspaper and magazine publishing. Book publishing also forms part of the print media though currently the share is not substantial.
Going forward
A booming Indian economy, literate population on the rise, increasing consumerism, entry of global brands in the country and opening of the sector to foreign investors would drive the growth in print media. Also with newspaper companies entering into newer regions and segments would lead to stronger growth. Foreign media too is taking interest in investing in Indian publications.



Film Segment:

Films are the most important form of entertainment in India. Film industry in India is among the largest in the world in terms of films produced in different languages viz, Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, Punjabi, & Malayalam. As Indians enjoy movies with spice, thrills, investigations and etc the industry is getting more developed. The most important trend for the Indian entertainment industry is that the number of Indians scattered around the world are numbering close to the affluent population back in India. And as entertainment becomes a strong ethnic bond for Indians in alien lands, theatre owners, TV/cable channel operators, event managers are all hankering for Indian entertainment products.

Radio Segment:

The cheapest and the oldest form of entertainment in the country, which was previously dominated by the AIR. In 2005, the government opened up the sector to foreign investment- and this is the key factor that will drive growth in this sector. As many as 338 licenses are being given out by the Indian government for FM radio channels in 91 big and small ad cities.

Music Segment:

Indian music attempts to assign each of the standard notes of its octave (Sa, Re, Ga ,Ma, Pa, Tha, Ni, Sa) to some sound in nature.  Music



The industry has been plagued by piracy and had been showing very sluggish growth over the last few years, both in India and globally. However, ‘mobile music’ and ‘licensed digital distribution’

services are projected to fuel the recovery of the music industry the world-over. The pace of growth in mobile music reflects the fact that consumers increasingly view their wireless device as an entertainment medium, using those devices to play games and listen to music, while carriers are actively promoting ancillary services such as ringtones to boost average revenue per user. Ringtones currently constitute the dominant component of the mobile music market. Licensed digital distribution services are also contributing significantly to growth in all regions.







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