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CHENNAI, March 14

WITH boundaries blurring between editorial functions and marketing, the issue of ethics of news as business dominated a two-day colloquium on `Emerging media issues', that started here on Friday.

With editors and senior journalists participating, the colloquium organised by the Chennai-based Media Development Foundation provided the forum for journalists and media practitioners to introspect on where the media is heading.

Mr T.N. Ninan, Editor and Publisher, Business Standard, set the ball rolling by drawing attention to the increasing pressures on newspapers from commercial interests, and the conflicting interests to ensure a healthy bottomline for the shareholders while at the same time uphold the integrity of editorial functions. Managing the company (that ran the newspaper) was a trade activity, whereas journalism was a profession, he said.

Palming off advertisements in the guise of news was the worst sin a newspaper could commit, he said.

He said newspapers and journalist bodies should engage in a dialogue with commercial organisations, such as advertising bodies, on the dangers of mixing advertisements with news, and that of linking editorial position with advertising. Newspapers should also work with agencies like the Indian Newspaper Society to draft a code of practice on news reports which could be made available to all newspapers. This code could become the basis of an advertisement campaign by the newspapers themselves and this campaign could highlight the code as well as those who have signed it.

Mr Ninan said there was also a need to clearly identify the potential threats to the freedom of the press, which were growing.

Among the methods to counter the commercial pressures, he said, was to get readers to pay enough to make the newspapers profitable. Even if the practice of blurring commercial interests and news reporting spread, it would not convert a wrong into a right. Efforts should be made to make it costly for any publication to deviate from established practice, he said.

Ms Shobhana Bhartia, Vice-Chairman and Editorial Director, The Hindustan Times, said newspaper revenues were vulnerable to downturn in advertising, making it difficult to raise resources for fresh investment. With newspapers no longer the first source of information to its readers, there was a need to identify new ways to hold reader interest, especially of a new generation. This must include broadening the scope of news and providing in-depth coverage that television channels were not capable of offering. All these, she said, had to be done by journalists only.

Ms Malini Parthasarathy, Executive Editor, The Hindu, referred to the unquestioned acceptance of the Government's authority and the pressure on the media from Hindutva forces, and said newspapers no longer cared to closely scrutinise what was handed down to them. Mr Rudrangshu Mukherjee, Editorial Pages Editor, The Telegraph, said there was a clear division in newspapers between the objective side and the opinion. The problem arose when the objective side of the newspaper was contaminated by views. This is where journalists were found to compromise their integrity.

Mr Philip Mathew, Managing Editor and Director, Malayala Manorama, and Vice-Chairman, International Press Institute, said there was no longer a unipolar side to news reporting and newspapers had to present a multitude of views.

The speakers felt that there was nothing wrong in newspapers placing advertisements in a particular place in a page as long as there was no attempt to pass it off as editorial matter. Besides, the readers were also discerning enough to distinguish between advertisements and editorial matter.

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