Freedom of speech, expression non negotiable: Tewari

Freedom of speech and expression are non negotiable entities and there is a need to find a "golden mean" between this freedom and reasonable restrictions, Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari said. "I think at that at the end of the day there will be anybody who will say that the freedom of speech or expression is negotiable by any stretch of imagination. That is a complete non sequitur," Tewari said.

"The debate really is not about reasonable restrictions ... The debate is about finding the golden mean. To what extent the freedom of speech and expression extend and where do reasonable restrictions take over. And who ultimately will police that space of reasonable restrictions." He was speaking at a function organised by the Press Council of India (PCI) to mark National Press Day.

"Over the last one decade, technological innovation has been so rapid that I don't that either regulation or human ingenuity has been able to keep pace with it. There is a whole new paradigm in the social media space which has emerged whereby everybody has the ability to be a broadcaster at time with responsibility, at times without restraint," Tewari said. He, however, added that media itself was also conscious of the need to self correct and stressed that self regulation was the way forward.

"The media itself is cognisant of the need to self correct, if at all there are aberrations which do creep in the discourse. I do firmly believe that self regulation is really the way forward," he said. "That is why over the past eight years the policy of the UPA government has been an essay at persuasion rather than an attempt at regulation. This course, we intend to stay the course," he added. Tewari said that the government could assist the self regulation mechanisms for the media but had no intention of playing the big brother.

In his speech, PCI chief Justice Markanday Katju put forward a case of increasing the ambit of the Press Council by including the electronic media under it. He called for regulation and not control of media. "I have been misunderstood by some people who think that I wish to gag and muzzle the media. The truth is that I have always supported media freedom wherever there was an attack on it," he said.

He also said while Indian media had done a commendable job there were also several serious complaints against it. "Paid news, Radia tapes etc have brought a bad name to the media. Some media persons have even been accused of extortion and blackmail. The scene in the media has grown murkier in recent times," he said. Katju said that corporatisation and commercialisation of the media was partially responsible for this and said that no freedom could be absolute and had to be coupled with responsibility.

"There cannot be freedom to defame, incite religious riots, extort and blackmail, hold media trials etc. Hence a balance has to be struck between freedom and responsibility," Katju said and added that he was "in favour of regulation of the media, not control." "However regulation should not be by the government by by an independent statutory authority like the Press Council which has 28 members of which 20 are representatives of the Press," he said.

Katju also said that Press Council should have powers to impose fines or cancel licences of a delinquent journal, which should be exercised in rarest cases. In the speech which he made after Katju had spoken Tewari batted for self regulation by the media and said that "the challenges which Justice Markanday Katju alluded to in his opening address need a deep a debate and introspection". The I&B minister also honoured the winners of the Press Council of India instituted - National Awards to honour journalists excelling in print journalism in various fields. This awardees included Damayanti Datta, Priyanka Dubey, R Samban, Rajesh Parshuram Joshte, Razia Begum, Biplab Banerjee, Lattur Rathinam Shankar, Partha Paul, Kamal Kishore, Sanjoy Ghosh, Zishaan Akbar Latif and Hasan Kamaal.

Earlier speaking on the occasion the German Ambassador Michael Steiner said that India is the world's largest media market - and growing. "India is a tower of media strength in a region of the world where freedom of press is all but guaranteed. Freedom of expression and freedom of information are part of the DNA of Indian society. More than 600 TV stations, thousands of newspapers - India has all the means to exert this fundamental right, not only on paper, but in practice," Steiner said.