1. Saif Ahmad Khan
BA (Hons) Journalism

2. “Read! In the name of your Lord, who created: created
man from a clot. Read! Your Lord is the Most Bountiful
One who taught by the pen, taught man what he did
not know.”
Quran – (96:1-5)

3. While speaking to Karan Thapar on CNN-IBN in
October 2011, newly appointed PCI Chief Retd. Justice
Markandey Katju stated that there were three
fundamental problems with the Indian media which
were as follows:
1. Media deflects attention from the real issues.
2. Irresponsible media coverage divides the society.
3. Media promotes superstitious practices.

4. 1. Rename Press Council of India as the Media
Council.
2. Bring the electronic media under the ambit of the
PCI.
3. Provide the PCI with more teeth as in giving it the
power to levy fines, withhold government
advertisements, issue licenses and even the power to
revoke licenses.

5. The first week of the last month of the year
(December 2011) kick-started the debate on internet
regulation in India. The man who kept on making the
headlines was Union Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal.
Sibal had instructed internet giants like Google and
Facebook to remove all objectionable content from
their respective websites. He raised eyebrows when he
suggested prescreening of online content but he went
back on this suggestion of his after his move backfired.

7. The Assam Riots which began in July 2012 and caused
the displacement of more than 400,000 people within
the territory of India brought about a paradigm change
in the debate concerning regulation of the internet.

8. The vandalism which resulted due to the violence
which erupted in Mumbai on 11th August, 2012 during a
rally at Azad Maidan and the exodus of a large number
of North Easterners from the Southern parts of India
laid the foundations of a bipartisan agreement on the
need for internet regulation as the then NDA
Convener Sharad Yadav spoke in favour of such a move
from the floor of the House.

9. PCI Chief Retd. Justice Markandey Katju once again
hogged the limelight when he recommended in March
2013 the setting up of a Committee to recommend the
minimum qualification required to become a
journalist.

10. Five months after Justice Katju recommended the
setting up of a Commission to fix minimum
qualification for journalists, Union I&B Minister
Manish Tewari suggested holding a common entrance
exam f0r journalists. He opined that only those people
would be given licenses to practice journalism who
would clear this exam just like in the case of the Bar &
Medical Council of India.

11. “Social media provides the opportunity to state one’s
views freely and there is need to maintain this. But it is
also important that we do not allow people wanting to
create trouble to misuse it.”
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
National Integration Council
September 2013