News Broadcasting
Should the Press Council govern TV and Internet?
MUMBAI: Is there a need to create a Media Council of India? We already have the Broadcast Complaints Council of India (BCCI) and the News Broadcasters Association and the Broadcast Editors Association (BEA) which act as the conscience keepers of the entertainment channels and of the news broadcasters respectively.
But CK Prasad chief of the nearly 50 year old Press Council of India (PCI) believes its ambit needs to be extended to cover television and the internet.
Speaking on the occasion of National Press Day the retired chief justice today said “It is necessary for society and government to recognise that the noble objectives behind setting up the Council can never fully be realised if its activities are restricted to the print media…. the Council as a body made up of different groups of informed stakeholders, is best placed to play such a regulatory role.”
He added that suggestions to give the PCI more teeth have been made in the past but it has not been followed up with legislative changes. “It must possess the powers to tackle aberrations by the press to ensure that members maintain the highest professional standards. In the absence of such powers, the Council is forced to act more on the basis of moral persuasion than legal persuasion.”
“Our democracy and our media have evolved significantly… legislation has kept pace with developments in other areas vital for the functioning of our democracy such as electoral reforms, attempts to update the Press Council Act to bring it in tune with contemporary realities have until now only been academic exercises,” he pointed out.
He stated that the PCI gets its funding through private sources as annual subscriptions from registered newspaper organisations and as grants from government. This needs to be relooked at. The government’s share of this needs to go down while the print media’s share needs to go up to ensure its autonomy in a new media dynamic.
News Broadcasting
CNN-News18 to air live counting day coverage for five state election results on May 4
The channel is rolling out its biggest election coverage machinery yet for results day on 4th May
NOIDA: The votes have been cast. Now comes the reckoning. CNN-News18 is pulling out all the stops for results day on 4th May, when counting begins across five battleground states — West Bengal, Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and the Union Territory of Puducherry — in what promises to be one of the most closely watched electoral verdicts in recent memory.
The channel’s coverage, titled Battle for the States: The Verdict, kicks off at 7am and runs through the day across linear TV, connected television and YouTube. It is the culmination of CNN-News18’s multi-format editorial initiative, Battle for the States, which has tracked the polls from the beginning under the theme Road to Power.
At the operational heart of the coverage will be the Live Results Hub, the channel’s central command centre built to collate, verify and process real-time data flowing in from reporters stationed at counting centres across constituencies. The hub combines newsroom intelligence, analytics and on-the-ground reporting to deliver what the channel promises will be the fastest and most accurate results coverage in English news.
Leading the on-air charge will be primetime anchors Rahul Shivshankar, Anand Narasimhan, Aman Sharma, Nabila Jamal and Shivani Gupta. They will be joined by a wide panel of commentators including author Chetan Bhagat; GVL Narasimha Rao, senior leader of the BJP; Smita Prakash, editor of ANI; activist Saira Shah Halim; political analyst Sumanth C Raman; Abhijit Iyer Mitra, senior fellow at IPCS; Amitabh Tiwari, founder of VoteVibe; columnist Abhijit Majumdar; Nalin Mehta, managing editor of MoneyControl; political analyst Tehseen Poonawalla; senior journalist Subir Bhaumik; and political analyst Manojit Mandal.
Shivshankar, who serves as editorial affairs director at CNN-News18, set out the stakes plainly. “Counting day is one of the most watched events in the electoral cycle, where speed and credibility are tested in real time,” he said. “Battle for the States: The Verdict is built on that promise, combining ground reporting, sharp analysis and cutting-edge election technology to give viewers the clearest and fastest route to the verdict. On May 4, CNN-News18 will once again be the nation’s most trusted channel to witness democracy in action.”
Smriti Mehra, chief executive of English and Business News at Network18, framed the coverage in broader terms. “Elections are defining national events, and audiences turn to brands they trust in moments that matter,” she said. “CNN-News18 has consistently led from the front in every election coverage, and this special programming reflects the scale of our ambition and editorial strength.”
The channel has form here. It claims to have been India’s most preferred English news destination for election results for the past 20 years, covering everything from the 2024 general elections to the Delhi, Maharashtra, Bihar and BMC polls on the back of what it calls an “Always First, Always Right” record. Five states, one day, and a nation waiting for answers. The clock starts at 7am on 4th May.
