In this Idea Exchange moderated by Senior Editor, Media, Archna Shukla, Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni spoke about regulating the broadcast sector, the growing number of channels, the Emergency and Indira Gandhi.

Archna Shukla: What are the biggest challenges you see for yourself as I&B minister?

There are three distinct wings of our ministry: The print media, the electronic broadcasting sector and the film sector. The first challenge concerns the broadcasting sector. There is an ongoing debate since 1997 on whether we need any kind of government control or regulation in the broadcasting sector or should it be self-regulated.

As an individual, as an activist, I am for self-regulation because anything else would then have to be monitored too. But it’s easier said than done because there are two competing demands. One, by the broadcasting sector which advocates self-regulation. On the other hand, you have reports by MPs strongly recommending that we should not let it be completely free. We have started a debate. Two senior I&B Ministry officers—Secretary and Additional Secretary—are interacting with representatives of broadcasting organisations and I think they’ve made some headway. Now they are planning to meet with NGOs, women’s organisations, civil society groups and to look at reports made by parliamentarians at different times and at the attempts made by different governments across the political spectrum with regard to the broadcasting sector. I’m not putting any time frame on this exercise. All of us in the ministry are committed to openness. The prime minister has said that we are for an open and liberal society. But 26/11 has not faded from our memories yet and people have some different views on how we handled the incident, especially the broadcasting sector. I have one or two personal points, though I don’t want to impose them. My personal opinion is that we are all for self-regulation but there needs to be a mechanism, a system, a body—I don’t want to call it the regulatory body or a broadcasting regulatory authority because people associate it with some kind of content control—a mechanism which addresses broadcasting concerns.

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