‘‘TV is bad...Page 1s are frivolous... Public money must fund serious journalism’’

Aamir Khan starts off by saying he’s an average newspaper reader. ‘‘I like to read sports news.’’ But it is Page 1 that bothers him most. ‘‘Front pages these days have as the main photograph Indian cricketers holidaying in Goa.’’ There was a time, Khan says, when even if cricketers holidaying did merit news desks’ attention, the photo would have been on the sports page.

‘‘What the front page reports has changed drastically in a lot of newspapers. Frivolous, sensational news gets prominence over socially relevant news. Government policies that can change our lives are not getting that much prominence.’’ This, Khan argues, makes readers like him, who depend on newspapers, poorly informed about what is ‘‘important’’.

So, whose fault is it? Khan seems pretty sure where to look: 24x7, private television news. ‘‘Absurd’’ and ‘‘sensational’’ are the two adjectives he uses to describe television news that, he says, is driven by increasing viewership via settling for the lowest common denominator in public taste. And how do they (TV news channels) report news, Khan asks. ‘‘By creating excitement when there’s no such thing...What the media reports has changed, how it reports has changed as well.’’

What would he do though were he to set up a TV news channel or a newspaper? How would he sustain it? How would he buck what he says is the trend? ‘‘I would first of all not take any ads,’’ Khan says, adding he is perhaps sounding too ‘‘idealistic’’. ‘‘But I would only report news and not take any ads.’’

But revenue? Once informed how the BBC’s revenue model works—government funding but independence guaranteed—Khan says that’s what we need. Turn, for starters, DD into an Indian BBC.

And newspapers? Does he think a ‘‘serious’’ newspaper can also be run by Government money? Isn’t publicly funded independent newspaper an oxymoron? Khan doesn’t agree. ‘‘Public money can be used to set up a newspaper. Pay journalists well so that you get quality staff. But since there will be no profit motive, news can become as serious as it should.’’

‘‘People of India will fund such a newspaper or a news channel..That’s the ‘need of the hour’...That’s what people like me would want.’’

So, it’s a good idea for society at large to think of ways to fund ‘‘serious’’ journalism? Absolutely, Khan says. ‘‘As a citizen of my country I can’t voice my opinion if I don’t know accurately what is happening. Corruption in news reporting is dulling our senses.’’

... contd.

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