Class Notes NCERT Solutions for CBSE Students
Long Speech on Freedom of Press and Media
Greetings of the day everyone,
I hope this day finds you in the best of spirit!
Today, we are going to discuss a very pertinent topic and which is quite debatable too, i.e. the Freedom of Press in India. We all want freedom, but it comes with a sense of responsibility. And in a country like India, the media has to constantly fight with the regressive mindsets like communalism and casteism and enable the people to combat poverty as well as other social iniquities.
Freedom of press and ethics of journalism are much talked about subjects these days, especially in India – with the word ‘press’ referring to the electronic media as well. The discussion on these subjects should include a wider picture and concern its every possible facet as the media holds a lot of sway over our lives and has emerged as the powerful medium for voicing an opinion.
The significance of the freedom of press is about the fact that for many people the possibility of establishing a personal connection with the newsworthy incidents is simply improbable. Therefore, while looking for news the media has to act on behalf of the public at large. It is a medium through which people receive information and ideas without any hindrance, which proves to be immensely helpful in intelligent self-governance, which is democracy.
For the democracy to function well, it is important that citizens remain informed about the latest happenings from across the world because only then people would be able to hold rational judgments. Of course, you cannot expect from the citizen of a country to gather news on his/her own or to be able to form opinions. This is where the role of the media comes in as it plays a chief role in a democratic set up and acts as an agency by helping people remain updated on important news and happenings. This is the reason why freedom of press is taken to be so important in all democratic nations whereas it is not allowed in totalitarian or feudal set ups.
In our country, the media has played a tremendous role in facilitating people to access information related to social and political happenings while also remaining aware about the evil prevailing in our society. It is through our media that we get to know about the economic status of our country and how much its people are suffering from poverty, such as we get to know about the suicide of our farmers in different states of our country and then there are various cases of honor killing that take place because of illegally formed Khap Panchayats. For doing all this, i.e. providing us with important news while sitting at one place, our media deserves a lot of praise.
However, the media has to shoulder a lot of other responsibilities too, which is serving people with the right news and there should be no gross distortion of the news as well, for if any false news happens to circulate, it may either damage the reputation of the person involved or of the media group spreading such false news.
So media or press is an important pillar in a democratic set up and while giving it its due freedom we should also ensure that this freedom is not unfairly utilized. With this I end my speech.
