The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) launched a session paper on ‘Points Regarding Media Possession’ after the federal government requested it to rethink its suggestions made in 2014 in mild of the adjustments within the media and leisure business with the arrival of latest digital applied sciences similar to over-the-top (OTT) platforms.
“Contemplating (the) general state of affairs, do you assume there’s a want for monitoring cross media possession and Management?… Ought to there be a typical mechanism to observe possession of print, tv, radio, or different internet-based information media,” are among the points on which TRAI has sought views from the stakeholders.
The TRAI has sought written feedback on the problems raised within the session paper from the stakeholders by Might 10, and counter-comments by Might 24.
It noticed that the digital media panorama was marked by the dominance of a restricted variety of very giant gamers who’ve wherewithal to consolidate by buying smaller gamers.
“This will scale back media pluralism by undermining the range of latest age portals and on-line media,” the session paper learn.
The paper additionally sought views on whether or not there was a necessity for any extra regulatory/ monitoring mechanism.
“Do you assume there’s a want to observe takeovers, acquisitions of media corporations, particularly the information media corporations,” it requested.
The TRAI additionally famous that with the emergence of social media platforms and apps which depend upon person generated content material, the information and information don’t depend on any media group for its conveyance to the general public.
The TRAI had made suggestions to the federal government on points regarding media possession in August 2014. The Ministry of Info and Broadcasting requested the TRAI final yr to rethink the suggestions within the wake of the arrival of digital media.
The session paper additionally sought views on what genres shall be thought of for the aim of overseeing media possession to make sure viewpoint plurality.
It contended that infotainment channels broadcast content material on a wide selection of topics, starting from historical past to faith to worldwide relations.
“The peculiarity of infotainment programmes is that they’re perceived to be factually right and subsequently, have the flexibility to affect common perceptions. Consequently, any inherent bias in such programmes is certain to have hostile influence on the society,” the session paper stated.
