Media is considered as the fifth pillar of democracy. There are ethics for the media which they should be considering and focusing on before the news reaches to the people.

Nowadays, majority of news writers, journalist and reporters are more interested in creating news for the sake of TRP, success and fame than showing the reality of the news. Media fabricates the news for monetary benefit. The real purpose of the media is lost somewhere.

The objective of the seminar is to guide young aspirants who wish to make their career in this industry and to spread awareness. They should know the ethics of journalism, reporting and news writing. Their only purpose should be to show the truth no matter what comes.  They should understand they have obligations and responsibility towards the society. Ethics is concerned with what is right or wrong, good or bad, fair or unfair, responsible or irresponsible, obligatory or permissible. The objective of the seminar is to highlight the importance of these qualities of ethics.

Some of the topics which would be covered would be:

1) Why ethics matters?

2) Why ethics is a social responsibility?

3) Media and democracy.

4) Media ethics and the effects on the society

5) Roles and responsibility of media

It’s a small effort by Indialogue foundation and Maeeshat Media to spread awareness about the ethics of Media.

“The level of TV journalism is going down day by day; even children do not like some TV channels and their anchors. It seems, they have made people’s mind hostile. Earlier, different issues were captured on TV and so people would think differently. But of late, on one topic, the entire nation is guided in order to impress as if there is no other issue except this,” said Danish Reyaz, Editor, multi-lingual Maeeshat magazine.

While there is starvation and drought and markets are drying, but media divert people’s attention from these issues, he added.

The panellists of the discussion on Ethics of Media will be Gurbir Singh, Chairman, Mumbai Press Club; Sujata Anandan, Political Editor, Hindustan Times, Mumbai; Sarfaraz Arzu, Editor, Urdu daily Hindustan; Jyoti Punwani, Senior Journalist , Vilas Athavale President Tv Journalist Association and Danish Reyaz, Editor, Maeeshat.

Yakup Polattas, Director, Indialogue  Foundation, Mumbai says, “Indialogue Foundation believes that the media has a very strong influence on the minds of people. But when the same media forgets and puts aside the ethics and runs the fabricated news for the sake of trp that sometimes leads to disastrous consequences. Ethics is prerequisite for the media and must be followed by them in a respectful manner.

Akmal Shariff, Social activist says “Journalism is not about distributing ‘certificate of nationalism’. If you are keen on that, better join some jingoist political party or group. This is very ‘certificate based journalism’ which we are watching for the last 5-6 years, has actually perpetuated violence in many place. Haryana is a classical example. We have reduced TV shows into a battle ground. I ask one question to those who supports these media houses. Will you inculcate these values and debating style in your house? How will you feel when in a serious discussion your child shouts at you? What impact these programme carry on the minds of our children? My 6 years old son whenever sees the PRIME TIME ON TIMES NOW he says ” Papa remove this programme, he always fights, he always shouts’. Is not this ‘certificate based journalism’ becomes impediment in the way of becoming a critical thinkers? Alas! people understand this and recognize these dark sheep within media fraternity who shouts loud and supported by some brain-less people.”