About Us
One of the more acute problems of contemporary society is character of the media which has come to be driven almost entirely by commercial interests. Even the news media is largely been run for profit and some of the media organizations are among the largest and most profitable corporations in the country.
One of the more acute problems of contemporary society is character of the media which has come to be driven almost entirely by commercial interests. Even the news media is largely been run for profit and some of the media organizations are among the largest and most profitable corporations in the country.
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Moreover, news organizations have come to depend more and more on advertisements for their revenue, so much so that advertisement revenues constitute 100% of the revenues of many newspapers, magazines and TV channels. It is this media which has now come to dominate the media in the country.It is natural in these circumstances for the content, quality and slant of the media to be driven by the advertising companies. This is bound to have and is having several impacts on the programmes and content. While at one level, the programming has become more sensationalist, catering more and more to the basest instincts of humans: sex, violence and voyeurism, in an attempt to grab viewer’s attention, at another level, it is slanting the news coverage to further the commercial interests of the advertising companies. As the viewer’s critical faculties get dulled by this barrage of sensationalistic and base programming, it becomes easier for propaganda to be purveyed as news as we saw in the US where propaganda by the leading TV channels about Saddam’s alleged links with the Al Qaeda and his alleged possession of weapons of mass destruction came to be believed by the majority of the American people through which consent was manufactured not just for the attack on Iraq, but also for the reelection of Bush. Chomsky has perceptively analysed the deleterious effect that the character of the media is having on the quality of American democracy, particularly because only a few Multinational media corporations control almost the entire media in the US. Almost the same has become true for India today as well, though we still do not see the same level of consolidation of the media in the hands of a few mega corporations that has taken place in the US. This is also because of the linguistic and cultural diversity of the country, so that much of the ownership of the print media of the country is still diversified.
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However there is very little meaningful news of public interest concerning common people of the country being disseminated by the mainstream media. Real stories, particularly about the common masses of the country have been reduced to snippets with a surfeit of stories of voyeuristic interest in the romantic lives of bollywood stars dominating the news. Page 3 journalism is now dominating the mainstream media. There is virtually no news about the struggles of the poor, unless they take violent forms. There is little discussion about public policies which affect the poor, such as Forest rights of Tribals and Forest dwellers, the policies regarding land acquisition, displacement and rehabilitation. There is also virtually no coverage in the mainstream media about agriculture though the bulk of the people derive their livelihood from that sector. There is a great deal of hype about the need for a “second Green revolution”, to be brought about by Biotechnology and Genetically Modified Organisms. This hype is orchestrated by the Biotech companies which own the patented seeds of these Genetically modified seeds. There is however virtually no discussion in the mainstream media about the serious biosafety problems associated with these seeds, apart from the economic viability of these seeds for the farmer.
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For quite some time therefore we have felt the need of a People’s media organization which will disseminate news of public interest and concern to the common people and will also serve as a model for other media organizations which could be set up in due course. The Public News Network is an attempt to set up such a public service media organization. Many persons including Dr. Banwari Lal Sharma, Dr. Vandana Shiva, Arundhati Roy, Prashant Bhushan, Sanjay Kak and Harsh Dobal (of Human Rights Law Network), are involved in and helping set up this Public News Network (PNN).
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To begin with, the PNN would be run essentially as a news service which would disseminate information, news, analysis and views of major interest to organizations and individuals working on and interested in public interest issues, as well as to small and medium newspapers, magazines and media organizations who might be interested in carrying news, information, analysis and views of this kind. Some of the issues taken up by PNN would be issues such as Agriculture, Water, Energy, Justice and the Courts, Panchayati Raj and decentralization of power, Corruption and Transparency in public institutions, Communalism, Gender issues, Dalit and Caste issues etc. The attempt would be to disseminate news and analysis which is not normally disseminated by the mainstream media. A good bit of this would be news about various people’s movements and their struggles as well as important developments in India and abroad on the issues that such movements are working on. A lot of this would be contributed by the people’s movements and organizations themselves which would be edited and put up on the PNN website. A lot of this news and analysis is available on issue based public interest websites as well as some public interest web based news organizations that have recently come up such as “Indiatogether” and “Countercurrents”. A lot of the information which is disseminated by PNN would therefore be culled from these publicly accessible websites (obviously with their permission). Some of the information, news reports and analysis would be generated by the staff, reporters and writers who support the PNN. Some examples of the stories and analysis which would be carried by PNN would be stories about the various other agreements that the Indian government has entered into with the US, along with the Nuclear deal about which very little is known, such as the Indo-US Knowledge initiative on agriculture: About the various attempts to privatize the distribution of water that are going on across the country, with the help of the world bank: About Special Economic Zones and the kind of concessions and exemptions are envisaged in them, and their likely impacts.
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An attempt would also be made to translate this information into at least some of the main Indian languages so that it can reach most of the people who need and can use that information. The uniqueness and relevance of the PNN would lie in the coverage of a wide range of issues and events of public interest, the reaching out to other small and medium publications as a news service, and the multilingual access to major pieces carried on the Network.
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In order to avoid the dependence on commercial interests, the PNN would not be generating any revenue through advertising, nor would we be taking any large institutional funding. We propose to run the PNN on the small donations of friends and supporters and in due time, some subscriptions/contributions from our subscribers within the media. That is why we propose to start with a modest staff and infrastructure. The PNN would initially be run from the premises made available by a friend and supporter, Flat No. 14, Supreme Enclave, Mayur Vihar 1, New Delhi.
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The PNN is an experiment which could potentially lay the foundations of a Public Service Media in the country which can significantly influence the working of Indian democracy and deepen the engagement of civil society with issues of public interest. It is an experiment in which all members of civil society, particularly people’s movements and those sections of the media which still believe in public service journalism, have a vital stake. It needs to be nurtured and supported by all those who are concerned about the future of civilization in the country and in the world. We would therefore request all such persons and organizations including people’s movements and media organizations to enroll as subscribers and utilize it to the fullest.