Laws that will make and break media

M K VENU, Founding Editor, The Wire: India has to do away with the old defamation laws and replace criminal defamation with civil defamation. This needs to be done considering that media organisations are sued for reporting facts.

RAJESH BADAL, Former Executive Director, Rajya Sabha TV: Self-regulation is the best form of regulation. But news media is not creating any self regulation, nor is it allowing government

to do so. It is time we look at ways to self regulate, as we have already taken a lot of time acknowledging the issues.

SATISH K SINGH, Group Editor-inChief, Broadcast Initiatives: Every media should self regulate rather than decide on external forces to regulate.

SAMRAT PHADNIS, Commentator, Journalist & Editor, Sakal Media News: Media is thinking of regulation instead of guidelines. Whether it was print or broadcast, they were given some time to grow and post that there were talks about regulations. I believe that we should give digital media some time before there are guidelines that are imposed on them. Digital media is not ready yet. It will take over a decade for digital media to understand the medium. Self-regulation will hurt digital media as it does not take time to convert such regulations into law. MANOJ BHOYAR, Assistant Editor,

Jai Maharashtra: There is a need to have self-regulation for digital media that will be different compared to other mediums.

SATISH K SINGH, Group Editor-inChief, Broadcast Initiatives: We may talk about self-regulation, but you must not forget that the media is still accountable to the law of land and constitution of the country. ASHOK BAGARIYA, Legal Editor,

Hindustan Times: In India, our legal system is outdated and inadequate to deal with fake and paid news that depend on technology. There are technology companies that are publishing news. So, we need look at ways to deal with such issues and bring in some regulation in such cases.