30 Jan : The Central govt will soon announce the names of the members of proposed media consultative committee, which was mooted to authorise video footage of crisis situations in the wake of the Mumbai terror attacks.
Minister of state for Information and Broadcasting and External Affairs Anand Sharma has indicated that the government wants the committee to act as a bridge between the government and the civil society.
"Secretary, I & B will chair the committee that will comprise of representatives from the Editor’s Guild and News Broadcaster’s Association (NBA) as well," Sharma told reporters at New Delhi on Friday.
Hinting that the members had almost been finalised, Sharma said, "Names will be announced next week. We expect it to be a link between the government and the civil society at large."
The government had earlier stated that it wishes to form a media consultative committee which will release authorised video footage of any crisis situation deemed to be of "national emergency" to the visual media.
Officials from the Ministry of Home Affairs, Defence, Tourism and External Affairs will be members of the committee.
Editors from various news channels and other media associations had held five rounds of consultations with the government, including with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, on the issue.
They pitched their case against any attempt of the government to gag the media, arguing it would result in media censorship of the kind prevalent during the national emergency.
