India doesn’t need Statutory Press Council

This article is a seminal research in the field of press self-regulation in India. The article is based on the researcher’s experience of conducting doctoral and post-doctoral studies on press self-regulation in different universities in Britain, Canada and India. The article argues that the first Prime Minister of India, JawaharLal Nehru was against the setting up of a statutory press council in India at national level though the first press commission of India (1952-54) recommended for it. That is why no institution of such kind could be established during his stint i.e. until 27 May 1964. This research article further suggests that national level press councils are not meeting up the aspirations of a vast country like India having newspapers in so many languages. The article points out that provincial level voluntary press/ media councils, financed by media, should be set up in India as has been done in Canada and some states of the USA. In this respect the research article provides the examples of Ontario Press Council established in 1972 in Canada and Minnesota News Council founded in 1970 in the USA. The research indicates that Press Council of India does not enjoy the respect and confidence of the mainstream press, and therefore it loses its moral authority to guide the press in India. The research points out that in Britain when the press lost its confidence in the voluntary Press Council, it was replaced by the voluntary Press Complaints Commission in 1991. The research article reveals that the complaints procedure of the Press Council of India is very time-consuming and cumbersome because it suffers from statutory compulsions. This research article points out that the number of adjudications pronounced by the Press Council of India over the years have not increased though the circulation of newspapers in the country has risen tremendously.