"Society Has To Devise Ways To Make Media More Accountable, Says Joel Simon

Mumbai: The society will have to come up with its own mechanism to make media more accountable to people, said Joel Simon, acclaimed journalist, writer, press freedom advocate, and a fellow at the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University. He was responding to questions over the media's  failing responsibility to give the truth to people and "hate" being peddled under pretext of "freedom of speech" at an interactive session on 'State of the Media in Today’s World: The Road Ahead'. The interactive session was held at the Mumbai Press Club on Thursday and was jointly organised by the Mumbai Press Club and U.S. Consulate Mumbai.  

"Inviting the government would bring in censorship. It is better that the media itself comes up with ways to make the industry more accountable to people. The solution should not be by inviting the government and its dictats. Media should expose the shortcomings of the media to the people," said Joel. Joel was answering questions about hate speeches being peddled in the name of freedom of expression in mainstream media and the way to go about tackling it. Institutions like the Press Club or media forming an internal regulation of sorts was the way to go ahead. 

Media monitor

"Each society needs to figure out the best mechanism to make the media accountable. It could be organisations like the Press Club or some other. In the US we have a media monitor," he said. 

Stating that media was necessary for a free democracy, Joel said that media often finds itself competing with other forces giving a narrative and media had to give information that is useful to the people. The government of the day, he said, had its own interest as compared to those of the public. "It has become a viable political strategy to run against the media. Demand for quality news and information is still there," said Joel. 

Influences over media

Joel agreed that corporate houses taking over media had influenced its functioning and that the government tends to pressure them. Sensationalism, on the other hand, was another problem to cater to the market. AI (Artificial Intelligence), he said, was influencing the media's future and the thought that digital medium will be its future has not happened. 

"We had thought that the future was digital. That content will be free and there will be advertisements. The digital world has collapsed. I do not know what the future is. A lot of media outlets in many parts of the world are trying to figure out how to survive and remain viable as businesses. The question really is how do we create a broader incentive structure to ensure that information, news and service is publically accessible to people in democracy. I do not think we want to invite the government to censor us. But maybe we want to invite them to support the media as an institution that is essential to democracy so that decisions are not entirely by market space and the media serves the public interest of citizens.