The First Press Commission Report After independence there was a constant demand by editors and journalists urging

the government of India to inquire into the state of the press in India and put forward recommendations that can be enacted for the benefit of the press. Thus, the then Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, announced the constitution of the First Press Commission under the chairmanship of Justice G.S Rajyadhyksha, on September 23, 1952. The other members of the Commission were, C.P Ramasamy Iyer, Acharya Narendra Dev, Dr.Zakir Husain, Dr. V.K.R.V Rao, P.H Patwardhan, T.N Singh, Jaipal Sing, J. Natarajan, A.R Bhat, and M. Chalapathi Rao. The commission was asked to examine the state of the press in the country and its present and future lines of development. It had wide terms of reference. The commission submitted its report on July 14, 1954, after two years of work. The report had 3 parts. The first part contained the recommendations, part II contained the history of journalism in India and part III contained the memorandums, questionnaire, reports of readership surveys etc. The major recommendations of the commission were the following. Press Council: The Commissions first recommendation was to constitute a Press Council. The proposed council is to be a 25 member body in which 13 or more should be working journalists, with at least 10 years of experience. It recommended the appointment of a chairperson who should be either a sitting or a retired High Court judge. The Council is to look into the freedom, independence, standard, and development of the press. Registrar of newspapers in India : A Press Registrar should be appointed for the country as a whole. It will be the responsibility of this officer to bring out an annual report which will contain the facts and figures relating to the industry. Price-Page Schedule: A minimum price should be fixed at which papers of a particular size can be sold. It also recommended that the quantum of advertisement in a weeks issue of a newspaper should not exceed 40 per cent of the total print area. Advertising Council: An Advertising Council may be created to advertise on the ethics of advertising, to organize market research and to carry out readership surveys. Newsprint: Apart from increasing the manufacture of newsprint the State Trading Corporation should acquire indigenous newsprint and sell it along with imported newsprint at equated price. News Agencies: There should not be State-owned or State-controlled news agencies. The government should give no assistance to the news agencies in order to ensure their independent operations.

Government Advertisements: With regard to the allocation of government advertisements, there should not be any discrimination between newspapers merely on the grounds of their political or communal backgrounds. The government should place advertisements on the basis of circulation and target area. Declaration of ownership: The complete statements of the names of proprietors and responsible executives of the newspaper should be published periodically. Monopolies: Diversity of opinion should be promoted in the interests of free discussion of public affairs. The Press Registrar should bring to the notice of the Press Council if any monopolies arise in the newspaper industry. Law on Contempt of legislature: Regarding the law of contempt of legislature, the Press Commission recommended some changes in the Criminal law and recommended codification of the privileges of legislatures and legislators. Foreign News: There should be no restriction on the flow of foreign news from whatever sources it comes. It should be one of the functions of Indian news agencies to provide a service of Indian news for the use of other countries. Press Commission Report and after The most important step taken by the Government was the appointment of the Registrar of newspapers for India. The State Trading Corporation was allowed, following the recommendations, to import restricted quantity of newsprint. This helped the small and medium newspapers to get newsprint at a reasonable price. The price-page schedule introduced by the Government was later declared invalid by the Supreme Court. Consequently the schedule was withdrawn by the government. Several other recommendations of the commission were accepted by the government at different times.

Second Press Commission Report

The Janata Government under the Prime Ministership of Morarji Desai appointed Justice P.C Goswami as the chairperson of the Second Press Commission in 1978. There was a change of government at the Centre in 1980. Consequently, the Commission submitted its resignation which was accepted. The new Prime Minister, Mrs. Indira Gandhi, constituted a ten- member commission in 1980 under the chairmanship of Justice K.K Mathew. The Commission placed its report before the Parliament on November 5, 1982. The report contained as many as 278 recommendations. A committee of ministers was set up to study the recommendations. The major recommendations are the following. MRTP Act and the Press: The Commission recommended that the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Act of 1969 should be made applicable to the newspaper industry. The Commission held that there is no justification for exempting the newspaper industry from the provisions of the Act. De-linking the Press from other business concerns: Majority of the members of the Commission felt that it was necessary to insulate the press from the dominating influence of other business concerns. The Commission recommended the enactment of a law making it mandatory for persons carrying on the business of publishing a newspaper to refrain from engaging in other business activities. News to Advertisement ratio: The Commission recommended that for the freedom of the Press to be effective, the present degree of dependence on advertisements will have to be lessened. A news to advertisements ratio is absolutely essential for promoting fair competition among existing units and the new entrants. Hence a news to advertisement ratio of 60:40 is recommended for big newspapers, 50:50 for medium newspapers and 40:60 for small newspapers. The Commission also proposed progressive taxation for newspaper exceeding the prescribed news to advertisement ratio. Newspaper Development Commission: In order to improve the quality of newspapers, especially medium and small ones, the Commission recommended the setting up of a Newspaper Development Commission. This Commission will make special efforts to facilitate the growth of Indian language newspapers and newspapers of local interest. The other major recommendations are briefly mentioned below. The role of the press should be neither as that of an adversary nor an ally to the government, but that of a constructive critic. Editors should have the final say in the acceptance or rejection of advertisements. The Press should act as a unifying element and avoid objectionable, communal writing. The Commission recommended to the government to review Article 19(1) (a) of the Indian Constitution which pertains to the freedom of speech and expression. The freedom of the Press should be specifically mentioned in the Constitution. The Commission wanted the Press Council to evolve a code of ethics for the journalists. Newspapers and periodicals should annually publish their financial accounts.