Information and Broadcasting Minister Arun Jaitley today ruled out imposing censorship on media saying the days of bans are over. Delivering Justice J S Verma Memorial Lecture on ‘Freedom and Responsibility of Media in New Delhi, Mr Jaitley said that advent of technology has made it difficult to impose censorship.

He said the decreasing quantum of advertisement revenue, because of exponential growth of media outlets, poses biggest challenge before the media houses to self-sustain themselves. Raising concern on its responsibility, Mr Jaitley said media today has the responsibility to be fair, credible and maintain high standards of financial integrity and ethics. He also said that media should be extremely careful when its own interests are involved.

The Minister also said financial model of media organizations has become extremely challenging but in some cases it become huge suspect. On the issue of foreign investment in media, Mr Jaitley said it is still a debatable question to what extend investments will be allowed. Currently the Government has allowed only 26 percent FDI in news and current affairs publications.

Mr Jaitley pointed out that the Television Rating Point race is impacting the news coverage. He also said, privacy of individuals should be respected. He said media needed to avoid the conduct of parallel trials in reporting matters that were subjudice. He also said media must also be careful in reporting insurgency and terror attacks. Expressing concern on the menace of paid news, the Minister said paid news should be kept out of the constitution protection and made a penal offense.

Touching on another key issue, Mr Jaitley said there is a need for a debate on the issue of cross-holdings in the media. There are laws in many countries related to cross-holdings but not in India, he said.

Condemning the attack on French magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris, Mr Jaitley said the attack like this would affect the humor and sarcasm.