The Indian news industry faces a number of uncertainties as it went into a free fall during the global economic meltdown and advertising revenues also slumped, a UNESCO supported report has stated.

Also, a proliferation of TV channels has not contributed clearly to diversity of choices, the 11th Press Freedom Report for South Asia by International Federation of Journalists said.

As the Indian newspaper industry enters a phase of more moderate growth and a possible shakeout of unviable entities, it would “perhaps discover that the opacity that has been a matter of principle with it that is aiding in evasion of statutory responsibilities like payment of fair wages is really a self-defeating strategy,” the report said.

The growth in number of channels has not “contributed clearly to the diversity of choice,” it said.

“Further, the entire system of ratings which determines the allocation of advertisements between channels has come under a cloud,” it said.

“Projection (for advertisements) shows that the growth rate has fallen from the buoyant double digit figures of the year following 2003 to a relatively modest single digit,” it says.

Speaking at a conference where the report was released, Prasar Bharati CEO Jawahar Sircar raised concerns over the paid news syndrome, cross media ownership and “convergent monolithical discourse” by the channels.

“These are not aberrations and these three fears really bother me,” he said.

The plight of journalists who lost their jobs after closure of newspaper and news channels promoted by the Saradha Group, which went bust in the multi—crore chit fund scam, found mention in the report.

“By far the greatest misfortunes, verging on catastrophe, were suffered by journalists who had taken employment in clutch of media companies promoted or taken over by the Saradha Group,” it said, adding, the number of journalists left unemployed could be 800.

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