- A majority of the mainstream newspaper in India do not represent the interest of the common people. They serve the business houses, says the Indian journalist and researcher Poornananda Dasegowdanakoplu Swamy Gowda. Still he thinks that the Indian press is as free as the press in the United States.

Poornananda Dasegowdanakoplu Swamy Gowda (b. 1961) has been working at the Media and Communication Department at Mangalore University since 1987. There he is a senior lecturer, mostly working with media law, media ethics and advertising.

Internet most democratic
- What is expected in a large democracy is multiplicity of media. I think India has that feature of a democracy. Threre are thousands of newspaper and broadcast stations. Newspapers are completely free, as free as the newspapers in USA. They are privately owned, and there is no censorhip. The newspapers have greatly contributed to preservation of democratic values.

In the huge Indian republic, there are now more than thirty television channels in Indian languages. The monopoly of Doordarshan, the national television channel, has been broken. There are hundreds of dotcom newspapers today, mr. Poornananda tells.

- I think Internet has emerged as the most democratic medium. But, if I look at the media from the people's point of view I feel a majority of the mainstream newspaper do not represent the interest of the common peole. They basically serve the marketing and advertising objectives of business houses. 

Bribes and corruption
In the political life of India, leading persons are now and then involved in bribing. 

- Is it in any way dangerous for journalists to cover this critically and investigating?
 - In fact it is the newspapers which have exposed political corruption in India. Investigative journalism in India began in the 1980s by exposing corruption. Of course some journalists have been attacked by the goons of the politicians but that has not prevented journalists from investigating corruption. 

The tehelka.com's expose of defence deals is an example from the winter 2001, showing that leading politicians received money in weapon trades, Poornananda mentions.

-  Journalists who investigate corruption will have to face many odds. I think that is the situation in many countries.
- Does it happen that journalists also receive bribes?
- I don't think so. Any journalist who receives bribes will not be trusted. But, they may recieve other benefits like subsidised housing, free trips to certain places etc. I have not heard of any journalist of national fame who has received bribes from either politicians and bureaucrats. Once a journalist is found receiving bribe his journalistic career ends there. As I said before they have certainly received gifts. 

Difficult to get information
One of the problems that a journalist faces in India is getting the information he wants. The Indian bureaucracy, which is a legacy of the British colonial rule, refuses to share information with the common people. Giving information has never been the culture of Indian bureaucracy. The journalist has to do a lot of work to get the information, Poornananda tells. 

- Is any opinions and utterances forbidden after the Indian press law?
- No. But there are laws that exist under article 19 (2) of the constitution which puts reasonable restrictions on freedom of speech and expression in order to maintain unity, integrity and public order. This is to prevent misuse of freedom of speech and expression. The press in India is completely free. It was only during the emergency in 1975-77 that censorship was imposed. There would have been no investigative journalism if censorship existed. 

Poornananda worked for three years as a journalist in The Times of Deccan in.Bangalore. This newspaper no longer exists, but had a circulation of no less than 500 000.  In the newspaper, Poornanada wrote about everything from accidents to art, and he is still writing about theatre plays and films. He has also been an actor himself.

International affairs
After having stayed in Norway for a couple of weeks in the winter of 2001, Poornananda have got an impression of Norwegian media as quite uninterested in international affairs, at least when compared with Indian media. But as a huge country, and an important nation, India of course has close ties to more countries than Norway. 

- Which countries and themes from the international scene would you say are given most attention in Indian mass media?
- United States, United Kingdom, and the Asian countries receive the highest coverage in the Indian newspapers. A majority of the stories are on politics, economic matters and  culture. Western culture has been a great attraction for the youth in India. The media have an obsession with Pakistan. All developments in that country get prominent coverage. I rarely find Scandinavian countries in the news. 

Journalistics vs. PR
Being son of a farmer and teacher, it was not obvious that Poornananda should become a journalist. He left his village in 1973 to attend high school in Hassan in his home state Karnataka, and later he got B.A. and M.A. degrees at the University of Mysore. He completed his master degree in 1983, and his doctorate thesis is about the coverage of environemental issues in Indian newspapers. 

Poornananda educates students who are learning both journalistics and public relations. In a Norwegian context, this mixture is seen as unwanted. 

- Do your students prefer to work as journalists or with public relations?
- Only a few students show interest in public relations. Many feel that PR does not give them an opportunity to use their talents. I have never taught PR at our University. Most of the students want to work for the media. 
- Is it easy to get a job as journalist in India nowadays?
- Yes. There has been a boom  in journalism  in the recent year. There are more newspapers and  more broadcasting stations today than before. With the increase in the number of satellite channels there are more jobs for our students in  television journalism. 

Large differences in wages
Poornananda tells that all the media students at Mangalore University got jobs in the media even before they completed their internship last year. He expects the same next year too. 

- How are the wages, compared with the wages of university employees?
- The wages depend on the size and prestige of the newspapers or broadcasting stations. Most journalists in big newspapers and television stations get higher salaries compared to university teachers. Some anchorpersons in television channels get up to 100 000 Indian rupees per month whereas a senior professor may get around 30000. Journalists in small newspapers in Indian languages are poorly paid. Some of them work for a salary as low as 5000 rupees a month. 

- If you should recommend any Indian web sites with news from India, which ones would it be?
- All major newspapers have their online editions which are updated every two hours. The  India-Today Group has started an online newspaper titled 'thenewspapertoday.com'. The news is updated every hour. The other sites are The-Hindu.com, Timesofindia.com, Deccanherald.com, indianexpress.com.

By Jon Peder Vestad

Published on the Net at May 2., 2001.