India is considering accrediting ‘citizen journalists’ (aka bloggers) (via Preetam):
India is in the process of framing rules for granting
accreditation to Internet journalists and bloggers for the first time,
taking a reality check on an evolving world of net writers who could
shape opinion and who have already been granted access to official
corridors in countries such as the US.“We are framing the
rules for giving accreditation to dotcom journalists, including
bloggers,” Principle Information Officer Shakuntala Mahawal said.
The always astute Nitin Pai contrasts this move with China’s move to establish government-authorized bloggers:
In sharp contrast, China’s reaction to ‘internet journalism’ has
been along predictable lines. Blogspot and Blogger are locked out
behind the Great Firewall of China. And as CDT reports, the Chinese government ‘has formed a special force of undercover online commentators to try and sway public opinion’.The best use real
Indian bloggers can make of the opportunity is not much to sway public
opinion — which does not require a government license — but to ask
those questions that the mainstream media is failing to ask. As for
China, it has just become more difficult for real Chinese bloggers to sound convincing when they actually support their government.
Still, Amit Varma doubts that many Indobloggers will be rushing to register:
Most reporting, such as I’d done after the tsunami, does not need
government accreditation, and while I may need it to enter a press
conference by the prime minister, what will I have to do to get it?
Knowing how government works in India, they’ll ask me for a traffic
certificate, and there’ll be a panel of babus to evaluate my blog and see if my content is "serious". Hazaar
questions will be asked. I know how difficult it is to get
accreditation for anything for even a bona-fide print journalist, as I
experienced when covering the recent India-Pakistan cricket series for
the Guardian. (You can read my chronicles of that tour in my March and April archives.) It wasn’t the government giving accreditation then, of course, but I imagine they’d be even worse.So, um, thanks for the kind words, but I don’t think we’ll be applying to you anytime soon.
