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The Vajpayee Government has also
drafted another Bill: The Freedom of Information 2000 for giving
freedom to every citizen to secure access to information under
the control of public authorities.
Against this
background, the book under review provides an insight into
information and public communication in India. The writer gives
a comprehensive record of fundamentals of information theory and
practice, goes through the Public Information from 1500 BC to
1947 AD, discusses the information dissemination agencies at the
state level and devotes a special chapter to ‘Public
information for the new millennium’.
The author
breaks fresh ground while proposing his ITM Theory of Public
Communication, which he had evolved as Director, Department of
Information and Public Relations, Govt of Andhra Pradesh, as
part of his Ph.D thesis on ‘Information Administration: A
study of Administration of Public Information in Andhra Pradesh’.
The salient features of his theory are, the Intra-Personal
Communication and Inter-Personal media (I), Traditional folk art
media (T) and Mass Media (M) as applied to a government system.
The chapter on
public information, through the ages is perhaps, the most
informative and interesting as the author traces history of
conveying information and news from Ancient India (1500
BC-1000AD) to Medieval India, East India Company (1757), and
British India (1858-1947). For the Information Services in
states he has totally depended on his experience in Andhra
Pradesh in a separate chapter called, ‘Autonomous’ —
Propaganda Agency (Telugu Samacharam) provides details of
a unique experiment of NTR in Public Relations. Andhra Pradesh
was the first one to establish an autonomous body called ‘Telugu
Samacharam’ in 1986, even before the recommendation of the
Second Press Commission. The author has demolished the myth of
autonomy as every Chief Minister uses the media to his and his
party’s benefit.
The chapter on
‘public information for the new millennium’ discusses the
challenges ahead and proposes a National Information Policy to
ensure functional autonomy so that the people actually become
the masters in a democracy like ours. The Official Secrets Act,
1923, is the villain as it has a chilling effect on the freedom
of information.
Thomas Mann
says, "Opinions cannot survive if one has no chance to
fight for them: Media must become more responsive and
responsible.
The nexus
between the media and the powerful politicians, bureaucrats, and
businessmen is so strong and media’s objective of profit
maximisation so intense that it has forgotten its basic
response-ability.
Public
information systems, including print and electronic media, must
find the right middle path between Hitler’s "I want to
play on the Press as on a piano" to Nehru’s "The
Press is our master".
In spite of the author’s
Andhra stance, which is obvious in many chapters, the book is a
valuable source of knowledge to academics, information
officials, PR practitioners and students in the field of
journalism, information and public relations, advertising and
management etc.
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WE
have always wanted to believe that ‘IT’ doesn’t
necessarily mean Information Technology, it means ‘India
tomorrow’ as well. What we have not realised is that, IT
also means ‘Information Tomorrow’. The technology aspect
of IT has been in the forefront for past many years. Now time
has come for the ‘I’ (information) of ‘IT’ to be given
special attention.
