Waiting to Be Heard: Bringing Marginalised Voices to the Centre

The Indian media experience represents a gallery of stark contradictions. Even as the government is making efforts to bridge the digital divide and take information technology to the masses, the colonial Indian Telegraph Act of 1885 continues to hold sway over the airwaves. While an apex court judgment of 1995 has endorsed that airwaves are public property, in practice, lines between public, private and community remain conveniently blurred. While private radio has made an entry into the Indian broadcast arena, community radio is yet to gain legitimacy from the law of the land.