Indian Newspaper Society (INS)
completes 75 years
Ever since its establishment, Indian Newspaper Society (INS) has been playing a key role in protection and promotion of freedom of press in the country. This year the society has completed 75 years and the ‘Platinum Jubilee’ celebrations organised recently in New Delhi was presided over by president Pranab Mukherjee along with eminent luminaries from the newspaper industry and others.
President Pranab Mukherjee at Platinum Jubilee celebrations of INS
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The genesis of Indian Newspaper Society (INS) dates back to October 11, 1927 when a society bearing the name The India, Burma & Ceylon Newspapers’ London Committee was formed by proprietors of newspapers to deal directly and more expeditiously with day-to-day problems arising out of newspaper productions but the name changed to Indian & Eastern Newspaper Society (IENS) on October 04, 1935 as an organisation based in London, representing and acting solely under the authority of newspapers, magazines, reviews and journals published in India, Burma (Myanmar), Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and other Asian countries.
The founding members of the society included The Bombay Chronicle, The Times of India, The Rangoon Gazette, Amrita Bazar Patrika, Hindustan Times, Hindustan Standard, Advance, The Pioneer, The Leader, The Tribune, The Civil and Military Gazette, The Hindu, The Madras Mail and The Statesman. The society eventually changed its name to Indian Newspaper Society (INS) in the post-independence era.
Today this central organisation of press in the country has completed 75 years of existence and on the occasion of its Platinum Jubilee celebration, President Pranab Mukherjee said, “This is an important landmark for all Indians. INS has over the years met the challenges of time even as it has presented the most influential of India’s newspapers and periodicals.” He further addressed that 75 years ago the world was very different place and India was to take its comity of nations. “Newspapers of the time not only survived the shortages that war brought in its wake but also engaged in themselves in difficult task of informing people of the momentous events of a contentious period in the history. And INS played a vital role in nurturing a free press which is critical component of our democracy,” he affirmed.
Initiatives towards the birth of PTI and ABC
“INS can also be proud that it helped create and nurture institutions like Press Trust of India (PTI) and Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC),” remarked Pranab Mukherjee. In 1945, INS took up the issue of transfer of proprietorial control of the Associated Press of India (API) to newspapers in India and a sub-committee was formed to frame concrete proposals. The committee recommended that control of API be taken over by a trust or similar organisation. And at the meeting of the society held in October 1946, it was decided to form a new organisation called Press Trust of India (PTI), and its first board of directors was elected by the society. The principal features of the agreement between Reuters Limited and PTI included purchase of shares in Reuters, setting up an independent organisation by PTI in London for collection and dispatch of Reuter news, etc. Subsequently, the PTI was set up as an independent news agency, primarily at the initiative of INS.
Setting up of ABC was approved, in principle, by INS at its first annual general meeting, but it was decided to postpone for later consideration owing to the then existing conditions including the possibilities of artificial restriction of circulation during the World War-II. In 1947, the question of establishing ABC was re-affirmed and a sub-committee constituted to draw up concrete proposals. Following this, ABC was formally set up. This is now an independent body authenticating circulation figures of newspapers and periodicals in India.
Readership survey
In 1956, INS associated itself with the project of conducting a readership survey in collaboration with ABC and sanctioned financial contribution to meet the preliminary expenses for exploring the feasibility of conducting readership survey. Then in 1970, INS withdrew from the proposed survey as the other associate agencies like ABC and Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) wanted to cover other media as well. Later the proposal was revived and the National Readership Survey 1995 was commenced by the National Readership Studies Council, an autonomous division of ABC, with the support of INS, ABC and AAAI to carry out National Readership Surveys at regular intervals on non-commercial basis, covering only print media. “As India grows in the 21st century, it is extremely important that media should reach out to inaccessible areas and under-served population of the country. It is critical that media provide an enabling environment for the spirit of inclusive growth to be ushered in and that the varied tools of combination are able to disseminate the ‘India Story’ in a positive, accurate and focused prospective,” heralded Pranab Mukherjee.
Helping hand
INS has been pressing the indigenous producers to improve the quality of their newsprints to match the imported ones and maintain prices in relation to their cost. It has been consistently of the view that newsprint should be exempt from customs duty since it amounts to a ‘tax on knowledge’ and has been pursuing the question of withdrawal of customs duty on newsprint with the government particularly in the context of the recent phenomenal increase in the prices of the product in the international market also the fall in the value of the rupee. As a matter of fact, the newsprint industry comes under the jurisdiction of different ministries of the central government, including Ministries of Industry, Finance, Information and Broadcasting, apart from several agencies like Registrar of Newspapers for India (RNI), State Trading Corporation (STC), Controller of Imports & Exports, etc.
Pranab Mukherjee called upon INS and all its members to remain torch bearers of responsible journalism. “They must always be a voice for justice and equally spokespersons of hope and reason,” he added. On the current scenario of the country’s newspaper industry, the president mentioned the Indian newspaper industry continues to grow with more than 90 million copies in circulation today and expected to grow at a double digit compounded growth rate of 10 percent to become the world’s sixth largest newspaper market by 2017.
