By IANS,
New Delhi : Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari Thursday called for setting up more news wire agencies in the country.
Addressing the 52nd anniversary celebrations of United News of India here, the minister said that taking into account the potential of the growing media sector and the flow of information in the news segment, there existed a case for setting up more wire news agencies in the country.
“The potential was tremendous as these agencies facilitated information flow at the sub-regional, regional and national level,” he said.
The increase in number of news agencies would not only enable local news to be highlighted at the national level, it would also enable such agencies to balance news dissemination at the national and local level, he added.
“Taking into account the diversity of information dissemination, such mechanisms would enable local issues being highlighted as prominently as those at the national level,” the minister said.
Elaborating, Tewari said that there was an urgent need to outline “sustainable revenue models”.
Quoting the instance of the digitization process of cable television, the minister said it was an attempt to bring about transparency and a long-term sustainable process in the broadcasting sector which would help all stakeholders.
“The revenue models would also have to take into account the parameters that were addressing different audiences with the emergence of new media platforms and instant communication mechanisms,” he said.