The aim of the session was to acquaint the students with the practical aspects of law and ethics within the framework of media.
The resource person for the Masterclass session was Mr. Nandkishore Rajput. He is a professional with dynamic experience as Lawyer, Accreditor, Mediator, Ornithologist and a Wildlife Photographer who has been in the field of media in sales and marketing for more than 23 years. It was felt by the organisers that this combination of media background and experience in litigation and activism would give an edge to the students in having an enhanced understanding of the topic at hand.
The Masterclass covered aspects that included legal behaviour, ethical behaviour and social behaviour, the dilemmas covered by ethics, various types of ethics such as meta ethics, normative ethics and applied ethics, relation between law and ethics. The session threw highlights on how some actions are unethical but legal and some are ethical but illegal. It also provoked students to think if law can promote ethical behaviour.
The Masterclass ended with the following words of Mahatma Gandhi, an eminent journalist himself:
“The sole aim of journalism should be service. The newspaper press is a great power; but just as an unchained torrent of water submerges the whole countryside and devastates crops, even so an uncontrolled pen serves but to destroy. If the control is from without, it proves more poisonous than want of control. It can be profitable only when exercised from within”.
