Scope for more news agencies in the country: Tewari

NEW DELHI: Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Minister Manish Tewari feels there is scope for setting up more news agencies in the country considering the growth potential of the media sector and the flow of information in the news segment.

Speaking at the 52nd anniversary celebrations of United News of India (UNI) Tewari said that the potential was tremendous as these agencies facilitated information flow at the sub-regional, regional and national level.

The increase in number of news agencies would not only enable local based news being highlighted at the national level, but 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.

Tewari also said that there was urgent need to outline sustainable revenue models. Quoting the instance of the digitisation process, 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.