Right to Know

Indian Express: New Delhi: Tuesday, September 24, 2013.

Over 500 students from various institutes under Symbiosis University participated in a seminar on the Right To Information (RTI) Act on September 20. The panel of speakers for the event included Subhash Agrawal, a leading RTI activist, and Josy Joseph, well-known journalist, among other eminent personalities from the media industry. The event was organised by Symbiosis International Institute of Media Communication (SIMC), Viman Nagar, as their second annual seminar and included a discussion of the benefits of RTI to the media. The students were introduced to the RTI Act, which was passed in 2005, with the objective to promote transparency and accountability in public spending and decision-making in the government, public sector and institutions that receive substantial public funds or assistance.

The panel of speakers spoke about how the act has been used more effectively by citizen-activists and NGOs in various parts of the country and not as extensively by the Indian media.

The seminar was aimed at bringing about an awareness about RTI and its application among journalism students. “Media has the potential to strengthen the RTI movement in India. RTI should be an important ritual for conscious citizens,” said Agrawal as he addressed the students. He also insisted that the Right to Information be made into a Right to Action act.

Joseph discussed how the act must be used by journalists. “It must be kept as a last resort. Only when all other tools to extract and gather accurate information has been exhausted must a journalist resort to RTI,” he said in his talk. “Everyone is capable of uncovering the crimes and sins of people in power,” he added. Joseph also discussed how digitisation of information can be helpful to the government as well as to the media.

The seminar was attended by students of Symbiosis International Institute of Media and Communication, Symbiosis school of Law, Symbiosis school of Economics and Symbiosis school of Liberal Arts, among other Symbiosis institutes.