Freedom of Speech and freedom of the Press are different kettles of fish, the major and the most commonly noticed difference being the latter has a regulator in the body Press Council of India while the former is more glorified as a Constitutional provision than complied with by the citizens, the so-called rationalists taking fascination to pass remarks about many sensitive issues including the people’s time-honoured customs and beliefs, ways of life of many familiar sections of the population with an intention to gain cheap popularity, the dailies of all hues lending a helping hand by printing their spoken words with the assurance that readers of dailies will lap it up.
A matter of pride (?) for all Indians is that the country happens to be among the largest newspaper markets in the world, with close to 6,700 periodicals and over 260 million copies distributed per day. An early morning without a newspaper of the day and a cuppa is incomplete for most of the people in India, be it elderly, middle-aged or youth in the population.
