Date:17/11/2003 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2003/11/17/stories/2003111706130300.htm

Southern States - Kerala

'Solidarity by media fraternity commendable'

By Our Staff Reporter

KOTTAYAM Nov. 16. The veteran journalist, K.C. John, today said that the solidarity expressed by the media fraternity and all sections of people against the Tamil Nadu Speaker's order against journalists was the finest hour in the media history of the country.

Inaugurating the National Media Day celebrations here, Mr. John said "our solidarity and uncompromising love for the free flow of true information were fully demonstrated when an attempt was made to gag the press and supress the freedom of expression. It happened when a brutal political majority tried to bulldoze a single newspaper for the sin of adhering and promoting the case of expression of unbridled views".

He, however, said the media should be alert against the rise of such forces in future. "They were not born yesterday, but were born in human society along with freedom. We have for the time being subdued them, but they may rise again," he said.

Mr. John also had a word of caution for young journalists who were "indulging in experiments ever since the advent of the electronic media". Calling it an imitation of `Murdochism' characterised by sensationalism, personalisation and glorification of the trivial, he said in this revolution, the casualities were the methodology of news coverage and its display.

"The old school of journalists insisted on the purity of the means adopted to get the news and the credibility of the news sources," he said. He wondered "whether investigation had now given place to invention where reporters improved on the information available to them using their imagination".

He, however, pointed out that at no time did journalists have the right to choose. "The choice is for those who engage us," he said but added that in earlier days professional integrity and indispensibility were always recognised. "However, today we are becoming more and more dispensable in the sense that journalists are forced to play second fiddle in a system that is increasingly controlled by interests other than journalism," he said.

According to P. Rajan, the press was facing as much challenges from within, as from external forces. Stressing the need for tranparency in the functioning of the media, he said the advent of commercial interests posed a major challenge to the freedom of press. He also said that freedom of press and civil rights were to be read concurrently.

The advent of the information technology, has however opened up new avenue for the individual to influence the flow of information and mass communication could now effectivly be turned into communication by the masses, he said.

In his presidential address, the District Collector, A. Ajith Kumar, stressed the role of media in the emerging scenario where freedom was being increasingly exchanged for security. Madvana Balakrishna Pillai, Director of School of Jounralism and Communication, M.G. University, delivered the keynote address. The KUWJ State president Bobby Abraham, Naduvattom Sathyaseelan, the Press Academy secretary, V.K. Jayakumar, among others, spoke.