The Hindu Business Line : Role for media in development: PM

Mr G. Kasturi, former Editor, The Hindu, greeting the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee, at the 125th anniversary celebrations of the newspaper in Chennai on Saturday. Mr N. Ram (extreme left), Editor-in -Chief, and Mr P.S. Ramamohan Rao, Governor of Tamil Nadu, are also seen. — Bijoy Ghosh

Chennai , Sept. 13

THE Prime Minister, Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee, sought the media's support in the Government's vision of transforming India into a developed nation, achieving freedom from poverty, unemployment, and social and regional disparities.

Inaugurating the 125th anniversary celebration of The Hindu here today, he said that such a support would not be to any particular party, government or ideology.

Such a vision transcends party politics and the means of any single government. This vision was on par with the idea of a free nation in the first part of the last century.

Mr Vajpayee urged all sections of the media and the society to participate in the social transformation with a sense of mission. Many habits have to be unlearned and new constructive ones learned.

"I have no doubt that a serious and progressive newspaper like The Hindu will play an honoured role in this national endeavour," he said.

The transformation to a developed nation is not an overambitious project with the natural and human resources available. To its achievements, India must add the crowning success of remaining a democracy against all odds. There is no need for fear regarding democracy or secularism, and India will always remain an open, inclusive and tolerant nation despite unfortunate aberrations, whose recurrence must be prevented.

Freedom of faith would be guaranteed to all not just by the statute book but also by the living traditions of its ancient civilisation, he said.

The Prime Minister expressed concern that parallel to the development of the media for masses there was a contradictory process as well. A process referred to by its critics as "the mass media without the masses''.

There is an increasing tendency in a section of the media to project trivial things in life, fashions of the rich and the over-privileged, and to aggressively advertise a consumerist lifestyle beyond the reach of the majority.

This happens to the exclusion of the attention paid to the problems of the masses, their sufferings and aspirations. A newspaper should be a voice of the voiceless, the hope of the hopeless. But the common man is often invisible in the pages of glossy newspapers and magazines, he said.

Newspapers do highlight exploitation in society and corruption and wrongdoings in the corridors of power. But vigilance must be based on veracity and verification. Such exposure of corruption and wrongdoing forces those in Government to be vigilant and assists self-corrective mechanism of a democracy, Mr Vajpayee said.

Freedom of the press is an integral part of Indian democracy. It is protected by the Constitution. It is guarded in a more fundamental way by our democratic culture that respects freedom of thought and expression, and nurtures diversity. But with freedom comes responsibility.

Mr Vajpayee said that his observation was that the media often looks at the political class and the government with a tinge of negativism.

There is a tendency to be hastily judgemental and a weakness for sensational headlines and editorialising in news columns. Sometimes, objective reportage of facts is compromised in the process. The media was welcome to expose shortcomings, but with a fair and balanced approach, he said.

Many constructive debates in Parliament and developmental initiatives of the Government are routinely ignored or scantily covered by the media.

It especially happens in issues concerning the poorer sections of the society or remote and underdeveloped areas. The largeness and diversity of India is often clouded by an obsession with personality-based politics or the narrow concerns of the metropolitan elite.

He had full faith in the media that it would take care of its responsibilities and professional ethics, he said. Good work was being done by the government, by private individuals and NGOs. Such success stories need as much attention as failures and disasters, he said.

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