Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has exhorted the media community of the State to be alert against the corporate invasion of media and the consequent wane of indigenous culture.
He was speaking at a ceremony held held here on Tuesday to present the Swadeshabhimani-Kesari Award of 2015 to Thomas Jacob, Editorial Director, Malayala Manorama , in honour of his contributions to journalism.
“Around 18 of the major vernacular mediahouses in the country are today controlled by large corporates. While they once represented the voice of native cultures, this is not the case anymore,” he said, adding that in this light, newspapers of the State, with their century-old legacies, ought to strive to preserve the State’s culture.
Commenting on the significant changes that have taken place in the media field after Independence, he said that journalism had turned into a profession instead of public service, as it used to be in the days of the freedom struggle. D. Babu Paul and M.G. Radhakrishnan, members of the judging committee; John Brittas, media adviser to the CM; and C. Narayanan, general secretary of the Kerala Journalist's Union, felicitated Mr. Jacob. V.S. Sivakumar, MLA, presided over the event.
