Communist Party of India (Marxist) State secretary Pinarayi Vijayan said here on Thursday that the credibility of the media in the State was fast eroding, with certain sections creating news by being partial to the corporate class while attacking working class parties. He accused the media of attempting to portray a communal angle to many issues.
Mr. Vijayan was speaking after inaugurating a seminar on 'The Politics of the Media', organised by the Kerala NGO Union.
He said paid news had become an acknowledged fact with the Press Council of India too warning against its perils. The dilution of the actual objectives and ethics of the media was a multi-pronged process over the years, and eventually had necessitated media literacy among the people, he said.
Mr. Vijayan said newspapers in the days of the Independence movement had a specific purpose and were the voice of the common man. However, vested interests crept in later, with the majority of the owners of newspapers being major corporates, which were naturally influenced by the outlook of the global majority.
The CPI(M) State secretary challenged Mathrubhumi managing director and the former Union Minister M.P. Veerendrakumar to clarify how he had acquired majority shares in the newspaper. Mr. Vijayan said Mathrubhumi had emerged as a medium of the public with the intention to strengthen the national independence movement. It was never a family affair and several people had helped the paper in its initial days by buying its shares. Mr. Veerendrakumar should clarify how he became a major shareholder.
He accused Mr. Veerendrakumar and several others in the media of being biased in their political outlook.
