Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Chennai on Monday to participate in the platinum jubilee (75 years celebration) of Tamil daily Daily Thanthi .
Here are key takeaways from his speech at the event:
>> Natural calamities seem to be occurring with increasing frequency across the world. Can media take a lead in the battle against climate change? Can media devote just a little space to report or increase awareness about what we can do to combat climate change?
>> A lot of the media discourse today revolves around politics. However, India is more than just us politicians. It is the 125 crore Indians who make India what it is. I would be happy to see media focus a lot more, on their stories, and their achievements.
>> Today, every citizen analyses and attempts to verify the news that comes to him through multiple sources. Media, therefore, must make an extra effort to maintain credibility. Healthy competition among credible media platforms is also good for the health of our democracy.
>> Even though media may be owned by private individuals, it serves a public purpose. As scholars say, it is an instrument to produce reform through peace, rather than by force. Hence, it has as much social accountability as the elected government or the judiciary.
>> Editorial freedom must be used wisely in public interest. The freedom to write, does not include the freedom to be ‘factually incorrect’. Mahatma Gandhi said: “The press is called the Fourth Estate. It is definitely a power, but, to misuse that power is criminal.”
>> I have often heard people wonder, as to how the amount of news that happens in the world every day always just exactly fits the newspaper, Mr. Modi said on a lighter note.
>> The then British Government was fearful of the Indian Vernacular Press. It was to muzzle vernacular newspapers, that the Vernacular Press Act was enacted in 1878. The role of newspapers published in regional languages remains as important today, as it was then.
>> Today, newspapers do not just give news. They can also mould our thinking & open a window to the world. In a broader context, media is a means of transforming society. That is why we refer to the media as the fourth pillar of democracy.
