Minister slams trial by media

While lauding the bold and fearless brand of journalism practised by Swadeshabhimani Ramakrishna Pillai, Union Minister of State for Home Mullappally Ramachandran cautioned journalists against the tendency to stray away from the path of truth and justice to promote interests of corporates.

The Minister was inaugurating a function organised at the Sports Council Hall here on Thursday by the Creative Council of Indian Writers to present the Swadeshabhimani award to journalism educator Madavana Balakrishna Pillai and to mark the anniversary of deporting Swadeshabhimani Ramakrishna Pillai from erstwhile Travancore for his anti-establishment journalistic writings.

Remedial measures

Mr. Ramachandran remarked that the debates on various current issues telecast by Malayalam channels often degenerated into trial by the media with the anchor imposing his or her views and prejudices on other participants without citing any proof in support of his or her arguments.

Emphasising the urgent need for remedial measures to set right such media behaviour, the Minister said the media served its purpose only when it promoted people’s interests.

He said though TV debates often left much to be desired from the point of view of neutrality and fairness it could not be denied many journalists were working against heavy odds to uphold noble journalistic principles.

M.K. Raghavan, MP, who presided, pointed to the tendency of a section of the media to sensationalise events without any concern for the damage they caused to individuals and said that Nambi Narayanan who was implicated in the “ISRO spy case” was one such victim.

He wanted a probe to find out who were behind the conspiracy that targeted scientists such as Nambi Narayananan.

The compensation awarded to him for being falsely made an accused in the case was peanuts compared to the agony the scientist and his family went through, Mr. Raghavan said.

Historian, M.G.S. Narayanan, writer C. Radhakrishnan and C.P. Rajasekharan, general convener of Creative Council of Indian Writers, spoke.

Earlier K. Muraleedharan, MLA, inaugurated a seminar on media activism. Journalists from various media organisations took part.