Governor P. Sathasivam has criticised the media’s reportage on the alleged abduction and sexual abuse of an actor in Kochi.
The coverage of sensational cases should never affect the investigation in such cases, he said while launching the logo of the Subhayatra road safety campaign of the MediaOne channel on Saturday.
According to him, the media, particularly the visual media, had chosen to provide greater importance for the developments of the sensational case on the same day when the customary policy address was delivered by the Governor in the Assembly.
“I was quite surprised to find that the address did not feature among the headlines of the Malayalam news channels after I returned to Raj Bhavan from the Assembly. It was after a long time that reports regarding the address were telecast. The policy address elaborated on the programmes that had been envisaged to be implemented by the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government during the next year,” he said.
He cautioned that unbridled coverage of sensational cases threatened to derail their investigations. Such circumstances could, at times, benefit the accused persons. He opined that the public should be informed of details that were essential to them, while preserving the rest so as to benefit the investigating team.
Mr. Sathasivam said the media should take up issues pertaining to farmers’ woes, women empowerment, atrocities against women, child rights and labour problems.
