Panaji: Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar on Thursday asked presspersons to not publish fake news and made a forceful plea for separating fact from opinion while writing news stories.
At a joint function to mark national Press day organised by the State government and Goa media bodies, Mr. Parrikar said, “Don’t distort news. You have the right to criticise in an editorial. But when a journalist writes fake news, despite knowing so, then I believe he is compromising his principles.”
He added, “News should be news and cannot be views. If you want to give views, you can present it as an analysis. But if something has not happened and someone prints it as if it has happened, I think that is the biggest disservice.”
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Mr. Parrikar said he had a track record of never having harassed journalists, even those who have had serious disagreements with him previously.
Mr. Parrikar lamented that the extreme sense of negativity in the media, which he said surfaced on Children’s Day (November 14) when he was asked by a journalist whether Children’s Day can be de-linked from Nehru’s birthday.
“Why is it (change of Children’s Day) was required? Why should there be negativity in everything. Bring out the positivity. Nehru did several good things for children. So let it be in the name of the person,” Mr. Parrikar said.
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