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Media has compromised on freedom: Kuldip Nayar

Staff Reporter

`It has compromised on its freedom in a highly commercial environment'

BANGALORE: Veteran journalist Kuldip Nayar on Saturday said that freedom of the Press was a fundamental right and nothing short of that could be acceptable. However, he wondered whether the media lived up to its true image.

Delivering the Justice S. Rangarajan Memorial Lecture on the "Independence of the media", Mr. Nayar wanted journalists to measure up to their role as responsible communicators to people on important issues for socio-political and economic change. The media had become a victim of globalisation, and it had compromised on its freedom in a highly commercial environment, he said.

Stating that a newspaper should have news, information and be able to provoke thought, he said that it was not the case anymore. The newspaper today had been reduced to a commodity and that was reflected in the news and stories being published. Mr. Nayar was critical of reporters for sticking to one-sided versions.

The readers would not be at the place of an incident, but the reporter would be. If the reporters did not communicate the facts properly, how would they expect the readers to respond?, he asked.

The print media, he said, suffered from a disease and played havoc on the readers. Branding the disease as "tabloid syndrome," Mr. Nayar felt this manifested itself in the photographs of models splashed all over the newspaper, reducing it to a commercial commodity.

On corruption, Mr. Nayar said that it was not limited to politicians alone. Corruption had spread to the media and even the judiciary. Very few in the media were bold to speak out as they were scared and also because many of them had themselves become victims of commercialisation, he said.

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