The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : “Newspapers should stand by core principles”

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jan 02, 2008
ePaper

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

“Newspapers should stand by core principles”

Special Correspondent

Ramachandran Award of Excellence for Ram

— Photo : S. R. Raghunathan

HONOUR: M.S. Swaminathan, agricultural scientist (left), giving away the "Hamsadhwani R. Ramachandran Award of Excellence" to N. Ram, Editor-in-Chief, The Hindu, at a function in Chennai on Tuesday.

CHENNAI: Newspapers need to be committed to core principles and values while being contemporary , N. Ram, Editor-in-Chief, The Hindu, said on Tuesday.

Replying to felicitations after receiving the first “Hamsadhwani R. Ramachandran Award of Excellence,” Mr. Ram said only strong values afforded a newspaper institution the room to experiment.

He pointed out that without adherence to values and principles, setting standards in technical excellence in terms of writing style, presentation, layout or design was futile. “A template of principles should be at the centre of a newspaper’s functions.”

“A tough task”

Describing the Hamsadhwani honour “as an award for the 130-year-old The Hindu,” Mr. Ram said no newspaper could claim to achieve excellence all the time, or to have immunity from serious errors. “In this context, great newspapers can only be committed to excellence through a consistent pursuit of certain values and principles.”

Mr. Ram said that maintaining integrity and sustaining high quality had become an “incredibly difficult task” for newspapers to perform owing to the pressures from market forces. Such pressures manifested as attempts to manipulate news and opinions or a dumbing-down of content. “I believe that great newspapers know where to draw the lakshman rekha.”

Mr. Ram said The Hindu continues to achieve the fundamentals laid out by its founding fathers in 1878 that included truth-telling, freedom and independence, fairness, ethical practices, justice and social responsibility.

Presenting the award and citation, M. S. Swaminathan, agricultural scientist and chairman of the M. S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, said Mr. Ram was a fearless advocate of democracy, and the newspaper he led was a flagship of democratic values.

Dr. Swaminathan said Mr. Ram, for whom professional integrity was not negotiable, also had the qualities of humanism and a belief in pluralism.

Chitraveena exponent N. Ravikiran said the award had gone to a true icon who displayed strength of character and ability to follow his convictions. These traits could be adopted not only in journalism but also in any other sphere such as sports or music.

Mridangam exponent Umayalpuram K. Sivaraman presented a shawl to Mr. Ram.

R. Sundar, son of R. Ramachandran and Hamsadhwani secretary; Gopalan, joint secretary; R. Subramaniam, president; and Ramnath Mani, vice-president, spoke.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Tamil Nadu