Opposition parties as well as journalist bodies condemned Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar for his criticism of the media for being biased and that many journalists were doing Opposition-sponsored paid news reporting. The Opposition Congress has demanded that the CM should apologise for his comments.
Earlier in the day speaking at a public function Parrikar said, “What is a reporter’s salary... How much does a news reader earnIJ May be 25,000 (rupees). They are mostly graduates. They are not great thinkers...intellectuals. They write news how they understand it.”Parrikar also said that there was prevalence of paid news in Goa, where “people take money to write”.
The Goa Union of Journalists meanwhile has hit out at the Chief Minister for his repeated jibes at the media. The GUJ sought that Parrikar should either come with names of those journalists or newspaper organisations that he believes are indulging in paid news or hold his silence until he can prove his charges without painting all journalists with the same brush,” GUJ president Kishore Naik Gaonkar said.
Taking a jibe apparently at Congress, the Chief Minister said, “We all know which political party runs the paper. We also know which paper has what political inclination.”
Commenting on adverse coverage against his Government, he said a section of the media in Goa was affiliated to the Opposition and was therefore criticising him and his Government unnecessarily.
“While in the Opposition, Parrikar was in favour of the media criticising the ruling Government, but while in power similar coverage is ridiculed, Gaonkar said. Parrikar had also asked reporters and correspondents to have their wits about them while reporting on news developments.
“You all should have sense. You should know how powerful the person is before reporting his comments,” had said. The Congress has demanded that Parrikar apologise to the media for his comments.
“This only shows that power has gone to the Chief Minister’s head. This is the same media which helped him during his Opposition days,” Congress spokesperon Sunil Kawthankar said.