Editor of The Pioneer and Rajya Sabha member Chandan Mitra on Saturday strongly argued that nosection of media can be impartial in a country where a lot of regional political outfits apart from national parties come to play their parts in the national scenario
“Credibility of political parties is no longer the same as it used to be 20 years back. So also, there has been a dearth of leaders having moral values and strong inclination to build the nation. Hence, the media has to incline towards a party or parties of its choice in order to make its information base stable and also to ensure a healthy democracy,” said Mitra during his address at the fifth anniversary function of Odia daily, Khabara.
He said, “The country has been witnessing moral scarcity for long, which is not at all good for a healthy democracy. In order to make India morally strong, political parties and the media should go hand-in-hand.”
“Current trends of scams, corruption and involvement of parties call for a special movement to save the country. If conscious political leaders and media personalities do not come forward, then who else would lead the movementIJ” asked Mitra.
Mitra also called upon media houses to raise a voice against injustices and to be the voice of the underprivileged, besides bridging the gap between the ruler and the common people.
Advocating publication of more newspapers in different regional languages, Mitra said, “In India, there are 22,000 languages and more than 4,000 registered daily newspapers. Hence, there is no problem of publishing new newspapers in different regional and sub-regional languages.”
He also praised the role of social media in generating public opinion and its fastest approach. “Social media like Facebook and Orkut are now considered the best and effective mediums to reach someone quickly, but they should aim at positive and constructive views, like that at the time of the Delhi gang-rape incident.”
Speaking on the occasion, lJ Publications and Khabara chairman Pyarimohan Mohapatra blasted the State Government for discriminating against his newspaper, in the matter of providing advertisements, with political intentions even though the paper fulfils all criteria to get Government advertisements. “It is undemocratic,” he said.
Among others, Khabara managing editor Kishore Satpathy and former Utkal University Vice-Chancellor lN Mishra spoke at the function.