‘Media losing its credibility,relevance’

Speaking at the inauguration of a three-day seminar on “Challenges and Opportunities before the Indian Media” at Punjabi University on Tuesday,Nayar lamented that media is losing its credibility as the public had stopped taking the media seriously.

He said that it was most unfortunate that news was measured with money.

Nayar added that the media had undergone a sea change since the first two Press Commissions constituted by the Central government in 1962 and later in the 1980s. “After that,the Centre has not set up any such commission. Last year,we had met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in this regard but we have not got any response from the government till today,” he added. In this situation,the Punjab government can take a lead in this direction to quieten the rambling that “pressmen have lost their independence”,Nayar said.

Editor-in-Chief of The Tribune H K Dua,who inaugurated the seminar,made terse observations that commercialisation of media and changed journalistic values have threatened the ‘freedom of the press’. “At the same time,truth and free flow of information have also become a casualty. This poses a potential threat to the democratic set-up of the country,” he added.

Dua also lamented that the electronic media was posing more problems in this regard by suppressing the reality and highlighting only half-truths suited to commercial interests of the TV channels. “In their pursuit to show a Shining India,millions of poor,deprived and marginalised people are invariably ignored by the media,” he said.

In his keynote address,Professor Sanjay Wadwalkar,Department of Mass Communication,Panjab University,Chandigarh,said the advertisements in print and electronic media are now targeting children for consumer products. “The thinking of tiny tots,who cannot distinguish between good or bad,is disoriented in a tender age,thereby laying the foundation of a distorted society,” he said.

Kamaljeet Rattan,Head of Corporate Communications,Reliance ADAG Group and a former journalist,was also honoured on the occasion. Remembering his journalistic days,Rattan described Nayar as “Amitabh Bachhan of Indian journalism”.

Earlier,Vice-Chancellor Jaspal Singh honoured Nayar as the “founding father’ of the Department of Journalism and Mass Media at the university. Nayar was presented a memento and a plaque by the vice-chancellor. On this occasion,V-C Singh said the university is establishing an ultra-modern media centre at the campus.