Cross Media restriction is necessary–Ex CM Prithviraj Chavan

NIKHIL D NANDESHWAR

PUNE- Cross media restriction is necessary in which owner or company can not run more than one form of media. Many developed and developing countries have been following this method India needs to follow this, said Prithviraj Chavan, former Chief Minister of Maharashtra who was speaking at 138th Lokmanya Tilak National Award for excellence in Journalism at Pune.
Mr Siddharth Vardrajan, founder and editor of the news portal ‘The Wire’ and former editor of English daily ‘the Hindu’, who was also first and last editor of non family member who runs English daily was conferred 138th Lokmanya Tilak National Award for Excellence in Journalism at the hands of Mr Prithviraj Chavan and Dipak Tilak who is descendent of Lokmanya Tilak. Kesari the Marathi Daily was founded 138 year ago by Lokmanya Tilak.

Lokmanya Tilak fought against British for freedom of India through newspaper that was the credibility of media,but now a days media is loosing its credibility. Freedom of press is very old demand still we could not fulfill in real sense. Ownership of media at the hands of corporate houses is dangerous for Indian democracy to survive said Prithviraj Chavan.

To give press freedom is also responsibility of civil society which creates a pressure on government. If democratic elected government rules like dictator then it becomes very hard to fight against government in this hard situation Digital Media is ray of hope, Mr Varadrajan has been doing the same he truly deserve the award said Mr Chavan.
For journalist to be recognized no honour is greater than Lokmanya Tilak Award for excellence in journalism which was bestowed on Siddharth Vardrajan, was speaking after receiving the award. Lokmanya Tilak was not only freedom Fighter but also institutional builder and editor who fought against British raj through news paper. Media has been a lie and biased for last four years where the flattery combine with hero worship which is dangerous. Journalist have lost the art of asking questions to the government and powerful person and where the flattery dominates the media which weakens the democracy wherever the tradition of Kesari is truthful of an objective.

He also raised a question over the defamation suit filed against the journalist. These cases are only a legal battle and gives intimation not to think. Defamation cases are used as a weapon against journalist who are also booked under NSA act because of this journalist loose their right to write and readers loose their right to know. He also expressed concern over frivolous cases are filed against journalist. Many journalist have lost their lives also. RTI act has been rolling out which is a best law for citizen in which one can know information with respect to one’s interest.

Media’s role must be to make aware the people, to reinvent the public trust and to support the small media ventures can change the situation gradually he said.