At KUWJ State meet, Kerala CM urges media to ‘introspect’

Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan urges media to self-introspect on accuracy, criticism, and responsibility in journalism.

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has urged the media to “self-introspect” as to whether it has descended to a state where it is “so caught up in the breaking news culture” that it is left with no time to correct even spelling and grammatical errors.

Mr. Vijayan was delivering the inaugural speech at the 60th State meet of the Kerala Union of Working Journalists (KUWJ) here on Saturday (October 19, 2024).

During the course of the speech, he raised a plethora of issues related to the functioning of the media, while asking mediapersons to introspect.

“Whether reporting first has taken precedence over accurate reporting? Is information getting ditched in the chase after controversies and emotional issues? Is the functioning of the media being reduced to dictation rather than accurate and detailed reporting?” Mr. Vijayan said.

He wondered whether in the “urge to criticise everyone and everything”, the media was deliberately pulling a veil over acceptable things. “An analysis should be done whether mediapersons have turned increasingly intolerant to criticism. Are they open to creatively accepting when their faults are pointed out? The media should examine” Mr. Vijayan said.

“Fair criticism should not be dubbed as a witch-hunt, while the media should examine whether they have turned blind to real witch-hunting. The media should not be reduced to a narrow outlook where mediapersons are comfortable as long as they are not the ones criticised, hunted and on the receiving end,” he said.

“That everyone enjoys freedom of speech should be accepted. The media should ensure that in the name of freedom of speech, they do not encroach on privacy, which is at the heart of fair journalism. Simply because controversies will sell, the media industry should not relegate itself to a point where the pursuit of controversies is turned into an industry. Mediapersons have that responsibility towards society,” he added.