President Droupadi Murmu Highlights Role of Free Journalism at Ramnath Goenka Awards
The President of India, Smt Droupadi Murmu has given away the 19th Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Awards in a function organized in New Delhi.
In his address on the occasion, the President stated that the value of free and fair journalism to democracy cannot be overstated. If the citizens remain ill-informed, democratic processes lose their very purpose.
The President averred that a healthy newsroom buzzing with ideas is crucial for the business of news. She underlined the need for a research wing to ensure quality and accuracy of news. She asserted that news gathering, the lifeblood of journalism, should be beefed up. She appealed to media organisations to invest greater resources in fostering the culture of reporting from the ground.
The President explained that previously, papers and magazines wanted to provide qualitative reportage and analysis, and the readers purchased their copies. An adequate number of readers resulted in a decent platform for advertisements, which financed the expenses. She noted that during the recent decades, many models of hybrid ones have taken its place. She said their success should be assessed by measuring how they influenced the quality of journalism. She further added that there are just limited sources of finance, which could either be the State or companies or the reader. While the former two have their own strengths and weaknesses, the third option of keeping the reader in the middle is the best option. It has just one limitation: maintaining that model appears challenging.
Talking about the matter of content creation, the President was sure that we will soon arrive at a point where bad content will be eliminated and the so-called post-truth will lose popularity. She mentioned that technological devices are being used to achieve that purpose as well. She urged to expedite that process with pro-active campaigns to inform citizens of these traps. She explained that the threat of deep fakes and other forms of abuse of artificial intelligence force us to make all citizens aware of this important dimension of news. Young people in particular should be taught to identify the bias and the agenda in any piece of news report or analysis.
The President indicated that AI is revolutionizing the world, presenting new opportunities along with new challenges in numerous industries such as journalism. Machines have already begun writing and editing stories. What they do not have, however, is empathy, which will be the one component that can assist journalists in outsmarting AI. Human values-based journalism is not going to become extinct at all.
