Filmmaker Kavita Lankesh, social activist Teesta Setalvad, and chairman of Asian College of Journalism Sashi Kumar at a programme organised by Gauri Memorial Trust in Bengaluru on Sunday.
| Photo Credit: SUDHAKARA JAIN
Elections don’t make a democracy. Hitler and others who wreaked havoc on this planet and dedicated genocide have been additionally elected to energy. There have to be a rule of regulation. The litmus check is a free press which works because the fourth property and speaks reality to energy, stated
Sashi
Kumar, chairman, Asian College of Journalism, who delivered the
Gauri
Lankesh
Memorial Lecture on ‘Silenced voices: the threats to journalism in new India’, in
Bengaluru
on Sunday. “Without a free and independent media, democracy is a sham,” he stated.
Sadly, these media homes and journalists discharging their duties earnestly have gotten targets of the mob or those that are inspired to take the regulation into their very own palms, he stated. “We are living in lesser democracy or elected autocracy. In the World Press Freedom Ranking, we figure 150th out of 180 nations in the world. And when these reports come out, those in power dismiss them as lies. This is the crisis of our time,” he stated.
He lamented the silence of sections of the mainstream media on vital facets of governance and the social scenario within the nation at the moment. Those in energy whose agenda is majoritarianism have additionally been in a position to manipulate sections of mainstream media and social media, creating a way of political flux within the nation, he stated.
“Journalism should be adversarial to those in power. If you only need to multiply or amplify those who are in power, then it will end up becoming the public relations department of the government. Journalism needs to be critical, to interrogate, to give credit where it is due but certainly to point out lapses, sins of omission or sins of commission of those in power,” he stated, including that the media that doesn’t invigilate the function of legislature, government, and judiciary won’t solely grow to be irrelevant but in addition harmful.
Weaponising legal justice
Social activist Teesta Setalvad, chairperson, Gauri Memorial Trust, stated the state was<SU>endangering the citizenry by weaponising the legal justice system. “The Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act is draconian. Citizens should ask for repealing this law. We have seen how intellectuals and activists are incarcerated and continue to suffer. Law is used to justify autocratic and extremely repressive actions of the state,” she stated.
Source: www.thehindu.com
