Tuesday, Dec 10, 2002
Tuesday, Dec 10, 2002 |
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Andhra Pradesh
By Our Staff Reporter
Delivering the third "Dr. K. Raja Rammohan Rao Endowment Lecture'' on "Future of India-Role of Media'' at the Nagarjuna University here today, Mr. Justice Reddy said that media, which helped India gain political freedom, should work for preserving the country's economic freedom. The problems confronted by the country in the last half-a-century were complex and were posing a serious challenge to the national solidarity and the independence. No institution had an unblemished record in the last 55 years. He sought to know if the intellectuals, the educated and the bureaucrats were not responsible as abettors for this scenario. Mr. Justice Reddy felt that the role of media in any democratic society was to inform and educate the people, as a well-informed citizenry would also constitute a solid foundation for democracy. Stating that a rebirth of "our republic'' was necessitated, he said that another freedom struggle should be launched by the people by becoming duty minded, responsible, honest, tolerant, secular and magnanimous. Violence could not be eliminated by violence, but conquered by change of hearts. Immoral people should be removed from power through democratic process and not by violent methods. To achieve this goal, the media should come forward with a missionary zeal. Another most important task before the media was to educate the rural people who did not have access to what the authorities were supposed to do for their welfare. The role of the press in a developing country should neither be that of an adversary nor an ally to the treasury benches nor a comrade-in-arms of those in the opposition benches. "It is poignantly poised in a manner where none can pull its strings, for certainly it is not a puppet,'' he observed. Though it would be difficult to have a national communication policy or generally acceptable information strategy in a country of India's size with multifarious diversities, such a policy was essential to provide direction to mass media efforts. The country should also have the necessary infrastructure to implement such policy in the shortest possible time. Mr. Justice Reddy felt that the owners and managements, advertisers and agencies, financiers, politicians, who were wielding clout with newspaper organisations, insurgents and militants were calling the tune many a time. However, professional ethics of a journalist were the touchstone of his commitment to the people of his country. Admitting that journalism was now offering a means of livelihood, Mr. Justice Reddy recalled the sacrifices made by journalists and editors of yesteryears for the causes they believed in. The Vice-Chancellor of the Nagarjuna University, L. Venugopal Reddy, presided over the meet. The former V-C of the University, K. Raja Rammohan Rao, was also present. The Registrar, Luther Das, welcomed the guests. A former professor of the University, D. Dakshina Murthy, introduced Dr. Mohan Rao, while the former Registrar, N. Rangaiah, introduced Mr. Justice Reddy.
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