Davangere Feb 3: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah called upon journalists to reject superstition and karmasiddhanta and develop courage to tell the truth to the people.
He was speaking after inaugurating the 38th State Conference of Journalists at Davangere.
Journalists don’t need politics.They have to be objective. Journalists should not call the guarantee schemes which are aimed at increasing the economic power of the poor and the middle class as free schemes. This non-partisan, secular, non-religious scheme should not called be called free guarantee, instead it must be reviewed before writing anything. He advised to review before publishing anything.
Journalists should develop the rigour to identify the vested interest. Instead of showing the husband-wife fight all day long, identify and write about the vested interests who are hindering the development of the society. He said that socially oriented journalism is possible through this.
Journalism has fallen into the hands of the rich and the rich. Thus, there is a risk of protecting the interests of the rich and writing against the interests of the poor. Asking the media persons to review this, the CM said that I am a supporter of freedom of expression. He requested that freedom of expression should be given some dignity.
In pre-independence journalism, the desire to bring freedom to the country worked mainly. He explained that after independence the aspiration of protecting democracy is important.
Common people have high expectations from the media. The CM said that the media should be for those who are deprived of opportunities and must be pro reservation. Technology and science have developed a lot and journalism has to take advantage of this. But journalists should not forget honesty for any reason, he said.
The media profession should be on the side of the underprivileged, on behalf of the aspirations of reservation, to remove the inequality of the society. This can provide social justice to the voiceless. Then Basavanna’s wish of an equal society can be fulfilled. He hoped that journalists should work objectively towards this.
KUWJ President Shivananda Tagaduru presided over the conference which was held in collaboration with K.V Prabhakar, Media Adviser to the Chief Minister.
Former Minister Shamanur Sivashankarappa, Horticulture Minister S.S. Mallikarjun, Transport Minister Ramalingareddy, MLAs Mayakonda Basantappa, D.G. Shanthanagowda, Founder Director of In Sight institution
GB Vinay Kumar along with office bearers of the association were present.
Sudarshan Channangihalli, editor of Vijaya Karnataka, gave the introductory remarks. E.M. Manjunath, President of Davangere District Working Journalists’ Association, addressed the conference.
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The assured that the provision of free bus pass to rural journalists would be seriously reviewed and appropriate action would be taken in this budget.
