Bhubaneswar: The vice president of India, M Nenkaiah Naidu graced the centennial celebrations of ‘the Samaja’, the premier Odia Daily, here on Sunday.
Congratulating the Samaja family on its momentous occasion of completion of 100 years said, ” It is a testimony to your commitment to journalistic excellence, your dedication to objective reporting and above all, the popularity you enjoy among the people of Odisha.”
” Today, India’s vibrant media landscape is dotted with thousands of journals and newspapers, hundreds of TV channels and scores of radio stations. Of course, you also have social media, which has become one of the main drivers of information in the Digital Age.”
“TRPs, circulation figures and bottom lines, though important, must not dictate your path. Media must shun tendency to sensationalize and must take care to stick to facts dispassionately and steadfastly and must diligently desist from mixing news and views.”
We live in an era of rapidly proliferating social media, a by-product of which is fake news. The pervasive menace of fake news now threatens to destroy the credibility of media.”
“Under such circumstances, you must be prepared to effectively tackle and disprove fake news by taking control of the narrative. You must devise creative solutions to contain fake news. You must tackle paid news with the same zeal too”.
Even though we live in an era of electronic and digital media, print media continues to be important, especially in India. Estimates say that print media revenues grew by 5.6% in 2018. The outlook for growth in the years to come is also positive.
Speaking on the occasion the chief minister of Odisha Naveen Patnaik said that Samaja has played a key role in strengthening the Odia nationalism. The newspaper had faced many challenges in its course. But, it had changed the challenges into opportunities, Patnaik added.
Odisha governor Ganeshi Lal, union petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan, BJD MP Bhatruhari Mehtab, Achuyt Samant, Lok Sevak Mandal president Deepak Malviya, and secretary Niranjan Rath also graced the occasion.
