Information and Broadcasting Minister M Venakaiah Naidu said on Thursday that Doordarshan had truly lived up to its credo of being a public service broadcaster --- not caring for competition and sticking to its mandate. He also said the DD News remains the most credible news TV channel in the country giving news that were in-depth and complete in every way and that the organisation had resulted in creating information empowerment by spreading information of government programmes.
Speaking at a cultural programme held in the Doordarshan premises to mark the birthday or foundation day of DD, he said it had a national reach and also a reputation that was far above the private channels'. The Minister said the programmes telecast by Doordarshan had kept alive the arts and culture of the country through its vast archives and encouragement to classical artistes. In recorded messages, both Minister of State for I and B Rajyavardhan Rathore and Prasar Bharati board chairman Surya Prakash conveyed their gratitude to the millions of people who had always given encouragement to the presenters. Prasar Bharati CEO Jawhar Sircar said DD ran 16 regional stations, had seven national level channels, and several other channels apart from beaming for overseas Indians. MIB Minister exhorts journalism students to stay true to profession.
Meanwhile, on a busy day at another event, Naidu said communicators should stay away from sensationalism and present facts as they existed without any biases. Addressing students of the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC) during the 49th convocation, he urged them to preserve age-old values and culture while reporting and use information to fight social evils such as corruption, poverty and illiteracy. While referring to the corrupt practice of paid news, the Minister urged them to not succumb to such unethical pressures and that they should maintain high standards of journalism as true soldiers of fourth estate. He said the process of converting IIMC into a university was under way and it would have a platform to start many innovative programmes that would aim at providing wider perspective and inter-disciplinary approach to media education. It would also provide the institute with requisite resources to meet the growing demand of manpower in the industry and academia.
Emphasizing on the increasing role of social and digital media in communications domain, Naidu said social media had changed the way the communication flows. Millions of people across cultures and geographies are interacting in real time turning the world virtually into a ‘global village’. He further added that digital media had brought in immense opportunities and challenges because information was shared in real time which generated instant feedback and response.