New Delhi: Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Ashwini Vaishnav, while addressing the National Press Day celebrations through video conference, highlighted India’s dynamic and diverse media ecosystem. He discussed the struggle and contribution of the press during the freedom struggle and post emergency and also highlighted the challenges of digital media. Ashwini Vaishnav in his address said, “Let us remember the contribution of the press in the two struggles for freedom from oppressive powers in the last century. First, the long-term struggle for independence from British rule. Second, the struggle to save democracy during the crisis imposed by the Congress government.
Ashwini Vaishnav said, “We should not forget these struggles, because history repeats itself and those who forget history face the same challenges again. That is why the NDA government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has decided to celebrate June 25 as ‘Constitution Killing Day’.” Ashwini Vaishnav said India has a vibrant press. It is vocal. It has opinions from all sides. Some are very strong. Some are centrist. He said there are over 35,000 registered daily newspapers and a rapidly expanding digital ecosystem reaching millions of citizens.
Major challenges facing media and society
Highlighting the major challenges facing media and society, Vaishnav said that traditional media is suffering on the financial side as news is rapidly shifting from traditional to digital media. He said, “In traditional media, the investment required to build a team of journalists, train them, create editorial processes and mechanisms to check the authenticity of news and take responsibility for content is huge, both in terms of time and money. It is huge, but these platforms are becoming irrelevant as intermediate media have a huge advantage over them in terms of dissemination capacity. The Union Minister said, “This issue needs to be resolved. The hard work that traditional media platforms put into creating content should be compensated through fair payment.
Spread fake news and rumors quickly
Vaishnav said that the rapid spread of fake news and rumors is also a big challenge to the media and society. He said, “This is not only a major threat to the media, as it reduces its credibility, but is also fatal to democracy. Intermediate platforms do not verify what is posted, so a large amount of false and misleading information can be found on practically all platforms. “Even people who are supposed to be informed citizens fall into the trap of such misinformation.”
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