The media in Kerala, including major newspapers and news channels, is not highlighting important national issues but is going overboard on regional developments, Minister for Local Self-Governments and Excise M.B. Rajesh has said.
He was here on Wednesday to present an award in memory of late journalist N. Rajesh to investigative journalist and author Josy Joseph.
When fact-checking website Alt News’ co-founder Mohammed Zubair was arrested and taken from one place to another in connection with various cases, the media in Kerala was gung-ho about a confusion related to an order allowing only those journalists with entry passes to the Legislative Assembly, Mr. Rajesh pointed out.
Newspapers wrote editorial after editorial and news channels held prime-time debates as if the media’s rights had been curtailed. Almost similar disinterest was exhibited when 27 MPs were suspended from the Lok Sabha for alleged unruly behaviour, and the use of some words were banned terming them “unparliamentary”. No Malayalam newspaper carried the story on India’s low ranking in the World Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders, on their front pages either, Mr. Rajesh said. “The media had become lapdogs of the establishment, instead of being the watchdogs of democracy,” he added.
While the national media was subservient to the corporate-Manuvadi-Hindutva establishment at the Centre, their counterparts in Kerala followed in their footsteps,” Mr. Rajesh said.
Leena Gita Raghunath, audience development editor, The Caravan magazine, delivered a lecture on Indian media on the occasion.
