Sangh Samachar
Narad Jayanti celebrated
By Ravindra Saini
Narad Jayanti was celebrated on May 25 all over the country. All Vishva Samvad Kendras organised seminars on various topics in which eminent journalists and scholars addressed the gathering. Shri Ram Madhav, spokesperson of RSS, addressed the gathering at a function organised in Mumbai. A similar seminar was organised in Dehradun. ?Question Mark on Freedom of Expression in Media? was the subject for discussion. The major issue that rocked the seminar was how the economically large media conglomerates are deliberately killing stories that directly influence public money whereas small and regional papers justify journalism. Shri A. Surya Prakash, an eminent columnist who was chief speaker, said that whenever democracy was attacked, it was the media that was first attacked. He stressed that media and public should recall the onslaught on the media during the Emergency days and said that journalists were responsible for the current state of journalism. He reminded the people of how journalists were frightened to express themselves freely and were killed for violating the imposition during the Emergency. ?Today the Congress opposes POTA but forgets that over 1,11,000 persons were detained in July 1977 under MISA and Defence of India Act. Most of the detainees were journalists, politicians and social workers. Shri Deokant Bawoah had then given a slogan that ?India is Indira and Indira is India,? he added. Shri Jagdish Malhotra, editor, Sanatan Drishti, explained how Narad was the first and ideal journalist.
