Her Excellency the President of India, Smt. Pratibha Devisingh Patil ji,

Hon’ble Minister of state for Information and Broadcasting. Sri. Chowdhary Mohan Jatuaji,

My colleague and state Minster for Tourism, Culture and Information Dr. Smt. J Geeta Reddyji,

President of World Association of Newspapers, Sri Gavin O’Reilly ji,

President of Indian Newspaper Society, Sri T.Venkatrama Reddyji,

President of World Editors Forum, Sri Xavier Vidal Folch,

Vice President of W.N.A, Sri Pratap G Pawar ji,

CEO of WAN-IFRA, Sri Timothy Baldwin ji, and delegates from all over the world, 

It gives me immense pleasure to participate in the World Newspaper Congress and World Editors’ Forum. I deem it a privilege to interact with you. In fact, Andhra Pradesh is honored to host this international meet of doyens of newspaper industry and journalism.

Incidentally, Hyderabad can be called the Fleet Street of South India in that it is the home for dozens of newspapers and more than a dozen news television channels.

All of you are erudite owners or editors of various newspapers. You know the changing scenario in the world and the need for the media too to adapt to the changes from time to time.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi who led our freedom struggle in the first half of the 19th century was also a journalist, used to edit ‘Harijan’ and ‘Young India’ journals. He was known for his upright and forthright expressions and practicable approaches.

Our nation adores him as ‘Mahatma’ because he taught us not only how to fight for our rights without resorting to violence, but also how to live with values in our respective professions.

According to Gandhiji,  “It's the action, not the fruit of the action, that's important. You have to do the right thing. It may not be in your power, may not be in your time, that there'll be any fruit. But that doesn't mean you stop doing the right thing. You may never know what results come of your action, but if you do nothing there will be no result.”

Journalists had only one purpose during the freedom struggle i.e. to liberate our motherland from colonial rule. They made their pens more powerful than guns. After achieving freedom, the focus was on achieving economic development so that the living conditions of our people are on par with those in developed countries.

With the active and voluntary involvement of media houses, we could achieve green revolution and white revolution. The media houses are capable of making even the impossible things possible.

Well, with more countries achieving independence in the 20th century, media houses also became truly independent. In turn, competition among media houses has been growing in their bid to attract new readers and viewers.

This forced the media houses to recruit young journalists. The media’s drive to induct new blood into the sacred profession has led to a phenomenal hike in the pay scales of journalists. At the same time, rapid advances in communications along with globalization have contributed to the integration of world cultures.

Our Andhra Pradesh Government has adopted some of those methods to disseminate information regarding schemes we introduced under the able leadership of my predecessor, the late Dr Y.S.Rajasekhara Reddy.  Some schemes like health insurance for the poor under the title Rajiv Arogyasri,  loans at three per cent interest to rural women folk for their economic uplift and the mission titled Jalayagnam to bring more than one crore acres of parched land under cultivation are unique.

Yet, newspapers could not devote as much space as the schemes deserve in public interest. Here comes application of new communication technology.  In this connection, we take pride in recalling that late Rajiv Gandhi strove to usher India into the 21st century equipped with the latest technology.

A number of commercial techniques are being followed by newspapers worldwide to attract more readers. While a debate over ethical standards of these techniques is still going, the world has seen new generation of journalists.

The easy availability of technology and the seemingly unending interest in information among the masses, have led to the advent of ‘Citizen Journalism’.

This has coincided with the rise of Social Media such as Twitter and YouTube, facilitated by the Internet. It is no surprise any longer that the biggest stories of our time are increasingly being broken by 19-year-olds armed with a cell phone, something we saw during the post-election protests in Iran in summer this year.

In the absence of context, the raw, streaming information being provided through Citizen Journalism may be falling short of doing justice to the label of journalism. Therefore professional media sources continue to be indispensable.

Then the question is how to prune such news flashes in the world of competition and live up to the professional ethics of publishing only factual information? Some television channels have flashed such raw news based on SMS or unknown e-mails when Pak terrorists attacked Taj Hotel in Mumbai last year.

Let us recall the preamble of the Geneva convention on journalists: “Conscientious journalists from all media and specialties strive to serve the public with thoroughness and honesty. Professional integrity is the cornerstone of a journalist's credibility.”

Another dimension is that journalists who work in war-like situations, particularly in terrorist prone zones,  have to work indefatigably risking their lives.  You are aware  that over the past decade, the rise of non-state actors has changed the nature of conflict and conflict reporting as we knew it.

With scant regard to the Geneva Convention, in respect of attitude towards journalists, or other norms of international law, terrorist groups often do not distinguish between combatants, civilians and the media. Hence, we have increasing incidence of journalists being targeted or being caught in the crossfire in conflict zones.

Be it the killing of the Wall Street Journalist  Daniel Pearl in 2006 in Pakistan or the kidnap of David Rohde of the New York Times in Afghanistan early this year, and Canadian lady journalist Amanda Lindhout and Australian photojournalist Nigel Brennan in Somalia last year or  the targeting of journalists by the Maoist insurgents and cross-border terrorists in India, it is clear that journalists have become soft targets for these non-state actors.

But the journalists struggle to do justice to the profession while reporting terrorists’ activities is no less than that of those in  war reporting. In fact, it is even worse if subjected to harassment by terrorists.  A Canadian lady journalist’s 15-month nightmare is the latest example.

Whenever I come across such news storeis, I recollect what our Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore said: “Let us not pray to be sheltered from dangers, but to be fearless from facing them.”

Yes, journalism demands this quality.

Thus, while on one side, unhealthy competition is forcing media houses to resort  to new methods of marketing irrespective of ethical acceptability, advent of new techniques of communication is leading to emergence of new generation of make-shift journalists, on  the other side. But, the committed journalists, who are encouraged by editors to take risk, enjoy no security cover.

We also need to ponder over whether the rise of these non-state actors has been inadvertently facilitated by the media ….Don’t think I am referring to ‘The Almighty’ authored by Irving Wallace !….  Problem here is different.

It is one year now to the horrendous terrorist attacks in Mumbai. After the attacks, a debate raged in India. In providing their viewers up to date coverage of the attacks, did the media inadvertently help the terrorists achieve one of their objectives of gaining world's attention ?

For days into the attack, and even after, some media outlets would not use the word "terrorist" to describe the attackers, instead referring to them with epithets such as "gunmen" and "commandoes".

In the name of neutrality, did a section of the media decide thus reserve its moral judgment on these criminals whose brutality was seen by the entire world ? … This is  the right forum to introspect.

Let us introspect whether we could take care of the welfare of journalists working in high-risky zones.

Whether we could observe due ethics, defined in the Geneva Convention, while struggling for profits and good circulation figures in spite of growing competition.

Whether we are making efforts to streamline the use of modern communication facilities in the process of reaching the readers fast.

Any time, the yardstick for any media house or editor to measure the success is, I believe, to introspect from time to time whether we could live up to the promises we made to readers.

Of course, even in politics it is the same yardstick that is required. I am one of such practitioners.

The pressures of pace with rapidly evolving technologies, society will continue to look to the media to be its conscience keeper. Even if media desires to act as it pleases,  in passing judgments, the society will continue to look to the media such as newspapers with a confidence that they guide them better.

Newspapers, in nations with increasing internet density, may be going out of business. Yet, the media should strive to keep its moral compass. Because, whether it is India or Indonesia, readers are readers.

Thank you for giving me this opportunity.

Jai Hind !