2 weeks ago
120
Veteran journalist Krishna Prasad has emphasised the need for fact-checking to become the primary task of credible news media in an age of fake news and propaganda.
“I submit to you that the primary task of credible news media today is fact-checking. Every statement, every claim, every boast, every promise, every assurance needs to be filtered, evaluated and weighed before being published or aired,” he said while speaking on “Journalism in the time of fake news, propaganda, and mass delusion” at the H.Y. Sharada Prasad Birth Centenary Commemorative Talk in Mysuru on Sunday, April 21.
“The days of journalists acting as servile stenographers to power and their mindless couriers to the masses, is over. Every reporter, every editor has to be a fact-checker of every story, if our democracy is not to disintegrate and die under the weight of plain white lies,” he said.
Krishna Prasad is the former Group Editorial Officer, The Hindu and former Editor in Chief, Outlook.
With lies being spun at a “frightening scale”, Mr. Krishna Prasad called upon the media consumers to also demand more from their respective newspapers, news channels and news websites.
“If your media vehicle is merely reporting ‘live’ what this politician or that is saying, if it does not crosscheck every claim at every level if it does not provide context and clarity, it is serving you poorly in these challenging times. It is serving some other master, not you the reader and viewer”, he said.
Claiming that Karnataka had emerged as the “fake news factory of India”, Mr. Krishna Prasad said the “fabricators of news, who can twist words and images and videos, enjoy the patronage of prosperous Union Ministers and MPs, a couple of whom are fighting the ongoing Lok Sabha elections. Their vile, hateful output makes its way to newspapers, TV channels and social media”.
“It finds a ready audience in the urban, literate, prosperous sections of our State – people like us, who happily participate in the crime of spreading it. But, as the Assembly elections in Karnataka showed last year, India’s democracy is mostly saved by the poor, illiterate, rural masses, who can see through false claims and bring their lived experience to the ballot box”.
He also sought to remind the “mature adults” of their responsibility to discern truth from falsehood while seeking out “reliable sources” amidst the “cacophony of sensationalism and clickbait”. “It is up to us, as informed citizens, to seek out reputable sources, to question and challenge the narratives presented to us, and to demand accountability from those, who seek to deceive us,” he said.
He also cited an initiative in Kannur in Kerala, where government schools from Class VIII to Class XII have a daily class on how to detect fake news. “The lesson that children learn is – Check it first, Check it yourself. Do not forward recklessly”, he said.
Mr. Krishna Prasad’s talk at Ganabharathi in Mysuru on Sunday was to commemorate the birth centenary of H.Y. Sharada Prasad (April 15, 1924 – September 2, 2008), a Mysorean, who was a freedom fighter and writer, who was the media adviser to three Prime Ministers – Indira Gandhi, Morarji Desai, and Rajiv Gandhi.
