Paid news pose challenge to Indian journalism: Omar

Chief minister Omar Abdullah on Thursday said newspapers in India was grappling the issue of paid news and opinionated news stories. HT reports

Chief minister Omar Abdullah on Thursday said newspapers in India was grappling the issue of paid news and opinionated news stories.


"Most papers in the country face the issue of paid news and, out of a sense of importance, resort to opinionated news articles," said Abdullah while launching a Chandigarh-based national newspaper's Kashmir edition at Srinagar's SKICC on the banks of Dal Lake on Thursday morning.

"We observe that more space is being given to views than to the actual news flowing from all across in the garb of the perception that views are more important than news. There is need to take a holistic view to strike the balance between the two," said Abdullah.

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Both the chief minister and governor NN Vohra were present for the inauguration ceremony.

"There were times in Kashmir when local newspapers were obsessed with certain areas of reportage. We have to come out of that and report positivity with a sense of balance," said Vohra.

Both of them spoke about responsibility of the press in maintaining visible impartiality through unbiased reporting.

"Objective and balanced media coverage of varied important issues relating to socio-economic development, governance and democracy would make an important contribution to protecting and enlarging the public interest. In this context, excessive zeal to praise or blame cannot be the basis of good reportage," said Vohra.

Referring to love-hate relationship between the media and politicians, Abdullah said, "Both are supplementary and complimentary to each other. Neither politicians nor media can thrive without each other."