President deprecates media's focus on negative news

Top newspaper publishers and editors from across the world began a conference here today where president Pratibha Patil criticised the media's excessive focus on the negative.

Meeting for the first time in India, which has just overtaken China as the world's biggest media market with a newspaper circulation of 99 million, some 900 participants from 87 countries will debate over the next three days issues and challenges facing the media.

Patil, who flew in from Delhi to inaugurate the 62nd meeting of the World Newspaper Congress and the 16 World Editors Forum (WEF), told the delegates, "There is a tendency in some sections to focus excessively on news which is negative".

"There is, of course, a lesson to be learnt from events that are negative, but equally important is to convey positive messages and to inspire people.

Media, therefore, must search for and find a balance between the portrayal of the negative and positive happenings in society," she said.

A highlight of the inaugural function was the presentation of the Golden Pen of Freedom award to eminent Pakistani journalist Najam Sethi for his fearless writings, which has landed him in jail under three different regimes in Pakistan and got him onto the hit-list of Taliban. The award to Sethi, a champion of Indo-Pak reconciliation and until recently editor-in-chief of Friday Times and Daily Times, was given for being the voice of moderation and unwavering and courageous support for a secular and liberal Pakistan, according to Xavier Vidal Folch, president, World Editors Forum.