"I am an outsider in the world of media that traditionally has been controlled by a handful of Lutyens journalists. My viewers whom I call the Supreme Court are the best judge of my work," said Sudhir Chaudhary, the Editor-in-chief of Zee Media, at the JLF session titled On Balance: Journalistic Objectivity.
Despite their differences of opinion, the panel, that included Senior Editor Rajeev Punnoli of Mathrubhoomi newspaper and blogger Aditi Maheshwari Goyal agreed that media cannot be objective. Chaudhary went a step further to declare that newspapers have never been unbiased since their emergence in the pre-Independence era when they became a powerful tool in the freedom struggle.
"It's all a matter of convenience," he said, while pointing out that when a report is published in someone's favour it's deemed objective while a critical story gets the 'bias' tag. Chaudhary said he is trying to 'free' content from the vice-like grip of a bunch of people who are more interested in getting Padmabhushan and Padmashree awards than allowing facts to come out in the public domain.
NOTEWORTHY CALL
Sudhir Chaudhary’s advice to the audience was interesting: “Once you stop reading newspapers and cease to watch primetime news and debates, India would appear to be a beautiful country.”
