World Press Freedom Day 2022: Journalists explain the importance of ‘Information as a Public Good’
‘Journalism under digital siege’ – Theme of World Press Freedom Day 2022 is what the Indian Media Needs to Learn
India, on paper, is one of the countries that allow a lot of freedom to journalists and media professionals. With the right to freedom of speech and Expression, along with Article 19 (1), Indian media is allowed to have the right to access absolute press freedom. But what’s on paper is not always true. According to Reporter’s without Border’s Report, India has been in the 142nd position according to World Press Freedom Index for the last two years and been consistently sliding from 2016, when it had 133rd rank.
And when we saw World Press Freedom Day 2022 today, on 3rd May, we felt like addressing the position of India as one of the most dangerous countries to practice journalism. And as the theme of this World Press Freedom Day is ‘Journalism under digital siege’ it becomes more necessary to identify what are the gaps in Indian Media.
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We spoke to young journalists about the value of Information, press freedom, and how media professionals hold the responsibility to spread information.
Parul Shrivastava explains: Information as a Public Good and how Journalists need to understand the responsibility of spreading the right information
Information is one of the most valuable resources and journalists and media professions are certainly the ones who find and tell the information. As a Journalist, it is important to understand the power of imparting the right information to the public. Our job is to report events without any distortion in facts. Media is a powerful tool. There are a lot of people who consume news and form their opinions based on the reports and facts they watch. In that case, it is important that the right information should come out. India has a large young population and inducing wrong information can trigger anger and panic amongst the audience.
“Information has become a means of survival more so than ever. And amid this we expect it to be more accurate than ever. We are constantly required to question our sources. Any move based on what we get through media has to be factually correct and scientifically proven. At this juncture of time, it is about life and the media is responsible for each statement that it passes related to covid.