Media should execute duties
responsibly
Guwahati,
Oct 19 (IANS) Responsibilities of journalists in India have
increased manifold as the media today shapes the thoughts
and aspirations of people, besides influencing opinions in
the country, President Pratibha Devisingh Patil said here
Sunday.
"Media
is only increasing and its platform has increased from print
to radio, electronic and the Internet. Media in one form or
the other, particularly the electronic media, has today penetrated
dramatically to every home. In many ways media shapes our
thoughts, aspirations and opinions and hence the responsibilities
of the media are increasing," the president said.
Patil
was speaking after conferring the Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed Award
on noted journalist Shekhar Gupta and veteran actor and social
activist Shabana Azmi at function in Assam's main city of
Guwahati.
Azmi
was presented the award in absentia as she cited personal
reasons for not attending the function.
Accepting
the award, Gupta, editor-in-chief of The Indian Express,
said politics today was the root cause of many problems in
India.
"In
a democracy we hate politics, everybody we know like to curse
politicians. But in a democracy, just as the root cause of
many problems is politics, even the solution and treatment
of many problems lie in politics and that is why we say we
need political solutions, but we don't like politicians,"
Gupta said.
Gupta
received a citation and a cash award of Rs.200,000, besides
a shawl and traditional mementoes in the presence of Assam
Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi and Governor S.C. Mathur.
The
president arrived here Sunday on a five-day visit to Assam
and Meghalaya.
On
Monday, Patil is scheduled to give away the Nirmal Gram awards
to village councils of 13 eastern and northeastern states.
On Tuesday, the president will lay the foundation stone of
the Tezpur Medical College and address army troops at the
4 Corps headquarters in the northern Assam town of Tezpur
before proceeding to Shillong for a two-day tour of Meghalaya.
In
Meghalaya, the president is scheduled to inaugurate the Baljek
airport at Tura and attend the centenary celebrations of the
Laban Bengali Girls Higher Secondary School in Shillong.
She
will leave for New Delhi Oct 24.
Indo-Asian
News Service
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