Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh has cautioned the media not to allow the spirit of investigative journalism become a witch-hunt. Addressing a function to dedicate the National Media Centre of the Press Information Bureau to the nation in New Delhi on Saturday, Dr Singh said personal prejudices must not replace the public good. He asked the media to consolidate India as a plural, inclusive and progressive society. The media, which is a reflection of the entire society has a special role to assess, tackle and overcome the challenges brought about by socio-economic changes, the Prime Minister added.
Dr Singh called for mature and wise handling of social media to save innocent people from becoming victims of online propaganda campaigns.
The Prime Minister said the state-of-the-art Centre is the latest step to address the diverse communcation needs of people. He said it will be a single window facility to fulfill the needs and requirements of the media.
Speaking on the occasion, UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi said the government welcomes the watchdog role of the media and well-intentioned criticism, but there is a need to disseminate news truthfully and objectively. She also stressed on the need for space in public debates for conflicting and opposing points of view.
Gandhi expressed hope that the media facility will act as a bridge and nerve centre between the government, media and people.
Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari said though the print media is witnessing closure of major publications globally, in India, the print industry is expected to clock 10 per cent growth rate and emerge as the 6th largest newspaper market in the world by 2017.
He informed that the Union Cabinet has approved e-auction of 839 new FM radio channels in 94 cities.
Tewari asked the MSME sector to leverage the opportunity of manafacturing set-top boxes to convert the ongoing cable TV digitisation into India story.
AIR correspondent reports that the Media Centre is equipped with the latest technologies of information dissemination and has been planned on the lines of media centres in some of the prominent capitals of the world such as Washington and Tokyo.
It has a press conference hall which can accommodate 283 media persons, a briefing room for about 60 persons, 24 work stations for journalists, a library, media lounge and cafeteria. The press conference hall and media lounge are wi-fi enabled.
Among the facilities provided at the centre are optic fibre internet backbone with redundancy, mini-data centre for application development and hosting webcast, including live webcast, Video feed to TV channels, IT facilities to media persons in work area and lounge, internet telephony and AV Video Wall.
