There is always a place in journalism to report truthfully & honestly: Uday Mahukar
The Information Commissioner engaged in an insightful fireside chat at the e4m NewsNext conference
The exchange4media NewsNext conference saw an informative keynote session delivered by Information Commissioner Uday Mahukar. He spoke about how the news media industry and political parties should come together to raise their voice against issues which affect the nation.
The political analyst and author also spoke about the importance of the nation-first approach. He emphasized how the news media industry and political parties should work together.
During the fireside chat on the topic ‘Journalism of Impact’ with Ruhail Amin, Senior Editor, exchange4media, Mahukar said: “Reporting a news development first and creating waves for an impact is journalism. Breaking a story is impact-making journalism. It is a wide canvas and so we should focus on the true impact of journalism. In spite of a great deal of transparency, which we see in today’s journalism, and the role played by social media, we still have a long way to go. I am of the firm opinion that we may belong to different ideologies. There is always a place in journalism to report truthfully and honestly.”
He further said, “When there is a debate on ideology, people must share their views. But when there is a development, which is impacting the society and has a deep bearing on the society’s future and peace, then there has to be a common minimum agenda for truthful reporting.”
For true impact-making journalism, there must be an element of reporting with truthfulness, Mahukar added.
Further in the session, he said, “I think there has to be a self-introspection in the media fraternity and secondly we should take the nation-first approach. We have to inculcate the theory of nation first and then comes the party, job and media houses. If we want to adopt this approach, top leaders have to step in and talk about it. The time has come when top leaders from political parties and media houses should talk about it.”
Further in the discussion, Mahukar said, “There should be a common minimum agenda between the media and political parties. There should be a Nation First conference where all top leaders with all honesty and humility must chart out a plan and speak in one voice on issues related to the nation.”
Mahukar also shared his experience in the media industry as an active journalist until October 2020. He was later appointed as Commissioner in the Central Information Commission. Mahukar has the credit of spending more than 34 years in Gujarat as a journalist during which he covered riots, rural development and the governance under then CM and now Prime Minister, Narendra Modi. Mahukar is also the author of two books – one on the 13 years of Narendra Modi in Gujarat as Chief Minister and the other one on Modi’s 3 years as Prime Minister.
