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A
journalist should be a rebel: Kuldip Nayar
Tuesday May 10, 2011 08:52:46 PM,
IANS
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New Delhi: Bemoaning
the falling standards of journalism in the country, veteran
journalist Kuldip Nayar Tuesday said journalists today were merely
writing what the establishment dished out to them as press notes
while the real challenge was to "go behind" the news.
Speaking at the convocation of the first batch of students of the
International Media Institute of India (IMII) at the India
International Centre, Nayar described journalists who do not delve
into the issue and were confined only to their offices as "babus".
"Today," he regretted, "they make their reports from press notes."
"It is not the job a journalist to have holy cows, defend the
government, see the vested interests flourish but the job of a
journalist is to expose and to be a rebel," said Nayar, who at 86
remains one of the most widely read journalists whose columns are
syndicated in over 80 newspapers and magazines in 15 languages in
the subcontinent and the Gulf.
"A journalist is known for its credibility," said Nayar, who also
narrated to the rapt audience how he broke the story about
Pakistani nuclear scientist A.Q. Khan admitting to him in a fit of
pique that his country had the nuclear bomb much before they
actually tested it in retaliation to India's tests in May 1998.
Nayar, who has also served as press adviser to prime minister Lal
Bahadur Shastri, high commissioner to the United Kingdom and a
Member of Parliament, said the romance of journalism lies in
finding the truth. "Only then will the people put their faith in
you."
He later presented awards and certificates to 27 students of the
first batch of IMII, which was launched last year in collaboration
with the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ), Washington,
a non-profit organisation dedicated to improving the standard of
journalism worldwide for the public good, and the Society for
Policy Studies (SPS), New Delhi.
Four foreign students, including two from Bhutan and two from
Liberia, attended the course.
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