TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
PANJIM: The Nationalist Congress Party too has demanded an inquiry through retired high court judge, into allegations made by Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar about paid news in Goa and asked him to depose before it with evidence if he had any.
St Andre MLA Vishnu Wagh said that for a responsible person like the chief minister to be making such statements “showed the shallowness of the CM.” Vishnu also added that “If he asks for qualifications of the media then he should also ask for the qualifications of his MLAs.
The Goa Union of Journalists condemned Parrikar’s statement and demanded a public apology saying that it is an “affront and attempt to cast aspersions on the journalist community at a public event.”
They asked Parrikar to come clean on the allegations; name, shame, and prosecute those journalists or newspaper organisations which he alleged are indulging in paid news, or forever hold his silence until he can prove his charges.
NCP president Nilkant Halarnkar and general secretary Avinash Bhosle asked whether this implied that when Parrikar was Opposition leader, he had paid some media persons, condemning the chief minister attack on the media.
As reported in the print as well as television media, Parrikar said at the public function: “What is a reporter’s salary…How much does a news reader earn? Maybe 25,000 (rupees). They are mostly graduates. They are not great thinkers… intellectuals. They write news how they understand it.”
GUJ takes offence to this statement and demands a public apology from the chief minister. Stating that the unwarranted and unsubstantiated comments from Parrikar are not his first, when it comes to unqualified, scornful assault on the media and its functioning in Goa, GUJ said that it had always been critical of paid news and would fully support any endeavor which could help address the issue of paid news within the media fraternity.
Commenting on adverse coverage against his government, the chief minister had also said that a section of the media in Goa was affiliated to the Opposition and was therefore criticising his government unnecessarily. GUJ said that while in the Opposition, Parrikar was in favour of the media criticising the ruling government, but while in power, similar coverage is being ridiculed by him.
Independent Fatorda MLA too criticized CM’s derogatory remarks on the media calling them a manifestation of intolerance to voices of dissent, “which is a trademark of the Parivartan regime.”
The media constitutes of the same individuals who were active in the Forth Estate when the CM was Leader of Opposition, Sardessai reminded the chief minister pointing out that the media had not changed, it’s only the CM & his views that have changed.
“This drastic and shocking U turn may be on account of the stress that the CM is facing within the party or may be on account of his overconfidence that he has that makes him believe that he will be able to have his way due to the divided and rudderless state of the principal Opposition party,” Sardessai said adding that at the same time “it serves as a lesson to the majority of the Goan media which has been more than eager to endorse Parivartan and which had the habit of praising every small freebies doled out by the regime as an unprecedented miracle.”
