Instances of fake, paid news are disturbing: Naidu

Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu on Sunday raised the issue of fake and paid news and said that these instances are disturbing as media has an important role to play in a democracy.

"Media has an important role to play in a democracy. Instances of fake and paid news are disturbing. Few people are bringing a bad name to the journalistic community. I would like to caution everybody to see that we live by our value system and ethics," he said.

Naidu was addressing a gathering at the celebration of 100 years of an Odia daily newspaper in Cuttack.

"Simply because of competition and temptation for TRPs, media should not go for sensationalization. There has to be a sense in what you propagate. Media should introspect seriously and see to it that they all adhere to standards," he said.

The Vice President also talked about promoting regional languages.

"Learn Hindi, Bengali, English, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada or even French, Chinese, no problem. But first, promote your own mother tongue. That is what is required. That is why I stress that government schools and educational institutes must promote mother tongue up to primary level," he said.

Naidu urged people to learn their mother tongue, promote it and learn other languages as well.