Journalists should be active, not activists: seminar

A panel of eminent mediapersons today discussed issues related to activism and responsbility in journalism with many expressing the view that the role of a journalist is to bring facts to light rather than resort to activism.
The media's job is not activism but to be active, said Indian Express Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta who added journalism is a profession of patience, of scrutiny to arrive at the truth, not activism. He said the training of a journalist was to avoid activism and engage in scrutiny.
"Somebody brings you a fact, it looks fantastic, you have to check," he said while speaking at the discussion which was a part of the CII National Conference here.

Editor-in-Chief of the India Today Group Aroon Purie said the mainstream media had been by and large responsible. He said mediapersons should not have agendas.
"As far as activism is concerned, I have a very simple view. There is good journalism and bad journalism, there is no such thing as activism or non-activism. I think if a consequence happens because of good journalism, it is a good consequence, it is a byproduct," he said.
Poorie said he did not think that journalists should think of the consequences of their stories except in very rare cases as it could lead to stories getting corrupted. "I think the biggest poison in journalism is journalists, editors, proprietors having agendas," he said.

"I think activism should be nowhere near it, if it happens as a byproduct, I am okay with it, Poorie said.
Senior TV journalist Rajdeep Sardesai, Editor-in-Chief of the IBN News Network, said there is a difference between 'activist' journalism and what he termed as 'supari' journalism. He said 'supari journalism' is the unnacceptable tendency to target a particular entity and through this tendency agendas come in.