Recommended: Narendra Modi’s Guwahati speech on contemporary journalism (video)

Guwahati, 29 November 2014

Prime Minister Narendra Modi delivered another gem speech today in Guwahati on the occasion of celebration of 75th anniversary of Assam Tribune daily. Presented below are glimpses of his speech:

-It is not that newspaper supply us news and information. A newspaper molds our thought-process and gives direction to it. A newspaper opens window and provide opportunity to look at the new world. And in this context when we look at newspaper in wide spectrum, a newspaper actually becomes the medium of change in society.

-Today newspaper can produce a copy without hiring a single reporter as nowadays people come to newspaper to get their news published.

-Newspapers have been born from anger, from sadness and sorrow in all these years.

-Assam Tribune just wasn’t into publishing news. It built sports complex, it popularized Bihu dance, and gave us Bhupenji.

-Reverse of Shri PJ Barua’s name is equal to BJP. No offense to say this in presence of Tarunji(Assam Chief Minister and Congress leader present there).

-Earlier we had news for once in 24 hours, but nowadays we get news 24 times in one moment.

-Trust is main point. You get news in mobile, on twitter, Facebook, messaging system, you watch news on TV at your home, but next morning you open Assam Tribune. You can live without tea but not without Assam Tribune.

-We don’t realize value of freedom of expression because it has become obvious for us. It is like we don’t value breath because it is very normal to breath, but when we are suffocated for even a few moments, we realize value of breath. Similarly it was Indira Gandhi who introduced us to the importance of value of freedom of expression by bringing emergency and suffocating freedom of newspapers.

-Tyrant targets media first. Today ISIS choose to slit throats of journalists because of the same reason.

-When you find usage of a term ‘through reliable sources’ repeatedly in some news media, you should know that there’s some problem. When you find some news media saying the things directly without using this term ‘through reliable sources’ you should believe in that news media. There’s need to move from ‘reliable sources’ to be ‘reliable’.

-In earlier days you could never find some shop claiming to sell ‘pure ghee’. But nowadays you can find such shops. It means that there’s some problem with quality of ghee at other shops. Similarly nowadays some media houses claim to bring ‘sachchi khabar’. It means there’s some problem with fairness of news overall. Readers need to read between the lines therefore.

-Nowadays, everyone can run his own newspaper. One can become editor and run newspaper through mobile phone.