'Media has major role to play in politics; to muzzle it is unhealthy'

Bhubaneswar: Criticism continues to pour in against the decision of the ruling BJD in the State to boycott participation in all debate and discussion programmes of Odisha's largest news channel-OTV.

“If any government feels a channel or reporter is speaking against them, it should use the same platform to respond and clarify,” said Siddharth Vardarajan, founding editor, The Wire.

“I believe democracy gets weakened by such moves and the government should not do this,” he added.

Expressing similar views, Congress MP Sachin Pilot said, “A section of media should not be targeted. If any government wants to send out a message or tell something, it should utilize the same platform. If the ruling-party organized a press conference and announced this, then it's a sign that they want to cover up some of their weaknesses.”

“Media has a major role in politics - whether it's national or state. Attempts to suppress its voice are not healthy tradition,” Pilot stated.

Senior journalist Rabi Das said, “These days the number of news channels has increased in the State and many of them are supporters of the ruling party. Such a stance of the ruling party against a particular media house is condemnable and unacceptable. Through such a move, the government is threatening media to dance to its tunes. It's a veiled threat to all media houses.”

Earlier this week, BJD spokesperson and Rajya Sabha member Pratap Deb in a press conference had alleged OTV of being impartial and was unduly targeting the ruling-party and the State government. He later announced his party’s decision to not participate in any political debates and discussions of the channel.