Mangaluru: Senior journalist Barkha Dutt opined that social media should also come under the law of the land and that people should not be allowed to post any untoward comments on social media platforms under the pretext of ‘freedom of expression’.

She was sharing her views during a session on the subject ‘Is the media leaning?’ organised as part of the ‘Lit Fest – 2019’ at the TMA Pai International Convention Centre on Friday, November 29. She said, “Even though reporters from traditional media honestly work and try to unearth facts, people blame them and accuse them of always being biased. But, under the pretext of freedom of expression, people post misleading messages on social media and try to grab the attention of the public. In order to stop such occurances, social media should also come under the law of the land,” she said.

Meanwhile, she informed that the Government of India has been planning to draft a copy in order to bring social media under the purview of the country’s law. “If a law is passed in this regard, it will become impossible for people to misguide others,” she said.

Speaking on the topic ‘Is the media leaning?’ Barkha opined that media is not leaning. “When journalists speak the truth through their media house, the others may think that that particular media organisation is biased towards one particular community or political party. If at all the owner of the media house is biased, a reporter of that organisation cannot be biased and publish a biased report,” she said.

Meanwhile, another senior journalist, Smitha Prakash admitted that reporters need to work in line with the views of his/her boss or his/her organisation. “If a reporter tries to reveal the truth through his report, it may not get published due to various reasons. There is also a possibility that the reporter can be biased even though his/her organisation is not,” she said.

She also admitted that, due to the competition between media houses, it is inevitable for the media to focus on subjects which receive more Television Rating Points (TRP). “When Doordarshan was our only channel for news, and there was no competition, it aired only newsworthy subjects. But, one cannot expect the same to occur now because of increased competition between media organisations,” she said.

Atul Kulkarni was the moderator of the session.