Right or left, some hometruths from the old pros

Chandan Mitra, editor-in-chief of The Pioneer, speaking at the annual convocation of the Pioneer media school, in New Delhi on Monday:

“Despite the advent of new mediums of mass communication or news dissemination over the years, print journalism is still a vital force and journalism is defined by the print media…

“Students are free to opt for any form of journalism—television, Internet or radio—but to attain in-depth knowledge of the profession, newcomers should join newspapers or magazines at initial stages of their career.

“Internet has brought a big change in media and has made the job of a journalist easier, but it makes you laid back. Every time, one cannot rely on the Internet because it is not credible. It also overloads you with information. Therefore one should stick to a newspaper and TV news channels and read it thoroughly.”

N. Ram, editor-in-chief of The Hindu, while receiving the honorary degree of doctor of social sciences from the University of Wolverhampton, in Madras on Monday:

“In India, the long-term competition between the self-serving and the public service visions of journalism is on and it breeds tension, confusion and, at times, conflict….

“Ensuring commercial viability and addressing the vital need of being accurate, informative, insightful, educative and relevant is an extraordinarily difficult balance to strike. Many of us believe there is a middle path, a golden mean that can deliver good results.

“News media needs to work out a template of editorial values and principles and a concept of social responsibility they can live up to and also live with.”