‘Newspapers should come out of colonial mindset’: V-P Radhakrishnan at Ramnath Goenka Awards

The winners received the awards from the Vice President, the chief guest at the ceremony.

Vice President C P Radhakrishnan Friday said that the nation “should consciously shed the colonial hangover,” during his keynote address at the 20th edition of the Ramnath Goenka Awards in New Delhi.

Radhakrishnan said that the country should not be guided by Western-colonial standards of morality, echoing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call last year: “Our mindset is still influenced mostly by the colonial rule or western thinking…The newspapers should come out of it. We should have our own original thinking. We should know what is right and what is wrong for entire humanity.”

Answering a key thematic question raised during the event — “what is true journalism?” — the Vice President said that it involves publishing the truth in an age when two diametrically opposite statements often appear side by side claiming to represent the truth, as he outlined the challenges of journalism.

Radhakrishnan said the only way leaders and statesmen can be constructive is when news outlets publish information without distortion from political viewpoints, adding that media houses should refrain from sharing “wrong” views.

Radhakrishnan delved deeper into the point, highlighting that the founder of The Indian Express, Ramnath Goenka himself — in the shoes of a freedom fighter and later as a statesman and industrialist — never chose the comfortable path if it took him further away from the truth and from doing what was right.

He said that Goenka could have sided with the establishment during the Emergency (1975-77) and benefitted from it, but the publishing titan chose to stand tall, upholding press freedom in pursuit of truth and restoration of democracy.

Radhakrishnan also recalled reports of the government shutting off the electricity supply to Delhi’s newspaper row at the time, including The Indian Express, in a blackout aimed to prevent publication.

The country’s most prestigious journalism honour, the awards were instituted by the Ramnath Goenka Foundation. Vice President C P Radhakrishnan handed out the awards to the winners of this year’s edition.

The awards showcase 24 outstanding contributions from print, digital and broadcast platforms from across 18 categories, including investigative reporting, politics and government, feature writing.

A short film chronicling the journey of Ramnath Goenka was also screened during the occasion in New Delhi.

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Vice President C P Radhakrishnan Friday said that the nation “should consciously shed the colonial hangover,” during his keynote address at the 20th edition of the Ramnath Goenka Awards in New Delhi.

Radhakrishnan said that the country should not be guided by Western-colonial standards of morality, echoing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call last year: “Our mindset is still influenced mostly by the colonial rule or western thinking…The newspapers should come out of it. We should have our own original thinking. We should know what is right and what is wrong for entire humanity.”

Answering a key thematic question raised during the event — “what is true journalism?” — the Vice President said that it involves publishing the truth in an age when two diametrically opposite statements often appear side by side claiming to represent the truth, as he outlined the challenges of journalism.

Radhakrishnan said the only way leaders and statesmen can be constructive is when news outlets publish information without distortion from political viewpoints, adding that media houses should refrain from sharing “wrong” views.

Radhakrishnan delved deeper into the point, highlighting that the founder of The Indian Express, Ramnath Goenka himself — in the shoes of a freedom fighter and later as a statesman and industrialist — never chose the comfortable path if it took him further away from the truth and from doing what was right.

He said that Goenka could have sided with the establishment during the Emergency (1975-77) and benefitted from it, but the publishing titan chose to stand tall, upholding press freedom in pursuit of truth and restoration of democracy.

Radhakrishnan also recalled reports of the government shutting off the electricity supply to Delhi’s newspaper row at the time, including The Indian Express, in a blackout aimed to prevent publication.

The country’s most prestigious journalism honour, the awards were instituted by the Ramnath Goenka Foundation. Vice President C P Radhakrishnan handed out the awards to the winners of this year’s edition.

The awards showcase 24 outstanding contributions from print, digital and broadcast platforms from across 18 categories, including investigative reporting, politics and government, feature writing.

A short film chronicling the journey of Ramnath Goenka was also screened during the occasion in New Delhi.