HYDERABAD: The media should strive to project an Indian view of the world. Indian media houses should invest to build their network abroad as an alternative to dependence on foreign news agencies for content and pictures, said Dr Sanjaya Baru, media advisor to the Prime Minister.
Delivering the Prof S Bashiruddin Memorial Lecture at the Administrative Staff College of India here on Friday, he pointed out that neither the Government of India nor the media houses in the country had given a thought to forging media links with other countries.
Giving a snapshot of the affairs, he said India had just one foreign correspondent in China while the latter had seven correspondents in Delhi to give a Chinese view of the Indian developments.
Elaborating on the losses due to not having Indian journalists’ abroad, Baru said the good work by the Indian Navy in Sri Lanka during tsunami went unnoticed in the media here.
On the other hand, the accident involving a US vessel during the same time had hit the headlines as the content was fed to the Indian media by the western news agencies. After engineers, doctors, scientists and teachers, it is now the turn of the journalists to project India,’’ he said.
The lecture was organised by the Osmania Journalism Alumni Association, the Advertising Club, Hyderabad, AP Chapter of Public Relations Society of India and the Public Relations Council of India.
The memorial committee announced that it would set up an award in memory of Prof. Bashiruddin, the former head of the department.
