New Delhi: Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu has hailed the media for empowering the people with necessary information, analyses and perspectives about various aspects of the outbreak of coronavirus and the COVID-19 pandemic and partnering with the anxious people in the ongoing fight against the disease. He called media persons on the ground as ‘frontline warriors’ for their dedicated efforts in presenting the narrative of the pandemic for wider awakening.
In his Facebook post titled “Media: Our Partner in Corona Times” today, Naidu dealt at length with the role of media over the last few months since the virus outbreak and complimented the media and media persons for “ for effectively discharging their core function of informing, educating and empowering the people to cope with the pandemic and for being an important part of our lives during the crisis as trusted partners.”
He said that when people run into adversity, they look for information regarding its causes and consequences, its duration and the means of coping with it and it falls on the central and state governments and media to equip the people accordingly.
The Vice President noted that besides being a vehicle of much required empowerment of people for taking informed actions against the spread of virus and fighting the disease, media played the role of a chronicler of the pandemic for use by prospective historians of the pandemic and as the bridge between the people and the governments for regular communication on the preparedness. He further said that media also set the agenda for debates in the parliamentary institutions with analytical insights into various aspects of the pandemic and its impacts on different sections of the society.
He referred to special communication campaigns undertaken by the media to promote preventive measures like wearing masks, social distancing, frequent washing of hands, healthy eating, regular exercises, spiritual orientation etc.
Naidu commended the spirit of the media for pursuing the mission of informing the people despite running into tough time itself.
He said, “with the economy contracting due to restrictions, advertisement revenues have dried up. Scale of operations had to be adjusted and a good number of media persons had to take a cut in the pay. But, by and large, the media persisted with the mission of empowering the people, when it is needed the most.”
He noted that masked reporters persisted with unmasking the ground realities like the hardship of migrant workers on their way home and in the process, some of them were tested positive and some even lost their lives.
Calling media persons as ‘front line warriors’ for their dedication in presenting the pandemic narrative, Naidu paid tributes to such spirited media persons and offered condolences to the bereaved families.
