Media playing up news against govt: Kodiyeri

T’puram: Anti-communist approach by media has reached its nadir in Kerala, alleged CPM state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan. "Some do journalism by openly declaring this. Media organizations should realise that such an attitude is injurious for the health of democracy. Majority of media organizations implement an agenda that is anti-people and anti-democratic. They should correct their approach," he said after the CPM state secretariat meeting.
His criticism reflected the debate held in the secretariat. Senior leaders accused the media of leading a fight against the government based on the ongoing probes by enforcement directorate, Customs, NIA and CBI. There was strong criticism about the way ED chargesheet on gold smuggling case was reported by the media as leaders alleged that prime accused Swapna Suresh’s statements were portrayed as findings of ED. The secretariat decided to launch a campaign to expose the anti-communist agenda of mainstream media.
"We are ready for debate with media. We appeal you all to take corrective steps," Balakrishnan said. He said the complaint of CPM against the media is that they sideline development activities going on in state and focus on negative news to defame government.
"Forty new schemes were launched in the state in the last 40 days. Was there any constructive debate on those? We welcome criticism and that is how such schemes can be fine-tuned. There was no serious reporting on those," he replied to a query.
The CPM state secretariat also condemned the increasing violence against CPM workers. Referring to the murder of Sanoop in Thrissur by persons affiliated to Sangh Parivar organizations, Balakrishnan said CPM lost four active workers in two months. "Three of them were from a minority community and the fourth was a dalit. We need to seriously contemplate where Kerala is heading," he said.
CPM leadership directed all district and area committees to launch a campaign against the politics of violence practiced by Congress and BJP against the party.