"By and large, Indian media has been progressive and has been constructive. Media is the link between government and the people...So, you have greater responsibility. The I&B Ministry is in the process of formulating a national policy on communication," he said.
Inaugurating the Regional Editors' Conference organised by the Press Information Bureau, Naidu said "sensationalism" had become the order of the day due to competition and TRPs, and pitched for self-regulation.
"The government under the leadership of Modi has placed communication as a critical component in governance of the nation.There is a need for the government communicators to adopt innovative ways to reach out to each and every individual in the country about government policies and programmes," he said.
Noting that media landscape in the country had undergone a "tectonic shift" following the emergence of 24x7 instant communication process, he said "Earlier there was one TV channel our own Doordarshan. But today, we have competition. I do not know whether it is healthy or unhealthy competition," he said referring to growing number of channels.
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On handling of sensitive issues, he said, "The challenges before media are to ensure quality, credibility along with the responsibility to play a role of an educator.
"Whenever there is any crisis, media has to behave in a sober manner by self-regulating. At times, I feel sad due to competition and in the race for TRPs, sensationalism has become the order of the day," the minister said.
Besides, he said the challenge was to maintain high "ethical standards" on the issue of conflict of interest where media needed to be very careful.
Earlier, referring to the presence of state Information and Publicity Minister 'Kadambur' Raju at the event, he thanked Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa for sending him.
"I thank Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for having sent her Minister Kadambur Raju to be here among us. Because we are a federal country, the central, state governments and local bodies have to work together," he said.
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