The senior minister, who unveiled the annual 'Press in India 2014-15' report here, said while there has been an explosion of TV channels, viewers often watch "shrill debates" and their craving for facts is not satisfied.
Jaitley, who also holds the finance portfolio, said that with the vast expansion of media in various segments like print, electronic and internet, many versions of the same news are presented.
The old principle, Jaitley said, was that news is sacred and should be presented clearly "without any slant" adding that opinion could be presented in editorials.
"I feel the dividing line between news and opinion has weakened much," Jaitley said.
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"I say strike back because the way there has been an explosion of TV channels. And often on TV channels there is shrill debate.
"After that debate, the viewer is left searching for the actual news. So print media has a big opportunity that lucid clear news without any opinion reaches the reader."
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Speaking about the findings in 'Press in India' report, Jaitley noted that the growth of periodicals is less, so the overall average comes to around 5.5-6 per cent.
Analysing the trends, Jaitley said it appears that magazine journalism, after the advent of TV and internet, is declining because alternatives are appearing.
Another reason for this trend, he said, could be that events move at a fast pace and readers may not always be interested in reading the analysis of an event after a week.
Earlier, presenting the Annual Report 'Press in India- 2014-15', DG RNI S M Khan said print media registered a growth of 5.80 per cent over the previous year as a total of 5,817 new publications were registered during 2014- 15 and 34 publications ceased their operation.
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Jaitley said one of the greatest highlights to have taken place in India is that most state governments have jumped in a greater way in wanting to get the very best for their own states.
Referring to China, he said, "We are lesser impacted by the China slowdown as we are not in that supply chain. Maybe there is some impact on the stock markets."
On low oil and commodity prices, he said, "We have benefitted from the reduced oil and commodity prices. Savings from lower prices have helped in pumping money in the infrastructure sector."
The greatest benefit that growth can give is to provide resources for poverty alleviation. "Growth is the biggest antidote for fighting poverty," he said.
The Finance Minister said, "The current situation has a number of pitfalls. Can we turn it to our advantage? But at this point, I must say that the process which has been taken is irreversible."
Targetting the Opposition parties, he said the largest democracy like India cannot function if there is no "high quality of politics".
"Of course, there would be areas which would be adversely
impacted but what was predicted by the critics has to have rationale with the revenue collection. Assessment can be unreal but revenue is real.
And therefore, many of these indicate that now with the critical part of the remonetisation already behind us and there being significant impact in large number of these areas, it should certainly be much better in weeks and months to come than it was in last six weeks," Jaitley said.
"But obviously one of the intentions as far as government of India is concerned that the paper currency should shrink and a large part of businesses in the alternative digital or cheque mode. Considering the very large increase in digital users that have taken place, we seem to be moving in the right direction," he said.
He acknowledged that there could have been some adverse impact for a quarter or so.
"It doesn't appear to be as adverse as it was being predicted. But in the long term, you have to plan the economy in the long term, the changes in the system which are coming about will certainly mean more money with the banks, more money with the revenue and probably a much larger and cleaner GDP," he added.