DVS sends note for media accountability

MANGALORE: Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda has decided to make media accountable to its reports by “sensitising” the 32  departments in the government machinery.Principal Secretary to chief minister I S N Prasad sent a note (CMMA/16/2011) on September 22 drawing the attention of  chief secretary, heads of corporations among others to reports criticising the functioning of departments, failures of schemes in dailies and on private TV channels, including Doordarshan.“Save for stray cases, these reports that are published or broadcast often suffer from lack of information,” informs the note, a copy of which is available with Express. The note insists on departments reacting to such reports by preparing a rejoinder and dispatching it with the copy of report to media advisor or press secretary on the same day before 3 pm.The CM’s media men after vetting these rejoinders would ensure its  publication on the following day in all dailies and channels. Among the departments, education department acted swiftly on the note by issuing a circular (ED 92 AAV 2011) to vice chancellors of 17 universities, NCC directorate, collegiate education and technical education departments.“If the twin objectives of making media aware of the ground realities and curbing falsehood is realised, then it is a welcome prospect,” informs Puttur based Vivekananda College principal Dr H Madhav Bhat who received a similar circular from office of Mangalore University Vice-Chancellor.Registrar in Mangalore University K Chinnappa Gowda believes that the circular aims at sensitising departments about inaccuracies in media.