“Journalists in India as ‘spicy’ as its food,” Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Minister Smriti Irani told a group of foreign students at the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC) in Delhi on Friday, 27 April.
Irani's remarks came after a foreign student, while sharing experiences of her stay in India during the four-month course at IIMC, said Indian food is delicious but many of her friends struggled with the amount of spice it contained.
Our food is as spicy as a journalist here in India. So what you got is not only a taste of the kind of food we serve, but also the real adventure and spice we call Indian journalism and communication.Smriti Irani, Minister of Information & Broadcasting
Irani's comments assume significance in the backdrop of her ministry recently withdrawing its guidelines to regulate fake news following a directive from the Prime Minister's Office after widespread criticism by media and opposition parties.
Days after the withdrawal of the contentious guidelines, the Information and Broadcasting Ministry had also constituted a committee to frame rules to regulate news portals and media websites.
Irani on Friday announced a scholarship of Rs 25,000 in commemoration of BJP ideologue Deendayal Upadhyay for people of Indian origin, citing his exemplary work in development journalism.
Stating that while many believed that journalism and development would be "actually oxymoronic and were are at two ends of the spectrum", journalism was "not about fame but about passion to tell the news story", she said. She also called for "consistency in sustaining credibility" of stories.
Noting that an average Indian spends 200 minutes a day on mobile apps and that 65 percent of video consumption in India comes from rural areas, Irani said the media and entertainment industry should think about what new content could be offered to consumers.
She said there was a time when an editor or a journalist had the last word on any news but with the digital technological explosion, consumers were also "becoming a part of changing the narratives" and are increasingly more interested finding out where journalists get their information from.
She also said that one of the challenges that India faces is that news is "all about analysis and a lot about perspective".
(With inputs from PTI)
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