NEW DELHI: Actor Prakash Raj Saturday expressed concern over "deterioration" of freedom of press in India and said he is worried how the media is being "bought in the country in an organised manner".
Speaking at the "National Convention Against Assault on Journalists", Raj claimed he has seen himself that when he speaks against the authorities it does not get published by the media.
"The thing that worries me the most is the way in which media is being bought in an organised manner. How people are bought to hate someone," the national award-winning actor claimed, requesting journalists to question the authorities "with spine".
"There have been instances when I held press conferences, the media attended but did not write about it," Raj, who has been a vociferous critic of the government, said.
Lalit Surjan, senior journalist and editor-in-chief of Desh Bandhu, called for unity among journalists.
"It is not the first time that journalists are being attacked but earlier there was a unity among journalists that forced the government to back down but now all methods are being used to make people stop trusting the media and new media organisations are playing an important role in that," Surjan alleged.
He also called for "devolution of ownership". "We cannot let people contributing money to media houses be allowed to decide on the news going in it," he said, hinting at the spread of paid news.
At the event organised by the Committee Against Assault on Journalists, Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) correspondent Kunal Majumdar said about 88 per cent of journalists killed worldwide are local reporters and the most dangerous beat for journalists is politics and not war or human rights.