KOCHI: The 35-year old legacy of the state’s premier journalism institute has undergone a change now.
The state government has officially announced the change of name of the Kerala Press Academy to Kerala Media Academy.
Inaugurating the renaming ceremony, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said that the change has been made to adapt to the swing of the new world media. The academy is now capable of catering to the visual media too.
“I had held multiple rounds of discussions with visual media representatives before deciding on a dimensional change to the academy as well as its name change,” he said.
He congratulated the governing committee of the academy for effecting the change in a minimum time.
In his presidential address, Information and Public Relations Minister K C Joseph expressed concern over the emerging trends of journalism in the state, which, according to him, was unhealthy. “There should be an introspection to know whether the visual media had been able to maintain their credibility in their rating competitions. When there were only newspapers, there used to be doublechecks on the facts and figures before they published a news story,” said Joseph.
The criticism is not just based on how the media now react with the present government but because a number of reports published by them have been found completely untrue, said Joseph, adding that there should have been a code of conduct to bring about a positive change as well as credibility in stories.
The journalism awards instituted by the state government was given away in the function. Three books published by the academy on media were also released.
Former chairpersons of the academy K Mohanan, S R Shakthidharan, V P Ramachandran and N P Rajendran were also honoured on the occasion.