KOCHI: Situated on a three-acre land, the Kerala Media Academy played its part in laying the foundation of Kerala’s modern-day journalism. Since its inception in 1979, the institution, previously known as the Kerala Press Academy, has produced hundreds of journalists who became the voices of common man over the last four decades. The building will soon become a thing of the past as it will be demolished in a year as part of the second-phase expansion of Kochi Metro Rail.
“It’s sad, but we have to consider the aspirations of a growing city. We will have to give up around 50 cents for the metro project. Only a portion of the building will be razed, but we will be forced to demolish the rest,” said Kerala Media Academy Chairman R S Babu.
The administrative office will function from the academy’s hostel. “Our classes are mostly held online now. We’ve identified the nearby educational institutions in case the offline classes have to be resumed. We will try to keep the office and lab at the hostel building for the time being,” he said.
The governing body of the academy has already submitted a proposal to construct new building on the same campus. “We have given a Rs 23-crore project proposal to the government. It has given us an in-principle approval. We will try to speed up the process,” Babu added.Kochi Metro officials said the academy property was included in the alignment to avoid large-scale damage to other structures on the route. “We will have to demolish half of the building for the project. We are currently working on land acquisition. If need arises, KMRL will try to take up the construction of the new building,” said an official.
Plethora of memories
The academy has been the first-of-its-kind journalism institute in the state and has produced many ‘industry-ready’ journalists. “It was in 1971 that I tried for a media job at Deccan Herald in Bengaluru. I couldn’t make the cut as I didn’t learn journalism. We never had the practice back then. When the Press Academy was started in 1979, it was a novel idea to impart journalism to aspirants. The academy created several professionals who enriched the state’s media sector over the last 40 years,” said political observer Sebastian Paul, who has been teaching at the academy since its inception.
“Most of the universities across Kerala have started post-graduation courses in journalism. But the quality of journalists has eroded over the years. Though we have numerous institutes, we often forget to impart the ethics of journalism in budding journalists. For that, we need to preserve the Media Academy in its true identity,” added Paul.
ACADEMY A LOOK-BACK
1979: Kerala Press Academy was announced as an autonomous joint venture institute of Kerala government, Kerala Union of Working Journalists (KUWJ) and the Indian Newspaper Society (INS)
1980: The foundation stone of the academy was laid by then Chief Minister E K Nayanar
1985: Academic building inaugurated by the then CM K Karunakaran
1986: The first batch of academy commence with PG Diploma in Journalism and Communication
1993: Started a new diploma course in Public Relations and Advertising
2013: Television Journalism diploma started
2014: Kerala Press Academy renamed as Kerala Media Academy
2018: Academy’s first sub-centre was started in Thiruvananthapuram
2021: Started an evening course in New Media
Other major structures shifted/demolished