PTI
NEW DELHI, Jun 24: Put the cartoon back on the front page of newspapers and bring a smile to the face of the reader. This is President A P J Abdul Kalam's advice to the Indian media.
"On the first page, when you see a cartoon, it puts a smile on your face. The rest of the news is about things like rape, theft and killing. The man or the child or the woman is happy to see the cartoon. You must bring back the cartoon on the first page," Kalam said during an interaction with journalists in the capital.
"A man or a woman should smile in the morning. Don't make him or her unhappy," he said.
"What I loved on the first page was the cartoon," he said.
Kalam said the editors might love political news, but people hate it.
The President also said mediapersons need to see beyond the capital for news.
"Delhi is not the only place where things are happening," he said.
As an example, he cited the case of Kali Bein river in Punjab that was cleaned with the people's efforts but has not received adequate publicity.
"Yamuna is not the only river that is polluted," he said.
Kalam said success stories and positive news should be highlighted and asked the media to act as a motivator for people, particularly those hailing from rural areas.
"When atrocities, problems or mis-governance are reported, efforts also may be made in larger public interest to provide positive direction for improvement," he said.
Observing that the media has to be sensitive to the progress and problems in rural areas, Kalam said: "Media has to continuously monitor and report progress periodically to assess the efficacy of our system in reducing the people living below poverty line."
He said more mediapersons should report from rural areas.
Kalam also stressed on the importance of accuracy in reporting and the need to highlight issues pertaining to the energy sector, the performance of panchayats and the Northeastern states.
"Women have been struggling for 33 per cent reservation in Parliament. You can promote their cause by highlighting how women panchayat leaders are doing a good job," he said.
Journalists should become development partners in achieving the vision of a developed India by 2020, he said.