Panaji, Aug 2 (IANS): Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar on Tuesday said the Indian media's credibility is presently at 50-55 per cent and slipping. He stressed the need for credibility of news.

During his earlier stint as the Chief Minister in 2002, news credibility was around 75 per cent, which had since slipped to 50 to 55 per cent, Parrikar said at a function organised here by the Goa Journalists Union on the death anniversary of freedom fighter Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak.

Parrikar said the figures were based on the veracity of news reports in 2002 and present times, gauged by government inquiries initiated after news stories pointed out lacunae and mismanagement.

He stressed the need to guard the credibility of news reports.

"The government should be criticised. I always say that a critic's home should be in your neighbourhood. Newspapers are useful to me because we then know what is happening around us. A Chief Minister cannot know what a 60,000 workforce is doing," Parrikar added.

He said his penchant for getting into arguments with journalists doesn't mean he is pressurising them.

"The Press is our eyes and ears. However, much as I fight, there is no malice. It is to correct. I say what I feel. Some people say the Chief Minister is trying to pressurise. Don't get pressurised if I argue with you. The argument is to put across my viewpoint," the Chief Minister said.