Pics: Umesh Marpalli
Daijiworld Media Network - Udupi
Media Release
Udupi, Feb 21: "Freedom of expression should be an absolute virtue, uncurtailed by either ideas of hate speech, gender, caste, race," said Hartosh Singh Bal, political analyst speaking at a session on the second day of Article-19, the annual communication fest of School of Communication, Manipal University.
Bal speaking on ‘Freedom of Expression in India, and Where the Real Danger Lies’ expressed that absolute freedom was an extreme position that the whole society in the world needed.
Speaking about the peaks and troughs media across the globe had had in the past regarding the freedom of expression, he mentioned the Charlie Hebdo case, Dinanath Batra’s civil suit against Wendy Doniger’s book The Hindus: An Alternative History and the most recent case of Perumal Murugan who announced his exit from writing career after being hounded by religious outfits.
Commenting on the recent clampdown that students should not be out on the street after 11:30 pm, he said, "It is not only in-sustainable instruction. There is no way a SP, a DGP or even a chief minister of a state can issue such instructions."
Abhinandan Sekhri, founding partner of the news critic website, Newslaundry, delivered a talk on ‘Shift of News from Conventional Forums to the Online Space’ during the second half of the day. Emphasizing on the importance of delivering the news in unconventional ways, he said, "Comic books are an extremely effective device for telling stories. It is one of the most compelling story telling devices. So we told our political stories using comic books."
He added that cartoons, comics, humour, satire, are the ways he put forth news on the website.
Sekhri compared the revenue model sustaining the website in comparison to corporates and government controlling media. "We have payment gateway where we have payment options for the viewers. They can also determine what shows they want, by sponsoring them," he said.
Day two of Article-19 ended with ‘Express Awards’ where the prizes for the best entries in the competitions conducted were awarded.