NEW DELHI: A much awaited and needed response coming from I&B Minister, Prakash Javadekar. According to the report, the minister was in Bhopal for Rajya Sabha election where he said during a video conference with journalists that all “Fake Journalists” across the country will go to jail for sure.
An inquiry will be conducted against those who move with fake press identity cards, run fake news channels, portals, Youtubes, Facebooks and social media accounts, Javadekar said. Honest journalists are suffering because of the fake ones. Those, who found guilty of doing such things would be arrested, he added.
The distribution of fake press I-cards has become a business and that a few people are blackmailing in the name of Press, and this has to be stopped at all costs.
There is no system in the ministry of information and broadcasting for registering Youtubes, Facebooks and social media, the Minister said.
News portals, Youtubes, social media and the news channels being run on Dish/cables can neither appoint any journalists nor issue any I-cards, and if someone is doing so, will have to face the music, he added.
About the trend of fake news, the Union minister said since people have the right to get correct information, such news would not be tolerated. He also stated that his ministry had formed a PIB fact-check unit to expose fake new.
Such units are being set up in states also, so that people may have the access to correct information