These days, every Tom, Dick and Harry who is found circulating news in the WhatsApp groups is claiming to be journalist in the Telugu states.
While mainstream media journalists are relegated to the backseat, these so-called social media journalists are ruling the roost in the field and turning out to be a big menace to the society.
The Andhra Pradesh Press Academy appears to have decided to weed out fake journalists from the society. Senior journalist and newly-appointed chairman of the academy Kommineni Srinivasa Rao has taken initiative in this regard.
He said he had given instructions to the journalists’ unions to focus on fake journalists and fake media which have become a big nuisance. He said it was the responsibility of the unions to identify who is fake and who is genuine journalist.
Kommineni regretted that those who had been printing PDF newspapers in their mobile phones and circulating them on the social media, were claiming to be journalists and blackmailing people.
“There are some others who are running fake newspapers. If you ask them to produce the copies of the newspapers printed 10 days ago, they are producing only xerox copies of the same,” the AP Press Academy chairman lamented.
He also pointed out that some other journalists are claiming themselves to be representatives of hitherto unknown electronic media channels, which are never seen on any networks.
“They put up microphones with certain strange logos in front of the politicians and officials so as project themselves as journalists. But these microphones do not have any wires connected to the cameras,” he said.
Kommineni said if the government acknowledges everybody operating YouTube channels and PDF newspapers as journalists, then it would have to give accreditation cards to at least one lakh people.
He said it was time the government begins weeding out the fake journalists and prevent their mushrooming newspapers and channels.
