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Newspapers will survive in digital age: Statesman chief
By Chandani Kirinde
Taking a stand on an issue and insisting on it has been the consistent position of the chairman and Editor-in-Chief of the Calcutta-based The Statesman Cushrow Irani and this is the secret behind his rise as a formidable force in the newspaper industry in India and a powerful voice in the struggle for press freedom worldwide.

Integrity has been the key word during his nearly four decades in the newspaper business, the advent into which was “an accidental one”.
“I will not quit the industry for anything in the world,” says C R Irani – the name by which The Statesman readers know him for his popular column Caveat.

And Sri Lanka is not too far off from his mind when he pens his column getting a mention in the June 12th edition even when he wrote on the controversy surrounding the remarks made by Indian Opposition leader L.K. Advani during a visit to Pakistan.

“Look at our next door neighbour Sri lanka, bedevilled by the ethnic crisis for just as long as we have been suffering for other reasons. But they have a point. They have an alternative swift, sudden and without malice altogether; a change of government,” he wrote.

Mr. Irani who was in Colombo last week as the chief guest at the annual Journalism Excellence Awards ceremony in an interview with The Sunday Times spoke on the threats to press freedom and why he felt the print media would survive in the digital age.

He said the threats to press freedom in general came from internal sources, especially from politicians, but taking these challenges head on was the most effective manner to address them.

“It’s an imperfect world. Sri Lanka has had its problems and so has India like many others,” said Mr. Irani who is highly critical of the role the US media has played with regards to the war in Iraq. “When one American is killed it is made a big issue but when many Iraqis die, the news is given no prominence. Does this mean an American life is more valuable than an Iraqi life?” he asked..
“We must be consistent and we must not compromise,” said Mr.Irani, the 1977 winner of the Commonwealth Press Union’s prestigious Astor Award for distinguished service in the cause of press freedom.

Mr. Irani’s who was also chairman of the International Press Institute (IPI) during and after his tenure in office travelled to many countries to take up the cause of press freedom and had to confront the leaders on the deaths of and harassment to journalists.

Despite the challenges, Mr. Irani said he was confident the future of the print media was sound. “The reaction I get by and large is that people tend to devalue the electronic media. It has no shelf life like the print media. So people still prefer to see things in print,” he said.s

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