Bengaluru, July 07: Senior journalist Dinesh Amin Mattu has said that businessmen and advertisements are managing the media in recent times.

Speaking at Press Day function organized by the city's press club, he said, advertisements are being given more importance than the news in present days. For newspapers, advertising consumers have become more important than news readers. “Today the newspapers are being sold for less than the cost of production,” he added. 

Dinesh further asked “how many reports regarding the irregularities of businessmen have been investigated and published by media so far? When politicians de-notify even one acre of land, whole day, it gets discussed in the media houses. That means today’s media is standing on entrepreneurs’ advertisements. Moreover, entrepreneurs have recently begun to control politicians as well. This is a dangerous development.”

“The way doctors, engineers, writers, and others are getting corrupted; in the same manner, journalists are becoming corrupt. Thus, if the media is not diagnosed, it is impossible to eradicate the disease from society,” he added.

We have imagined media as the fourth pillar of the Constitution. But there is no mention of it anywhere in the Constitution. Also, Dr. BR Ambedkar had rejected this. Instead, how much responsibility the general public has under the right to expression, the same duty is there on Journalists. In spite of that, it has been projected as the fourth organ of the constitution.

Those who work in the legislature, executive and judiciary are paid from ordinary people's taxes. But, those who work in the media are depending on the advertisers’ money. In such a case, how is it possible to stand the fourth pillar amid three pillars, he asked.

Journalists will be watching a scene even if they close their eyes. A subject is also heard if ears are closed.  But it is not possible for them to independently express what they saw, heard, and felt. Everything is in the hands of the owner. Understand this hardship and find out a way, Dinesh Amin Mattu said.

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Noida (PTI): The family of a 21-year-old university student, who drowned at an abandoned construction site in Noida, Thursday alleged foul play saying there were marks on his body even as the police confirmed drowning as the cause of death.

According to a police statement, sand and water were found in the lungs of the deceased, identified as Harshit Bhatt, while his viscera has been preserved for further examination.

Bhatt, a final-year Bachelor of Physical Education student of the private university and a resident of Indirapuram in Ghaziabad, had drowned on Wednesday in a water-filled area at the abandoned construction site in Sector 94, under Sector 126 police station limits.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Noida) Saad Miyan Khan said the student had gone to the site along with four friends to celebrate the end of their examinations.

"During the outing, Bhatt entered a nearby water-filled pit to bathe and suddenly drowned," the officer said, adding that the incident was reported to Dial-112 by one of his companions.

Police and PRV personnel rushed to the spot and, with the help of local divers, retrieved him from the water and rushed him to a hospital, where doctors declared him dead.

Khan said other students who had entered the water in an attempt to rescue him were safely pulled out and are stable.

Meanwhile, Bhatt's mother has alleged that there were black marks on his body, raising suspicion over the incident.

Police, however, said no formal complaint has been received from the family so far and action will be taken if any complaint is lodged.

An eyewitness, who assisted in the rescue, said he and others rushed to the spot after hearing cries for help and managed to pull out two students.

"They told us it was their last exam and they had come for a party. One of them went deeper into the water while bathing," the eyewitness said.