Narendra Modi at the event on Saturday. Picture by UB Photos

Guwahati, Nov. 29: Prime Minister Narendra Modi today said the greatest challenge faced by the media is reliability.

Inaugurating the yearlong platinum jubilee celebrations of an English daily here this evening, Modi referred to the trend of the media of quoting “reliable sources”.

He said he would have more faith in a newspaper which does not quote “reliable sources”.

According to Modi, quoting such sources lowers the credibility and reliability of the media.

“There must be something wrong if a newspaper quotes ‘reliable sources’ more often to publish or telecast a news item. Just like some shops which are now try to lure customers by saying that they sell pure ghee, many media houses now try to say they give sache news (true news) and sabse tez news (fastest news). Ghee is always pure. So there is no need to say it is pure. It is the same for news. News should always be true. There is no need to say it is true,” Modi said, urging the media to introspect.

The Prime Minister said it is up to the media to operate like a fly or like a bee.

“A bee hovers on flowers and produces honey, but can also sting if required. A housefly sits on filth and spreads it around. Such journalism, which carries the strength and qualities of a honey bee, has been a force for good of people,” Modi said.

Referring to Indira Gandhi for curbing press freedom during Emergency, Modi said that she “introduced us to democracy because she put locks on newspapers’ offices and turned the country into a jail, and that day people came to know what democracy is.

“It will always remain true that whenever there will be curbs on freedom of the press, we will realise the value of democracy,” Modi said.