Dictatorship may be established on the pretext of freedom of expression: Ketkar

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: “Prime Minister has never conducted any press conference as he will have to face questions.

He (PM) appears on TV after he was given the questions in advance. Dictatorship may be established on the pretext of freedom of expression, all should know this,” said Kumar Ketkar, a senior journalist.

He was speaking in a lecture on ‘Freedom of Expression in Journalism’ organised by the Mass Communication and Journalism College of MGM University. Vice-chancellor Dr Vilas Sapkal was seated on the dais.

‘Government has spread terror in media like newspapers, TV channels. However, there is an explosion of information on social media. The freedom of expression is being muzzled at one point while technology is available to provide new alternatives for freedom of expression at the other end.

“Youtube and Twitter media of capitalists too have pressure. However, the nature of the technology is that it comes out of pressure after a certain time. Now, there is a focus on technology and ideology in the country,” the senior journalist said. Kumar Ketkar said that 139 crores of people in the country out of the total population (140 crores) have mobile phones.

“Neary 80 per cent of people of the country have TV sets. The technology has reached door to door. Technology will be important in the coming era. Congress will have to use social media. PMO appointed youths in the age group of 19 to 24 years by giving one lakh salary. The youths are trolling the opposition on social media and making false propaganda against them. It will take some time to come out of this situation. This will not be possible if we think with the traditional system,” he added. Chancellor Ankushrao Kadam, former VC Dr Sudhir Gavhane, Jaidev Dole, Pravin Bardapurkar and others were present.