UP Govt Orders DMs To Check “Negative News,” Ask Media Organizations For Clarification
The Yogi Adityanath administration has instructed all District Magistrates (DMs) and Divisional Commissioners to investigate “negative news” reported in publications and media sources and to contact the media outlet for clarification if the information is “twisted or facts have been misrepresented.”
According to the instruction, ‘bad news’ damages the state government’s reputation and requires action.
Sanjay Prasad, Principal Secretary to CM Yogi Adityanath, instructed all DMs and commissioners in a letter dated August 16 in Hindi to file any articles containing “negative news” on the Integrated Grievance Redressal System (IGRS), and all DMs, commissioners, and department heads will take care of it.
“All district magistrates will send a note to the relevant department in such circumstances. The scanned copy of that piece would then be posted on the IGRS public hearing site, according to a letter posted online by Prasad.
In the event that the news was “twisted” or the “facts were wrongly portrayed,” Prasad instructed the authorities to seek clarification from media outlets.
A letter should be sent by the concerned district magistrate to the manager of the relevant media group or newspaper to clarify the situation if it is discovered that an incident has been misrepresented, incorrect facts have been stated, or negative news has been published in an effort to harm the reputation of the state government or district administration. The letter further states that a copy would be sent to the information department.
The Indian Express was informed by a top official that the directive’s goal was “fact-checking”.
“The rationale of this circular is that several news items are being published and the government faces criticism as such news items are further pursued and spread by others and tarnish the image of the government,” the official said. These news reports will now be checked by the relevant district judges. It just involves fact-checking.
The Express was informed by Director of Information and Public Relations Shishir that no action will be taken against any publication.
“We won’t be taking any action against the publications, I assure you. It serves to confirm the facts. When a news story is published on any subject, we will act upon it, Shishir was reported as stating in the newspaper.
