Bangalore Literature Festival: 'If you do challenging journalism, you will be challenged', says Sainath

India is 150 on the press freedom index but Sainath said he's rank it lower

At the Bangalore Literature Festival, a session on 'Holding mirror to society' featuring journalists Palagummi Sainath, Barkha Dutt and academician Sashi Kumar was full of hard-hitting and eye-opening truths.

Taking a dig at the current state of journalism and acknowledging the restrictions on journalists, Sainath said: "If you do challenging journalism, you will be challenged."

"The current ranking of India in the press freedom index stands at 150 but I would rank it even lower looking at the current picture," he added.

Sainath stated that 720 journalists died of Covid, and most were stringers. Kumar chimed in: "We have to train journalists to dodge bullets."

Writing according to what people want and what they need to read is a difficult job. The speakers emphasised the essence of what it takes to make people engage with stories, and the ever-growing space of journalism.

The session was a big hit and drew people of all ages.