“Fake news a new menace,” says President Ram Nath Kovind

TIL Desk/National/New Delhi/ Asserting that the din of the “breaking news syndrome” has consumed the media, President Ram Nath Kovind today said fake news has emerged as a new menace whose purveyors call themselves journalists and taint a noble profession.

The fundamental principle of restraint and responsibility has been undermined substantially in the din of the breaking news syndrome, President Kovind said while addressing a gathering at the Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism awards ceremony in New Delhi

President Kovind said old timers would recall the magical touchstone of five Ws and H (what, when, why, where, who and how) whose answers were essential for a story to qualify as a news report.

“Fake news has emerged a new menace, whose purveyors proclaim themselves as journalists and taint this noble profession,” he said. The president said that journalists tend to wear many hats in the line of their duty.