Corporate-driven media trying to create anti-Left narrative, says Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan (file)
| Photo Credit: THULASI KAKKAT

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Friday (March 27, 2025) said that some of the corporate-driven media institutions were trying to create “an anti-Left narrative” in the State by covering up the facts and circulating misinterpreted content, which would “gradually emerge as a threat to the secular nature of the country.”

Opening the newly constructed office building of Deshabhimani newspaper in Kozhikode, Mr. Vijayan said the State’s developmental needs and the “negligence” of the Union government towards the State’s requirements “remain uncovered with the biased news selection of corporate-driven media.”

“The way a few media institutions reported the Walayar sexual assault case and the recent seizure of drug from the hostel of Kalamassery polytechnic college was the best example for the biased journalism. Some of the media took up the incident only because of the alleged involvement of the pro-Left workers in the incidents. They all stopped covering it when the truth came out,” said Mr. Vijayan.

He said the State was witnessing a bad “trend” where people who defame the Left were being “hailed as heroes.”

Big challenge

According to Mr. Vijayan, the corporatisation of the media, including the vernacular news channels, was continuing to be a big challenge in the media industry in such a way as to give expression only to the corporate interest. “It is time for abetter media analysis practices to keep people informed about the changing media trend in our country and stay updated about truth,” he added.

Mr. Vijayan also expressed concerns over the “politically-biased news” circulated by a few media firms which were earlier hailed as icons of objective reporting and impartial coverage of truth in the past. “With the extreme corporatisation trend, the interest of people and the State was purposefully ignored by such media,” he claimed.

Communist Party of India (Marxist) State secretary M.V. Govindan, Kozhikode Mayor Beena Philip and Deshabhimani Chief Editor Puthalath Dinesan were among the other invitees at the inaugural event.