AS there are no extant editions of today’s paper, or that of the previous day, the following extract is taken from the Jan 23 edition.

ALLAHABAD: Mr. P.N. Sapru inaugurating the Exhibition of Newspapers and Periodicals, organised under the auspices of the second U.P. Press Conference observed: “We know that the Indian Press has rendered very great service to the movement of national uplift in this country.”

Inaugurating the U.P. Press Conference, Dr. Amarnath Jha, Vice-Chancellor of Allahabad University said there were three functions of a newspaper: firstly, to publish news and items of information, secondly to publish advertisements, and thirdly, to offer comments and criticisms on current topics. The first of these functions seemed comparatively easy but they knew of numerous instances of newspapers giving a twist to news, of newspapers suppressing news, and of newspapers published only particular types of news. In order that a newspaper should be honest it was important that there should be no tampering with news…

The third function of newspapers, namely comment and criticism, was in some ways the most important function. Those newspapers that had to take into consideration their commercial or financial side found it difficult to publish comments in their editorial columns.

Published in Dawn, January 25th, 2020