Priyanka Sani and Shilpa Shinde. In fact, in addition to being a journalist and a broadcaster, Sani and Shinde have the distinction of being former members of the Union Cabinet, as the PMO has not put together a list and it is not clear whether they are party leaders in the Modi cabinet.

In her speech to the Press Club, Sani quoted PM Narendra Modi, who had mentioned in a speech earlier this month that he would appoint as the Union Minister for Social Justice the ‘former journalist’. Sani asked whether one of the leaders of the former media houses should take their job or leave it for the new government to do.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently tweeted, “How long will reporters wait for the real leadership?”

Sani tweeted that she appreciated Modi’s message but added that the PM’s tweet was short on substance. She added that a ‘new era of media governance’ was possible but she called the PM’s tweet’misleading and wrong’.

Sani told the Press Club that she had talked to a few journalists but none have expressed desire to leave their jobs for the PMO. She also asked them to put pressure on the PMO to form a joint editorial committee that the press has been asking for for some time.

Sani, who was the only Indian journalist invited to the press club, asked the other journalists to remain for two hours.

After Sani read out some of the headlines in this issue of the weekly, she commented that the media was “not just there to feed us”. And she made it clear that the media aspired to build a healthy culture of journalism.

First Published: Jun 06, 2017 22:12 IST