“If we are to take our rightful place in the world, we must take charge of our stories” – Ms. Palki Sharma
Delivering the Keynote Address at #MediaFest2025 in Colombo, Popular Indian journalist, Ms. Palki Sharma called for collaboration in journalism. The first-ever media festival in Sri Lanka brought together journalists, editors, content creators, publishers, newsroom leaders, and media students to network and gain valuable insights.
Established to strengthen media exchanges, enhance awareness of contemporary issues and promote research and writing on India-Sri Lanka relations, The inaugural event organized by the Sri Lanka-India Media Friendship Association (SLIMFA), #MediaFest2025 brought together leading journalists and media experts from India and Sri Lanka for an engaging exchange of trends and innovations shaping the future of media.
Held under the theme, “Navigating the New Media Landscape Together,” #MediaFest2025 featured some in-depth discussions on artificial intelligence (AI).
However, the key issue was regional collaboration in media and journalism. “We are a region of 2.2 billion people with dozens of languages, dozens of cultural intricacies and many, many aspirations,” said Ms. Sharma. “If we are to take our rightful place in the world, we must take charge of our stories. We must tell our stories. We need to create a narrative that is fit for our society. And I often think, we have global forums, we have regional forums, we have groupings, we have alliances on a whole lot of issues. Trade, connectivity, security, climate action. Why not media? As leaders of the region meet, I would urge them to consider media as a potential area of collaboration. Because when we present the right picture before the world, we create the right perception and it matters very much.”
“Our default setting is to think as Indian journalists, Sri Lankan journalists, Bangladeshi journalists, Pakistani journalists, but not South Asian journalists,” Palki Sharma said. “And if you're only covering domestic issues, that should not be a problem. But when we cover issues which have a regional dimension, which have regional relevance, then it's important to have a regional lens. If not, our stories can be skewed at best and contradictory at worst. And I'm not saying that as journalists we should be disconnected or de-link ourselves from national interests. We should not. I think we should be thinking on two tracks. A, what is good for my country, and B, how can I make it good for the region? And this is the approach that we need to adopt, to use a regional lens to tell stories from South Asia. Why don't we do it? Well, there are many reasons, but I think the biggest one is politics.”
The event was attended by journalists, media and market research experts, bloggers and representatives of the mainstream media from both #SriLanka and #India.
“South Asia's internet connectivity has doubled in the last decade,” she said. “Our region leads all others when it comes to the number of online users. So, we are a big market. Unfortunately, that also means that misinformation spreads very fast in South Asia, on social media platforms like Facebook, WhatsApp, X.”
Palki Sharma also spoke of the dilemma facing the media of whether the news should be free or paid for. “In the digital age, I think consumers believe that news is a public good and it should be free. So, what do we do? We can either spend time and effort in trying to convince people that good news content cannot be free. Or we can challenge social media and tech platforms and tell them to not make money off our content. Ideally, we should be doing both. There are countries that have done it, countries like Canada and Australia, where media companies have challenged tech giants. But here we are not even talking about it. And look at our numbers. We are a very big market. We have lots of platforms. If we decide to join ranks and speak in one voice, we can push the needle. Our voice could be heard,” she said.
“We cannot let rhetoric or misplaced nationalism dictate our opinion of each other. We should strive to focus on shared priorities, build a sense of trust and respect. If people like each other, that is half the battle won. So, I guess the obvious question is, how do we do it? I think it's important to start with low-hanging fruits. To focus on stories and issues that are of common interest and concern. Climate change is one. Unsustainable debt; poverty alleviation. They largely do not have a political dimension or a strategic point of conflict. So, these are the issues we can focus on,” Sharma added.
The
full Keynote Speech by Ms. Palki Sharma of @Firstpost at #MediaFest2025 in
Colombo, Sri Lanka, April 26th, 2025: Audio Text
