Other dimensions of FOP-Friends of Press

The acronym FOP also stands for Friends of Principles, Friends of Progress, Friends of Pupils, Friends of Press. Taking the last mentioned aspect first, the first person to enrol as a FOP in Ramnad District was a pressman. The Press played a significant and crucial role in spreading the message of the new concept and movement far and wide. In fact, the first volunteers joined because they read headline news that we were going to enrol 20,000 Friends of Police in the district. But of late , I find the press has become cynical like the other players in public life. Even though we informed the mainstream English newspapers in Chennai about the flagging off of five cyclists on a gruelling 14,600 kilometers cycleothon around the country, not one of these papers thought it fit to publish news of this gallant effort. I find they are increasingly becoming intolerant and unappreciative of good news and are specialising in publishing bad news of disasters, scams and so on. However, the point I wish to make is that if the police choose to befriend the Press and media, the latter become valuable sources of information and goodwill instead of being adversaries and critics.