Dhaka: Dhaka University's Vice Chancellor Prof Dr AAMS Arefin Siddique on Sunday said salaries and other facilities have increased much in the journalism sector but objective journalism has declined.

"The main duty of journalism is to publish authentic information not to disclose fabricated information that creates confusion among the people," Prof Siddique said.

The DU VC came up with these remarks in a memorial lecture at the Muzaffar Ahmed Chowdhury Auditorium of Social Science Faculty of Dhaka University marking Editor Bazlur Rahman's 76th birth anniversary, reports news agency UNB.

Mass Communication and Journalism (MCJ) Department of the university and Editor Bazlur Rahman Foundation jointly organised the lecture.

Arefin Siddique, himself a professor of journalism, said, "Agenda-setting journalism is not an objective journalism, journalism cannot center a person or institution. In the principal grammar of journalism it is said that if there are errors that were published then it would be corrected and published with the same treatment."

He also said, "But today's media would not follow these rules, that is why journalists, sometimes, stray from objective journalism."

With MCJ department Chairperson Prof Mofizur Rahman in the chair, ex-Bangladesh Bank deputy governor and also the foundation chairman Khondoker Ibrahim Khaled, Dainik Songbad managing director Kashem Humayun were also present on the occasion.

MCJ dept Prof Sheikh Abdus Salam presented a keynote speech titled "Shadow of Capitalism and Technology in Media: stakeholder, professionalism and Institution" on the occasion.

In his keynote, Prof Abdus Salam, while acknowledging the increased freedom enjoyed by the media in the present age, questioned how much objectivity and professionalism is maintained in their work by media professionals.

Prof Mofizur Rahman said, "Sometimes, misinformation is the main purpose of journalism."