This Article is From Sep 25, 2012
This PM advisor meets press on Twitter
New Delhi: In a first of its kind, the Prime Minster's advisor on public information infrastructure and innovation Sam Pitroda conducted a press conference on Twitter. The unique virtual intiative was about "Democratisation of Information", which trended on the microblogging site as #DoI.
Mr Pitroda, an innovator and policymaker, was the technology advisor for former PM Rajiv Gandhi and has served at several positions in the government, relating to information technology.
The virtual press conference, conducted with Mr Pitroda's twitter handle @pitrodasam, attracted several questions. A lot of them were not from what is traditionally considered the press, since a lot of non-journalists also participated.
Several of the questions were related to the government's "crackdown" against social media in the recent past, including blocking of certain websites and links. Many also asked if the government was going to go further with this virtual press conference idea, beyond today.
Opening the press conference, Mr Pitroda tweeted, "I firmly believe that information is the fourth pillar of democracy along with legislature, executive and judiciary... Information is power and not many wish to share. Info (sic) is critical for development and needs to be timely available to people..."
The virtual press conference carrid on for about an hour but several questions remained unanswered.
Twitter and other social media platforms have emerged as a popular medium for politicians to express their views on various issues. Recently, Gujarat's hardline Chief Minister Narendra Modi had a live chat with millions of people via Google Plus Hangout.