Mangaluru: The press plays a pivotal role in the survival of democracy and it should adopt steps to regulate itself, City Police Commissioner M. Chandra Sekhar has said.

He was speaking at a function to mark Press Day here on Friday. Mr. Sekhar said that the media had been playing an important role in ensuring that the executive, judiciary and the legislature functioned in the right way. The media, which represented the civic society, had been keeping a close watch on the functioning of the three pillars of democracy.

“Even for the best of people, laxity sets in. It is important to know somebody is watching. It makes you walk on the right path,” he said.

Dean of the School of Social Work Joslin Lobo and senior journalist Manohar Prasad also spoke.

Photographs taken by photo journalists from different newspapers were exhibited. The Dakshina Kannada District Working Journalists Association organised the programme to mark the 173{+r}{+d}anniversary of the start of first Kannada newspaper ‘Mangaluru Samachar’ by Herman Mogling of Basel Mission.