Kottayam (Kerala), March 16 : Media must maintain ethics and its conduct should be correct, President Pranab Mukherjee said here Saturday.

"The media has an important role in cleansing public life and for it, the conduct of the media should be correct and ethics must be maintained. It should be accountable to readers," Mukherjee said at the 125th anniversary celebration of Malayala Manorama, a leading media house of Kerala.

"Manorama has not just chronicled events since it began its amazing journey, it has played an active role in bringing changes in the country and the society," he said.

"Malayala Manorama (newspaper) has a readership of 97.52 lakh after it started from here and has reached an international level," he said.

Mukherjee also released a commemorative stamp on Malayala Manorama.

The regional Malayalam daily was set up in 1888 and used to print less than 500 copies.

Today, it has become one of the most widely-circulated regional dailies at 2.1 million copies and is published from 16 centres in India and two centres abroad.

Malayala Manorama chief editor Mammen Mathew said that even with the changing times, the media house held on to its values which revolved around secularism and fighting social evils.

Also present was Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, who incidentally first shot into prominence through the All Kerala Children's League or Akhila Kerala Balajana Sakhyam (AKBS), a socio-cultural organisation for students sponsored by Manorama.

"I came up through AKBS half a century back and I remember it well," said Chandy. (IANS)