Port Blair, Nov 17: Post-boycott of the National Press day hosted by the Directorate of IP&T in the forenoon of 16th November, 2017, the media fraternity of this UT Islands befittingly celebrated their National Press Day in Hotel TSG Emerald View AT 1900 Hrs on the same day on 16th November,2017 by inviting, Mr. Bishnu Pada Ray, the Member of Parliament, A & N Islands, as the Chief Guest. Demanding for a change being paramount, the Chief Editors and Journalists of multiple news houses put forth their ideas and requests to the M.P Mr. Bishnu Pada Ray. All the media who protested had attended the event which ended successfully.
While addressing the gathering, Chief Editor of Andaman Express, Mr. K. Ganeshan familiarized on one of the causes of protest by saying, “We the people from media of this UT Islands met the Director of Tourism regarding India International Trade Fair that was to be held at New Delhi. He informed that he wouldn’t allow any media persons including the representative of The Daily Telegrams of this UT Islands to attend the fair. Later, it is learnt that Daily Telegrams had already deputed there for the coverage. Since it is not a first instance, thereby we decided to do some sort of protest.. Thus, we came to a conclusion that we’d protest in a peaceful way the National PRESS Day being celebrated by the IP& T Department, and also celebrate the National Press Day separately in separate arrangements.”
Following to Mr. Ganeshan, Mr. Uday Shankar Singh pointed out the discouragement from Department of Information Technology faced by upcoming news organisations, “The rights we deserve are denied. Lots of local newspapers have closed down due to that. Also, a main reason is that the department doesn’t give us full support.”
Thereafter, Mr. A.R. Das, Editor of Spotlight, explained the prime hurdles faced by private media in the islands, “From the little knowledge I have, there are two major challenges that media come across. One is operational challenges and the other is administrative challenges. An Operational challenge is, for instance, the recent murder of Journalist Gauri Lankesh which is fortunately faced very less by the ANI media. Compared to that, the media here faces a lot of administrative challenges.”
Mr. Das further expressed his disappointment on The Daily Telegrams mentioning the incident where five women were sexually abused in Diglipur, on which The Daily Telegrams kept mum. He also discouraged the fact that every advertisement of the government goes only to Daily Telegrams.
Mr. Ashish Laha, Owner of Echo of India, also spoke on the occasion. He said that a certified qualification is not required to become a good Journalist.
Agreeing to Laha’s points, Mr. Denis Giles, Editor of Andaman Chronicle said, “A journalist need not be qualified to be one. There is something called born journalist and there is something called qualified journalist. Journalism comes from within; we all have to understand this and not demean others by making this as an issue.” Mr. Denis further rose about the issue of advertisement rates and accreditation of the journalists in the islands. “We had put the matter of accreditation across to the IT department, for which they said it is not possible according to the norms of Government of India. In such a case, population wise, Community Health Centre cannot be established in the islands, but to have it implemented here the Administration fought to get the rules amended. So why the same can’t be done to the media?” said Giles.
Believing that it is done on purpose to suppress the private media, Giles requested the MP to note down the points spoken in the meeting and to raise the matter in the Parliament. He lauded Abdul Sajid to have come up with the idea of Media Federation, as it brings in unity, and he also hopes that it stands strong to back the future journalists when they face any injustice.
Mr. Sanjib Kumar Roy, Editor of Andaman Sheekha urged the Member of Parliament to take a delegation of local journalists to New Delhi so that the local journalist delegation can raise the local grievances with concerned Ministry. Mr. Roy also demanded intervention of the Member of Parliament in introducing accident, Life insurance as well as Pension policy for local journalists.
On the occasion, the Member of Parliament congratulated the local media for taking such a bold step to boycott the Administration’s National Press Day function and to organize their own National Press Day function in such a grand manner. “You have done the right thing and I congratulate you for that.” Mr. Ray, the M.P. further added that the local media persons to organize a nonstop campaign to shut down Government Newspaper which is misleading public of these Islands and if the Government Newspaper, The Daily Telegrams is shut down, local private media will be able to survive and this will also generate employment opportunities He further said that the issues regarding Government run newspaper and problems being faced by local media will be raised by him in next Parliament session. He suggested journalists to move their grievances in Public Grievances Committee of Parliament and assured to forward the grievances from his office.
Apart from the above, Mr. Ray, the M.P. urged local journalist to form a team and he will take the team to New Delhi so that they can interact directly with Information and Broadcasting Minister and also the Prime Minister for enabling them to highlight their grievances. He also briefed about the Health Insurance, Life Insurance and Pension Scheme for Journalists in Andaman, as they are facing huge challenges, besides, now there are also threats to local journalists who are publishing news against corruption and mismanagement.
The programme concluded with a vote of thanks proposed by Mr. Shyam Singh Yadav. Chief Editor, Dweep Manthan.
