Staff Correspondent
Port Blair, Aug 17: Lauding the efforts of local media in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, the Director of Information, Publicity and Tourism (IP&T) Mr. Amit Satija today said that local media is playing an important role in highlighting crucial local issues with the Administration.
“Lots of things get highlighted because of support of local media. Many issues which would have otherwise remain neglected come to notice of higher authorities because of the role played by local media,” Mr. Satija added while addressing media persons during an interactive session at the conference hall of Secretariat this morning.
He said that as per his opinion media is very very active in Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
“It’s heartening to see that in a small place like Andamans, compared to many other states, activities and involvement of local media is very very high,” he added.
Regarding his expectations from local media the Director said that any normal human being would expect publication of news as only ‘news’.
“It should not be too sensationalized. The balance between positive and negative news should be equal and it should not appear to be totally negative oriented,” the Director said.
He said that the respect has to be generated from within the society not the fear. “Negative journalism many a times leads to fear rather than respect,” he underlined.
The Director said that Directorate has planning to send local journalists for professional training and exposure tours and the Directorate is also planning to increase the number of participation in every such programmes.
Regarding tourism he said that the Tourism Department is focusing on development of sustainable tourism and in coming days all projections will be in eco-tourism model, which will not cause any damage to Island ecology.
He said that at present the Directorate is preparing vision document for Andaman tourism keeping next 30 40 years in mind.
