By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: Minister for Information and Public Relations AT Mondal inaugurated the media workshop titled Journalism- the Citizen’s Role, Media Ethics and Practice, which saw participation from elite panelists who represented the political, educational and civil intelligentsia along with prominent media-house owners and journalists of the State apart from students from various colleges in the city and from EFLU and IIM Shillong.
Delivering the inaugural address at the one-day workshop organised by Martin Luther Christian University (MLCU) and ICARE in collaboration with the JM Foundation for Excellence in Journalism, Mumbai, at the university premises here on Thursday, Mondal termed the media as the back-bone of democracy and applauded the organisers for their efforts to provide a platform not only to journalists but also citizens of the State to know their rights and responsibilities better.
He however, rued the fact that news reports disseminated are often based on the views and opinions of a few who run the show. Mr Mondal said the growing competition in the media world has forced media houses to struggle to get the off beat news first hand and in the process have sometimes resorted to fabrication and distortion of news reports without actually verifying the facts.
While calling upon the journalists to maintain authenticity, credibility, objectivity and correctness while reporting the news, Mondal said media has become a lifeline of the nation and people tend to believe whatever is being reported or fed to them.
“At-times, news reports are biased and this can be either due to political influences or personal interests”, Mondal said, adding that media can make or unmake a person and can even destroy his/her reputation.”
Meanwhile, renowned journalist and co-founder of JM Foundation for Excellence in Journalism, Mumbai Shishir Joshi, who was also the main resource person for the workshop highlighted the core meaning of journalism saying “Journalism is an act of story-telling but based on factual and accurate information”.
Pointing to the only difference between journalists and citizen journalists, Joshi said the former are employed in a media organisation while the latter practice journalism because of their own interests and passion for the causes they espouse.
Later, during the 1st panel discussion on the topic—“The media and the readership: Does anyone care?”, eminent personalities including Toki Blah, Paul Lyngdoh, RM Mishra, Mamang Dai and Prof AN Rai spoke on various issues concerning the above topic.
“We have a large pool of untrained journalists in the state which is in fact the reason behind distortion of statements on certain occasions”, Jaiaw MLA Paul Lyngdoh said while adding that media in Meghalaya needs to be exposed to orientation courses on a regular basis because at the end, all that matters is quality.
Speaking from an educational point of view, NEHU Vice Chancellor, Prof AN Rai pointed out that media could investigate into educational matters and bring about substantive change in people’s perception, understanding and engagement with issues of education. Prof Rai, said every time teachers take up issues it it never about improving the quality of education but about what better benefits they can get for themselves. “All of us says we care about education but how many of us really hit the streets to protest on issues concerning education,” Prof Rai queried.
Meanwhile, reacting to a question as to why bureaucrats are not open to questions and interactions with media persons to disseminate information on the latest schemes introduced by the government, Meghalaya Commissioner and Secretary, Planning, RM Mishra said they are not trying to avoid or manage the media but rather there is a division of labour within department and it is for the media to understand the management part of it.