Minister Biswajit calls for balanced reporting

Dignitaries during the foundation day of All Manipur Working Journalist Union.

Information and Public Relations Minister Thongam Biswajit has called for balanced reporting in publishing news. Speaking as chief guest in the 45th foundation day celebration of All Manipur Working Journalists Union (AMWJU), held at Manipur Press Club, Minister Biswajit stated that as media is playing the role of a mediator, they should balance their news report before publishing .

Minister maintained that observing foundation day is significant as it provides us opportunity to reflect past activities and at the same time to explore new challenges. He also recalled the evolution of journalism in Manipur.

He lauded the contribution of the media fraternity despite of facing numerous challenges .He highlighted the challenges faced by media fraternity like viral of fake news in social media, which media fraternity had a tough verifying the fake news.

Another challenges faced by the media fraternity is the creation of idea of Manipur and the biggest challenges faced by media fraternity is publishing constructive criticism. Media should play an important role abiding to its ethics in a democratic state as the essence of democracy lies in the effectiveness of media, he added.

Minister also informed that keeping in mind about the welfare of the journalist the present government has already deposited Rs 10 crore in corpus fund and recently the government has handed over first ever financial assistance to three journalists under Manipur State Journalists welfare scheme of Department of Information and public Relations.

He also appealed to work collectively for the bettermen of the society.

Attending the celebration, Consumer,Affairs and Public Distribution Minister Karam Shyam stated that in today’s highly globalised world, information- related works of any local or national papers have become a part of education imparting knowledge to the public. Any person whether politician or belonging to any organisation cannot be said to lead a meaningful life without sound and effective education.

Highlighting the varied role of journalists in creating love, harmony & integration and at the same time, communal conflicts amongst the various ethnic groups, he said that journalists should be extra cautious in their activities by following the press code of ethics.

As a part of the celebration, veteran journalists , members of Editors Guild Manipur, former presidents and general secretaries of the union were also felicitated .

The foundation day was attended by chairman and MD of Salai Holdings Pvt Ltd, N.Samarjit Singh, veteran journalists ,members of Editors Guild Manipur amongst other.

Source imphal free press