Skip to content Skip to navigation

Journos endrose PM

By Nava Thakuria |

All Assam Media Employees Federation (AAMEF) has welcomed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s views on avoiding a huge group of journalists while on foreign trips arguing that it serves little purposes. Rather, the umbrella body of different journalist units in Assam demands, Modi should take personal interest to provide due benefits to millions of working journalists and media employees of the country.

“We come to know that Prime Minister Modi has recently disclosed about his decision to avoid a bigger group of journalists to accompany him in the foreign trips. He categorically stated that in a new age journalism today, it hardly matters where the media persons are located in respect of getting update information and not necessarily it is important for them to travel with the PM for doing that,” said Hiten Mahnata, president of AAMEF.

The second reason, the hardliner Prime Minister reportedly mentioned that ‘it was a flawed policy in any case as same journalists from the same big organizations were repeated over and over again. As for small newspapers, it was the proprietors who availed of such junkets. Modi also argued that while taking 30 selected journalists for the foreign trip, the rest is always being deprived and displeased. Moreover, if there was a major policy announcement, he would address a press conference inside the country after his return, the Prime Minister asserted. Mentionable is that in his first two foreign trips (to Bhutan and Brazil) as the Prime Minister, Modi was accompanied by five journalists only. He avoided a huge group of media persons with him intentionally. It is understood that Modi would follow the same principle while he is visiting the United States of America in September 2014.

“The views of Modi are being reflected in Assam and northeast India time and again, where the accompanying journalists (with the President or PM) to foreign countries hardly did their jobs. Most of them hired the scripts of the news agencies to fulfill their commitments,” added Mahanta, who is a senior journalist of Assam.

Meanwhile, Journalists’ Forum Assam (JFA) has appealed to the Prime Minister to take proper initiatives to help the journalists & media employees, engaged with the privately owned news channels, getting the advantages of a statutory wage board like their counterparts in the newspaper & news agencies of India.

“Need not to mention that over 70 per cent television employees of the country are still performing their duties with pitiable salaries, unlimited working hours and without any facilities recommended by the country's labour laws, not to speak of any statutory wage board,” said Rupam Barua, president of JFA.

Urging the Prime Minister to frame pragmatic policies to help the media persons in distress across the country, Barua also raised voices for reconstituting the Press Council of India with the inclusion of the electronic media at the earliest.

Add new comment

Random Stories

Gogoi worried over Maoist menace

1 Jan 2013 - 7:51pm | editor
Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Tuesday said that Maoists is a big menace and that measures are on to tackle it. Talking to reporters in Guwahati, Gogoi said that militancy was on the wane but...

Police officer killed in gunfight with ULFA(I)

5 May 2018 - 1:16am | AT News
TINSUKIA: After a brief halt, gunfight erupts in Assam where ULFA(I) rebels killed a police officer at an encounter in Tinsukia district on Friday where five other policemen sustained serious injury...

Unnecessary interferences of APCC (I) leaders put Dima Hasao DCC (I) in bad shape

1 Feb 2012 - 1:50pm | Anup Biswas
Unnecessary interferences of so called APCC(I) leaders and indifferent attitude of APCC (I) towards Dima Hasao DCC(I) caused serious concern among the congress leaders and well wishers, alleged...

Bobby Singh clinches Gold

13 Jun 2011 - 4:20pm | Abdul Gani
Bobby Singh of Assam who represented India in the eighth South Asian Men’s Bodybuilding Championship in Thimphu, Bhutan has clinched gold in the above 80 kg category. Bobby Singh, an NF...

Other Contents by Author

CP Saikia memorial meeting at press club on Tuesday

Journalists and well-wishers have decided to pay homage to Chandra Prasad Saikia, a renowned author-journalist of the region, at a function organized in Guwahati Press Club on August 8 on the occasion of his 11th death anniversary. Padma Bhusan CP Saikia mentored many journalists of Assam during his tenure as the editor of Natun Dainik, which heralded a new wave of modern journalism. The illustrious editor-journalist was also credited for initiating the book fair movement in the State since 1984. As the secretary of State publication board, he not only edited Prakash, an Assamese literary magazine, but also took leadership to publish a number of invaluable books like Hasti Vidyarnava,...

Weekly clinic at press club roles on

Nilakantha, a middle-age scribe of Assam, participated in the weekly evening OPD clinic at Guwahati Press Club out of curiosity. He had a brief discussion with the attending doctor, who advised him to check his blood pressure. Initially Nilakantha asserted that he had no pressure (meaning no irregularity in BP). But when the sister in the camp measured his blood pressure, the outcome emerged simply shocking. He had hypertension (280 by 170), which compelled the doctor to strongly advise him to take medicine urgently. Meet Jyotiprasad, a young contributor of news & features to local newspapers in the city, who casually came to press club on a Saturday. He was asked to consult with the...

Community work to conserve bird

The news was astonishing as an Assamese lady was selected for Whitley Award, also known as Green Oscar, and invited to London to receive the coveted award. Suddenly Purnima Devi Barman emerged as an icon across Assam. But the residents of many parts in Kamrup were familiar with the and her mission to conserve Greater Adjutant Stork (popularly known as Hargila or Dhadang). Purnima, 37, has been working in the villages since 2009 where once the people found the bird as dirty, but today they feel proud of it and virtually own the responsibility to preserve the tall bird’s habitats adjacent to their localities. The rural ladies came forward to join hands with Purnima to adopt the birds as...

Apollo gynecologist attends press club OPD

Senior gynecologist from Apollo Chennai Hospital Dr A. Vinutha on Saturday (6 May 2017) attended the evening OPD clinic at Guwahati Press Club and offered free healthcare consultations to around 20 participants. The program, organized under the ‘Evening with a Doctor’ series, was exclusive for women journalists and spouses (and daughters) of the press club members. Prior to it, the experienced gynecologist delivered a talk on various women related ailments and their preventions at the press club auditorium, where around 50 participants interacted with the physician. It was organized by Apollo Hospitals Information Center, Guwahati in association with the press club. The next media OPD...

Former students’ get-together at Makhibaha HS School

The entire batch of 1982-83 high school leaving certificate examination participants from Makhibaha High School (now an HS standard) under Nalbari district of central Assam will assemble along with their families on 16 April next in the school campus. The get-together programs comprise felicitation/ tributes to former teaches, commemoration of batch mates, plantation, cultural shows and vivid interactions. A small convener committee under the leadership of Hareswar Dutta (96134 51514), Narayan Majumder, Nabadeep Bharali, Utpal Bhattacharya, Golak Pathak etc was also formed to plan the ceremony, which is expected to be an annual affair.

Sri Lankan filmmaker to attend GPC program

Eminent Sri Lankan filmmaker Prasanna Vithanage will attend the ‘Guest of the Month’ program of Guwahati Press Club on Tuesday (11 April 2017). The interactive session will start at 11 am and continue till 12.30 pm. Born at Panadura, an outskirt locality of Colombo in 1962, Vithanage emerged as an acclaimed visual translator of inner conflicts carried by ordinary people along with their journey for individual freedom. He has received international acclaim for ‘Sisila Gini Gani’ (Ice of Fire), ‘Anantha Rathriya’ (The Dark Night of Soul), ‘Akasa Kusum’ (Flowers of the Sky), ‘Pura Handa Kaluwara’ (The Death on a Full Moon Day), ‘Ira Madiyama’ (August Sun), ‘Oba Nathuwa Oba Ekka’ (With You,...

Ayursundra doctors conduct OPD clinic at press club

Ayursundra Superspecialty Hospital conducted the weekly evening OPD clinic at Guwahati Press Club on Saturday (1 April 2017) for the benefit of its members and their dependants. Dr Prerit Sarma (Emergency Medicine) and Dr Ayona Barthakur (O&G) checked the health status of over 35 participants and offered necessary consultations. Besides health related free consultations, the participants also got the facility of weight, blood sugar, pressure examinations in the brief camp. The camp was assisted by Satyabrat Baruah (public relation officer), Bijoy Sankar Nath (marketing), Manab Kr Kalita & Jayanta Kalita (pharmacist) and Bandita Kalita (nurse) from the newly launched healthcare...

JFA lauds HC ruling

Journalists’ Forum Assam (JFA) expresses happiness and gratefulness over the recent Gauhati High Court directive to the management of Janasadharan, an Assamese daily newspaper to clear all the unpaid wages of the employees till January and also make an endeavour to pay the current wages accordingly. The court also asked the management of Janasadharan Printing and Publication Ltd to restart publishing the newspaper, which has already been honoured by the proprietor with full cooperation of the employees. Janasadharan, owned by Congress leader Rockybul Hussain and then edited by Left intellectual Dr Shivnath Barman, was suddenly stopped from publication by the management in last November,...

Brahmaputra Literary Festival ends today

The three day Brahmaputra Literary Festival will come to end today, where Assam Governor Banwari Lal Purohit is scheduled to grace the closing ceremony as the chief guest. The function starting at 3 pm in Srimanta Sankardev Kalakshetra will also be graced by Gauhati University vice-chancellor Dr Mridul Hazarika, eminent Italian author Carlo Pizzaati and Indian writer Narendra Kohli with few others. Meanwhile, thousands joined and observed various sessions on different topics & genres of literature & cinema, conversations, book reading, interactions in six venues namely Tagore Hall, Pandita Ramabai Hall, Premchand Hall, Subramania Bharathi Hall, Nalinibala Devi Hall and Bezbarua...

Thousands throng Brahmaputra Literary Festival

Creative writers, journalists, filmmakers, vivid appreciators, enthusiast observers from various parts of the globe now gather at Brahmaputra Literary Festival in the far eastern part of India. First of its kinds in the alienated region of the country, the festival witnessed the gala opening on Saturday precluding all serious panel discussions on literature and related other creative activities. Eminent authors including Randy Taguchi from Japan, Neal Hall from USA, Carlo Pizaati, Giampaolo Simi & Alessandra Bertini from Italy, Francois Gautier & Nicolos Idier from France, Carlos Penalver from Spain, Subramani from Fiji, Dhunpal Raj Heeraman & Ramdeo Dhorundhur from Mauritius,...