Electronic Media Forum Assam (EMFA) and Journalists’ Forum Assam (JFA) have strongly condemned the police atrocities on a lady television journalist associated with a Guwahati based satellite news channel and urged the authority to punish the guilty individuals. Both the media forums have reiterated their old demand to frame a law across the country to protect the media persons on duty.
It may be mentioned that the lady journalist with a camera person on Saturday went to the campus of Latashil police station in the heart of the city for reporting about the pathetic condition of barracks, but they found some unethical practices going on there and started investigating the matter.
It attracted the attention of the police officers on duty and asked the media team to leave the place immediately with abusive languages. Even two male police officers (identified as Chidanda Bora and Samsuddin Ahmed) physically assaulted the lady journalist.
The EMFA and JFA have urged both the State home minister (also the chief minister) Tarun Gogoi and Assam police chief Khagen Sarma to take appropriate actions against the guilty police officers immediately. Both the organizations also decided to send a memorandum to the National Commission for Women urging its intervention to take stern actions against the culprits.
As Bangladesh has constituted a new government under the leadership of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) after a largely fair & peaceful national election on 12 February 2026, the people of eastern India (the region virtually embraces the poverty stricken country except a few kilometers in Myanmar and the Bay of Bengal) hope for a progressive regime in Dhaka enjoying political stability and pursuing economic developments to over 170 million people in the south Asian nation. The Muslim majority country continues to grow as a headache for the north-eastern states, more precisely Assam, for at least two reasons namely unabated influx of migrants and regional security...
Amid high security arrangements across the country, polling begins this morning at 7:30 am for the highly projected 13th Jatiya Sansad election in Bangladesh, where over 2000 candidates representing 50 political parties along with many independent contestants are in the fray. The Muslim majority nation has over 12.77 crore registered voters including 6.27 crore women and 1,232 third-genders, who are voting for electing 299 representatives (out of 300 seats in the national assembly). Over 42,000 polling centres will facilitate the electorates to exercise their franchise (through ballots in person) till 4:30 pm (on 12 February 2026). The election will be conducted...
As Bangladesh heads for 13th Parliamentary election and the referendum on July National Charter simultaneously on Thursday (12 February 2026), the interim government chief Professor Muhammad Yunus urged all participating candidates to rise above personal and party interests to prioritize greater interest of the Muslim majority nation regardless of the poll-outcomes. Addressing the nation of over 170 million people ahead of the much watched electoral exercises, Nobel peace laureate Dr Yunus commented that victory as well as defeat is an integral part of democracy and hence after the election, they should dedicate themselves to build a new, just, democratic, and inclusive...
Is it possible to have a quasi-judicial body like the Press Council of India to survive for weeks without its chairperson? Should the largest democracy on Earth put such an example where its government recognized autonomous media watchdog faces an existential crisis as the 15th council of PCI still devoid of a functioning head and 13 seats? How come a press council runs its business without filling these 13 seats, meant for millions of media professionals, for more than a year now, whereas the term of a council is limited to three years only? Many such pertinent questions emerge among media professionals in the south Asian nation, as the regular three-year term (as well as...
Amid an existential crisis in the Guwahati-based Assam Tribune group of newspapers, which worsened after the Covid-19 pandemic, a popular Assamese weekly newspaper lost its publication in the latter part of 2025. Asom Bani, once a mainstream weekly for Assamese readers for decades, stopped hitting the stands from September last year, as the management lost interest in continuing its printing every Friday. Even though the seven-decade-old Assamese-language weekly was lost from the media market, the management did not make any statement about Asom Bani’s fate. Prior to its departure, the weekly was merged with Dainik Asom, an acclaimed Assamese daily from the prestigious media house, as its...
Bangladesh, which recently witnessed turmoil following the demise of a young radical leader Sharif Osman Bin Hadi amid anti-India rhetoric, now gradually returns to normalcy, as the south Asian nation also prepares for its next general election scheduled for 12 February 2026. The highly sought after polls, as the sitting Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina faced an overthrow in the backdrop of a student-led mass uprising in July-August 2024, however misses the participation of Hasina’s party Awami League, which used to rule the Muslim majority country of 170 million people for several years.
The ousted premier along with thousands of her party men continue to stay in neighbouring...
It may be amazing but true, that the largest democracy on Earth continues waiting for a fully functioning government-sponsored media watchdog for more than a year now. Press Council of India (PCI), a quasi-judicial body, which was initiated to safeguard and nurture the freedom of press in the country, remains almost a non-functioning entity as the term of PCI’s 14th council expired on 5 October 2024. Since then various initiatives to constitute the statutory 15th council to carry forward its prescribed activities confronted different hurdles. Currently the PCI has its chairperson and secretary along with only five members representing Rajya Sabha, University Grants Commission, Bar...
An initial sadness and grief following the unforeseen death of Assam’s cultural icon in Singapore at only 53 have slowly turned into outrages with a sole demand for justice to Zubeen Garg, as millions of his fans and admirers got convinced that something wrong had happened to their prince of melody during an unplanned sea-yacht outing in the southeast Asian nation. The heart-breaking news that brought the India’s north-eastern State with 3.3 million people to a standstill turning its capital city into a sea of humans weeping, sobbing, crying and exclaiming why Zubeen was put to die in the islands nation, thousands kilometer away from his motherland, on 19 September 2025. The...
The heartbroken news arrived from Singapore in multiple media outlets, which baffled the people of Assam, but immediately in outrages among the young generation, who were born in eastern India and brought up with the melodious voice of iconic singer Zubeen Garg. The sadness and melancholy soon turned into outrages with a vital question, why Zubeen was taken to Singapore as he was not physically well for months. Millions of his fans were annoyed when they encountered some clippings of videos on social media, where the singing sensation was seen swimming in the seawater (without a life-jacket), whereas he was cautioned by the doctors in Guwahati to avoid the fire and water body. The...
Guwahati: Since 1 February 2005, Assam government has implemented the National Pension Scheme (NPS) for the government employees. All Assam Government NPS Employees’ Association terms it an anti-employee policy and a mockery in the name of pension. The Union government, instead of restoring the Old Pension Scheme (OPS), has taken initiatives to replace the NPS with a new one named Universal Pension Scheme (UPS).
The third biennial conference of the association, held on 24 August at Rupnagar in the city strongly opposed this move and demanded the reintroduction of the OPS. President Achyutananda Hazarika and general secretary Apurba Sharma announced that from next month...
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