Skip to content Skip to navigation

Silver Jubilee carnival for Kaliabor Press Club

Guwahati: It was an amazing experience to attend the foundation day of a 25 year old press club in central Assam on a lazy Sunday, where a number of senior citizens along with rural scribes and novice journalists were waiting to listen to my speech. It’s easier to address a journalist’s meet- where we can discuss many issues with liberties, but while the audience includes respected senior citizens and young people, it becomes a difficult task to speak to them together.

First, the question that arises, how much should I highlight the eroding credibility of the mainstream media around India in general and Assam in particular and secondly what may be the role of social (alternate/digital) in reshaping the newspapers and satellite news channels! Thirdly, I must discuss the abundant opportunities brought out by the internet services, which has almost redesigned the present socio-cultural, political and economical landscape around the world.
As I got down from the long-drive bus at one point near the  Jakhalabandha stoppage, it was Jayanta Kumar Sarma  who came to escort me to the function. Jayanta, secretary of  Kaliabor  Press Club, gave me an initial briefing about the organisation and the function. Soon Nayan Saikia, a Guwahati-based senior journalist - who continues to be a supportive hand at the local press club - welcomed me to the programme. Before the meeting began, we had some time for lunch, which was simple but tasty.

After a few formalities, including a welcome chorus by some local girls who performed a spirited song of Dr Bhupen Hazarika, the chair asked me to address the gathering. Prior to it, the organisers greeted me (along with Nabin Borthakur- associated with  Asom Sahitya Sabha and Pranab Mahanta, a media enthusiast on the dais) in traditional ways and the press club president Tapan Saikia introduced me to the audience. Some of the distinguished listeners (Hemadhar Hazarika, Bhupen Sarma, Dhruba Borgohain, Puspendra Saikia, Pulak Bora, Ajit Bhagawati, Jayanta Kr Khound, Bipul Hazarika, Achyut Saikia, Krishna Mahanta, etc)  were even known to me.

I tried to analyse the crisis faced by mainstream media outlets with the advent  of aggressive social media. The shrinking space for newspapers was multiplied during the Covid-19 pandemic induced national lock down, as rumours spread that the physical paper would carry the coronavirus. Slowly the readers turned to alternate media (precisely the news portals) and many of them did not return to their age-old habit of reading a newspaper in the morning hours. Once a sizable number of committed readers go away, the newspapers have lost their influence on them for good.

Across India, we should have over 50 crore mobile phone (connected with internet) users and many of them continue to read newspapers. The problem began, when the readers started questioning the contents of newspaper columns as often old, one-sided and non-comprehensive. The issue did not end here, as many internet users began to criticise the newspaper (also satellite news channel) contents in digital media space. Some of them even went on criticising the editors with personal attacks. So gradually the editor-journalists have found themselves in an awkward position while facing the public.

Hence it’s the time for the mainstream media people to be more cautious, authentic and credible to the readers, listeners and viewers. Perhaps, we have arrived in a period where we can no longer generate news items according to our convenience. If we keep our accountability aside, social media users (some of them may be retired working journalists) will remind us of it. The reminders may be polite in nature or even aggressive (and we will have no other option than acknowledging them).

Finally, I insisted that journalists may continue to be popular, inspiring  and influential,  if we can maintain our credibility and be honest with the respective  audience. The so-called glamour, wealth and political affiliation would be useless in the days to come. A challenging time for professional journalists has welcomed all of us and we must survive with our truthfulness, dedication and commitment  to the medium, our society and the nation.

For records,   Kaliabor  Press Club was formed by some struggling rural scribes on 17 July  1997 and the present set of members (not more than 50) are celebrating their silver jubilee year. State minister Keshab Mahanta, hailing from the locality, launched the year-long celebration at its premises on 16 January last in the presence of distinguished personalities including performing artiste Jina Rajkumari. The press club members organised the foundation day programme on 16 and  17 July.
A journalist workshop (in memory of two pioneer journalists from Kaliabor, namely Govindaram Bhuyan and Abhiram Bhuyan) was also organised at Jakhalabandha HS School auditorium  where Asom Bani  editor Dileep Chandan and NKTV news reporter Biswajoti Sarma were present as resource persons. It was followed by a competition for information gathering and news presentation among the aspiring students. Senior rural correspondents Kanak Hazarika and Narendranath Hazarika guided the event, which was assisted by Tarun Muktiyar, Bhaskar Saikia, Ashish Saikia and others.

My proposals for the local press club include a media health check-up camp (where their families would get the benefit of traditional and modern healthcare), regular sittings with classic movie shows, cartoon exhibitions and  discussion on new books, interactions with celebrated personalities, and programs with video conference engaging journalist-authors across the globe time to time, so that the local scribes can make them updated  with the latest trend in national and international journalism, socio-political and environmental scenario for their own benefits.

Add new comment

Random Stories

Library Inaugurated at Srijangram

13 Jan 2017 - 9:43am | Rinkumani Pathak
Young Srijangram, a socio-cultural organisation of Bongaigaon district has initiated a mission titled as ‘Prajna- The Light of Knowledge’ to set up libraries at government schools. As part of this...

NDFB-S cadre held

4 Jun 2016 - 10:02pm | AT Kokrajhar Bureau
Security forces belonging to police and army apprehended a cadre of NDFB(S) from northern part of Chirang district on Friday night. He was identified as Sobhaigo Mushahary,was active while working...

Mrinal Saikia targets Rockybul

8 Oct 2015 - 3:14pm | Siddhartha Handique
Nagaon BJP leader Mrinal Saikia’s target now is none other than Rockybul Hussain. Saikia has accused the former forest minister of aiding and abetting the Nagaon Deputy Commissioner to mislead the...

Assam Association felicitates three eminent sons of Assam

22 Mar 2009 - 3:24pm | Manoj Kumar Das
Assam Association, Delhi felicitated three great sons of Assam in a graceful function at Srimanta Sankaradeva Bhawan. The function coincided with the inauguration of the recently completed Auditorium...

Other Contents by Author

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...
Veteran actor-director Abdul Majid will attend the Guest of the Month program of Guwahati Press Club (GPC) on June 16 (Monday). The interactive session with the journalists will start at 3 pm. Majid was born in Jorhat in 1931 and he started his carrier in theatres in 1950 at his home town. Till date, he has performed in over two hundred plays staged in different parts of eastern India. Majid started his career in celluloid through ‘Ronga Police’ in 1957. He has also directed several movies including ‘Maram Trishna’, ‘Chameli Memsaab’, ‘Banahangsha’, ‘Bonjui’, ‘Ponakon’, ‘Uttarkaal’. Chameli Memsaab, for which Dr Bhupen Hazarika won the national award for music direction, was awarded with...
Journalists’ Forum Assam (JFA) has expressed deep shock at the sudden demise of Ahir Bhairab Borthakur, a city based young journalist, who expired Tuesday morning in a city hospital.Started his career as a column writer to many newspapers, Ahir later used to work for New Delhi based Down To Earth magazine. He also worked as a content development and screenplay writer for various media outlets.Some other publications where he was involved include RAVE, Billboard, Incredible India magazine, HolidayIQ, etc. A graduate with Masters in Geography, Ahir did his post graduation in Journalism from New Delhi YMCA.At the time of his demise, Ahir, 39, was working for Ne Hi-fi (Focus TV Group) as a...
A fortnightly Assamese news magazine named Pasekhia Prekshan was launched today in Guwahati Press Club. The first issue of the news magazine was inaugurated by Nava Thakuria, a city based journalist. Published by Bitopan Das, the news magazine is edited by Nataraj Das, Utpal Das and Anup Talukdar. The market price for the issue of Prekshan is fixed at rupees twelve. The inaugural function was also graced by Mukul Kalita, editor of Adinor Sangbad, Mubina Akhter and Pulin Saha, both are city based journalists.
Most of the journalists who attended the body-fat check-up camp for scribes in Guwahati Press Club today (Wednesday) diagnosed with preliminary obesity problems.Organized by Wellness Centre, Guwahati the camp witnessed nearly 100 media persons' participation in the camp. While the male journalists were diagnosed with overweight, most of the female scribes were reported under weight.SN Dutta, nutrition and weight management consultant supervised the camp, where visceral fat, sub-cutaneous fat, muscle mass, body metabolic age, body mass index etc were also examined.
As the nation prepares for the next general election, Journalists' Forum Assam (JFA) has urged all political parties to show their sincerity towards the implementation of various welfare schemes to media persons engaged in both print & electronic media. The Assam based scribes' body also insisted on enrolling a special protection laws for journalists on duty in the election manifestos of all political parties.Expressing grave concern over helpless working condition of media persons, particularly the private television journalists of northeast India, the JFA has urged both the Indian Union labour ministry and province governments of the alienated region to look into the matter. The forum...
A free health camp on manual therapy and pain relief for media persons was organized at Guwahati Press Club today by Indian Association of Physiotherapists (IAP) and College of Physiotherapy & Medical Sciences (CPMS), Guwahati. Over 50 journalists participated in the camp that started at 10 am. Most of the participants diagnosed with continuous pain in neck and back. The camp, conducted under the leadership of IAP president Dr Uma Shankar Mohanty and CPMS principal Dr Ujjal Bhattacharya with physiotherapists Dr Munmun Singha & Dr Kundan Kumar, concluded by 2 pm.
A free health camp on manual therapy and pain relief for media persons has been organized at Guwahati Press Club on March 9 (Sunday). The camp, to be conducted under the leadership of Dr Uma Shankar Mohanty, president of Manual Therapy Foundation of India, will begin at 10 am and conclude by 2 pm. Member-journalists are requested to participate in the physiotherapy camp.
Padma Shree Dr. Sarbeswar Sahariah, MS, MAMS, FICS, FACS will attend the next 'Guest of the Month' programme of Guwahati Press Club (GPC) on 4th March 2014. The interactive session will start at 2 pm.Hails from Mangaldoi in central Assam and presently based in Hyderabad of Andhra Pradesh, Dr. Sahariah has performed more than 3000 renal transplant operations which may be a record for a surgeon in India. He has recently started a charitable organization tiled North East Care Foundation along with free medical clinic and dispensary at Pachim Baragaon of Guwahati for the benefit of weaker sections in the society.Dr. Sahariah, who has attended a number of conferences held in Singapore, Taipei,...
Journalists' Forum Assam (JFA) has expressed utter dismay at the prolonged strike of newspaper hawkers in Guwahati since February 16 and urged the Press Council of India (PCI) to intervene on the matter as the agitators have directly implicated on people's right to get essential information.Taking queue from the PCI chairman Justice Markandey Katju's comment on Arunachal's recent media-deadlock, following the conflict between the Itanagar authority and media persons, that the suspension of newspapers is 'not in public interest', the JFA pointed out that similar situation is now prevailing in Assam as the hawkers have neither distributed nor allowed others to do the same inside Guwahati city...