IPR minister calls for curbing fake news
Source: Chronicle News Service
Imphal, November 01 2022:
Expressing serious concern over circulation of fake news on the social media which often gives negative impact to the society, Information and Public Relations (IPR) minister Dr Sapam Ranjan has strongly called for verification of news before putting up on any public platform or medium.
IPR minister Dr Sapam Ranjan stated this during the 74th IPR Day celebration held at DIPR complex, here, Tuesday.
Attending as chief guest of the event, Dr Ranjan said that unverified news is being uploaded on social media platforms nowadays due to advancement in technology amidst the global change.
However, such unauthenticated news often have negative impact on the society and may even create unwanted chain of events, he cautioned, while stressing the need for proper perusal news before putting them in the public domain.
He then appealed to officials concerned and the journalist fraternity to publish only verified news to prevent spread of unverified news on social media, which indeed has become common nowadays.
This will also help in preventing unwanted incident, observed Dr Ranjan.
Stressing on the need for digitisation of important documents being stored at DIPR, the IPR minister maintained that digitisation would not only help in saving precious documents at the time of unfortunate incidents like fire but also enable the future generation access important materials with convenience.
The IPR minister also said that he will discuss with the chief minister for declaring the pending recruitment results of the directorate.
Commissioner (IPR) M Harekrishna, who also attended the event, said that DIPR being the mouthpiece of the government has to play a role in giving awareness to people about welfare schemes of the government.
To make this happen, the directorate needs to interact with officials of different departments from time to time, he suggested and also stressed the need for reviewing the existing rules and regulations for identifying working journalists.
The commissioner also questioned if those working on e-news portal could be treated as journalists.
The event was also attended by AMWJU president Wangkhemcha Shamjai, Editors' Guild Manipur president Khogendra Khomdram and Manipur Hill Journalists' Union president Peter Adani.