Source: Bijoy Kakchingtabam/The Sangai Express
Aizawl, September 23:
Kicking off the media workshop under the theme, "Role of media for development of North East region," at Aizawl today, Information Minister of Mizoram, Dr R Lalthangliana said that the people of the North-Eastern region have a unique perceptible emotional bond.
The two day media workshop is being sponsored by the North Eastern Council.
HV Lalringa, Chief Secretary of Mizoram presided over the function.
Addressing the gathering, Lalthangliana said that the North East has been rightly referred to as the sister-States.
"The NE States are comparatively backward in many aspects of development and we share problems which are Common in nature and we have to learn to adopt a collective approach to the solutions of our problems," he stressed.
"In a democracy, it is through the media that the people express their opinion and the Government in turn feels the pulse of the people from the feedback it receives from the media" added the Minister.
The Information Minister further said that the most vital role of the media community of the NE region is image building of the region.
National or mainstream media attention is focused mainly on the conflicts and insurgencies that afflict the region and this picture presented by the national media have created wrong notions and very grim impressions of the region in the minds of the people outside.
HV Lalringa Chief Secretary, in his key note address said that media in the NE can contribute to the social good by becoming partners with development agencies.
Professional, journalism should not be identified with agitation and propaganda, but must have strong ethical and social justification for a journalism that contributes, within its constraints and to the best of its ability, to peace and to the resolution of conflicts in society, he said.
Around 200 Journalists and representatives of various institutions of the NE attended the seminar.
Another 26 journalist are on the way.
Four senior journalists led by one Senior DIO from Manipur also attended the seminar.