SHILLONG, JUNE 10: On the concluding day of a two-day workshop-cum-seminar in the city today, journalists from this region formed an umbrella body for their safety and security styled as Northeast India Federation of Journalists (NIFJ) and adopted a resolution demanding action against those involved in violence on working journalists.
“The objective of the newly formed Federation is to strengthen freedom of expression and access to information, healthy public dialogue, conflict resolution and democratic processes through promotion of quality and independent journalism underpinned by respect for the economic and professional rights of journalists and media workers,” the preamble of the NIFJ read.
“We aim to work collectively and in collaboration to promote and defend rights related to freedom of the media and the right to free association in Northeast India,” it emphasized.
“By supporting the role of journalists and the media in campaigning for press freedom and media independence, we will reinforce the central role of an independent media in promoting civil society, democratic discourse and human rights for all,” the preamble iterated.
The charter of the Federation asserted that all journalists and media staff have the right to work in conditions of safety and security, including the right to “collectively bargain for wages and appropriate (improved) working conditions”.
The new Federation also seeks to “urgently respond to challenges to journalists’ rights in individual countries through international missions”, global days of action, and other relevant mechanisms and processes of regional and international solidarity.
Journalists from several North-eastern states and outside the region converged in Shillong on Sunday to take part in the two-day ‘Regional Seminar-cum-Workshop’ organized by the International Federation of Journalist (South Asia Media Solidarity Network).
Meghalaya labour minister AmpareenLyngdoh, who inaugurated the seminar at the Shillong Club, assured the gathering that the state government would endeavour to look into enhancing measures for the welfare, including housing facilities and health insurance besides safety of working journalists not only in the state but in the region as a whole.
Secretary of the Indian Journalists Union, GeetarthaPathak spoke on various issues confronting journalists including economic exploitation and the challenges of working in a conflict zone besides media ethics and the importance of people’s right to information for strengthening democracy.
The Shillong Press Club president David Laitphlang expressed optimism that the seminar would bring to light several issues relating to the working conditions of journalists in the north east and that the state governments in the region would also take not of these and follow-up with requisite action.
The seminar, the first of its kind to be held in Meghalaya was organized in collaboration with the Shillong Press Club and with active support of the Indian Journalists Union and the Meghalaya government. – By Our Reporter
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