Indian Journalists Union organizes webinar on 'Quality of media and reporting'

A CORRESPONDENT

ITANAGAR: The Indian Journalists Union (IJU) organized a webinar on the 'Quality of media and reporting' in the background of COVID-19 consequences in India on Tuesday.

The IJU also conducted a survey to assess the ground reality of media organizations, especially after the global pandemic. The webinar was attended by various members from across the country who shared their experiences during and after the COVID-induced lockdown.

IJU has assessed the situation of the impact of COVID-19 on media in India through the International Federation Journalists (IFJ) project in five states namely, Arunachal, Assam, Sikkim, Kerala and Chhattisgarh.

Presiding over the webinar, IJU president Geetharta Pathak said, "The role of the media is to assert our rights; we need information to give the people. We need to strengthen our union; as a journalist community we need to fight for our rights," said Pathak while urging the journalists to assert their right to free press.

On the concern raised by some participants over the advent of social media channels in disseminating information, Pathak said, "Everything published on social media cannot be considered as journalistic work.

Journalistic work needs verification and must be always cross-checked. Journalistic works have a veracity of information," adding that the union has to instill responsibility and ethics among the journalists.

IJU secretary-general Sabina Inderjit informed that the IFJ project has helped the IJU to understand the issues being faced by the media in India, especially in five States. Inderjit further said that there have been various cases in which the State governments have used the sedition law to counter journalists from reporting the truth.

"This has created a fear psychosis among the journalists and forced them to go soft and deviate from the main issues. If we are not able to create informed public opinion, our democracy is in danger," said Inderjit, and urged the members to stand for professionalism.

Speaking as a resource person, senior journalist and author from Manipur Pradip Phanjoubam observed that the impact of the pandemic could be seen in the unprecedented migration of readership and business from traditional media to the internet.

"In the long run, there is not much future for print editions of newspapers. There is so much migration of readership and business as it is so interactive," said Phanjoubam.

On the impact of the pandemic on quality journalism, Phanjoubam stated, "There is a change of attitude in the governments, and the subsequent reduction of advertisements has forced the media owners as well as journalists to compromise on issues which are bad but now it is difficult to prevent it."

"Lots of people are compromising on journalism, trying to be on the right side of politics to get the right kind of advertisements. The important thing for us is to draw the line. You cannot be a martyr. Without being a martyr, you can keep your integrity - that line needs to be drawn," Phanjoubam said.

On social media, Phanboujam said, "The social media information is not screened and verified one. That's why traditional media has more credibility than social media."

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