The 45th foundation day celebration of All Manipur Working Journalists Union (AMWJU) was held at Manipur Press Club in Imphal on Sunday.
Information and Public Relations Minister Thongam Biswajit, Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution Minister Karam Shyam and president of AMWJU in charge Brozendra Ningomba and others attended the foundation day celebration.
Speaking on the occasion, minister Biswajit urged media to play the role of a mediator and balance their news report before publishing.
Maintaining that observing foundation day is significant as it is a reflection of past activities and at the same time provides new challenges, he highlighted the challenges faced by media fraternity like viral of fake news in social media which media fraternity finds difficult to verify the fake news.
Another challenges faced by the media fraternity is the creation of idea of Manipur and publishing constructive criticism. Media should play an important role and stick to its ethics in a democratic state as the essence of democracy lies in the effectiveness of media, he added.
He informed that the government has already deposited Rs 10 crore in corpus fund and recently the government has handed over first ever financial assistance to three journalists under Manipur State Journalists welfare scheme of department of information and public relations.
In his speech, Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution Minister Karam Shyam said in today’s highly globalised world, information-related works of any local or national papers have become a part of imparting knowledge to the public.
Highlighting the varied role of journalists in creating love, harmony & integration and at the same time, communal conflicts amongst the various ethnic groups, he said journalists should be extra cautious in their activities by following the press code of ethics.
As a part of the celebration, veteran journalists, members of Editors Guild Manipur, former presidents and general secretaries of the union were also felicitated.