Information & Public Relations (I&PR) parliamentary secretary, Khekaho Assumi and the department have assured the Nagaland Press Association (NPA) that necessary amendments would be made in the draft proposals of the proposed Journalist Welfare Fund policy and Nagaland Press Accreditation Policy.
In this regard, Nagaland Press Association (NPA) president K. Temjen Jamir stated that the NPA submitted a memorandum to Khekaho Assumi putting forth its suggestion for necessary amendments in the draft proposals of both the policies on October 28.
NPA had suggested that the “Nagaland Accredited Journalists Welfare Fund” cover all the working journalists, including accredited & non-accredited journalists.
NPA suggested I&PR to provide assistance to working journalist, irrespective of being “accredited or non-accredited”. It further opined that the criteria set up by Information & Broadcasting ministry “Guidelines for Journalist Welfare Scheme” could be referred and modified to suit the journalists of the state.
NPA also said that there should be no fixed ceiling of annual income, as criteria, for a journalist to avail benefits, saying it would make many working journalists ineligible to avail benefits under the scheme.
Khekaho Assumi and the addl. director Limawati agreed to make necessary amendments in the draft proposals.
Rejects NNMA rules 2015
Nagaland Press Association has rejected the draft proposal of the Nagaland News Media Accreditation (NNMA) Rules 2015 pointing out that it lacked clarity and needed a serious review. NPA president, K. Temjen Jamir and vice president, H. Chishi said that the rules needed to clearly define journalists/media organizations and who should come under the purview.
The department assured NPA that the draft rules would be reviewed at the earliest with necessary changes and the welfare funds made available within the current financial year. However, NPA cautioned that the media fraternity would be compelled to resort to agitation in the form of “boycotting the government functions and communications” if the demands were not fulfilled at the earliest.
NPA lamented saying unless someone or an association agitates, the state government does not bother about delivering justice to its people. NPA expressed hope that the state government would understand the rights and plight of the media persons in the state so that such agitations could be avoided.