Monday, March 20, 2023
10th Plenary of Indian Journalists Union held: EHJU Secretary elected as national secretary
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Along with Pathak and Inderjit, Asim Bhakta Singh was elected unopposed as treasurer of the country's largest journalist union.
Eastern Himalayan Journalist Union's (EHJU) secretary and NEC member A K Rai has been elected as the national secretary representing West Bengal state in the two-day meeting held on March 17 and 18.
A K Rasaily, President of EHJU and Chief Advisor of Kalimpong Press Club congratulated Rai for being elected as the first secretary from Darjeeling - Kalimpong region in the national organization and said that this is a matter of pride for our hill and it is also a recognition of our capability. A total of seven secretaries have been elected in the national level committee along with three vice presidents. .jpeg)
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Addressing more than 200 journalists from 13 states, Pathak, the President of IJU said that
The IJU president in his opening remarks said that “journalists, media, and journalism itself have never faced such a formidable challenge as we have been experiencing over the last eight years.”
“IJU is relentlessly fighting for the rights of journalists, freedom of media, better working conditions for media persons and freedom of speech for all the citizens of the country since its inception,” Pathak said.
Stating that the “divisive trend in journalists’ unions is an area of great concern,” he called for unity among the journalists of the country for promotion of free press.
“The IJU is spreading from Kashmir to Kanyakumari, and from the Northeast to the Andaman & Nicobar Islands,” he added.
Pathak said also that “journalism, being a vital pillar of democracy, needs more support from the respective state governments and administrations.”
“Although a few state governments have cone up with medical welfare schemes for journalists, many states have not taken any such initiative. Since journalism is a profession with risks to lives and health, the government and the media employers should put in place compulsory insurance policies for all journalists,” he added.
Inderjeet in her address gave a clarion call to the IJU members and the states’ leaderships to “gear up and change their outlook as unions to meet new challenges.”
“Media industry is also going through dramatic changes. We are in the digital age now, surpassing print and electronic media, and therefore we need to gear up and change our outlook as unions to meet new challenges,” she added.
Inderjit, who is also the vice president of the International Federation Journalists, expressed concern over the growing attacks on journalists during the IJU Plenary meeting organized by the Chhattisgarh Labour Journalists Welfare Association.
“Governments, both state and central, used the pandemic to gag the media from reporting ground situation. The DMA and the Epidemic Act were brazenly misused to clamp down on independent reportage. There is a clampdown on social media too with a skewed digital draft policy, which has been challenged in courts. There’s a chilling effect with FIRs filed or journalists being jailed for their writings and posts by using draconian Acts like NSA, UAPA, etc,” she added.
Stating that Indian media is going through its trials and tribulations “like those in other countries under nationalist governments,” she exhorted the journalists to fight the dangerous trend.
“While some state governments have formulated medical welfare schemes for journalists, many states have not taken any such initiative. He said that since journalism is a profession that carries risks to life and health, the government and the media should implement a mandatory insurance policy for all journalists.
Earlier, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel inaugurated the two-day national level full function of IJU at Zora in Raipur.
Addressing the inaugural session, Baghel said, "The Chhattisgarh Council of Ministers has today approved the draft bill on the law prohibiting attacks on journalists (Journalists Protection Act)."
This decision was taken by the Cabinet meeting chaired by the Chief Minister on Friday.
The Council of Ministers has approved the bill to prevent violence against journalists, he said.
He urged the four pillars of democracy, the legislature, the executive, the judiciary and the media to 'complement each other to strengthen democracy'.
He said, "If any of these pillars, especially the media, gets unbalanced, it will have a negative impact on the society."
Although some state governments have already started granting and providing life insurance and medical aid to the journalists, most of the states are yet to start the same. The IJU has demanded that this facility should be started by all the state governments of the nation and not only to accredited journalists but also to all journalists who fulfills all the criteria.
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