Deputy Commissioner Mandi Apoorv Devgan stressed the need of providing factual information to people through media.
Speaking in a seminar organized to celebrate the national press day on Saturday at Mandi on the topic ‘changing form of press’ he said, “The press is considered one of the four pillars of democracy; from the freedom movement to the present, journalism has played an important role taking the nation forward, besides playing an important role in preserving and promoting Indian values”, he said.
Congratulating the Mandi based media persons on the occasion he appreciated their effort to highlight achievements and problems of people.
He said , “ The national press day always inspires us to work while remaining steadfast on high values and uphold principles of journalism and carry forward the journalistic values as the importance of correct information has increased with the spread of misinformation through social media .”
The seminar was coordinated by District Public Relations Officer Hemant Sharma.
Senior journalist Dharam Prakash Gupta in his keynote address said, “The biggest challenge in the changing times is how to make the press socially responsible, besides maintaining the value of news and he stressed on the need of strengthening the institutions of editors.”
He said, “Journalism has seen many changes in its journey from factual news to flow of mis-information through social media; in today’s era of breaking news, the challenge of maintaining credibility is quite high for the media.”
He said, “The press fought against the foreign rulers in the freedom movement, after independence it played the role to take the country forward and the media also used its pen fearlessly to report on the functioning of the legislature and the executive, besides strengthening democracy by working with neutrality.”
Speaking on the occasion, President of Mandi Press Club Murari Sharma said, “We are living in an era of tremendous technological advancement and continuous flow of information which has become a challenge requiring careful scrutiny”.
Many other media persons also participated in the seminar.
