Shillong, Nov 16: Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma on Saturday announced several decisions taken by his government towards welfare of the press fraternity in Meghalaya.

Addressing at the National Press Day celebration in Shillong, Sangma informed that under scheme for journalists, his government has increased an amount from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 5 lakh as ex-gratia to the next of kins of deceased journalists.

He also said that the government has also increased the financial assistance extended to journalists, who suffered permanent disability and faced extreme hardship due to illness from Rs 50,000 to Rs 3 lakh.

Further, the chief minister also announced the government’s decision to have a corpus of Rs 35 lakh placed under a committee to be headed by the commissioner & secretary or principal secretary, which will be empowered to independently decide on how to use it for the welfare of the journalists in the state.

“The committee – which is to create some kind of a system where we are able to coordinate with the press and DIPR – will have director and other government officials besides 2-4 press members as its members,” he said.

“I have also decided that we will be putting a corpus of Rs 35 lakh in this particular committee now and we will keep topping it up when as when the money going down. We will be most probably making this an annual affair but then let the cabinet approve it but the idea, the purpose of this being that apart from the ailment, disabilities or any kind of situation that journalists may face, we also realize there are other needs specially for example, post retirement, and other kind of benefits or other extreme situations. So this fund that we are keeping of Rs 35 lakhs with this committee where four members from the press will be part of this committee to decide how this money should be used. You can use this money if you wish to support journalist who are in need or if there is any situation this committee will be completely empowered to independently decide on how and where this money should be used for whatever welfare purpose of the press,” he said while informing that the government will prepare a proper standard operating procedures (SOPs) on how to use the money.

Speaking on this year’s theme for the celebration – “Changing nature of the Press”, the chief minister emphasized the need to clearly define the difference between journalism and simple information or updates being put up in social media or what is actual news or fake news.

“We are seeing a very fine line today between journalism and this simple information that is coming out or simple updates being put up on social media, or WhatsApp messages…for whatever reasons, the readers and the public at large are not being able to define that particular line and be able to judge what is actual news or a fake news in some cases,” he said while adding “Therefore, I strongly feel that the media, the press, the professionals involved they will have to ensure that this entire difference between just normal information coming in and the news that is meant to reach to the people, it must be very clearly defined and I don’t really have solution for that. But that is really what the issue is and today specially we as politicians, we say this most of the time and people are more interested in what is coming on whatsapp than reading what is there in the news, which is really sad.”

“That is the challenge we faced and that is the changing nature of the press. It is not just press but I guess it is a disruption that you are seeing with technology coming into the picture and disrupting obviously everything. Disruption is not a bad thing as we all know, it is a question of how we adapt to this entire disruption that is taking place.So therefore, will be very important as as the Press Club as MEPA, the associations that you have to work and discuss with your own team and own community members to work on ways in means in which we can differentiate between that and ensure that the sanctity of the news and the information that is coming out remains,” he added.

Further, the chief minister also urged the need for the press fraternity to come forwards with suggestions that would help the government to create the necessary policies and frameworks and different aspects of technology as well and the laws that could then regulate these kind of things.

“Of course it is very delicate balance again between the regulation and freedom of press and hence we have to be very careful while we go down that particular road. We hope that we are able to adapt to this particular changing nature of the press and hopefully the Shllong Press Club and the MEPA and DIPR will be able to show the way to perhaps the rest of the country when it comes to really figuring it out how will be able to define proper ways and means in which we can regulate, and we can ensure that proper news and probably information is given to the people,” he added further.

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