Eric Miachieo
Kohima | July 12
The projected figures under Press Accreditation and Media Facilities in the annual administrative report of the Department of Information and Public Relations have proved to be nothing less than outright exaggeration.
Under this sub-heading, it states that that the department has been providing assistance to 33 accredited working journalists every month in three different categories, i,e, Rs.1,000, Rs.2,000, and Rs.3,000 respectively depending on the length of experience in the field of journalism. This is a total lie as only nine journalists are getting monthly financial assistance. It also claims that Rs.3 Lakh was spent in the year 2008-09 to meet the requirement.
The monthly financial assistance was announced by Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio and a notification issued by Governor K. Sankaranarayan which stated that it would come into force from December 2007. However, the assistance received so far by the journalists apart from the nine mentioned was last year when each journalist received a one-time honorarium of Rs.2,000 each from the IPR. The nine recently receiving financial assistance from the department are supposed to be those who received accreditation before the present accreditation process.
Under this accreditation scheme, called the Nagaland Accredited Private Journalists Assistance (Operational Subsidy) Scheme 2007, all accredited journalists of the state government who are not employed in government or public sector media organisation shall be entitled to a monthly subsidy. However, the process of selection has also been criticised by members of the media fraternity who feel there are lapses and loopholes in the selection process. In fact, the list of accredited journalists include some who do not meet the criteria. Interestingly, the list includes some who are either with semi-government organisations, even regular government employees and politicians!
The exaggeration that the department is providing monthly financial assistance to the 33 accredited working journalists has invited criticism from the members of the press fraternity who feel the department is trying to take advantage of even the members of the Fourth Estate, also called the watchdogs of society. Most are also not aware if the Accreditation Committee, which is supposed to have review meetings every once in a while, are having timely review meetings.
Many also feel this is outright disregard, disrespect and an insult to the Governor and Chief Minister of Nagaland.
.jpg)
