By Nava Thakuria*
Guwahati: As the number of professional journalists, associated with various newspapers, news channels, radio outlets, digital platforms, is increasing rapidly in Guwahati, the strategically important city of northeast India and an emerging gateway to southeast Asian nations, there is a need for a wide space for interactions with no prejudice and trepidations.
Nearly one thousand working journalists of the city have been demanding for decades a permanent place with necessary infrastructure along with minimum facilities, where they can assemble, discuss and resolve issues related to the medium. One can only expect the government to take a positive stand over the matter and go for a media complex/ conclave/campus in an easily approachable location of the prehistoric city.
While the proposed complex will nurture the long-pending expectations for hundreds of honest, dedicated and committed journalists to have an autonomous institution with the mandate to promote professionalism and excellence in journalism, it will also help Gauhati Press Club along with other media organisations to have a permanent address. The said press club, which is functioning from the Ambari archaeological site, needs to be shifted so that the richest archaeological site can be accommodated for necessary preservation and research works. Situated in the heart of Guwahati (under the Kamrup-metro district), the site has been excavated several times since 1968 to find more archaeological remains. Discovered in the course of construction for the Reserve Bank of India’s office in the locality, the site attracts visitors from different parts of the country. The archaeology department claims that the ruins of Ambari reflect the period of the Sunga-Kushana dynasty. It continues sending letters to the press club committee to leave the site as well as the district administration to take necessary actions but in vain. Need not clarify that Gauhati Press Club today does not enjoy the privilege of representing all professional journalists in the city, rather the present committee faced serious allegations of facilitating media space to a banned armed militant leader. A police complaint was also lodged against the present press club president and secretary for initiating a virtual press briefing with the Ulfa military chief last year.
Hence, the new complex should include a sophisticated media centre and offer space to the city-based press clubs, recognised journalist associations, media house owner-editors’ forum, to run their offices independently. The beneficiary organisations may be levied with a nominal amount of money for the overall maintenance of the complex. Leaving aside the government support from time to time, the managing committee should generate funds for its own survival.
The State government in Dispur should serve the purpose of all professional journalists and it will not be fulfilled with the allocation of resources to Gauhati Press Club alone.
The proposed complex should have a sufficient number of internet connected computer sets where the journalists would work according to their convenience. The complex should offer affordable accommodation to outstation journalists visiting from different parts of Assam/Northeast/India and also outside the country.
Press Information Bureau, official media organ of the Union government in New Delhi may also be approached to have an area office in the complex, where various issues relating to north-eastern journalists can be resolved amicably.
Its management board should incorporate representatives from the information and public relations department, civil administration, police authority, medical-engineering-environment sectors along with the mainstream media outlet owners, editors, reporters, news-desk employees, photo-visual journalists, and media columnists.
The complex may give space to all north-eastern States to showcase their tourism destinations (or any attractions they prefer) in separate chambers. DoNER ministry (responsible for development of north-eastern region)/ North Eastern Council may also be approached for using the space for pragmatic media communications. The entire complex should be designed with the concept of energy efficiency, where the sunlight, natural air-flow and open space would get due privileges. Adequate solar power generation and rain water harvesting arrangements should exhibit the entire complex as a new model of buildings/apartment/campus in the country.
As the media fraternity has incredibly increased its members with the inclusion of news portals, a media grievance redressal unit should also be planned inside the complex. Needless to mention that digital platforms are yet to be recognised as mainstream media outlets in India, but those outlets have been engaging a number of experienced journalists (who had either resigned from their traditional workplaces or were forced to leave) and hence those journalists should not be ignored for any reason. The social media platforms have empowered non-media users to a larger extent, but they too need accountability against the misuse and abuses. Once a redressal unit is established, the common people can complain there against any scribe or media outlet, which does not follow the Constitution of India and laws of the land. While self-regulation has been emphasized all the time for the professional journalists, the redressal forum would remind them to think about necessary introspections aiming to maintain transparency and accountability in the profession.
A primary need of the proposed complex will be an auditorium equipped with a video conference facility, where it can host important personalities like foreign country heads, acclaimed authors, and illustrious journalists.
For the physical presence of an individual with utmost socio-political importance, the auditorium should fulfil the security needs (like separate entry/exit, lift, lobby with refreshing rooms). Along with the press conferences, the auditorium may be used for regular training and orientation programs for the journalists (precisely the novice scribes from different parts of Assam) to understand new trends in the media world and its sustainability with credibility.
It can adopt a firm policy where the Ambari site will be made encroachment-free as well as the entire media fraternity would own a modern media hub dedicated to uplift their professional excellence very soon.
