 "Arun Jaitley PTI")
Information and Broadcasting Minister Arun Jaitley and North Region Sar-Sangh-Chalak of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) Bajrang Lal Gupta honoured eight persons for achieving excellence in journalism for the year 2015-16 on Friday.
Participating in the Narad Samman 2016 event, organised by the Indraprastha Vishwa Samvad Kendra (IVSK) to mark Devrishi Narad Jayanti at Speaker's Hall, Constitution Club, Jaitley and Gupta felicitated veteran and budding journalists from various fields.
Among them were senior journalist Shyam Khosla (honoured with Lifetime Achievement Narad Samman ), Manmohan Sharma (Utkrisht Patrakaar Narad Samman {All Over Excellence Narad Samman}) and Shanker Sharan (Utkrisht Stambhkar Narad Samman{ Best Columnist Narad Samman}).
Others felicitated were Praful Kumar Singh (Digital Media Narad Samman), Ashish Kumar Anshu (Rural Reporting Narad Samman), Syed Suhail (Newsroom Support Narad Samman) and Abhiranjan Kumar (Social Media Narad Samman).
The Best photographer honour was bestowed upon Ravi Kanojia (posthumously). IVSK President Ashok Sachdeva also gave a Rs.21,000 honorarium for Ravi.
Addressing a gathering, Jaitley expressed concern about some state governments using public funds for personal promotion which was affecting the neutrality of journalism.
He said that social media today has democratised media so much that is not possible to control it now. He added that it is now incumbent on journalists and society at large to use it responsibly. He praised the positive contribution of awardees to the field of journalism.
Mr.Gupta expressed regret over the way Devrishi Narad has been portrayed in general and said it is time that the real picture of Narad is brought to fore today. He said Narad should become a source of inspiration for journalists today, as he worked consistently to keep all three worlds in a constant state of communication by way of sharing information of one place with another.
He said Devrishi Narad did not share news with any personal agenda or interest. His action was always neutral.
Gupta also said that it is the duty of a journalist to push people towards purity. He said journalists have an important role to play in success of any democracy and it is imperative that journalists be factual and neutral in safeguarding a democratic society.
He also said that there is urgent need for issue based reporting to take the nation further.
He noted that journalism today is under immense economic pressure and journalist can withstand such pressure by following in the footstep of Devrishi Narad only then will journalism serve its true purpose.
