National Press Day was celebrated at Silchar by Assam Government on 16th November where six eminent journalist were felicitated on the occasion. This is the first time that the State programme on National Press Day was hosted at Silchar, one of the important town of Assam.

Two journalists each from three district of South Assam were selected for this honour.
Atin Das and Santanu Ghosh from Cachar district, Habibur Rahman Choudhury and Ashok Kumar Bhattacharjee from Karimganj; Debdas Purkayastha and Santosh Kumar Mazumder from Hailakandi district were the veterans who were felicitated this year.

The function was attended by host of public leaders including, MP Silchar, Minister and MLA of the region. Hrishikesh Goswami, Media advisor to the Chief Minister of Assam was the Chief Guest and K G Suresh, eminent columnist and former Director General of Indian Institute of Mass Communications, New Delhi was the keynote speaker who addressed the gathering on ‘ Reporting Interpretation- A Journey.

Deputy Commissioner of Cachar, Laya Madduri while welcoming the guests and invitees gave a brief history of press in the region. Acknowledging the hard work taken up by the journalists she also stated that without the efforts taken up by them, it would be not possible to implement Government schemes like Swachh Bharat abhiyan, Jal Shakti abhiyan etc.

Kabindra Purkayastha, Former Member of Parliament and veteran BJP leader of Assam wished the journalist his greetings and expressed that the fourth pillars of the democracy actually makes the democracy work.

Silchar MP Dr. Rajdeep Roy requested KG Suresh, the keynote speaker of the event to have some short workshop in the region for the media personnel. He echoed the sentiment that one need not blame the profession because of few black sheeps as such bad elements are there in every profession.

Atin Das who was felicitated yesterday said ‘first deserve then desire’ to the fraternity and advised them to be responsible towards the profession. He narrated that all political leaders has kept good relations but the present political establishment has engaged with media of this region more proactively.

Habibur Rahman Choudhury highlighted the plight of newspaper industry of the region as well appreciated the action taken by the Govt to engage with the barak valley media thereby fulfilling the promise of and minimising the perceived gap between mainstream Brahmaputra valley and Barak region.

Silchar MLA Dilip Paul stated that journalists are the Society’s watchman and a mirrors. He opined that the profession is hard which needs more hardship. Doing a balanced journalism is tough and is remembered long.

Hrishikesh Goswami who echoed his sentiment that even though he is the Chief Guest of the function but he feels that he is the host. He informed the audience that Chief Minister Sonowal was continuously enquiring about the event and wished that all goes well.

Goswami narrated many incidents from his journalistic career and said that ‘politician should be cautious of journalist as their skills are at a higher level.

He equally stated his concern about the dues to the journalist are not given as par expectations. He mentioned that the pain of a journalist was understood by people like Majathia and appealed to the owners of media to look into the matter.

K G Suresh in his keynote address has gone into various gaps of present day reporting but equally appealed to the readers to pay a higher amount for news as to get quality information, nothing can be be free.

The event was attended by the media fraternity at large, editors of newspapers as well as select student community of the region besides Government officials.