Nagaland Press Association (NPA) asks Chief Minister to formulate policies for journalists

Nagaland Press Association (NPA) Tuesday apprised chief minister Neiphiu Rio on issues related to the welfare of working and non-working journalists and pressed the state government to formulate measures related to the media persons.

In a representation, NPA president K. Temjen Jamir and vice president H. Chishi drew the attention of the chief minister and reminded him of his announcement on setting up of Journalists’ Welfare Fund and housing colonies for journalists in Dimapur and Kohima in November, 2007.

NPA has appealed to Rio that welfare fund for media persons be instituted at the beginning of new financial year 2012-13 and also take up the issue of constructing housing colonies for journalists as “announced earlier”.

NPA also suggested that the accreditation committee set up by the state government be constituted with “inclusion of more senior journalists” of the state so as to better formulate media policies and help in “weeding out bogus journalists” who were enjoying benefits from the government in place of the “genuine” ones.

Considering the hardships faced by the Newspaper institutions in the state with rising costs of printing materials and rate of transportation, the press association has also asked the state government to take steps and ensure that the benefits of transport, capital and newsprint subsidies be made available according to Government of India’s policy.

While appreciating the state government departments for providing advertisements to different local dailies, NPA rued the fact newspapers have to “wait for years to get the bills cleared”.

The association said the state government should channelize all government advertisements through the Directorate of Audio & Visual Publicity (DAVP) “even in matters of payment” for advertisement as notified earlier through Directorate of Information & public relations (DIPR) like the central government system.

NPA asked the state government to abide by the Press Council of India directive to clear “pending bills” pertaining to government advertisements.