Chief Minister Revanth Reddy handing over land to office bearers of Jawaharlal Nehru Journalists MAC Hosing Society in Hyderabad on Sunday.
| Photo Credit: ANI
Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy has advised journalists to strive to enhance the dignity of their profession.
Journalists play the role of doctors in dealing with the ills plaguing society and the people’s (Congress) government is moving forward in implementing the welfare and developmental programmes seeking suggestions from the journalist community as well as the general public. The government, he said, has taken a policy decision to build trust on the systems and journalists were also part of the system.
“All the systems suffered deterioration in the past 10 years and lost people’s confidence. My government is trying to build trust in the systems,” he said. The Chief Minister was speaking at a meeting organised in connection with handing over the possession of 38-acre land in Pet Basheerabad to Jawaharlal Nehru Journalists Mutually Aided Cooperative Housing Society here on Sunday (September 8).
The land was allotted to the journalists during the tenure of Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy in the erstwhile united Andhra Pradesh and was finally handed over to the society after overcoming prolonged legal issues.
Mr. Revanth Reddy recalled how political parties started the publication of newspapers to spread their ideologies in the past. In sharp contrast, the objective of a section of media at present was to spread canards and carry out propaganda for a particular political party. Journalism lost its reputation due to unprofessional practices by a handful of persons who were attempting to change the meaning of journalism. “Professional and committed journalists should take the initiative for damage control in this direction,” he said.
He lamented how some publications crossed limits and degraded the standards of journalism by using objectionable language and asserted that his government took the responsibility of safeguarding genuine journalists. “Some publications are not following the basic rules of giving respect to the position of the Chief Minister in pursuit of protecting the interests of the political parties which own them,” he said.
The Chief Minister appealed to the journalist community to maintain self-restraint when action was taken against such erring publications and said it was the responsibility of the government as well as professional journalists to protect the interests of genuine journalists. Mr. Revanth Reddy directed the Media Academy to prepare fresh guidelines for pending problems of journalists for issuing accreditation cards, health cards and other schemes and said the government would take the responsibility of getting these guidelines approved in the Cabinet.
In an indirect dig at the previous BRS government, he said the State had no policies governing tourism, energy, sports and other sectors. “Telangana had no policy since the past decade,” he said. Responding to a request from Media Academy chairman K. Srineevas Reddy, the Chief Minister announced a sanction of ₹10 crore for the academy to take up activities like training journalists and conducting seminars on the latest developments to spread awareness.
He also assured the journalists who did not get housing sites so far that they would be made partners in the proposed Net Zero fourth city which was a future city. Media Academy Chairman K. Sreenivas Reddy explained how there was a need to revamp the system of issue of accreditation cards to give respect to genuine journalists. The CM also handed over cheques of ₹1 lakh each to the families of journalists who passed away in the last one year.
Minister for Revenue and Information Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy, Minister for Transport Ponnam Prabhakar and others spoke. Parliament members Chamala Kiran Reddy, and Anil Kumar Yadav, Advisor to government Vem Narender Reddy, GHMC Mayor Gadwal Vijayalakshmi, Deputy Mayor Srilatha Reddy, I&PR Commissioner Hanumantha Rao and JN Journalists Housing Society directors Kiran Bommagani, R. Ravikanth Reddy, Vamsi Srinivas, Ramana Rao and Ashok Reddy were present.
Published – September 08, 2024 07:28 pm IST
