SRINAGAR: Kashmir Editors Guild (KEG), premier body of Kashmir newspaper editors, Monday called for a complete revamp and overhaul of the Department of Information and Public Relations. The editors body wants the department to rediscover itself and stay relevant to its mandate and responsibilities.
KEG which met here with President Fayaz Ahmad Kaloo in the chair discussed in detail the functioning of the department in the wake of a series of decisions taken by the government in its various interactions with KEG and other media bodies. Though almost a year has passed, not a single decision has been implemented on the ground, a KEG statement released after the meeting said.
While the media was expecting the decisions to be implemented, the department was lost in the abyss of mismanagement during which it actually distanced itself from its mandate and the responsibilities. The recent tensions within the department were just indicators towards the malfunctioning of the department”, the statement said.
It was felt in the meeting that from once being the high-value department, it has reduced itself to the lowest of records, so far. In its efforts to redefine its role, the department has distanced itself from its basic activities and has jumped into activities, which do not fall either in its mandate or its responsibilities, the statement said.
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The deterioration in its functioning is a natural outcome of the broad basing of stake holding or simply abdication of the responsibility by the natural masters of the department. Or, as members said, it could be the natural result of certain forces or characters who are impacting its functioning from the shadows. The members pointed out that the department has historically remained as part of the Chief Ministers portfolio. They felt that the government must take this bridging department very seriously, as has been the practice in the past.
Insisting that while an institution is on the brinks of disaster, the members regretted that it is using itself for subversion of the media as an institution. Of late, the media in Srinagar, especially the print media, is facing crippling crisis in access to news and sustenance of the institutions. Apparently these are the outcome of arbitrary shifts in the policies, evolved over the years, under the garb of transparency and reforms, statement further said.
The department has degraded itself into a fief with apparently self-projection as the sole business. There is complete collapse of communication between the media and the department
The department has degraded itself into a fief with apparently self-projection as the sole business. There is complete collapse of communication between the media and the department, the statement added.
The department displayed its negativity recently by attempting setting up of the so called advisory committee with the mandate of managing the media. The objective of the committee explained the line of thinking in the department. On this front KEG hailed one of its nominated members, veteran journalist, Mohammad Sayeed Malik who distanced from the committee insisting that media cannot be managed at all.
In this backdrop, KEG decided to call for a complete revamp of the department from top to bottom. It is inevitable in the backdrop of the fact that media is vital to the democracy as a concept and a governance system, said the statement.
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