Kohima Press Club boycotts Nagaland Governor’s farewell ceremony

Dimapur, Sep. 14 (EMN): The Kohima Press Club (KPC) on Tuesday boycotted the official state farewell ceremony of the outgoing Governor of Nagaland, RN Ravi, alleging that the media fraternity in the state was treated with “utter disregard during his two years in office”.

Ravi, who was appointed as the governor of Nagaland on July 20 2019, has been moved to Tamil Nadu, following which a state farewell ceremony was scheduled at the State Banquet Hall in Kohima on Tuesday.

A press release issued by KPC stated that Ravi sidelined journalists from local and national media houses based in Nagaland by refusing to interact with them despite numerous approaches.

It said that Ravi “dealt with the Fourth Estate in Nagaland with complete disdain” and didn’t address a single press conference both as a Governor and Interlocutor.

Reminding that the Fourth Estate exists to serve the people, the KPC said that the outgoing governor had done disservice to the people of Nagaland, particularly keeping in mind his ‘dual role’, by ignoring Nagaland-based media fraternity.

“The Raj Bhavan has never been so inaccessible and unapproachable during the tenures of Mr. Ravi’s predecessors. At a time when the Naga society has been demanding clarity on the Naga political talks, and even when Nagaland was in the grip of confusion and apprehension over what fate awaited its people after the much-hyped October 31st 2019 deadline, Mr. Ravi did not care to grant interviews to the Nagaland-based journalists,” read the statement.