Nagas have become unpredictable, dangerously grumbling — Iralu

Our Correspondent

Kohima, Nov. 16 (EMN): Peace activist Niketu Iralu on Tuesday said the world has been confronted with unrelenting challenges today and the ‘response to challenge is the most difficult, complicated thing to do for human beings and societies’.

He said that at such a point in time, one finds challenges which are producing more problems than solutions.

For most journalists, he said, their sensing of these existential realities “beneath the country” is their motivation for turning to journalism.

Iralu was speaking as the guest speaker on National Press Day organised by the Kohima Press Club in Kohima on the theme: “Who is not afraid of media?”

Quoting Kim Beazley, Australian Labor Party MP, Iralu said the idea he had chosen to guide his politics was: “If your motive is truth, you will be fit for power. But if your motive is power, you will distort the truth.”

The peace activist also mentioned two female journalists –Samriddhi Sakunia and Swarna Jha — who were detained by the Tripura Police for investigating and reporting on the outbreak of communal violence.

He termed such detention of the two journalists by the government of Tripura an instance of “who is afraid of the media”.

Iralu asserted that Nagas are stuck, “fearfully and wonderfully,” between India and China, two of the world’s finest civilisations emerging from centuries of hard-set prejudices of caste, race and religions.

“The geopolitical and racial location of our homeland is going to be found by us to be our curse or our near-unique exciting opportunity, depending on the purpose of life each one will choose to live by.

“Without democratic and liberal values and doctrines for exercise of power, their massive nations cannot succeed. We are on the fringes of these super powers, and the dynamics for their own growth will shape us in ways we will find extremely difficult to correctly cope with. But our crisis will not impinge on them, except the most ethically sensitive and humanists among them.

“Nagas should be like hills that grow into mountains that support us and all life forms of the ecosystem. We have become more like volcanoes instead — unpredictable, shaky, angry and dangerously grumbling. When volcanoes explode they bring the worst out. After the explosion only destruction is left behind which will take generations to restore life again,” he said.

He also stated that reporting on CAJ is an important news item that journalists should pursue and bring to the public domain so that citizens know what is happening on the ground.

Another guest speaker, Dr. Moalemba Jamir, Associate Editor of The Morung Express, shared that media houses should encourage and support reporters who are working on critical issues.

He also mentioned that reporters should have sustainable income in order to work as a responsible journalist. At the same time, he reminded media personnel to have analytical reporting skills.

Jamir, while informing that Nagaland is the only state among the Northeast with the least number of local newspapers, apprised how publishing houses face problems when the government does not clear its newspaper advertisement bills on time.

Alice Yhoshü, president of KPC, said National Press Day is symbolic of a free and responsible press in India.

She stated that despite many shortcomings, journalists in Nagaland have kept the flag flying over the years and that itself is a credit to their continuous pursuit of excellence.

However, she opined that there are still a lot to be done. She, therefore, urged the media fraternity to ‘rise up and recommit ourselves to uphold the ethics of journalism and rededicate ourselves to the profession’.

“KPC Impact Journalism Award 2021” was awarded to Imkong Walling, a Dimapur-journalist of The Morung Express.

DIPR, MPC observe National Press Day

An update from DIPR also informed that it observed state-level National Press Day in its conference hall, Kohima with Advisor to Chief Minister, Abu Metha as the special guest.

The Mokokchung Press Club (MPC) also observed the occasion at Hotel Metsüben with Akangnungsang Jamir, Editor of Ao Milen as the special guest, it was informed.