HT Correspondent
SIVASAGAR, May 10: Prasanta Jyoti Baruah, the executive editor of The Assam Tribune and a prominent journalist of the state, was honoured with the prestigious Brahmaputra Valley Journalism Award during a function held in the Sivasagar District Journalists Bhawan in Sivasagar on Friday.
Instituted by the Assam State Journalists Union (ASJU), the award was presented to Baruah by Sabanayakan Salvakumaraswami, secretary general of the Indian Journalists Union (IJU) in the presence of over a hundred journalists from different parts of the state.
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Receiving the award, Baruah said that the newspaper industry is passing through a tough time during the post-COVID-19 period. The media people had to bear the brunt of the COVID crisis. Most of the newspaper owners were forced to retrench journalists. He urged the government to increase the journalists’ pension in the wake of inflationary trends. He thanked the ASJU for recognising his contributions.
Baruah said that The Assam Tribune is the first newspaper group in India to implement the Justice Majithia Wage Board for working journalists in 2011. The editor of the Assam Tribune, Prafulla Govinda Baruah took a decisive step in implementing the recommendations of the Board` despite stiff opposition from all leading newspaper groups in the country. His bold stand for the journalists was vindicated when the Supreme Court quashed the challenge from INA and newspaper owners and ordered payments to the journalists from 2011.
Attending the function as the chief guest of the award-giving ceremony, Sabanayakan Salvakumaraswami said that fake news and paid news in Indian journalism are about to destroy the industry and the profession now. Similarly, AI, social media, and, Content Creation are also serious issues threatening the profession which must be tackled professionally to save traditional media.
Jitu Sarma Rajkhowa, president of the Assam State Journalists Union (ASJU) presided over the meeting, and Pradip Deka, secretary spoke on the objectives. Biren Sarma, veteran journalist of Nazira was also felicitated in the meeting. Soumerjyoti Mahanta, principal, of the Sibsagar Commerce College delivered the keynote address and spoke on the recent trends in journalism.
Pratim Sarma, principal of the Sivasagar Girls’ College released the souvenir ‘Jagrata Prahari’ on the occasion. Students of the Fuleswari Girls’ HS School presented a chorus. Anil Gupta, president in-charge of the Sivasagar District Journalists Association and Manoj Kumar Borthakur, executive president of ASJU offered the vote of thanks.
