News space selling is a dangerous tradition

Berhampur: “Political party sponsored and individual ownership of media has changed the dimension of media as the money minded management sometimes decides the fate of news. Some media organizations are selling spaces for favorable coverage which is a dangerous tradition”, said veteran journalist and editor of ‘The Naveen’ Ravi Rath on the occasion of National Press Day celebrated by Media and journalists Association (MAJA) on Wednesday at its Gosaninuagaon office here.

MAJA a journalists’ club established in 2010 by some professional journalists of the city. Gracing the occasion, chief guest of the meeting Rath said that the fourth pillar of the constitution is in miserable condition in Odisha, especially the small and medium newspapers. Still now the state government has not done anything for the journalists. The journalists are yet to get pension.

Another guest editor of ‘The Dakhina Barta’ Sudhansu Panda lamented that most of the reporters and journalists are only covering events, functions, but not interested in deep reporting like interpretative and investigative which unearth the real truth from an incident and issue.

Among others, STV Berhampur Center-in-charge and president of MAJA Sanat Panda, editor of ‘The Paryatan Bharat’ Narayana Mahankuda, ADPRO Berhampur Rabi Behera along with other journalists were present in the occasion.

Similarly, a seminar was organized in the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication of Berhampur University on the occasion of National Press Day. Head of the department Dr Pradeep Chandra Mahapatra gracing the occasion advised the media students to adopt the new positive trend in journalism as the media scenario is changing day to day. He also informed that the importance of Citizen Jounalism is increasing now days.

On the occasion, students of the department presented their media related seminar paper. Guest lecturer Jagan Mohan Mahapatra and Sanat Panda were present in the seminar. Some journalists were shared their field experiences with the students.