Srinagar, Jul 08: The Kashmir Editors Guild (KEG) on Monday insisted that Kashmir Press Club must become a symbol of unity and all stakeholders must ensure that its elections are not a divisive exercise.
According to a KEG press release, the editor’s body met here today and discussed various issues facing the media here, especially the print media.
During the meeting presided over by KEG president Fayaz Ahmad Kaloo, members discussed the forthcoming maiden elections of the Kashmir Press Club.
Haroon Rashid, who is contesting for the presidential position at Press Club, briefed the meeting about the steps that have been taken to make the Club a hub of journalistic activities, the press release said.
It said the members insisted that the Club must become a symbol of unity and all the stakeholders at their own levels must ensure the maiden election should be a unifying and not a divisive exercise. They asserted that the office-bearers to be elected must make all efforts to make it a model institution of interaction and activity.
The KEG president briefed the members also about his week-long Delhi stay in connection with the summons he had received from the National Investigation Agency (NIA).
The KEG president said that the central investigator had a number of queries regarding his own publication, the print media and the KEG.
The KEG, it may be recalled here, was set up to take care of the day-to-day issues that the media is facing in Kashmir. It first came into being before 2008 and continued till early 2010. Later, it faded away from the scene and was revived in 2016 summer in wake of the raids by police on printing facilities and offices of the newspapers.
For the last three years, the KEG has been able to set up the Kashmir Press Club, enhance the allocations and the tariffs for the entire media across the state and negotiate the allocation of some funds for the welfare of the journalists. In the latter case, however, the state is yet to frame a policy in the backdrop of the suggestions that the Guild had made.
The members suggested that the KEG may require opening up, to a level, to journalists who are not owners and editors so that their point-of-view and the issues are discussed on a routine basis.
