rich tribute to the freedom fighter-journalist Kamal Gogoi, drew a bleak picture of journalism in Assam as well as in the country.

Organised by the Journalist Forum Assam at the Guwahati Press Club recently, the meeting was attended by a number of reporters and journalists of different ages and they heard the speakers talk about Gogoi´s commitment and dedication to the profession and the society.

Hailing from Narayanpur in eastern Assam, Gogoi retired from the Assamese daily Dainik Asom as deputy editor and functioned as the founder editor of Sadiniya Prahari for some months. He was associated with the last phase of India’s freedom struggle and was imprisoned. Gogoi also contributed to Assamese literature with short stories, novels and travelogues.

“The daily newspapers have gone glossy to face the competition of colourful television channels but the content of the news reports, the editorial and other articles remains shallow and many times antisocial. In-depth, analytical and comprehensive articles are not welcome today by newspaper proprietors, and most editors can do a little,” said Hiten Mahanta, a senior journalist based in Guwahati, at the meeting.

Media pundits based in Guwahati believe that the random growth of daily newspapers since the 1980s in Assam has led to the decreasing circulations.

Assam has a history of more than 150 years of newspaper reading, and the tiny state with a population of about 30 million (nearly 70 per cent are literate) supports over 25 morning dailies and hundreds of periodicals and magazines. Unhealthy competition has resulted in more of speculative stories, shallow edit pages and more of supplements. Daily newspapers have lost credibility in the eyes of the enlightened reader.

The Indian Readership Survey second quarter 2011 survey indicates that Asomiya Pratidin, which is the highest-circulated (150000 copies) daily in the entire North East, has lost 2.2 per cent readership in the past few months. The present readership of the daily, which is published from Guwahati, Dibrugarh, North Lakhimpur and Bongaigaon, is over 15 lakh.

The second in terms of circulation as well as readership, Asomiya Khabar, too, has lost readership. The other major vernacular dailies Dainik Janmabhumi, Dainik Agradoot, Amar Asom, Dainik Asom, and Dainik Janasadharan also recorded loss of a vast quantity of readership. The exception is The Assam Tribune (with nearly 75,000 print-orders every day), which recorded an increase in the number of readers. The Telegraph and The Times of India, too, have lost readership since the early months of 2011.

The daily newspapers have gone glossy to face the competition of colourful television channels but the content of the news reports, the editorial and other articles remains shallow and many times antisocial.

Media pundits based in Guwahati believe that the random growth of daily newspapers since the 1980s in Assam has led to the decreasing circulations. Here is a comment on a blog: “I don’t find a single Assamese language newspaper reporting impartially or fairly. Assamese newspapers are loosing people’s trust to a large extent and hence their readership is diminishing. The local media is pre-meditated and politically motivated.”

Of course, most proprietors of regional newspapers claim they have gained readers on the web. Indeed, two prominent news portals dedicated to the region www.assamtimes.org and www.timesofassam.com have recorded a high growth of visitors.

Assam has seen the sudden increase of television viewers in the last few years. The state supports six satellite news channels beaming news and other programmes from Guwahati in English, Hindi, Bengali, Assamese and other regional languages. Starting with NE Television, Assam has seen the emergence of satellite channels such as NewsLive, DY365, NewsTime Assam, Frontier TV and Prime News, which cater the needs of the population of North East India.

Except for Guwahati, no other state capital in the region has a satellite news channel. In addition, more than 50 cable news channels (including Prag News and News Network) telecast local news and entertaining programmes to cater to the needs of around 60 million people living in Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, Meghalaya and Sikkim.

Newspapers have had a fair run in India and many are doing well. However, it may be worthwhile to listen to what senior journalist Praful Bidwai had to say. “It (Indian media) is considered the world’s most dynamic media industry and one of the fastest growing anywhere. The media’s worth is equivalent to half the value of India’s famously successful computer software exports…despite massive growth in the Indian media industry, the lack of quality and diversity shows an increasing disconnect with the real lives of people in the country and the most important issues they face.

The Indian media now faces a serious crisis of credibility. If it does not reform itself, it will find its greatest asset getting rapidly devalued and eventually vanishing. Robbed of authenticity, reliability and credibility, the media will cease to matter to large numbers of people except as a source of cheap entertainment and titillation. That would be a tragedy and a terrible disservice both to democracy and to the causes of enlightening and empowering the public.”

Others who spoke and raised the aspect of “the biggest casualty in today´s journalism is its credibility issue” included former editor of Dainik Janambhumi, Prafulla Barua; former editor of Dainik Asom, J.P. Saikia; the chief editor of Prag News, a local news channel, Jatindra Kumar Borgohain; and journalists Ranen Kumar Goswami, Sabita Lahkar, Chakreswar Goswami & Jagadindra Raichoudhury.

EP Desk