Asks Info Dept To Rebut Fake News On Real Time Basis
Jammu– Terming fake or misleading news as a big challenge, the Jammu and Kashmir Chief Secretary, Dr. Arun Kumar Mehta on Tuesday asked the information department to institute a mechanism to rebut fake news on real time basis.
Mehta passed these directions while reviewing the functioning of the Information Department in the meeting in which Principal Secretary, Information Department, Director, Information, Joint Director, Information, Jammu and other senior officers of the department were present, an official spokesperson said Tuesday.
Mehta, he said, emphasized the need to connect with the people in the UT through provision of useful Information about the welfare programmes of the government. He said that the Chief Secretary also asked the department to focus on improving both the quality of the content and its delivery for effective dissemination of the various public welfare programmes.
“There is a need to create content in such language and form as facilitates quick and easy communication of the public welfare programmes to the people,” Mehta said.
Terming fake or misleading news as a big challenge, the Chief Secretary, as per the official spokesperson asked the department to institute a mechanism to rebut fake news on real time basis.
He said that the Principal Secretary, Rohit Kansal informed that the grievances redressal system has been put in place in the department to ensure that the departmental response to the grievances in the media is carried out within the reasonable time
“He further informed that the recently launched Film Policy has been widely appreciated and has been a big hit with the film makers,” he added.
Earlier, the official spokesperson said that Director Information while making a short presentation on the functioning of the department said that the department is strengthening the human and capacity issues to deal with the challenges of the new age/ non-traditional media like FM channels, social media etc.
“He further informed that the department has run various features stories on several personalities from J&K, who excelled in different fields such as Guinness World Record Holder Cyclist, Aadil Teeli, Tokyo Olympic Silver Medalist, Mira Bhai Chanu’s Coach Vijay Sharma, etc,” he said.
“He also highlighted the role of the department in successfully covering the programmes like ‘Back to Village’ & ‘My Town, My Pride Programmes’” he added.
According to the official spokesperson, the Chief Secretary asked the department to urgently realign its focus and re-orient its organizational structure to better deal with the rapidly evolving media otherwise it may soon find itself behind the curve.
Mehta, he said, advised the department to ensure that at least ten content creators/resource personnel are available in the Secretariat and an appropriate number of them is placed in all the districts offices in the UT.
“The department needs to focus on the people, and the tools required to enable the people to benefit from the developmental agenda of the government,” Mehta said.
The CS, he said, also lamented that despite several important initiatives, there has not been commensurate coverage in the media.
“He pointed out to the specific instances where even improvement in J&K’s standing in the country on various developmental parameters has not received any coverage in the media,” he said.
The Chief Secretary said that schemes like ‘Apki Zameen Apki Nigrani’, ‘Janta ki Bagidhari’ etc. have really empowered the people in the UT,but more and more people should use these schemes for their well being and that can happen only if they are sensitized about them.
“J&K has made an improvement of 3.7% in good governance during the year 2020-21 and in NITI Aayog’s assessment, J&K’s GDP never dipped in the negative territory even at the height of Covid crisis, but this resilience in the economy has not received due attention”, he observed.
Dr. Mehta asked the department to create and run impact features/ real life news stories on daily basis in the media, highlighting the positive side of the welfare schemes/campaign rolled out by the government.
Follow this link to join our WhatsApp group: Join Now
Be Part of Quality Journalism |
Quality journalism takes a lot of time, money and hard work to produce and despite all the hardships we still do it. Our reporters and editors are working overtime in Kashmir and beyond to cover what you care about, break big stories, and expose injustices that can change lives. Today more people are reading Kashmir Observer than ever, but only a handful are paying while advertising revenues are falling fast. |
| ACT NOW |
| MONTHLY | Rs 100 |  |
| YEARLY | Rs 1000 | |
| LIFETIME | Rs 10000 | |
