Mizoram: Students to be media watchdogs

Aizawl, Dec 5: With a view to steering the media towards realising their responsibilities, a Mizoram Media Watch Group was formed, which would launch a youth movement to exhort the media to play a more effective and positive role in forming a better social environment.

A two-day workshop, hosted by the Aizawl Theological College unit of the Students' Christian Movement of India (SCMI), on the Christian Youth Initiative to Re-read Media was held at the IPR auditorium here, which concluded today.

However, a senior journalist, who spoke at the reading session on the second day of the workshop, cautioned, ''It can not infringe upon the freedom of the press.'' The watch group had been designed to ''advise'' the media and an ad hoc committee to spearhead the movement and chalk out programmes and strategies had also been formed with representatives from different colleges, under the patronage of the SCMI.

Interactive discussions on the much-hyped reality shows, including Mizo Idol, Youth Icon, visual advertisements and the ill-effects of ''profit-oriented journalism'', were organised at the concluding session.

The SCMI, a students' movement working with Christian principles, provides the atmosphere where the students develop leadership skills and imbibe social and spiritual values.

It also spreads awareness about human rights, media education, gender issues, re-reading the Bible and inter-faith relations, among others.

UNI