The Northern Regional campus of Indian Institute of Mass Communication organised a seminar on the future of language press as part of the ongoing Hindi Fortnight on its campus, here today.Prominent Hindi writer and poet Dr Agnishekhar was was the Chief Guest on the occasion. In his address, the chief guest credited Hindi journalism for giving fuel to the freedom struggle of India. He said that the fire started by India’s first Hindi newspaper Udant Martand gave soul and purpose to our struggle against foreign rule.Calling language as prime carrier of any culture, Dr Agnishekhar said, “In the age of digital revolution, we must make our presence felt by expressing our ideas and emotions in Hindi and other local languages.”Veteran journalist and president of Press Club Jammu, Ashwani Kumar, shared his experience on the dawn of Hindi journalism in Jammu & Kashmir. He particularly lauded young women journalists from Kashmir for showing exceptional talent and acumen in Hindi journalism.
IIMC Jammu Regional Director, Prof Rakesh Kumar Goswami said this was the first offline event of the institute since the Covid pandemic. He said that the IIMC, which is country’s top mass communication institute, has taken the lead in starting language journalism programmes across the country.“IIMC is conducting journalism courses in Urdu, Malayalam and Marathi at its Delhi, Kottayam and Amravati centres, respectively,” he said, adding that the Jammu centre would soon start the Hindi journalism course. At present, the centre runs an English journalism programme.The Regional Director hoped that with the advent of new found interest in the regional languages, more journalists would start writing in Dogri, Gojri, Kashmiri and other local languages of Jammu & Kashmir.Later, the chief guest and the guest of honour gave away certificates and cash awards to the winners of a dictation competition held on Hindi Diwas (September 14).The proceedings of the event were conducted by Assistant Professor Sanjeet Khajuria, while the vote of thanks was presented by Assistant Professor Dr Anubhav Mathur.Academic-cum-teaching Associate Ravia Gupta gave a poetic presentation on the event.