Chief guest Sri Venkat Chengavalli in his address at the Narada Jayanti celebrations held today on 19th May 2019 at Tyagaraya Ganasabha, Hyderabad said that Journalists should inculcate the values of empathy, humility and responsibility and stop negative stereotypical portrayal of Indian society and nation.
Narada Jayanthi, the birth anniversary of Devarshi Narada is celebrated as World Journalism Day in a tribute to Sage Narada as the first communicator who traversed all the worlds and spread information. In a celebration event organized by the well-known media organization Samachara Bharati, senior reputed journalists Sri Tirunagari Udayavarlu and Sri Vaddi Omprakash Narayana were awarded the prestigious Vadlamudi Rammohan Rao Smaraka Puraskar memorial awards, and Sri Raavikanti Srinivas, Deputy News Editor was awarded the Bhandaru Sadasiva Rao Smaraka Puraskar memorial award, and senior journalist from Hindi Milap Smt Subhrata Nigam was awarded the Samachara Bharati Visishta Mahila Puraskar. All the awardees have huge body of work and have made immense contribution to strong independent journalism with their decades of service.
Samachara Bharati President Sri Gopal Reddy in his opening remarks said Devarshi Narada was the first communicator. He regretted that Indian intelligentsia failed to project India’s great thinkers, scientists and inventors, he said the Fourth estate should function in an impartial independent and positive way.
Chief guest Sri Venkat Chengavalli, currently Advisor to Govts of Telangana and Haryana- Police Emergency Services, and under whose leadership the 108 EMRI ambulance system was initiated by the Govt of AP back in 2005, was introduced by Senior Journalist Sri Valleeswar.
Sri Venkat stated that a lifetime dedication towards quality service of all the awardees reflects their visisht seva to journalism and consists of functional and emotional values, and creating a positive feeling and empathy with the readers. He said instead of creating negative stereotypes of the country and the society, journalists should clean their eye lenses and change their angle of view to create a positive impact. He also advised them to develop leadership skills and continuous learning with a sense of empathy and responsibility. He said even in a corrupt environment, ethical and responsible writing can be done.
Sri Mukhesh Shah, from Bharat Prakash Ltd delivered the Key-note address and spoke about the expansion of media space into electronic and digital media, and said it’s remarkable the way people and intelligentsia of the country adapted the Social media digital platforms. With minimum words, social media is achieving maximum communication. He advised the media personnel to always speak the truth independently and impartially without aligning themselves to political or other groups.
Sri Shah stated that the celestial saint, Devarshi Narada was a brilliant scholar who wrote works like narada smruthi, bruhannaradam, narada silpasastram etc. Not many are aware that he induced Maharshi Valmiki to write the Ramayana and Maharshi Vedavyasa to write the Srimad Bhaagavatha.
The chief guests presented the award to all the 4 senior journalists who were also felicitated them on the occasion. All the awardee journalists, Sri Tirunagari Udayavarlu, Sri Vaddi Omprakash Narayana, Sri Raavikanti Srinivas and Smt Subhrata Nigam spoke on the occasion thanking the organizers Samachara Bharati and stated that it’s a great honor to receive the Vadlamudi Rammohan Rao and Bhandaru Sadasiva Rao Puraskars on the auspicious occasion of Narada Jayanti and said that they are committed to independent journalism and will continue to serve the people. Large number of people, especially from journalistic fraternity attended the event.
