Emfa urges restrain on television reporting

Guwahati, Nov 28: Even though urging the news channels to exercise restrain over reporting on responsive issues, the Electronic Media Forum Assam (Emfa) expressed dismay at the way a State civil service  officer slammed the media for a recent reporting.
The active television media forum, while observing a video statement posted in Facebook by Ramanuj Hazarika, a 2015 batch Assam civil service officer-where he announced his losing respect for ‘Assamese
media’ (read free-to-air news channels), fervently asked the young officer to rethink over the content of his outburst in the social media.
It may be noted that  Hazarika, the election officer and executive magistrate of  Dhemaji district in eastern Assam had resigned from his job on 23 November 2017 with an aim to prepare for the Union Public Service Commission examinations and he uploaded his statement after witnessing few news items relating to his resignation.
He objected to the content of the news telecast by a section of media outlets saying that Hazarika’s resignation at the time of ‘cash for job scam’ under Assam Public Service Commission run examinations
carried significance (read apprehension) as over 25 young ACS, APS and allied services officers (who had cleared the APSC examinations) were behind bars for corruption in the selection processes. Need not to mention that hundreds of Assam government officials were arrested on corruption charges soon after the Bhartiya Janata Party led government took power at Dispur by May 2016 under the leadership
of Sarbananda Sonowal, who maintains in his repeated public statements that the authority would not compromise with the corruption.
The news item speculated primarily for two reasons as the public opinion in Assam were in favour of scanning all the answer-scripts of APSC run examinations under the chairmanship of Rakesh Kumar Paul (who is also facing trials after arrest) since 2015 and secondly, why it emerged necessary for an ACS officer to resign (not applying for longer leaves) from his job to appear in UPSC run examinations.
“We agree that an officer can reign and prepare for a better opportunity any time he prefers. But the timing of Hazarika’s resignation carries significance as the investigation process to identify all the tainted ACS/APS officers (including his 2015 batch mates) is still on,” said a statement issued by the Emfa.
The forum appreciates that  Hazarika, even after many hurdles in life carried a brilliant academic career to finally complete his M Phil from the Jawaharlal Nehru University after MA from the same university
and graduation from the Hindu College under Delhi University successfully.
“However, carrying excellent marks in examinations does not necessarily that the particular student would be good (honest) in his/her life,” added the Emfa statement advising Hazarika to wait for
the logical (legal) conclusion of APSC cash for job scam before launching a crusade against the media as a whole.
The statement was issued by Nava Thakuria (president), Paragmoni Aditya (working president), Chayamoni Bhuyan (vice-president), Bimal Ghosh (general secretary), Bhaskarjyoti Bhuyan (treasurer) for Emfa, Guwahati, Assam