One-Day Consultation on Ethical Media Practices held

A one day consultation on ethical media practices for protecting child rights and dignity in Manipur was held on Saturday at the DIPR office auditorium, Manipur. The meeting was organised by the Manipur Digital Media Association (MDMA) in collaboration with Manipur Commission for Protection of Child Rights (MCPCR) and DIPR Manipur.
Drawing attention of the gathering, DIPR Director Ngangom Uttam stressed on the need of a digital break sometimes from the social media world to cope with the challenges caused by the storm in the digital space. “Humans are not well-equipped to face this sudden, drastic change in the vast digital space now”, he added. He said the main motive behind social media giants like Facebook and Instagram is to catch maximum public attention so that they can accelerate their money-making business through advertising. Their agenda focusses on public consumption by making the more and more people consume their content and get addicted in the process. Their business model revolves only on money-making and commercialisation alone by increasing public consumption and ignoring ethical standards, he also said.
Ngangom Uttam also elaborated that AI in internet is designed in such a way as to carry away and lure the minds of the users to their content in a devastating manner. So, internet ban sometimes becomes a necessary step by the Government to monitor unwanted damages and conflicts in society caused by unverified viral news. The new generation is so much concerned about instant gratification by the number of likes, comments, shares etc. in social media to an extent that going viral becomes so important and humanity will collapse in due course as a result.”AI will not be able to check fake news. Use of digital media in our day to day lives is optimal so change and growth of social media in right direction is necessary. Social media use in positive way is significant”, he also stated.
Editor The Frontier Manipur, Dhiren Sadokpam highlighted on the need of sensitisation to check and balance the trauma that occurs by divulging the identity of juvenile children involved in crisis or crimes in public. Reporting should follow accurate verification, certain ethical guidelines, accountability mechanism and core values of digital media.
Chairperson MCPCR Keisham Pradipkumar spoke at length on the topic – Responsible Digital Media & Social Platforms keeping in view the dos and dont’s of reporting that media persons should follow while covering sensitive issues and crimes involving children. Children should not be mis-used as a subject of sympathy and their identity, rights, privacy and dignity should be safeguarded, he noted.
State Co-ordinator  MCPCR UNICEF, Boipu Koireng underlined on the importance of digital media ethics in present day adding thatthe main components include collecting key information, making a framework and linkage on child protection.
Meanwhile, an interactive session and discussion amongst the participants and resource persons was also held after the power-point lectures.
DCPOs of Social Welfare Department, Manipur, media officials from the Frontier Manipur, The Indian Express, TOM TV, Social Media Express, NE TV, Singjamei360, R.K. Production etc. and other related officials took part in the programme.