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Andhra Pradesh
Press Academy chief calls for greater coordination between press and police
Chairman of AP Press Academy Devulapalli Amar speaking at a workshop organised in Visakhapatnam on Thursday. Superintendent of Police Akun Sabharwal is also seen. —
VISAKHAPATNAM: Chairman of the AP Press Academy Devulapalli Amar has called for greater coordination and harmony between the press and the police for the benefit of society.
At the inaugural of a one-day workshop on ‘Police and Press duties’ here on Thursday, he said that both the media and the police had a duty towards society. They had to work in tandem to alleviate the problems of the common man.
While the responsibility of a journalist ends with gathering news and presenting them in the newspaper or on television, the police have to gather information, arrest the culprits and produce them in court.Mr. Amar said it was unfortunate that sometimes journalists were writing without evidence or checking the facts. He attributed it to the growth in newspapers and electronic media and the cutthroat competition among them.
Sometimes, police officials refuse to divulge news on the plea that publication of news would hamper their investigations. He called for a change in the attitude of the both the press and the police. He felt that widening of the gap between the two did not augur well for society. He said that the Press Academy had been organising workshops and refresher courses to improve professional skills of journalists in coordination with either the police or the district administration.
In his talk on ‘Press and Police PR Perspective’, SP Akun Sabharwal said that proper communication with the public was important for the police for their successful and efficient operations in the long run. The media was a major means to reach a large number of people.He spoke of his plans to set up a Command and Control System and Media Support Cell with a landline phone and fax facility for round-the-clock dissemination of information to the media . The facility was likely to be set up by the end of May.
APUWJ president Soma Sundar said that journalists and the police do not have any special privileges. He called upon journalists to safeguard their credibility failing which the Government could bring in legislation to clip their wings.
VJF secretary M. Yugandhar Reddy spoke on ‘Social obligations of police and press’. A faculty in the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, Andhra University, G. Anita spoke on ‘Importance of effective communication for press and police’.
President of APUWJ, Visakhapatnam, D. Ravi Kumar presided.
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