From an almost-non-existent or unheard-of government department, the state Department of Information & Public Relations has today come a long way in living up to its duty as the voice of the state government by informing the people of the state government’s activities while also effectively playing a major role in feeding the media with valuable news inputs.
Today, the newspapers and television channels, including the Central government’s mouthpieces – Doordarshan and All India Radio – and the local newspapers and local television news channels are becoming increasingly dependent on ‘Naga News’, a daily bulletin which feeds mediapersons and other subscribers news and photos of daily events involving the government and government circulars, notifications and press communiqués, through the internet.
Understandably, while the IPR department has rarely been in the limelight, it is seen to be performing exceedingly well despite limited budget and inadequate infrastructure, for which the efforts of the officers and staff of the department need to be lauded.
At any government function or event, news staff and officials of the IPR department reach the venue with their technical team well before the local news reporters or correspondents. Also, worth mentioning is that they never fail to send (mail) their reports in time.
With regard to that ‘public relations’ thing, some of the officials in the department – particularly Lolano, Martha, Limawati, Tokishe etc – have become valuable informers and friends to each and every reporter and correspondent besides helping out with whatever information is needed. Most laudable is the fact that Naga News is today efficiently covering each and every district of the state, covering almost all the major news. In fact, IPR has also been doing exclusive and feature stories, covering human-interest stories from all angles and corners of Nagaland.
While it has to be admitted that ‘Naga News’ could do with a little bit of more serious editing and improvement in language, the zeal and the tireless efforts of the editor of Naga News and news staff spread throughout the state indeed need to be appreciated.
