Kathmandu

The historic conference of SAARC Journalists Forum, an international organization of journalists in South Asian countries, is being held in New Delhi, the capital of India, on January 10 and 11, 2023. Under the joint aegis of the SAARC Journalists’ Forum and Gautam Buddha University, this conference has been decided to be held in the conference Hall of the University the most attractive place in the world.

To make the conference grandly successful, the team including Professor and Senior Journalist Smita Mishra, Convenor of the SAARC Journalists Conference Organizing Committee and Anirudh Sudhanshu, President of SAARC Journalists Forum India, are engaging with great effort.

Due to some reasons, the venue of the conference has been changed from Delhi University, Khalsa College to Gautam Buddha University GBU located at Noida, NCR. We would also like to express our special gratitude and thanks to Bandana Pandey, Dean of Gautam Buddha University Media Studies to provide us with the venue for the SAARC international journalists conference.

On this occasion, I would like to remember all those journalists around the world who sacrificed their lives for justice and freedom. I would like to express my gratitude to all the respectable people and friends who have directly or indirectly helped us to bring our organization to this day.

The history of the SAARC Journalists Forum is not very long, we started it in 2016 and formally established it in India in 2019. In this sense, this organization was born in India, the largest democratic country in the world and we are organising the first international journalist’s conference in New Delhi in the country where we have been founded.

We have organized two international journalists  conferences in Bihar, India. If we count those conferences, this conference going to be held in Delhi is the third one, although this conference is the first after the official establishment of SAARC Journalists Forum. There are many dimensions and characteristics of this conference, but I think it is necessary for this conference to guide the two main topics.

First, the full use or enjoyment of the press and freedom of expression in South Asian countries and second, the establishment of peace in the region. There are many challenges facing us in this region but if these two issues are resolved, no one will be able to stop us from achieving stability, development and prosperity in this area. Freedom is connected with the birth and life of a person, and stability and prosperity are not possible without peace. Therefore, I urge you to focus this conference on these issues.

The 21st century is also the century of information, so it is necessary to review, analyze and research its history, present and future in this conference. In this conference, we should be able to reach a conclusion by intensively discussing the theoretical and physical aspects of using information and technology in a new way relative to time and era.

In this conference, what should be the role and contribution of journalists to use or enjoy the freedom of the press and expression in this region and to establish peace?  What tasks should we face? We should be able to find solutions by having an in-depth discussion on the matter.

I think this conference will definitely give us a solution. We will be successful in moving this conference forward in that direction to remove the cloud of unrest in the region and completely defeat the interference on press and freedom of expression.

The writer is the president of SAARC Journalists Forum.