CBCI Felicitates SAR News Chief Editor Gonsalves On Communication Day
By SAR NEWS NEW DELHI (SAR NEWS) -- The Catholic Bishops' Conference of India (CBCI) Commission for Social Communication felicitated Michael Gonsalves, the chief editor of SAR News on Communication Day, November 19, at the CBCI Centre in New Delhi, for his unwavering effort to revive the Catholic news agency while maintaining footprint in secular media. Minister for Labour, Oscar Fernandes, honoured Gonsalves for his dedicated service in the field of journalism for the past 20 years. A citation was presented to him by Member of Parliament and former governor of Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, Dr. P.C. Alexander. Fernandes and Alexander conferred awards on eight media personalities for excellence in their respective fields at a simple ceremony. They are Michael Gonsalves, E.C. Thomas, T.K. Thomas, Nirmala Carvalho, Joseph Bernard Arokia Dass, Amala Thomas, Jacob Mathew and Anita Joshua. The award included a plaque, a shawl and a citation. The Communication Day, organised by the CBCI Commission for Social Communication under the leadership of executive secretary of the Commission, Father Henry D'Souza, was celebrated throughout the country November 19, with special Eucharistic celebration highlighting the role of media in shaping the nation, society and family. In Delhi, all the parishes made special announcements during the Holy Eucharist urging the faithful to pray for "the communicators to communicate effectively the message of Christ throughout the country". "There is no dearth of media talent in the Church and the Church needs to train more journalists to promote justice, peace and communal harmony," said Minister Fernandes at the annual media awards ceremony, with a theme: "The Media: A Network for Communication, Communion and Cooperation". "The Catholic Church should take a lead in forming a cadre of talented journalists with values and ethics like the ones who were awarded today," averred Fernandes, eulogising the Church's involvement in the media. There is also the need, he added, to set up an academy or university by the Church apart from the existing ones to churn out a pool of highly talented and motivated media personnel with commitment for the common good. "The function of the media is to be a watch dog and promote equality, fraternity and liberty," said Dr. Alexander, in his inaugural address, adding that the preamble of the Constitution clearly spelt out the vision for the journalists today. "Without distributive justice and equality of opportunity in every field, the higher GDP growth rate had no meaning to the villagers reeling under poverty and suffering from lack of basic necessities of life like drinking water, roads, primary heath care and primary education," he said, listing the key responsibilities for the journalists. Lauding the Indian press for its role in exposing the injustices and forming public opinion on key public issues, Dr. Alexander said the Fourth Estate should "sound the alarm bells" from time to time and make the ministers and bureaucrats accountable to the people. Brushing aside the criticism of the Indian media as baseless, the former governor said it had come of age and was performing a "better role than the other three pillars of democracy -- the Legislature, the Executive and the Judiciary" with integrity. Father Henry D'Souza said, "This is the 40th Communication Day celebrations in the Catholic Church and the Vatican Council II had urged to set aside one day to highlight the importance of social communications." The CBCI general body meeting held at Thrissur, Kerala, in 2004 had decided that the Sunday before the Christ the King feast should be celebrated as the India Communications Day, to sensitise the people on the significant role played by social communications in brining about social transformation, he added. -- FN 9822122436 +91-832-240-9490 (phone calls after 1 pm please) FLOSS, geeks, blogs: [http://planet.foss.in/] _______________________________________________ Goajourno mailing list Goajourno@puggy.symonds.net http://puggy.symonds.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/goajourno
