World Press Freedom Day

Every year, the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, The Bhawanipur Education Society College celebrates World Press Freedom Day towards increasing awareness regarding the importance of press freedom in the functioning of any democracy. This year too, the Department organized a special lecture and a workshop to mark the celebrations. Keeping in sync with the United Nations’ theme for this year’s World Press Freedom Day – “Journalism under Digital Siege”, this year’s celebrations focused on addressing the concerns of fake news in the digital age.

The special lecture was delivered by Prof. Amala Dhandhania (Associate Professor, Political Science, The Bhawanipur Education Society College). Speaking on ‘Freedom of Speech and Expression’, Prof. Dhandhania stressed on the immense significance of the Indian Constitution in the lives of every Indian citizen and explained how the Indian media enjoys journalistic freedom within the ambit of the fundamental right to the freedom of speech and expression enshrined in Article 19(1)(a) of the Indian Constitution but must also respect the reasonable restrictions which are applicable for all Indian citizens. The enthralling lecture was very much appreciated by the audience comprising of both students and teachers. The lecture concluded with Q&A session.

The lecture was followed by a students’ workshop on ‘Fact-Checking and Digital Hygiene’ conducted by Mr. Joydeep Das Gupta, Editor of News Sense and a trainer associated with the Google News Initiative (GNI), India Training Network. The aim of the workshop was to empower the students to become self-sufficient fact-checkers by enabling them to differentiate between ‘news’ and ‘fake news’ themselves. The workshop gave a hands-on experience to the students on the practical approach towards tackling the brewing crisis of overflow of fake news on the internet and received an engaging response from the students. The event concluded with the Vote of Thanks by Ms. Shaswati Das.