NEW DELHI: The Citizen marked its one year with a celebration in Delhi’s India International Centre. Artists, academics, lawyers, journalists, students, activists all turned up to participate in the event with The Citizen team with solidarity, support, good wishes and oodles of warmth.
Arjun Puri, a contributor to The Citizen and known for his excellent writings, anchored the event with reverence for the senior journalists, wit and humour. Puri himself is with the Jindal University with writing clearly a passion as he follows the music of his soul, as Yusuf Islam aka Cat Stevens would say.
India’s doyens set the tone. Editor, Rajya Sabha MP at one time, former Indian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, author, activist Kuldip Nayar and Editor and well known columnist and author Inder Malhotra spoke of their experiences in journalism, of the media cowing to pressure even then---particularly during the Emergency when Nayar was jailed---and reminded the gathering of the ethics and responsibilities of the media. The audience listed with rapt attention to the two journalists who have lived through the history of independent India, with a life rich with experience and knowledge. Two more senior editors, as old and as experienced as Nayar and Malhotra, were amongst the audience S.Nihal Singh who was India’s first international reporter in the true sense of the word and Hiranmay Karlekar who edited The Hindustan Times.
A film shot and scripted by the Young Citizens including Assistant Editor Gayeti Singh highlighted the ignorance of the younger generation today, with general knowledge questions eliciting amazing answers. The video will be carried by The Citizen shortly and will also be available on YouTube. Writer Yashaswani, artist Aban Raza and filmmaker Agneya Singh created the short six minute film that had the audience laughing through out.
This was followed by a discussion on the media, with senior journalists---Pamela Philipose, Sukumar Muralidharan and Hartosh Singh Bal in conversation with Seema Mustafa. This was an intense, serious discussion as the journalists spoke of the present status of the media, the challenges serious and good, bold journalism was facing, the alternatives and the options available to bring it back on an even keel. Despite the problems and issues, the discussion ended on a positive note with all agreeing that the way out was to fight the system from within. A short interactive session had members of the audience commenting and asking questions that were then answered by the panelists.