Taking up yet another initiative, Reach Ladakh organised a guest lecture on journalism at Reach Ladakh office on April 21.The guest speaker was Tashi Morup, Project Director, Ladakh Arts and Media Organisation. 

The aim of the interaction session was to create a common platform for all the journalists and think tanks to share and discuss issues pertaining to Ladakh. 

Underlining the role of media, Morup said, “Journalism is a vehicle for change… Our role is to give voice to the voiceless and should reflect the voice of the people in trouble.” 

 

He also urged journalists to do more people-centric reporting and become agents of change. He advised Ladakhi journalists to become messiah of the downtrodden and voiceless people.

Raising the issue of the absence of policy in various sectors, he said, “We need to think where Ladakh is headed to. In most of the sectors, we don’t have a policy, be it tourism, education etc. Without proper planning and policy, our future will be uncertain and we should look for sustainability goal and we need to have the policy to find a solution to all the problems. The journalists in Ladakh need to have a common goal and vision and can play an important role in influencing policymakers”, he added. 

Journalists from various media organisations of Leh shared their experiences and challenges they faced while reporting – of the lack of media literacy, people’s reluctance in sharing information, lack of exposure and problem in revenue generation which puts a question mark on the sustainability of newspapers. 

He also talked about ‘Knowledge Tourism’ and said, “Ladakh is a place where we have the richest heritage, full of knowledge. So we need to explore that too. We need to set a vision and follow up those cases”. 

Morup said Ladakh has many challenges including physical barrier and it is scattered. Besides, we need to take everyone along with us to bring developments in the real sense, he added.