Rastriya Samachar Samiti

KATHMANDU:The National Journalism Award 2015 was conferred on journalist Dharmendra Jha at a programme held at the Ministry of Information and Communications today.

Minister for Information and Communications Dr Minendra Rijal and Secretary Sunil Bahadur Malla also conferred the Senior Journalist Honour 2071 to journalists Kusum Keshav Parajuli, Tej Prakash Pandit and Meghraj Sharma.

On the occasion, Minister Rijal said the government was introducing a package of special support for journalists and media houses that have been working day and night to inform the people in the midst of crisis unleashed by the earthquakes.

He pledged to provide as much as support for the damages suffered during the earthquake. He added additional support would be embedded in the budget of the coming fiscal year.

Ministry Secretary Sunil Bahadur Malla said the government had been providing the award to journalists making significant contribution to the country by informing the people through free, clean, impartial and people-oriented journalism.

He expressed hope that the recipients of the awards would further contribute to inform the country and the people in the coming days.

Journalist Jha, Parajuli, Pandit and Sharma said they felt their responsibility had increased with the honours and expressed commitment to work with more enthusiasm.

The journalists talked of the problems dogging the journalism sector and said they would provide a portion of the amount received with the awards for the support of journalism in quake hit areas.

At the programme, Rajesh Mishra, on behalf of the National Journalism Award Recommendation Committee and Anita Bindu on behalf of the Senior Journalism Award Recommendation Committee, informed about the methods they had adopted to select people for the awards and also made suggestions for future recommendations. Each of these awards carries a purse of Rs 200,000.