Imphal, February 28: Close on the heels of MEELAL's demand to publish the front pages of the local dailies in Meetei Mayek from March 1, Executive members of the Editors' Forum Manipur and AMWJU convened a joint meeting today and minutely discussed the matter.

In a joint statement, Editors' Forum and AMWJU expressed its solidarity to the movement launched by MEELAL activists for fully implementing Meetei Mayek in the State.

However, the two bodies said that though the number of people reading the local papers is estimated to be about 10 lakhs, only a fraction of the population know how to read and write Meetei Mayek and therefore bringing out the front pages of the local dailies in Meetei Mayek would tantamount to denying the right to information to the majority of the people.

Asserting that modern day democracy would go haywire and become meaningless and unworthy if the freedom and independence of the media is muffled by the people or the Government, the statement said that newspaper has become indispensable for the people of this remote State as it acts as a window to the outside world and keep them abreast of events.

The statement further said that a conducive time will come for all the newspapers published in Manipur to bring out their editions in Meetei Mayek, but added that the present is not the right time to adopt such a measure.

Castigating the State Govt for remaining indifferent to the demand of the MEELAL activist, it said that the matter is very serious and needs to be solved by the Govt in the shortest possible time and further stated that the Govt would be fooling itself if it thinks it can suppress the ongoing agitation by arresting the agitators.

Comment