The Centre is in favour of removing restrictions on the movement of journalists across borders in South Asian region, Information and Broadcasting Minister Priyaranjan Das Munshi said today.
The Government would take a decision on the proposal to allow free movement of media persons before the next SAARC meeting to be hosted by India, he said.
"We are committed to create positive environment in the entire South Asian region," the Minister said while addressing the 5th South Asian Free Media Conference which got underway here today.
The removal of visa restrictions and liberalisation of procedures have been a major demand of the journalist members of South Asian Free Media Association (SAFMA) engaged in efforts to promote peace, harmony and cooperation in the region.
Earlier, the speakers at the two-day conference called for doing away with visa requirements for journalists as part of efforts to promote people-to-people cooperation and understanding among the member countries.
The SAFMA Secretary General Imtiaz Alam urged the Information and Broadcasting Minister to remove restrictions on the movement of scribes across frontiers.
Referring to the decision taken at a meeting of the Council of Ministers of SAARC in November last year to exempt journalists from visa requirement, he called upon India to bring the issue as part of formal agenda during the next SAARC meeting and wanted constitution of a committee to finalise the mechanism for allowing free movement of journalists in the region.
"The visa regimes in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh are worse, decadent and backward. We have been representing the matter to successive governments," Alam said. Responding to the overwhelming sentiments, Das Munshi assured journalists that the UPA government was committed in implementing the decisions taken at the SAARC forums in letter and spirit .
"I will look into the minutes of the meeting of Council of Ministers of SAARC. We will get back to you before the next meeting," he told a gathering of about 200 media persons from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Maldives.
Calling for combating disinformation with real information, the Minister said the media has a vital role to play in promoting peace which was very important at this juncture in South Asia.
Focused on the theme National Languages Media and Peace in South Asia, the conference will see individual presentations on the status of media in the region and provide a platform for exchange of views.
The SAFMA, a mainstream body of media persons which has been at the forefront in facilitating regional economic cooperation in South Asia, saw change of guard at the inaugural with incumbent president Riazuddin Ahmed transferring the baton to noted Indian journalist K K Katyal.
Two journalists Yusuf Jameel (Asian Age, India) and Khalid Choudary (Khabrein, Pakistan) were given SAFMA awards for objective and professional reporting of developments in Kashmir on both sides of the border.
