New Delhi (Fides Service) – Sister journalists teach communications to young people. The Notre Dame Communications Centre in Patna, Bihar State, run by the Saint Peter Claver Notre Dame Sisters is offering a new course in electronic journalism and mass communications intended in particular to encourage among young people missionary zeal and openness to others. The six months course was opened to mark the 25th anniversary of the Centre established in 1977 by the Sisters of Notre Dame of Saint Peter Claver.
The Sisters opened the centre after noting the lack of media training centres in Bihar led many people to move away to other parts of the country. Union minister of state for human resources development Dr Sanjay Paswan said “The Centre’s contribution to the youth of Bihar is significant. The government is willing to support such initiatives.”
One of the guests at the opening ceremony was resident editor of Hindustan Times Patna Dr Nalini Ranjan Mohany who voiced appreciation for the Centre’s training characterised by discipline and culture. He warned about evil tendencies in electronic journalism, which often “hankered after glamour and cares little for values. The focus is on celebrities, politicians and high society people while little is said about events in remote areas and poor communities” he said voicing the hope the Centre would teach “values to its trainees and make them aware of responsible journalism.”
In 25 years of activity the Centre has trained more than 1,500 media workers for television, video production, photography, dramatics, slide programmes, electronic editing etc. Many of our former students work in prestigious companies and we are proud of them” said Sister Manjushree Toppo, programme Manager. The Centre has students from all over India and also Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. “Our courses are job-oriented with special consideration for women and youth from low-income brackets of society” she said. PA (Fides Service 10/7/2003 EM lines 38 Words: 478)