Rich tributes were paid to Prabhash Joshi,eminent journalist and former Resident Editor of The Indian Express,Chandigarh,New Delhi and Ahmedabad editions and the founder Editor of Jansatta,at a seminar organised by the Chandigarh Press Club on Tuesday. Speaking at the seminar titled Challenges before Media - A tribute to Prabhash Joshi,Haryana Chief Minister Bhupender Singh Hooda called upon the mediapersons to imbibe the professional qualities of noted journalists like the late Prabhash Joshi. The biggest challenge before the media today is how to become Prabhash Joshi,whose free and frank reporting stood the test of time, said Hooda. Paying glowing tributes to Joshi,Hooda described him as an educationist who took to journalism and contributed a lot to social reforms,especially the Bhoodan Movement launched by Vinoba Bhave. Criticising a section of the electronic and print media,Hooda said work pressure and the craze to be first sabse aage,sabse pehle,sabse tez often forces journalists to compromise with facts and figures. Editor of Indian Affairs of BBC,Sanjeev Srivastava,who delivered the keynote address,described Prabhash Joshi as a doyen of journalism and said that few people manage to achieve what Joshi did in his life. Joshi was an institution in himself,he said. Praising the style of reporting of The Indian Express,Srivastava said if the newspaper has commanded such respect over the years,it is because of people like its founder the late Ramnath Goenka,former Editor-in-Chief Arun Shourie and Prabhash Joshi. Former President,Chandigarh Press Club,Gobind Thukral said there was hardly any public cause with which Prabhash Joshi was not associated. He was a restless soul who till his death remained associated with people, he added. Thukral criticised the concept of publishing paid news items in newspapers. Senior journalist Balwant Takshak,who had once worked under Prabhash Joshi,narrated some interesting experiences which he had shared with Joshi in the last 20 years. He described Joshi as a seasoned journalist who used to give full freedom to his subordinates. He added that his rise in journalism was solely due to the influence of Joshi on him. His death has left a void that cannot be filled, rued Takshak. Noted veteran journalist,B K Chum,who is the founder president of Chandigarh Press Club,paid rich tributes to Prabhash Joshi,saying that the theme of the seminar was a tribute to the man who not only faced challenges in his life,but also fought against them. Chum,who had a 30-year-long association with Joshi,said that the slogan Sabko Khabar De- Sabki Khabar Le,which Joshi coined for Jansatta,proved a master stroke in popularising the Hindi daily. He also spoke about the multifaceted personality which Joshi had and added that he was a great fan of cricket and the Indian classical music. Secretary-general of Chandigarh Press Club,Naveen Grewal,Jagtar Singh Sidhu and senior Vice-President of the Club Balwinder Jammu also spoke on the occasion.
