Kathmandu, June 9: Minister for Information and Communications Jayaprakash Prasad Gupta has said that the electronic media should be developed as a medium for disseminating people’s opinions rather than merely functioning as government media, and should strive to quench the public thirst for information.

Minister Gupta said this at the closing ceremony today of a 5-day interaction programme on the existing news pattern at Radio Nepal and its improvement organised under the joint auspices of Radio Nepal and the Federation of Nepalese Journalists, Radio Nepal Unit.

He noted that the time has come for communications workers and government media to prove their usefulness in the changed context.

Referring to the informative programmes in various languages being broadcast by Radio Nepal to keep the identity and uniqueness of the country’s linguistic and cultural diversity alive, he said the Surkhet transmission centre is to broadcast a wide range of informative programming in the near future.

Minister Gupta also gave away certificates to participants of the interaction programme.

Acting executive director of Radio Nepal Shailendra Raj Sharma underlined the need for Radio Nepal to maintain its credibility and competitivity and said that efforts have been made to change its news presentation style.

Member of the board of director and deputy director Dhruba Thapa said that the interaction programme was held with a view to including topics of human interest and other interesting matter in radio programming and expressed confidence that it would be of help in news broadcasting in future.

Media trainer and senior journalist Dhruba Hari Adhikari stressed that the language of Radio Nepal should be simple, clear and attractive.

Senior editor Harish Chanda said we should work to contribute what we can to the nation rather than for what we can gain from it.

The function was presided over by FNJ Radio Nepal unit president Khagendra Khatri.