Doordarshan Employees Serve India Like Army Jawans, Says Information Minister Rajyavardhan Rathore

Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, has said that Doordarshan employees are serving the country just like Army jawans, while condoling the death of DD News cameraman Achyutanand Sahu in a Naxal attack in Chhattisgarh on 30 October, reports The Deccan Chronicle.

A three-member crew from New Delhi was in Chhattisgarh covering the upcoming Assembly polls. They were accompanied by a police party and were travelling to Nilawaya village on eight motorcycles through an inhabited forested area. This was when Naxals attacked them. Along with Sahu and the police, journalist Dhiraj Kumar and a Doordarshan staffer, Mormukut Sharma, accompanied them.

Luckily, Dhiraj Kumar and Mormukut Sharma survived the horrific Naxal attack. Sahu was hit by a bullet while riding with a police officer on a motorcycle and tragically died within minutes of the ambush.

While speaking at a condolence meeting for Sahu organised by Prasar Bharti in New Delhi, Rathore said,"There are many media houses, but Doordarshan and DD News are national broadcasters. Just like Army jawans are involved in serving the country, we are also involved in serving the nation. We have to cover a lot of difficult domains through our camera or our pen. You have the responsibility of disseminating news to the entire country,"

Talking about the job of Journalists, he said people are now realising that the work of journalists is not easy. “Slowly, people were getting to know about the kind of difficulties journalists faced to bring news to them”, the Minister added. "He (Sahu) lost his life at a place from where the country's enemies wished to give a message that they wanted to stop the country from progressing. His family should not feel that they have been left alone," he said.