The Guwahati Press Club asked the state health minister for priority vaccination
The Guwahati Press Club today wrote an SOS letter to Assam Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma seeking a vaccination camp in the city for journalists older than 45. The press club said journalists of all age groups should be vaccinated as soon as possible.
"Already, over the past one year, we have lost dozens of journalists due to COVID-19, the latest being senior journalists like Nilakshi Bhattacharya, Aiyushman Dutta and Rohit Sardana," the letter said.
"It goes without saying that media organisations, especially journalists, have been working relentlessly since the outbreak of the pandemic thereby ensuring flow of credible information at the time of crisis, without even bothering about the safety of their own lives," it said.
The press club said journalists are no less than frontline warriors and should be vaccinated on priority.
"It is therefore high time that the government machinery understood and acknowledged the importance of the role of journalists who are playing an equally important part in moulding public opinion in the right direction at this hour of crisis," said Sanjoy Ray, general secretary of Gauhati Press Club.
The fight against the pandemic would be impossible to win without the contribution of journalists and the Gauhati Press Club is willing to provide support to the government in organising camps exclusively for journalists, irrespective of their age, it said in the letter.