MTDF calls on national media for responsible reporting from North East region

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaMay 30, 2025

The Meghalaya Tourism Development Forum (MTDF) on Friday asked the national media to be responsible while reporting stories from the North East region.

This came a day after one of the national dailies branded Meghalaya as “crime prone” while reporting about the missing of the tourist couple from Madhya Pradesh, while they were on a honeymoon in Sohra, known for its famous tourist spots.

Addressing media persons, MTDF president Larsing Sawian said, “We would like to turn our attention to a very unfortunate article that has come out in one of the national dailies yesterday wherein our hills have been branded as crime prone. Now this is a very serious statement to make because it insinuates that Meghalaya or the Khasi Hills is an area prone to crime, which is highly misleading and condemnable.”

“We all know that we are a peace-loving society and our local communities here, we believe in welcoming tourists and never has there been any incidents with relate to crime or any sort of untoward incidents as far as visitors coming into Meghalaya are concerned,” he said adding “This statement presents Meghalaya in a very unfortunate circumstance and we take this opportunity to request the publication, the news network that has carried this new article to kindly clarify this particular statement that they have made because such statement will have far reaching consequences towards the development of tourism or the confidence building measures of inviting more people to come and visit Meghalaya.”

Expressing concern over the incident, Sawian said, “So it is with a deep regret that till date that the ouple have not been found yet and we hope that with the search operation we really hope they will be found safe and sound.”

He said Meghalaya is a state that is growing as a tourism destination especially in the last 10 years and moreso in the last five years. The areas – Sohra, Cherrapunjee, Dawki and the entire area of the South Khasi Hills is an area, which is growing rapidly and rural tourism is really now in the fore of Meghalaya’s tourism growth story.

“In fact, off late people who come to Meghalaya prefer to go to these areas more than coming to Shillong and this is the reality of which we are in today. This in a way is a game changer for the rural economy of Meghalaya and the people of Khasi Hills and Meghalaya have embraced tourism because we see it as an opportunity for our local population and people to garner employment and a source of livelihood from this exercise.”

Stating that the North East India is growing economically as a region of development, Sawian said we are in a critical phase in the Indian growth story where the economic integration of North East with South East Asia and the rest of mainland India is highly critical for the nation’s growth and for the integration of our great nation.

Referring to the Pahalgam terror attack, he also mentioned there are forces inimical to the nation’s growth that are also working to destabilize our nation at a time when we have overtaken Japan as the third largest country of the world in terms of GDP.

Appealing to the national media, the MTDF president said, “The North East growth story has begun and is moving forward and it is rising and it is this time that we request the national media to be very responsible in how you report stories that come out of the North East.”

“We are ready to accept the criticism that we deserved, we are ready to raise our hands if there is anything that needs to be rectified, however, untruth being sent out into national media and being printed out for the readership of the larger part of the rest of the country are things which we cannot afford as a region, we cannot afford as a nation and therefore, we take this opportunity to request the national media to not only sensationalised stories that are not very positive definitely do not sensationalised news that are untrue but please understand we want news that are genuine to also flows out of this part of the country,” he said while adding “We take the opportunity to request the national media to kindly look at the North East from every angle possible, be transparent with your news dissemination and let us work together to take Meghalaya forward and North East forward in the right direction especially in these times where we have nations towards our south with establishments and governments not being favourable off late  sending out statements to nations on our north about how we can in a way destabilize the North Eastern part of India.”