Bengaluru, Dec 4 (UNI) Premier national multilingual News Agency United News of India (UNI), added yet another feather to its cap, by launching country’s first regional news service ‘’UNI Kannada News Service’’ here on Tuesday.
Declaring the launch of the Kannada news wire service, the Kannada Development Authority, Chairman, Prof S G Siddaramaiah, applauded the efforts of the UNI for its venture into Kannada language and described it as “an attempt to protect the plural character of the country”.
Stating that when the people of the State were not getting a true picture of events in the new wave media, only national news agencies engaged in disbursement of accurate, objective and educative news. “You are doing a job to contain the spread the menace of those media which are in the habit of misleading the people of the country,” he said.
Appreciating the UNI management for its endeavor in providing its service in Kannada language, he said “Print media has a social responsibility to educate the large masses, majority of whom still remain as illiterate. The move of the UNI will also help in strengthening the Kannada language which was richly enshrined with culture, tradition and history.”
Calling upon the Karnataka government to extend all the help for the news agency in its new endeavour, he said that “I compliment the management of the UNI on behalf of the people of the Karnataka state”.
The vernacular news papers in Karnataka should take advantage of the UNI’s Kannada service and benefit from it, the KDA chairman added.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr Pankaj Kumar Pandey, Secretary, Department of Information and Public Relations, also appreciated the new attempt by the UNI for launching its Kannada wire service. “The move will benefit majority of news papers, especially small and medium in Karnataka. The state government will extend all possible co-operation in helping the news agency” he added.
Mr M Siddaraju, Karnataka Media Academy Chairman, urged the state government to avail the services of both UNI and PTI.
He said UNI, being the premier news agencies in the country, was rendering an immense service in feeding accurate and un-biased news to the people of the country.
Referring to financial constraints being faced by the national news agencies, he said “It is the need of the hour to protect these two medias houses”.
Senior Journalist R P Jagadish, Mr Ravikumar, Director, Department of Information and Public Relations also present on the occasion.
In his introductory speech, Mr Ashok Upadhyay, Editor-in-Chief, UNI, said that over the past six decades UNI has been fulfilling the needs of its subscribers by offering reliable, objective, informative and unbiased coverage of important national and international events.
He said that UNI, which has already made its mark in its Hindi 'UNI Vartha' and 'UNI Urdu Service', besides its primary English service across the country, it was stepping up its coverge from important regional centers starting with Kannada language, in Bengaluru, IT and BT hub of the country.
“We have plans to cover all region of Karnataka by giving news coverage of important events not only in political arena but also of economic and socio-cultural fields” he added.
UNI planning to launch more regional service and it would soon launch Marathi news service.
UNI MV RS MSP TS2032