It is heartening to note that this Newspaper, which made a modest beginning in 1999 with a monthly issue, and then became a fortnightly in March 2003, has grown in popularity over the years mainly because of its prompt, timely and balanced coverage of diverse issues influencing the lives of the ethnic Indian and South Asian community.
With diversified activities, Indian Newslink has moved on to serve the community in other fields as well. The annual Indian Newslink Fastfind Indian Business Directory brings about much facilitation (since 2003). The Indian Newslink Indian Business Awards have become a flagship event since their inception in 2008. To these has been added the Indian Newslink Journalism Scholarship at the AUT University from this year.
The impact of the Media on our day-to-day living can hardly be over-emphasised.
As ever, media today is all pervasive and plays a significant role in guiding the impressions and thought processes of the society at large.
Though television and the internet have become powerful tools and an integral part of everyone’s life today, there can be no doubt that the print media will continue to remain an important source of information and a strong medium for dissemination of information for everyone – the Government, politicians, business houses and the public.
Destructive Power
To highlight the power of the media in ‘changing perceptions,’ sometimes for the worse, is this quote from Gen Giap’s Memoirs, inscribed on his Memorial at Ho Chi Minh City (Hanoi) in Viet Nam:
What we still don’t understand is why you Americans stopped the bombing of Hanoi. You had us on the ropes. If you had pressed us a little harder, just for another day or two, we were ready to surrender! It was the same at the battles of TET. You defeated us! We knew it, and we thought you knew it. But we were elated to notice your media was definitely helping us. They were causing more disruption in America than we could in the battlefields. We were ready to surrender. You had won!”
This brings out the fact that the Viet Nam War was not lost in Vietnam; it was lost at home in America. One need not fear the enemy, for they can take only your life. Fear the media far more, for they have the ability to destroy your honour, your will to fight and achieve results.
Alongside the mainstream media, ethnic media plays an important role in meeting the information needs of the various groups based on language, religion and region.
The autonomous ethnic minority media is an important tool to speak for, and to speak to, their own community, as well as to generate a dialogue between the ethnic minority communities.
I am confident that Indian Newslink will continue to meet the information needs of the Diaspora in New Zealand.
The Indian community in New Zealand is important in promoting and strengthening India’s relations with New Zealand.
It is clearly visible in the cultural field. We have just celebrated the festival of Diwali all across New Zealand and this indeed helps in promoting the bonds of friendship between all communities in New Zealand, as also between the two countries.
Bilateral trade has been steadily growing. It is my avid desire that we all join hands to promote the India-New Zealand relationship at both the commercial and strategic levels.
Partnerships are now on the anvil, and we should see some welcome results in the near future. Much more of course, needs to be done and I hope the wise businesspersons of New Zealand will grab the opportunities that India presents in the best interests of Service to their Nations!
Retired Admiral Sureesh Mehta is India’s High Commissioner to New Zealand based in Wellington. People-to-People contact and meaningful interaction with businesses to foster better bilateral ties are among his objectives. He is seen here with Sameer Handa, Chief Executive of the Patton Group, during his visit to the Company’s offices in Auckland on May 25, 2010.
