“POONCH TODAY” Completes Ten Successful Years, the First English newspaper in the decades-old history of Poonch journalism to achieve this feat of crossing one decade of an unmatchable yardstick.

“POONCH TODAY” Completes Ten Successful Years, the First English newspaper in the decades-old history of Poonch journalism to achieve this feat of crossing one decade of an unmatchable yardstick.

Dear readers, with the blessings of Bhagwan Shri Krishna, family, and friends, It’s an enormous opportunity for me to announce that your own trusted fortnightly English newspaper and a bold voice from the Jammu region, namely “POONCH TODAY”, has successfully completed ten victorious years of truthful, professional and bold journalism in the national interest. On July 1, 2013, with the slogan of “War against injustice”, the newspaper was launched by Sh Sajad Khan(JKAS), the then Deputy Commissioner, and Sh Shamsheer Choudhary(JKPS), the then SSP Poonch, in the presence of a galaxy of prominent people of Poonch town. With the formal announcement of the launching ceremony by Sh Pardeep Khanna, renowned poet and anchor of the national level, amid the chanting of the lines “Harr lafaz se chingari nikalti hai, akhbar padne ke liye kaleja chaiye”, the paper was formally inaugurated by two prominent officers of the district administration of that time. “POONCH TODAY” has become the first English newspaper in the decades old history of Poonch journalism to achieve this feat of crossing one decade of an unmatchable yardstick. We have been following the quote of Walter Lippmann right from day one of this newspaper: “There can be no higher law in journalism than, to tell the truth, and to shame the devil,” as we believe in calling a spade a spade. We always highlighted issues of public importance. National interest remained our top priority as we exposed wrong things in the administrative, social, and political setup in addition to exposing anti-national forces of the nation bluntly, thereby facing huge pressure and intimidation from every corner. We also highlighted the brilliant performance of a few civil, police officers, political personalities, and others who did their best for the district and the nation. Many false allegations of different kinds were levelled against this newspaper to demoralize its inner strength by the forces inimical to peace and other arrogant minds in power, but every planned tactic and various conspiracies, which were hatched against this newspaper from various angles, failed brazenly because we were standing with the truth and with the national interest and accordingly, we paid back all wrong and arrogant forces in the same coin through our pen and other legal means. Some people in power, wanted this newspaper to toe their line and announced various handsome rewards in return, but we never compromised with our inner consciousness and continued to work in the national interest, by ignoring all such favours. Some well-known forces in the administrative, social, and political setups, with questionable credentials, without knowing a,b,c of journalism levelled allegations of violation of journalism ethics against “POONCH TODAY”, without any logic and truth,  but all such allegations proved baseless and the newspaper continued to work for the nation, without any self-interest by exposing the wrong things. The newspaper highlighted every issue of public and national importance, strengthen communal harmony, worked for development, and exposed corruption and wrong forces of the nation bluntly. We had and have no personal enmity with anybody as we respect all, but as far as journalism ethics are concerned, we are not here to please anybody. Only truthful reporting and the country’s interest are supreme for us and nothing else. Moreover, the newspaper has a respectable wide readership because of its truthful and daring journalism (Print and online). Mostly, the newspaper exposed big scandals and wrong elements of society and faced huge pressure from them. Still, in the end, it was the strong determination of this newspaper that beat all those forces, which were standing against the truth and national interest. The journalism of “POONCH TODAY” remained so powerful that even a few Jammu / Kashmir-based newspapers were never afraid of copying investigative stories published in this newspaper for their own self-interest, which was unethical on the part of such journalism platforms. Even some self-styled whistleblowers were seen using this newspaper’s investigative stories to approach concerned departments with the wrong intention of earning favours by using the transparency act. “POONCH TODAY” remained at the forefront of professional, truthful, investigative, and bold journalism in the national interest, and now with ten years of strong experience and with the blessings of the Bhagwan Shri Krishna, our determination will remain the same in the future as well. We have set the highest benchmark of bold and fearless journalism of national interest for others to follow. We have no self-interest of any type. We don’t believe to be in the so-called “Good books” of those in power. We only believe in working for the national interest(Bharat).  This journalism field requires total professional people, as, these days; the standard of journalism has come down heavily with the emergence of non-professionals in this field. Some of them (non-professionals) at different places are reportedly planted by forces inimical to peace under a planned agenda of working against the national interest by putting pressure on government agencies to defame the country, and this thing needs to be looked into by the intelligence agencies, in the interest of internal security of the nation. Many forces with dubious credentials have now taken the shelter of the journalism field, to cover their hidden agenda against society and the nation, and if this issue is not investigated and tackled from all angles, then the government surely is committing a big mistake for the future from the internal security point of view.  It’s high time for the union government to introduce strong laws to clear this prestigious fourth estate from trivia and let only professional journalists work with great zeal and zest in the national interest. With strong strength of mind in the future, “POONCH TODAY” newspaper shall try its best to maintain the tempo of courageous and truthful journalism in the national interest. This newspaper’s stand for the national interest, efforts for development, fight against corruption, and exposing wrong elements of the nation will continue to remain the same. We believe that “truth only triumphs” and the interest of India (Bharat) matters the most.

Ultimately, “POONCH TODAY” is thankful to all the readers for their strong faith in our professional, truthful, and bold journalism. Nation first.  JAI HIND.

SALIL RAINA

(Owner and Editor-in-Chief)