Senior editor Mr. Nitin A. Gokhale of NDTV told Kuensel the media should shoulder an additional role of questioning policies and decisions, open debate and discussions keeping in line with the free democratic norms.

“Besides its role of being a bridge between the government and the people and disseminating accurate, timely and relevant information, the media will find itself a role of being a watchdog, questioning decisions and scrutinising,” he told Kuensel.

He said the challenge that media could face would be two-pronged; either difficulty in extracting information or in delving through mountains of sources for relevant information. The challenge would also be to strike a balance from power centres.

The ministry of information and communication had invited the two senior Indian journalists to share their experience on the operation of media in the Indian democratic environment and to sensitise the Bhutanese media on the need to be more responsible keeping in mind that freedom was complemented equally by responsibility.

The assistant editor of The Statesman, Mr. Arindam Gosh-Dastidar, said that Bhutan had a sound mechanism in place to complement the changing role of the media in the form of Acts, rules and regulations and also in the Constitution.

He said the code of conduct for media would evolve itself and questions such as whether the media will live post 2008, whether it will sustain, or most importantly whether it will be too independent, would be answered when it crossed over to the era and that it would be sorted out by itself.

He pointed that while media should exercise constructive criticism, the government must be prompt to respond.

On sustainability of the media and its way forward, the two Indian journalist stressed that the gestation period the Bhutanese media was going through would be long and difficult but the struggle should not waver. It should fare on, through trial and error, with sincere intent and focused objective.

The two days saw deliberations and discussions on topics such as right to information, freedom of press, radio, TV and electronic media, freedom of speech, opinion and expression, internet and digital media and the way forward for Bhutanese media.

Relevant provisions of Bhutan Information, Communications and Media Act 2006, and media related provisions of the Penal Code of Bhutan and the Constitution, were also reflected upon.

In the keynote address the home and cultural affairs minister, Lyonpo Jigmi Y Thinley, said “in exercising our freedom we should realise that we are Bhutanese first and then a journalist. We should be able to decide which interest should prevail, the profession or that of the country.”

“Media should criticise in responsible and respectable way,” he said.

In India the print media is more than 150 years old, radio was 80 years old and TV was introduced in 1959. Today there were more than 120 TV channels and over 50 radio stations in India.