Country gets first journalists association

The Journalists Association of Bhutan (JAB), which was first announced five years ago, has been reactived with election of nine its executives, Tuesday.

In the election held in the capital, 32-year-old Passang Dorji of The Bhutanese, a daily newspaper yet to be launched, was elected with majority of votes as new president, wrote the Kuensel on Wednesday.

Altogether, 105 journalists from various 11 newspapers and 16 from electronic media were present during the election.

The president elect said he would leave no stones unturned to ensure hassle-free working environment for journalists.

“My first priority would be to bring journalists together and ensure that journalists, particularly in the private media, are well compensated if anything should happen to them in the line of duty,” said he.

Meanwhile, JAB expressed its commitment that it “will submit to the government a proposal, submitted by senior editors last month, suggesting changes to the advertising policy and doing away with the mandatory publication of Dzongkha editions in the English language papers.”