Nepal’s leading photojournalist, President of National Photojournalists Group Nepal (NFPJ) Pradeepraj onta has reached Bangladesh and shared his experiences about the various dimensions and challenges of photojournalism. In a special interactive program related to photojournalism organized by the Department of Journalism and Communication Studies of Jahangirnagar University in Bangladesh, he gave information about the situation of photojournalism in the world and Nepal, the challenges faced by photojournalists regarding Covid-19 and such epidemics, and the role of photojournalists.
NFPJ president Onta, who participated in the program as the main speaker of the seminar organized in the hall of the journalism and media studies department of the university, shared his experience about how journalists should work with struggle in difficult times. He emphasized that professional dignity should not be forgotten in any situation as journalists have to work in any difficult situation, not only Covid-19. Chairman Onta also informed about the role played by Nepali photojournalists during the Corona period and the various problems faced by them. He said, ‘Covid times were very difficult for photojournalists, at that time we took a lot of risks, in the early days when I went to take photos of patients with covid, I did not have any safety equipment, I worked at risk.” He informed that he tried to help the citizens.
He also said that he is actively working to provide vaccines to journalists who are unable to get the covid vaccine. In the process, an interaction was also held with students studying journalism. During the interaction Sagar Shrestha, Treasurer of National Photojournalists Group Nepal (NFPJ) narrated his experiences by saying that he was infected with Covid-19 twice while doing photojournalism. At the end of the seminar conducted by Salma Ahmed, associate professor of the department of journalism and communication studies of the said university, there was also a question and answer session with the participants about photojournalism in Nepal and the overall situation of photojournalism. He cleared the various questions raised by the students. On the same occasion, historical pictures of Nepal were also exhibited.