NEW ZEALAND, April 27, 2011: During the Second Wellington Region Hindu Conference, local Hindus decided to create a group to represent and explain Hinduism to the media. The Hindu Media Forum was formally launched at the “Arohanui ki te Tangata” (Goodwill to all men) event.
The Hindu Media Forum aims at fostering inter-ethnic harmony by promoting balanced analysis and coverage of the Hindu community’s events and developments. One of its key roles is to help engage thes New Zealand media with the Hindu community to curb stereotyping and eliminate factual errors.
“There is an urgent need for factual dissemination of information about the Hindu community, especially in New Zealand which has been rather lazy in its understanding of Indian communities. India in general and Hindus in particular remain largely in New Zealanders’ blind spot,” Simha says.
[HPI note: Hinduism Today has created 14 special pages for the media explaining Hindu festivals. They are available for publishing free of cahrge. See www.hinduismtoday.com/festivals/ ]