Bhubaneswar, Aug 4: The journey of journalism began in Odisha in the year 1866 when Gourishankar Ray published a weekly newspaper Utkala Deepika on 4th August, 1866 and became the first editor of the weekly. The weekly completes its 150 years this year.
The Utkala Deepika campaigned to bring all the Oriya-speaking areas together under one administration to develop the Oriya language and literature and to protect Oriya interest. The weekly also wanted to make the government aware of the famine-suffering citizens in the affected areas on the partitioned land of Bengal-Orissa-Assam in 1866.
Notably, August 4 is celebrated as Odia Journalism Day and this year is also the 150th year of Odia Journalism.
