Scribes turn soft targets for goons

Media plays an indispensible role around the world in the healthy functioning of democracy in its role as the agent of public that highlights acts of oppression, injustice and inept rule to the notice of people. However, given the exposes, newsmen are fast becoming soft targets of mafia, goons and political powers in India. Eventually, journalism profession has become mockery and remains a thankless job.

World Editors Forum President, Marcelo Rech, was bang on target when he observed recently that “there is no freedom without freedom of expression. And there is no freedom of expression without protection and safety for the practice of journalism.” A startling fact is that since 1992, more than 1,100 journalists have been killed just because they were out to bring sordid developments to the spotlight.

A Mumbai-based journalist Raghavendra Dube was killed while on duty while two more Santosh Mishra and Shashi Sharma were assaulted in Thane bar. The recent murder of 40 year-old freelance Indian journalist Sandeep Kothari shows how the establishment and the mafia are hand-in-glove in heinous crimes. Sandeep paid with his life for daring to disclose the sand mafia and the connivance with Madhya Pradesh cops.

The beating, thrashing and abusing a journalist in trouble-torn Jammu and Kashmir is not an uncommon sight. In an act of high handedness and VIP Raj’, a senior journalist of leading daily Javid Malik was beaten to pulp and his wife was assaulted by the cops escorting the cavalcade of JK Agriculture Minister Ghulam Nabi Hanjura.

The incident triggered widespread condemnation from mainstream and separatist political parties. Close on its heels, a senior photo journalist Bilal Bahadur was also attacked by goons enjoying political patronage in Nowhata. Zaffar Abbas, editor of Dawn newspaper in Pakistan recapped that no story is worth the life of a correspondent.

Similar observation was made by Douglas Jehl, foreign, editor at The Washington Post “the threats we face aren’t just bombs and bullets, but also governments, who are imprisoning journalists for their own purposes” The sub-committee of Press Council of India (PCI) on safety of media messengers said after visiting 11 states across India recently, not a single person was convicted for killing or attacking journalists in Jammu and Kashmir, Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Manipur, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand, although around 60 journalists were killed in these states in the last two decades. They are threatened if they write about activities of militants, naxalites, military and mafia.

Given these circumstances, literal journalism in India is at stake and the journalists have no law to protect them. There is no safety of these messengers in their line of duty. It is time a nationally uniform law is put in place so as to protect the lives of media messengers. (The author is an Assistant Professor, Dept. of Convergent Journalism, Central University of Kashmir, Srinagar)

By DR JOHN BABU KOYYE