Between the bullet, the baton and the gavel!
On the occasion of World Press Freedom Day, observed globally on May 3, an assessment of the precarious condition of freedom of speech and expression in India.
A first quarterly report from the desk of the FREE SPEECH HUB
Freedom of speech and expression in
In the first quarter of this year, well-known artist M F Husain decided to give up his Indian citizenship, prominent writers like Paul Zachariah and Arundhati Roy were attacked for their views, the former being physically assaulted, two persons lost their lives as they protested the publication of an article on the burqa, actor Shahrukh Khan was the unexpected upholder of free speech when he refused to apologise to the Shiv Sena for his utterances, and two political activists were charged with sedition for their writings.
Most of these incidents made headlines and took up hours of airtime on television channels. Away from public scrutiny was the impunity with which security forces across the country used the baton and even their bullets to rein in what they perceive as recalcitrant media. The repeated targeting of the media and the lack of accountability by those who do so, time after time, bodes ill for freedom of speech and expression.
Nothing demonstrates this more than the savage beating up of Gowhar Bhat, a journalist of Greater Kashmir by security forces in
In the beginning of the year, on January 7, photographer Amaan Farooq, was shot at by a senior police officer for covering the aftermath of an encounter in
In other parts of the country, security forces routinely bar journalists from covering any conflict ??" whether in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, when journalists were lathi-charged for covering an agitation for Telangana, or in Kalinganagar, Orissa where vested interests attacked journalists under the benign eye of the police when they attempted to meet villagers who had been protesting the entry of mining companies on their land, or in Dantewada, Chhattisgarh, where journalists and film-makers were prevented from reporting in areas riven by conflict between security forces and Maoists.
Vigilante gangs, owing allegiance to social and political groups, have protested any perceived threat to their world-view by attacking writers, theatre performances, media houses, posters and even mobile companies! Whereas, in some instances, they were sufficiently reined in by strong responses from state governments, the tendency of the state to look the other way in other instances, only gave these groups a field day.
In Thiravananthapuram, Kerala, BSP workers stoned a media house on March 19 for carrying a cartoon depicting their leader and the UP Chief Minister garlanded with currency notes; in Mumbai, Maharashtra, workers of the MNS attacked mobile companies on March 9, forcing them to prioritise the use of Marathi in their caller voice systems; in the same city, local Shiv Sena activists issued threats on April 2 against the staging of a play because it featured a Pakistani poet and on April 13, the khap panchayat barred the media from its meetings and said the media should be taken to task for ‘destroying the social fabric’ of the country.
These attacks, both by security forces and social and political groups, attains significance in the backdrop of the continuing attempts of the State to restrict, regulate, debar or monitor a range of expression ??" whether it is television coverage of bomb blast attacks and other conflicts, curbs on advertisements or the introduction of laws, schemes and mechanisms that have the potential to compromise privacy and increase routine surveillance without any stated safeguards.
In the last four months, provisions of Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act have been used to ban channels for obscenity, restrict coverage of blast victims in Pune, encounter operations in
Amidst allegations of phone-tapping of politicians in April, the Union Government has decided to amend rules governing surveillance, a tacit admission that existing rules and regulations are inadequate. Much more transparency is needed in all these policies, as well as greater debate and discussion in civil society.
There are two bright spots, however, in the state of freedom of speech and expression in
The experience of free speech cases in High Courts, however, is not uniform. While the Bombay High Court upheld the right of journalists to cover controversial cases, allowed restricted display of posters that had the potential to cause ill-will between communities and opined that directing authorities to crack down on websites with sexual content was not proper, the Andhra Pradesh High Court directed authorities to ensure that television channels adhere to programme codes, banned the release of a film depicting the elopement of a teacher with her student and also put the Hyderabad city Police Commissioner in charge of monitoring television channels for violent content.
Annexure
Attacks on journalists, media houses
On January 5, police detained two journalists, a film-maker
and a researcher in Dantewada, Chhattisgarh when they went to cover a jan sunwai. The journalists were charged with dacoity.
On January 7, a photographer was shot in the leg by a police officer in
On January 8, two television journalists were arrested for airing a report alleging the involvement of the Reliance group in the death of Andra Pradesh Chief Minister YSR Reddy in a helicopter crash in December 2009.
On February 6, the editors of Hindi magazine ‘Dastak’ Seema Azad and Vishwa Vijay were arrested in
On February 14, police targeted the media and injured six journalists in a lathicharge of students of
On February 20, an Orissa TV journalist was attacked when he went to cover a vigilance raid.
On March 11, police raided the residence of well-known journalist and writer Dandapani Mohapatra without a search warrant.
On March 16, journalists and environmental activists were attacked by the sand mining mafia in Thane,
On March 19, BSP workers stoned the office of Malayalam daily Tejas for carrying a cartoon on BSP leader and UP Chief Minister Mayavati.
On March 20, two journalists were arrested in Jiribam, Manipur. No reasons were ascribed for the arrest.
On April 5, three journalists were attacked by alleged supporters of the Orissa Finance Minister.
On April 26, police severely beat up a journalist covering a PDP demonstration in
Bans, restrictions or regulation of media
On Jan 5, in Port Blair, Andaman and
On January 7, in
On January 10, in
On February 5, in
On February 24, in
On February 25, in Pune,
On March 11, in
On April 25, in
Bans, Censorship of books, film
On January 5, in Mumbai,
On January 12, in Mumbai,
On January 15, in Mumbai,
On February 19, in Shillong, Meghalaya, a textbook was confiscated for allegedly blasphemous content.
On March 5, in
On March 9, in
On April 17, in Mumbai,
Attacks, protests, complaints by social/political groups against artists, actors, writers, activists, articles, books, film, theatre etc
On January 11, in Payyannur, Kerala, alleged DYFI activists attacked writer Paul Zachariah for speaking out at a literary seminar on the organisation’s orthodox approach.
From January 30-Feb 12, in Mumbai,
On February 11, in Bengaluru, Karnataka, political activists allegedly belonging to Youth Congress blackened the face of Shri Ram Sene leader Pramod Mutalik while his organisation attacked a woman activist during a television debate on Valentine’s Day.
On March 1, well-known artist M F Husain announced his decision to give up his Indian citizenship in the wake of sustained harassment of him and his work by Hindu fundamentalist groups.
On March 1, in Shimoga, Karnataka, two persons died and eight others were injured following violent protests over the publication of an article on the burqa in ‘Kannada Prabha’, a Kannada daily.
On March 8, in Shillong, Meghalaya, Deputy Chief Minister B Lanong attacked women activists and writers and called them vipers, destroying everything with their venom. He refused to apologise for his remarks.
On April 2, in Mumbai,
On April 12, in
On April 13, in Kurukshetra, Haryana, organisers of the Sarv Khap Mahapanchayat said the media destroyed the ‘social fabric’ of the country and barred the media from attending its meetings.
Details of entries in the Free Speech Tracker. For the complete list, please click here or log onto:
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