The unfree picture

IN Media Freedom | 03/05/2014

1.Deaths  

Sai Reddy, a well-known journalist from Chhattisgarh, was killed on December 6, 2013 and in a shocking volte-face, the Communist Party of India (Maoist) issued a statement in April this year that the killing of was a ‘misunderstanding’! The party had then said he was a police informer but now said a ‘decision’ regarding the scribe was not ‘passed on the lower ranks properly. Sai Reddy was respected for his reportage that was critical of both the state-sponsored Salva Judum and the violent Maoist movement. 

2.Attacks on the media

In January this year,  journalists were beaten up outside the Bengal Secretariat in Kolkata, West Bengal, when they went to cover an official programmeto release the first ever ‘Administrative calendar’ of the state government. When the journalists protested, the Assistant Commissioner of Detective department Tanmoy Roy reportedly said, “Don't you know my powers? We have the right to push anybody.”

3.Attacks on the media

In January this year, the 86-year-old Shankaracharya of Dwarka, Swaroopanand Saraswati, known for his antipathy for Narendra Modi and proximity to the Gandhi family, slapped a reporter for asking an uncomfortable question: the prospects of Modi becoming PM!

4.Attacks on the media

Unidentified assailants threw a petrol bomb at the residence of The Tribune's reporter, Devinder Pal. Pal was doing a series of reports on the business interests of Parkash Singh Badal and his family. The journalist had just gone to bed when he was woken up by the sound of the broken glass. He found glass pieces strewn on the floor and a burning piece of cloth that was apparently attached to the glass container.

5.Threats and intimidation

Journalists covering protests in north Kashmir's Hajan town accused Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) of misbehaving with them and using them as 'human-shields'  during the clashes (Pic courtesy : kashmirinformer.com). The journalists had gone to cover a protest and when they reached Hajan Bridge, CRPF personnel (45 battalion) stopped them and pushed three of them in the middle and told them to cover the protests! The three journalists who were allegedly used as human-shields were identified as SofiAjaz of Times Now, Firdous Ahmad of IBN7 and Mir Aftab of Hind Samachar. The CRPF rejected the allegations.

6. Threatening the media

Union Home Minister Sushil kumar Shinde who said he’d crush electronic media for ‘spreading misinformation’ in a meeting in Solapur, Maharashtra, backtracked and said he meant social media!

7.Curbs on media coverage

Former Supreme Court judge Swatanter Kumar, accused of sexual harassment by a law intern, managed to secure an order from the Supreme Court to curb media coverage, drawing strong objections from the Editors Guild. In a statement, it said that, "Complete and fair professional coverage of the case without critical information being held back from the public is vital for an informed debate." 

8. Defamation and censorship 

 Journalists who wrote books on controversial business houses or reported on them faced defamation notices. The release of Tamal Bandopadhyay’s book on Sahara was stalled following a court order but will be available after a disclaimer and some editing. ‘Gas wars’ a book on the role of the Ambani brothers in gas pricing, authored by Paranjoy Guha Thakurta with Subir Ghosh and Jyotirmoy Chaudhuri, resulted in a defamation notice to the authors and publisher from Reliance, as also Moneylife editors Sucheta Dalal and Debashish Basu, for "validating highly objectionable parts” from the book.

9. Paid News

 The malaise of paid news continued to dog the 16^th LokSabha elections as the Election Commission found 321 cases of paid news in elections held upto April 24. In Maharashtra, Congress candidates — Union minister of state for shipping and IT MilindDeora (Mumbai South), Sanjay Nirupam (Mumbai North), Vishwajit Kadam (Pune) — and BJP candidate from Pune Deepak Shirole were the four candidates against whom complaints of paid news were upheld. While the first two added the amounts to their election expenditure under protest, Shirole plans to challenge the EC’s findings.

10.Privacy

 The Supreme Court decided to examine three aspects of privacy arising from the case related to the Radia tapes - right to privacy vis-a-vis government, right to privacy vis-a-vis press and right to know information. In the ongoing hearing on the case filed by industrialist Ratan Tata, a three-judge bench headed by Justice H L Dattu and comprising Justices J S Khehar and R K Agarwal said the other issues with regard to criminality or illegality in awarding various contracts to private parties coming out in recorded conversations of one person with another will be taken by them only after completing these three aspects. Industrialist Ratan Tata had challenged privacy violations in the Radia tapes, arising out of conversations recorded between public relations consultant Niira and journalists, politicians, industrialists etcin 2008-09 over the 2G spectrum allocation and appointment of DMK politician A Raja as Telecom minister.