Rural scribes: maligned and vulnerable

Among the most vulnerable of journalists who are coming under increasing attack are those who work as stringers, freelancers or editors of small newspapers in towns and cities, often completely at the mercy of local politicians, the administration and police. They experience a sense of alienation, feel discriminated against by their counterparts in big cities and in ‘regular’ or full-time employment with media houses.  While they do admit that a separate law would not really help improve their situation, they also say the demand has arisen out of sheer desperation – how else can journalists be protected?
 

Most journalists and editors have expressed reservations about the proposed law and even the demand for one, stating that journalists should not be treated as a special breed and that existing laws were more than adequate to deal with attacks on the media.  In an article in The Hoot about the draft ordinance from the Maharashtra government, this writer also discussed whether a law was a solution.
 

Among the most vociferous in their demand for a special law to protect journalists are members of the Marathi Patrakar Parishad (MPP), a body which boasts of a membership of 7000 registered journalists in 35 districts and 207 tehsils of Maharashtra. It is this body which claims 184 attacks on journalists in the state over the last two years and its past-president S M Deshmukh, is convenor of the Patrakar Halla Virodhi Samiti (the Committee against Attacks on Journalists) formed by 16 journalists’ organisations in Maharashtra.
 

Deshmukh, who is still to compile the complete list of 184 attacks, says his work is handicapped by the fact that most journalists do not file FIRs (first information reports) with police or even if they do try to do so, are often dissuaded from registering a complaint by the local police. “They (the police) tell us: you are like fish swimming in these same waters, why do you want to take this up. Let’s have a ‘samjauta (come to an understanding), the police tell us,” he says.
 

In rural areas, he adds, journalists have absolutely no protection. “The anti-socials we write about know where we live, they know our cell phone number, they know my movements. So where can I hide?” he asks. 
 

Whether the journalist was attacked for ‘journalistic’ reasons is always a question mark.  In the changing world of news gathering, the journalist trades on information, not all of it for publication. Another major problem is the use (or misuse) of journalists for procuring advertisements for publications they may be attached to.
Stung by the criticism by a cabinet minister in the Maharashtra government that a number of the district-level journalists face attacks because they actually practice ‘yellow journalism’, indulge in extortion or in other nefarious misuse of their profession, Deshmukh said that it was wrong to stereotype ‘rural’ journalists in this manner.
 

“I think it is fashionable to criticise the rural journalist as ‘yellow’ or corrupt. Aren’t journalists from big newspapers also corrupt? Don’t they indulge in yellow or bad journalism?  In fact, we feel that the rural journalist is actually in the frontline of the coverage of news and directly experiences the corruption by politicians or by administration or police in a way the urban journalist in bigger cities do not,“ he says.
 

Deshmukh works for Ram Prahar, a small newspaper published from Panvel, in Raigad district. He said that he was forced to quit Krishival, a newspaper published from Alibag, after he spearheaded an agitation to boycott public meetings of deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra Ajit Pawar recently, following the uncharitable comments made by Pawar against the media in a meeting in Nanded.
 

Keshav Ghonse Patil, bureau chief of Zee 24, was present at the meeting. “Pawar kept making these statements so I finally got irritated and stood up to ask him what he meant. I said he must take back his comments, if he couldn’t substantiate it,” Patil said. He began walking out of the meeting and other journalists present followed suit. Then, Patil says, the deputy chief minister signalled to police present to rough up the journalists. “We told them: we shall go quietly, you don’t need to push us out and a police officer replied that he would implicate me in extortion cases,” Patil said.
 

The incident drew widespread protests across the state and finally, Pawar's uncle and Union Agriculture Minister had to apologise for his nephew's remarks. 
 

Lack of support from newspaper houses

A big bugbear is the lack of support from the very newspaper houses they work for or contribute to. Journalist Janardhan Patil wrote a report in a newspaper owned by a supporter of the Peasant’s and Workers Party (PWP) about some anti-social elements who roamed freely in Alibag district despite a police report that they should be externed. No action was taken against them by the district collector, the report pointed out. Patil was attacked by one of the persons named in his report but the newspaper was reluctant to print the news about the attack, because the attacker was also a member of the PWP in the area.
 

When Alka Dhupkar, a correspondent with the Marathi television channel IBN Lokmat, and her cameraman were attacked by a mob in Janjira, Raigad district, in March this year, her channel gave the incident extensive coverage. Unfortunately, other channels or print and internet media did not pick up the story.
 

Alka understood just how the police operate when she “We had gone there to do a story on the diesel mafia there. There were lots of complaints about the mismanagement in the diesel cooperative society headed by its chairperson, Motiram Patil. The society was dissolved but a government appointed administrator was not allowed to function.  We interviewed a number of villagers and took visuals of a tank near Patil’s house. Suddenly, a mob, a majority of who were women, attacked us and snatched our camera, tape, tripod and other equipment. They pulled at the stole wrapped around my neck and I could have been strangled,” she said.
 

Somehow, Alka and the cameraman, Sandeep Pawar, managed to escape and called the police, who arrived more than 20 minutes later. “Instead of taking down our complaint, they scolded us for coming here to do a story. We did lodge an FIR but we don’t know what the police put into it because we didn’t get a copy. Till today, our tape has also not been returned to us,” she said.
 

Hemant Madane, editor of Aapla Maharashtra, a 55-year-old daily published from Dhule, says that police simply don’t take the journalists from rural areas seriously. “At most, they file an NC (non-cognisable offence). Once, I filed a complaint against a politician who threatened me and he was released from custody in two hours. People came and taunted me, saying that this man was happily eating chicken in the police station!,” he rues. On another occasion, prominent politicians tried to set his printing press on fire after he ran a story on the plight of sugar factories in the district but police did not register a case of arson or attempted arson.
 

Again, another problem is that police try and instigate people to file false complaints against the journalists or trap them in false cases, he alleged, adding that he had two cases under the Prevention of Atrocities Act charging him with using casteist abuses.
 

Interestingly, Alka doesn’t believe a special law for journalists would have helped in her case. “We must have better implementation of existing laws,” she says.  It is important for all journalists and media houses to come together and support journalists who are attacked. The collective voice is necessary, as is a concerted demand for action. Then, perhaps police and politicians will take them seriously.