Wanted: strong-kneed scribes

B F Firos

Ever heard of the anti-goonda squad of the police being employed to beat up the journalists? Yes it happened in Kerala recently. Never before did Kerala witness such a massive assault against media persons. Consecutively for three days, journalists from both the print and visual media came under attack by a section of the cadres of the ruling party and the police. They were chased and bashed up like criminals in different parts of the State. Attacks against journalists are not a new phenomenon, but the kind of concerted violence against such a large number of journalists is something unheard of in this State, known for its high regard for journalists.  

 What was the ‘crime’ committed by these journalists? Did they do anything sacrilegious? No, not at all; all they did was their usual job of reporting. They carried the version of one of the four victims of the infamous Kozhikode ice-cream parlour case. It all began when a 24-year-old woman, Rejina, alleged that the Industries Minister and Muslim League leader P K Kunhalikutty had sexually exploited her at three different locations while she was 16-years-old. The eight-year-old story re-emerged on October 28 when she appeared before some TV channels and stated that she was cajoled to change her testimony by the Minister and his cohorts. She said she used to be paid regularly for not naming the Minister in the courts. Rejina said she was compelled to make the revelation now because the money had stopped flowing from the Minister’s side. It may be recalled that the case was hushed up by the high and mighty including the concerned Minister when it came up for hearing seven years ago.    

Given the sensitivity of the case involving a Minister of the ruling Congress-led government, the revelation rocked the whole State. With egg on its face, the Muslim League tried some damage control exercises, which turned out to be counter-productive. Unable to counter the allegations in any convincing manner, the party took on a belligerent posture and accused the media of defaming the party. The party workers were fuming against both the print and the visual media for its wide coverage of developments following the damning disclosure against Kunhalikutty. However, it should be noted that unlike in the past, no newspaper or channel tried to blow the scandal out of proportion or sensationalise the issue by concocting new plots and sub-plots.  

The first attack was mounted against Indiavision, a private TV channel, which first telecast the disclosure by Rejina. After taking out a march, Muslim League workers hurled stones at the channel’s office in Kozhikode. Then around 50 party men unleashed an attack on the journalists who had thronged there to report the attack on the office. They assaulted the Kozhikode bureau chief of The New Indian Express, and attacked the cameraman of Desabhimani, the Communist party’s mouthpiece, and destroyed his camera while he was trying to capture the scene. Many other journalists were also beaten while trying to save their mates.  

Shockingly, the police, who were there on a tip-off of possible attacks on media persons and offices, stood like mute spectators to all these atrocities even as the perpetrators were taken away in cars by the top leaders of the Muslim League. The media people heard the League leaders calling by name the attackers, lending credence to the charge that the Muslim League was behind the attack. The same day the League supporters hurled stones at Indiavision’s Kochi office, and destroyed the glass panes of the car of its executive editor.   

The next day as many as 20 journalists were injured in the worst attacks on media personnel in the history of Kerala, as the supporters of Kunhalikutty unleashed a vicious assault on camerapersons and reporters at the Karipur international airport in Malappuram district. The journalists present at the airport were surrounded by over 1,000 Muslim League workers who had come to accord a "warm reception" to the tainted Minister who was returning from Jeddah after performing Umrah. They went on an assault spree against the scribes while baying for the blood of the journalists of those newspapers and channels which gave prominence to the sex-scandal news.    

The most heinous attack was mounted against Deepa, a young female reporter of a TV channel, who was instrumental in getting Rejina to confess publicly. The attackers seemed to be unmindful of the fact that their prey was just a 24-year-old woman. Initially, the miscreants stoned her repeatedly. After that, she was surrounded by a group of over 50 angry League supporters who kicked and beat her continually while showering abusive words all the way. They also attacked the vehicle of Indiavision. Those reporters who had hidden inside the vehicle were also beaten up. Nearly seven journalists sustained injuries.

Caught between a wild mob and indifferent policemen, several journalists/lensmen sustained injuries right before the eyes of the top leaders of the Muslim League. When some journalists desperately approached and sought the help of the police, they were bluntly told that they were not given any instruction to protect them. The police, who watched the assaults on the scribes silently, had no problem in letting thousands of League workers get on top of the airport terminal and hoist their party’s flag flouting all norms.  

The next day, it was the police’s turn to join the Leaguers in attacking the scribes. The media persons, wearing a black tag and waving black flags as a mark of protest against the beating up of scribes at the Karipur airport, thronged a hotel in Kochi, where Kunhalikutty was to discuss the legal aspects of his sex scandal case. They demanded an apology from the Minister, but they were repeatedly lathi-charged by the police, while the League goondas again beat them up. The government used the service of its anti-goon squad to thrash the scribes. The journalists were pushed, beaten and abused by the squad. Around 20 media persons were injured in the incidents. Some news photographers even captured the scene of policemen in mufti beating up the journalists. The same day in Trivandrum, journalists were manhandled by the League workers even as the police looked on. A few days later, the Kozhikode reporter of Free Press Journal, a Malayalam magazine published from New Delhi, was beaten up by the League workers; they were furious over his participation in a protest march against the attack on media.     

It is a well-known fact that Kunhalikutty and his party wield considerable clout in the UDF Ministry, and Chief Minister Oommen Chandy knows well that it will be suicidal to provoke the Industries Minister and his party at this juncture. Thus, he has been overly protective of the tainted Minister and has spurned all demands for the Minister’s resignation. From day one since the latest controversy erupted, Chandy has been trying to defend Kunhalikutty by whatever means available, despite several incriminating pieces of evidence against the accused Minister, including a report by the Prosecution Director General which clearly stated that the Minister had sex with the minor girl on four occasions. 

The whole State was stunned by the vicious attacks against the scribes. Protest marches were held across Kerala and in the Indian capital expressing solidarity with the journalists. The Chief Minister, who had been sitting on the issue, was forced to hold a meeting with the representatives of the journalists’ union. In the meeting, the journalists conceded to the CM’s offer for a judicial enquiry into the assaults against the scribes.   

That was where the journalist community went wrong. On the face of it, a judicial enquiry seems the most foolproof of arrangements. But it is all too well-known that judicial enquiries have always been a farce and a total waste of public money. It is not that journalists are unaware of the futility of judicial enquiries in a country where scores of such enquiry reports are gathering dust.  

A close analysis into the way the journalists were targeted reveals that the government was hand-in-glove with the assaulters and that it had even given the nod for hounding the journalists. Preliminary probes have revealed that there was obvious dereliction of duty by the police and that they extended their tacit support to the League assailants. There were also reports that instructions were given to the police to act in this manner.   

So when the government has been seen to be a party to the atrocities, why did the journalists yield to the offer of a mere judicial enquiry? By doing so, the scribes virtually cemented the government’s impression that the media can indeed be silenced through muscle power. In the process, the journalists have been shown up as a weak-kneed and pliant lot who will easily dance to the tunes of the establishment. The government must be now convinced that the journalists belong to a class that can easily be placated by sweet words or else by violent lathis. Now expect more such brutal suppression of the media, for our dear journalists have played into the government’s hands.  

This abject submission to the establishment is a grave mistake on the part of the journalists, because with this, the journalist fraternity has let the establishment go scot-free after it easily trampled on the right to freedom of speech and expression guaranteed by Article 19 1 (a) of the Indian Constitution. By agreeing to a judicial enquiry, Kerala’s journalists have shot themselves in the foot. Their obeisance amounts to an affront to the journalistic profession itself. Another calamity is that a communal party like the Muslim League, which has the backing of only a section of people from just one district in Kerala, may now start thinking that they can easily dictate the terms in the entire State. 

Why did the journalists resort to hackneyed and fruitless modes of protest such as marches and dharnas? Here they should have taken some extreme steps like announcing a complete blackout of government programmes. Such a boycott would have made the government sit and take notice of the power of the media, and this would have acted as a deterrent from repeating such pernicious acts in future.   

The spineless act of submission was followed by yet another faux pas by the journalists when they gleefully attended the press meet called by Kunhalikutty. They didn’t have any qualms in listening to a man responsible for all the atrocious acts against them. The men from the so-called Fourth Estate appeared as if they had no problems with the Minister, and it seemed that each question regarding the sex-scandal was carefully screened so as not to peeve the respected Minister. It’s not that the Minister should have been derided or mocked at. His press meet should just have been plain boycotted.  

So who were the journalists afraid of? Did they fear that by antagonising the government, the free flow of government ads would stop, thereby provoking their pay-masters? Did they fear that such a boycott would hinder the free flow of perks and other freebies from the government? Their submission to the government establishes beyond doubt the slave mentality of these journalists who are indifferent to the huge responsibilities resting upon their shoulders. 

The whole episode is a sorry commentary on the current crop of journalists in the country in general and Kerala in particular. This also proves that the journalist fraternity in this country is a loose outfit that lacks coherent leadership. What we need are some stalwart journalists who are above petty career-oriented goals.  

You can call it a cliché, but it is a fact that the media is the last resort in a country where the other pillars of democracy frequently fail to deliver. A thriving democracy obviously warrants a vibrant media that always rebels with the ills and evils of society, and one that calls a spade a spade. In a democracy, the media is supposed to act as a corrective mechanism that leads the establishments into the right path. But when that entity itself kneels before the authorities, it is time to despair. The last thing journalism in this country needs are slaves.

Contact: B F Firos, firos_bf@yahoo.com