Perils of Indian journalism

BY IMPACT Staff

It was sometime post the Kargil War. The Indian Army was busy with a mop-up operation. I happened to meet this journalist who had just returned from Jammu & Kashmir. He had this interesting tale to narrate.

He said he had visited a part of J&K where the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) was deployed. On the day he landed at an ITBP camp, a journalist from a popular Hindi newspaper visited him, riding a rickety two-wheeler. The ITBP commandant and personnel were all on back-slapping terms with the vernacular journalist, Krishna. But once Krishna left, the ITBP warned this journalist to maintain a distance from him as he was a “doubleagent”.

This piqued my journalist friend’s interest and he quietly slipped away from the camp and tracked down Krishna in a nearby village. Initially, Krishna was all smiles. The journalist friend then dared to ask him why the ITBP suspected him. Then Krishna narrated his part of the story.

Krishna reported on anything and everything from the region. Once he got the chance to interview a commander of militant outfit Jaish-e-Mohammad. The interview was printed and the security forces swooped down on him. Under ‘duress’ he told the forces exactly where he had interviewed the militant commander.

Soon, the commander was gunned down in an encounter with the Army. “Today I am a hunted man – the militants don’t trust me and the forces are suspicious of me,” Krishna said.

Weeks after that, the journalist returned from Kashmir but kept in touch with Krishna via phone. Some months later, the phone from the Valley went dead. The journalist friend sent a message to his contact in the Valley, only to find out Krishna had “disappeared”.

Today, Kashmir is relatively at peace and perhaps Krishna’s plight has become a thing of the past. But overall it illustrates that India needs to recognize the dangers posed to journalists in the country.

According to a South Asia Media Monitor report, Pakistan saw the highest number of journalists losing their lives in South Asia with 13 of them dying in the line of duty, while in India, five among a total of 25 mediapersons fell victim to violence in 2012. An annual report by Reporters Without Borders in December claimed that the year was the deadliest for journalists in the field since monitoring began 17 years ago -- 84 journalists lost their lives while reporting in the middle of wars and bombings, or were killed on orders by corrupt governments, organized crime tied to drug trafficking and by Islamist militias. According to CNN, this was a 33% rise in journalist deaths since the previous year.

Although the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), as per its situation reports on the difficulties confronting journalists, their organizations and media outlets in India’s conflict areas, detail the multiple ways in which media personnel in J&K and the North-east face difficulties in their jobs, the security risks they deal with while reporting in a volatile environment, state restrictions on content and broadcasting, and a “blame the messenger” attitude when media reporting on controversial issues puts pressure on both local administrations and their opponents.

IFJ further says that attacks against journalists and the media come from opposing sides, “as governmental pressure is exerted through legal mechanisms and security forces while armed militant groups also vie to control media content in their favour”. Further, the reports also raised concerns over abysmally low levels of compensation and poor working conditions of journalists in these regions.

The definition of “conflict zones” for journalists seems to have undergone a paradigm shift in recent years. In 2012  alone, apart from five journalists killed, 38 were assaulted, harassed or threatened across the country, according to an annual report on free speech violations by hoot.org, a media-watch website.

The report pointed to the murders of Chandrika Rai, his wife and their two teenage children in Madhya Pradesh’s Umaria distict in February; Rajesh Mishra in Rewa (again, Madhya Pradesh); Chaitali  Santra in Kolkata; Raihan Naiyum in Assam; and television journalist Nanao Singh in Manipur (Nanao was shot dead in a police firing).

Further, Thongam Rina, associate editor of Arunachal Times, was shot at and critically injured in July; journalist Kamal Shukla was brutally assaulted by a local politician in Chhattisgarh for writing on illegal tree-felling in Koelibeda; and in Gujarat’s Palampur district, TV journalist Devendra Khandelwal was attacked by relatives of MLA Mafatlal Purohit for reporting their involvement in illegal construction.

In November, a Kannada TV reporter Naveen Soorinje spent more than 50 days in jail after the Karnataka High Court denied him bail. Soorinje was arrested after the police charged him under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for reporting a raid planned by a Hindu fundamentalist group in July. The Karnataka government decided to revoke all cases against Soorinje in January.

One can argue what’s five lives lost in a country that represents nearly 20% of the world’s population? One can also argue that when compared to countries like Africa, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Syria, India is a far cry from the difficulties and volatile socio-political conditions posed to journalists.

Both the arguments, I feel, go against the very democratic fabric of India where freedom of speech is intrinsic to constitutional rights. Indeed, freedom cannot just be a creation of the Constitution but also lend the ability to individuals the habit of infinite questioning, the right to thought freely and the right to question.

One fact I find most satisfying is that there are Indian journalists, in spite of having to function in a corner of the globe where everything -- from ethical stands to morality -- can be bought. They are ready to risk their lives for the cause of truth. Indeed, truth must prevail, for democracy’s sake.

Feedback: abatra@exchange4media.com

Tags : Media Mantras