By Raqib Hameed Naik, TwoCircles.net,
Srinagar : In Jammu and Kashmir and most of the north eastern states, the situation is precarious thus exposing journalists working there with multiple threats from militants and extremist groups, mafias, security forces and political forces, according to a report titled ‘Safety of Journalist’ released by the Press Council of India (PCI) on Thursday, July 9.
The PCI Panel, a 10-member sub-committee has prepared a detailed report, on the attacks faced by working journalists, after visiting 11 states.
The sub-committee visited Srinagar and interacted with Police, Army, BSF and officials of the Information department, including an interaction with journalists from print, electronic media
The PCI reported that top officers of Police, paramilitary forces and the Army in Jammu Kashmir, who spoke to the sub-committee, said in most cases, journalists were either killed or injured in security action as they could not be identified by the lower ranks of the forces.
“However, the representatives of journalist organizations disputed their claim and said most attacks by Police and troops were wanton,” the report said.
The PCI report reads that the journalists informed the sub-committee about death of 25 of their colleagues who were killed in past 20 years while discharging their duties.
“They said journalists were targets of the Army, paramilitary forces, Police and extremist elements,” the report reads.
The PCI report said apart from killings, several journalists had suffered grievous injuries in attacks by the extremists and at the hands of troops, paramilitary forces and police.
A senior journalist while quoting atrocities on journalists, says “Since 2008, troops were beating up journalists who went to cover incidents whenever the establishments of troops or paramilitary forces were targeted,” the report said. “He said, on a single day about 25 journalists were beaten up by troops though they carried accreditation cards and curfew passes.”
The PCI reported representatives of photojournalists as saying that they were targets of attacks of the troops, paramilitary forces and Police and their cameras and other equipment were taken away and never returned.
“Several senior journalists said Armed Forces Special Powers Act should be revoked as it was giving enormous powers to troops and they were targeting media but no action could be taken against them,” the report said, adding, “They also suggested that journalists especially video and photo journalists should be given special jackets so that they could be easily identifiable and troops could not get an alibi to claim that they could not identify journalists while dealing with miscreants.”
The PCI Sub Committee members who met Director General of Police (DGP) of J&K, were assured by DGP that he was prepared to take corrective action if incidents of attacks on journalists by the police personnel were brought to his notice adding that he was prepared to supply jackets with media imprinted on them at their cost, the report stated.
PCI reported that the committee also interacted with a head of the Srinagar-based 15 Corps.
“The Army officials said they cannot allow media to come to the scene of operation while it was in progress and the journalists needed to exercise caution and not jeopardize the ongoing action,” the report stated.
The PCI reported that most of the journalists felt that whenever a journalist was killed, the government including the chief minister and political leaders react and promise stringent action but after the din and noise died down, nothing happened.
“The journalists complained that most of the governments never come forward to compensate the families of the slain journalists,” the report said. “They were left to their fate and the journalists’ community and their organizations also forgot about it and there was never a sustained and continuous follow up action until the case reached its logical conclusion.”
A three-member committee, constituted by the Press Council of India (PCI),comprising Prakash Dubey, S N Sinha and Suman Gupta suggested the government to ensure that all cases of attacks on journalists shall be referred to Special Courts and the trial be completed within one year of filing of chargesheet.
The report states that 80 journalists were killed in India including J&K since 1990 and in most instances, except the Shakti Mill gang rape case, cases are still pending in the courts and in some the police are yet to file charge sheets.
Whenever a journalist is murdered, the case should be referred to CBI or any other national level investigative agency and investigation completed within three months, the committee has suggested. Any case against a journalist or an editor should be booked only after getting clearance from the DGP, as is the practice in Madhya Pradesh, it added.
The PCI also wants that November 3 to be proclaimed as the ‘National Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists’.