New Delhi : The Biennial conference of the National Union of Journalists (India) held in Kota recently demanded immediate enactment of a Journalist Protection Act to ensure security to the journalists covering life threatening events and also those exposing the corrupt officials, political leaders, mafias, criminals or similar other elements.
In a resolution, the journalists assembled from across the country expressed grave concern over the recent killing of journalists in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. They linked those incidents to the increasing intolerance in the country and the upper hand of certain mafia with suspected linkage to political parties or groups from the criminal gangs. “Even the legitimate news and views about certain political, films or other personalities raises the ire of their supporters who do not hesitate to attack newspapers, channels and the media people. The authorities who must protect the life and limbs of the citizenry fail to see such threats in their perspective and tend to dismiss them as one more static in the long list of crimes they encounter every day. In many cases, as happened in Western UP’s Saharanpur, the police themselves were part of the killing of the journalist concerned for his courageous exposure of a politically connected mafia. These events emphasize the need for a specific law laying down the responsibility of law and order authorities in protecting and enabling working journalists to function without fearing threat to their lives every moment,” the resolution said.
The meeting also demanded immediate constitution of Media Commission to study the present state of media in the country. “Since the Second Press Commission, constituted in 1978, huge water has flown in the Yamuna and there is paradigm shift in the media. The television news channels, online media, mobile phones, etc have totally changed the media scenario in the country. The challenges before the media and also the journalists have drastically changed since then. And we do not have any study to officially understand the real situation. Therefore, constitution of a Media Commission is must for gathering official data of the changing scenario of the media,” said NUJ(I) national president Ras Bihari.
NUJ(I) Secretary General Ratan Dixit called for constitution of Media Council as the present Press Council of India (PCI) has proved to be total ineffective to tackle the issues pertaining to the media. He said the PCI is toothless tiger which has failed to meet the changing needs of the media. “The country urgently needs a powerful Media Council, which can tackle all the challenges or issues the changing media is today facing,” he said.
Office Secretary
National Union of Journalists (India)
