From Our Bureau
NEW DELHI: Journalists in the national capital on Monday expressed concern over the government to stop its law enforcement agencies’ cherry-picking that has sent a chilling effect on the media as a whole.
In a resolution adopted at the end of a 2-hour meeting, they reiterated that the Constitution is supreme and it applies to one and all. The resolution said the government very rightly committed and affirmed at the recently held G-7 summit “to protect freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief and promoting inter-faith dialogue,” the principle already spelled out in the constitution.
The meeting held at the Press Club of India (PCI) by it along with Press Association, Delhi Union of Journalists, IJU, and Working News Cameramen’s Association was addressed among others by eminent journalist T N Ninan and Chief Editor of the Wire Siddharth Varadarajan.
The resolution drew attention to a series of disconcerting events related to journalism and the freedom to practice journalism in a free and safe atmosphere. The plethora of FIRs against many journalists in the recent past and the ED raids on the media offices sends an ominous signal to the future of the profession as a whole.
“The recent arrest of Mohammad Zubair, the Alt News co-founder for cognizable offences is a case in point. Alt News as we all know has been at the forefront of exposing fake news of all varieties. Arrest of Zubair on what we understand is based on exaggerated and trumped up charges. On the other hand, those who actually make hate speeches are moving around freely.”
In addition to arbitrary arrests of media persons, the resolution said other developments related to the new CPAC guidelines for PIB accreditation, denial of renewal of PIB accreditation to as many as 300 journalists on specious grounds, continuing of Covid restrictions in Parliament. More recently, the visual media, barring one, was denied permission to photograph the nomination of the NDA’s presidential candidate.
