Introduction:
“Just because something isn’t a lie does not mean that it isn’t deceptive. A liar knows that he is a liar, but one who speaks mere portions of truth to deceive is a craftsman of destruction.”[1]
― Criss Jami
Were you watching the news recently? What did you find out? You may have probably found that the news channel you were watching is showcasing plenty of cases that gain nationwide or worldwide attention. Is it good to showcase them on 24×7? I would leave this to you with quoting the above quote. Is it possible that news television channels showcase a man who has lost his daughter or son due to conflict with the local politician of a local area of a city?
Reporters are now fearing! This fear is rising and people have indeed raised voices in India among persecution.
India’s place in RSF’s (Reporters Without Borders) press freedom index, in just five years scaled down from 136th in 2015[2] to 142nd in 2020[3]. What surprises more? The rank of India’s five neighbours – Afghanistan (122), Myanmar (139), Nepal (112), Bhutan (67), and Sri Lanka (127).[4] Even states like South Sudan and Palestine excelled in this index.
It seems that the situation is escalating with no murders of journalists in 2019, in contrast to six slaughters in 2018. However, as per the reports of the RSF[5], the NDA (National Democratic Alliance) government is progressively invading the human rights of the media with colonial-era “sedition” laws. They are also intimidating violence and pressure against those reporters who do not obey the Hindu nationalist government. For instance, the local police detained four journalists for tweets and reporting in just 10 days alone! With this killing record, is this how the world’s largest democracy emerging? What if this can be improved? It may do just fine, but still, not enough to boost India’s deadly track record on press freedom in RSF’s Index. The country has always had a vigorous media culture and free-speech laws. However, freedom of press worsened over the past five years in precise, for numerous reasons.
Laws Being Used Against the Reporters
Reporters have been facing civil or criminal charges on numerous grounds. However, I am listing some of the common laws in India that behest them to research further.
- Section 124A (Sedition) and Section 500 and Section 505 (Defamation) – Indian Penal Code[6], and
- Provisions of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.[7]
Truth vs Facts Amidst COVID-19
Historically, Politicians and others used defamation laws of India to limit freedom of speech in India.[8] However, people filed complaints during the pandemic, under India’s Epidemics Diseases Act[9], and the Disaster Management Act, 2005[10], not against the criminals, but the journalists. Both acts stipulate for appropriate prison terms and fines.
A journalist’s role in this lockdown is even more vital. But what if someone scares a journalist with the prosecution? Not only he scared the journalist but also affected the freedom of the press. And affecting the press’s freedom affects the public also.[11]
The National Union of Journalists in India requested PM Narendra Modi to protect the media. The Editors Guild of India people misusing criminal laws to threaten journalists is painful.
Nearly every political party is committing the act of persecuting the journalists. These parties only intend to focus on their motives. According to a report of NewsLaundry,[12] the Maharashtra police retained a reporter of TV9 Marathi – Rahul Zori. What did he do? He merely reported irregularities in migrant relief camps in Maharashtra’s Dhule. Gujarat Police, on May 11, retained owner and editor of the Face of Nation Dhaval Patel. The police charged him with sedition under Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code and spreading false panic under Section 54 of the Disaster Management Act. He just wrote an article about the possibility of leadership change in Gujarat[13] due to an escalating number of coronavirus cases in the state. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) wrote and praised a 65-year old human rights activist Gautam Navlakha. He is a veteran reporter and a former Economic and Political Weekly’s editorial consultant. The government sent him to a congested jail in Maharashtra in April 2020, amidst ramping cases of COVID-19. Sending a senior reporter who is a heart patient to an overcrowded jail is nothing else but a death sentence!. Scholars and activists have protested but failed to secure the position. Delhi police, on May 10, summoned Mahender Singh Manral, an Indian Express newspaper correspondent. What did he do? He had this audio clip of Tablighi Jamaat leader, Maulana Saad Kandhalvi and he published his based upon the same.[14] Police called this report as – factually false and purely hypothetical. Police also sent a notice to him to join the inquiry on May 11 or else he would face a lawsuit[15] under Section 174 of the IPC.
What about the slow-moving and delayed justice system? People know that the false lawsuits registered against journalists, do not stand examination in court. However, the justice system makes the process itself the punishment. India had not been an ace player in the index of RSF even before the pandemic. If it continues its face, then it will emerge as a more emasculated and weakened press freedom regime after the pandemic.
Here is the statistical data related to the freedom of the media violations by region in India.[16]
Way Forward and Conclusion
Catering its falling press freedom index, the Indian government set up a new Index Monitoring Cell. Prakash Javadekar, the Information, and Broadcasting Minister, on the World Press Freedom Day, tweeted[17] that media in India enjoys absolute freedom. He further stated and challenged that the government would expose, sooner that these types of surveys tend to depict corrupt portrait about Freedom of Press in India. The Government of India resorted to various strategies to avert independent media from slating and condemning the government about the pandemic.[18] In a blatant attempt to throttle press freedom, the government, on March 31, filed a petition in Supreme Court to bar the media from broadcasting information about COVID-19 that it had cleared.[19] The court refused to intervene and dismissed the petition. However, the honourable court addressed the media to relate to and distribute the official version of the advancements.
In the words of William Blackstone –
Every free man has an undoubted right to lay what sentiments he pleases before the public; to forbid this, is to destroy the freedom of the press; but if he publishes what is improper, mischievous, or illegal he must take a consequence for his temerity.[20]
Sir William Blackstone is true in these aspects. People must think concisely before acting and reporting foolishly in the media. Even the media houses should revise their bylaws and code of conduct to define a limit within which they will furnish true, but such facts which are proper, legal, and sentimental as per the interests of the society. Reporting a truth is significantly more important than hiding the fact because hiding facts lead to crimes. The media should even report minor distrusts of a common citizen. Are they doing this? Yeah, for some media houses like the DD News, Lallantop, NDTV, Amar Ujala, The Hindu, and the others, in my opinion, are doing just fine. But people need to enlighten themselves. They should stop acting like a dumb person, whose only motive is to find masala content in the news. They should also escalate to international media houses like The New York Times, BBC, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Al-Jazeera, Wired, Bloomberg, and many others. This will only broaden their views and would further tell them what the world thinks of India and why should we care for this.
There’s another quote which I would like to quote –
We need a free media, not just freedom of speech.
Tom Scholz
So, the citizens and the netizens should continue to find such sources of news and legal sources that are true to the core of the facts. They should refrain from visiting boasting websites. But, has one got the time for it?
References:
[1] Criss Jami, Killosophy, 45 (2015)
[2] Reporters Without Borders, 2020 World Press Freedom Index, RSF, https://rsf.org/en/ranking/2015
[3] Reporters Without Borders, 2020 World Press Freedom Index, RSF, https://rsf.org/en/ranking/2020
[4] Ibid 3
[5] RSF staff, Modi tightens his grip on the media, Reporters without Borders, https://rsf.org/en/india
[6] The Indian Penal Code, 1860, 45, Acts of Parliament, 1860
[7] The Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, 37, Acts of Parliament, 1967
[8] Annie Gowen, In Modi’s India, journalists face bullying, criminal cases and worse, The Washington Post, (Feb 16, 2018, 10:20 P.M. IST), https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/in-modis-india-journalists-face-bullying-criminal-cases-and-worse/2018/02/13/e8176b72-8695-42ab-abd5-d26aab830d3e_story.html
[9] The Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897, 03, Acts of Parliament, 1897
[10] The Disaster Management Act, 2005, 53, Acts of Parliament, 2005
[11] Anjana Pasricha, India’s Laws Used to Pressure Reporters Covering Pandemic, VOA, (), https://www.voanews.com/covid-19-pandemic/indias-laws-used-pressure-reporters-covering-pandemic
[12] Prateek Goyal, ‘It’s just wrong’: Maharashtra journalist booked for reporting on migrant relief, NewsLaundary, (May 26, 2020, 7:21 P.M. IST), campshttps://www.newslaundry.com/2020/05/26/its-just-wrong-maharashtra-journalist-booked-for-reporting-on-migrant-relief-camps
[13] TNN, News portal editor held for sedition after publishing an art, (May 12, 2020, 5:28 P.M. IST), https://ahmedabadmirror.indiatimes.com/ahmedabad/others/news-portal-editor-held-for-sedition-after-publishing-an-article-on-leadership-change-in-gujarat/articleshow/75696784.cms
[14] Mahender Singh Manral, Tablighi FIR: Police probe indicates Saad audio clip was doctored, TheIndianEXPRESS, (May 10, 2020, 8:31:22 A.M.), https://indianexpress.com/article/india/tablighi-jamaat-saad-audio-clip-delhi-police-6400994/
[15] Express News Service, ‘Saad audio clip doctored’, (May 11, 2020, 12:12:29 P.M. IST), https://indianexpress.com/article/india/saad-audio-clip-doctored-after-police-express-reporter-6403831/
[16] Infogram Staff, COVID-19: Number of Media Freedom Violations by Region, IPI, https://infogram.com/covid-19-ipi-tracker-on-press-freedom-violations-linked-to-covid-19-coverage-1h7z2lg0mqog4ow
[17] Prakash Javadekar, Tweet, Twitter, (May 3, 2020, 8:28 P.M. IST), https://twitter.com/PrakashJavdekar/status/1256780259237654528
[18] Ravi R. Prasad, India: Press freedom rapidly deteriorating, IPI, (Apr 24, 2020),https://ipi.media/india-press-freedom-rapidly-deteriorating/
[19] Scroll Staff, Covid-19: Centre urges SC to bar media from publishing information not confirmed by government, Scroll.in, (Mar 31, 2020, 10:04 P.M. IST), https://scroll.in/latest/957834/covid-19-centre-urges-sc-to-bar-media-from-publishing-information-not-confirmed-by-government
[20] 2 Sir William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, 113 (1861)
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