https://thewire.in/media/backstory-journalism-rights-censorship
The IIMC, having been set up by the Government of India, was possibly envisaged as a grooming school for “establishment journalists”. I don’t remember anything I learnt there that would have helped me handle an interregnum like the Indira Gandhi emergency, for instance.
Even more troubling is that the journalist has little or no understanding of the laws and rules that can be used against them as indeed the rights and protections that can keep them relatively safe.
What comes through, time and again in these cases, is that truth is never a defence – in fact, it is often the cause of the assault. Ask the three journalists in Ballia, Uttar Pradesh, who were arrested for having reported on an examination paper being leaked in Ballia, Uttar Pradesh. The time has come it seems that journalism schools need to train their students not just about the finer points of Article 19 1(a) but how it is being eviscerated in today’s India. Journalists need to understand not just legal reporting but the laws that could be used against them.
25/02/2023