Several journalist bodies on Monday passed a resolution expressing concern over the cases registered against many journalists in the recent past. They requested the government to restore access of coverage of government events to the media as before “in the interests of a robust democracy”.
Representatives of the Press Club of India (PCI), Delhi Union of Journalists, Indian Women’s Press Corps, Indian Journalists’ Union and the Working News Cameramen’s Association attended the meeting, said a PCI statement.
“The recent arrest of the AltNews co-founder for cognisable offences is a case in point. AltNews as we all know has been at the forefront of exposing fake news of all varieties. The arrest of AltNews co-founder is what we understand based on exaggerated and trumped up charges. One the other hand, those who actually make hate speeches are moving around freely,” it said.
The resolution said other worrisome developments were related to the new Central Press Accreditation Committee guideline for Press Information Bureau (PIB) accreditation and the denial of PIB accreditation (renewal) to 300 journalists on “specious grounds”, continuation of COVID restrictions in the Lok Sabha press gallery and the central hall in Parliament. “More recently, the visual media, barring one, was denied permission to photograph the nomination of the NDA’s presidential candidate, Draupadi Murmu,” it said.
“We also reiterate that the Constitution is supreme and it applies to one and all. The cherry-picking by law enforcement agencies does send a chilling effect to the media as a whole. In addition, we would like to express our concern over Kashmiri journalists being systematically stopped from flying out of the country, the latest example being that of Pulitzer Prize winner, Sana Mattoo,” said the resolution.
“We would use this opportunity to remind that our 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’. It is this principle spelt out in our Constitution as well that needs to be upheld and protected,” it said.
