Freedom of press a myth or reality? An open letter to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi

Freedom of press a myth or reality?

An open letter to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi

Over 200 employees of ABP Sanjha left jobless in Punjab

By Kiran Deep

Sir,

Freedom is what we all need or we all born to live with freedom. Journalism is considered to be such profession where one can expect full freedom to fight for cause of people and to express yourself whenever something wrong happened with Journalists. Fight for freedom is what we all taught since childhood. We all have grown up by listening stories of great sacrifice of Shaheed Bhagat Singh, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and Mahatma Gandhi during Independence struggle to get freedom for all the countrymen. The press too had played a great role in freedom struggle and now considered to be fourth pillar of democracy in India. The people still have much faith on media and banking on its support to highlight their plight and for social reforms. Then why the rights and social security of the Journalists are not considered to be seriously. Journalists have been deprived of even basic rights. Even it’s strange that Journalists who highlight the plights of all the sections of society, usually left helpless when they face professional problems and threat to their jobs, when asked to leave their jobs without any reasons following political pressure, due to unethical practices or when any organisation all sudden decided to shut its operation or when they face threat to their lives due to professional work. 

 To much aghast, over 200 employees of the ABP Sanjha the sister concern of the Anand Bazar Patrika (ABP) news channel in Mohali district of Punjab were left jobless when the channel shut down its operation on November 26 all sudden. The news channel ABP Sanjha was alleged to be shut down due to pressures from Punjab government. But this does not happened first time in Punjab.  Earlier it happened with the news channel Punjab Today, then with the Day and Night News Channel. And it will keep on happening all over country in the absence of proper rule and regulations, laws and rights of Journalists. Every channel should have right to access cable network to go on air and also on other satellites channel without any political pressure by paying required fees and completing formalities.  Now it is up to the central government to frame uniform policy for all the channels to go on air without any hindrance or political interference but with great social responsibility and without any bias.  Now it is also high time that where one strong body is needed to hear the media grievances and to protect its right. As Journalists have no definite rights as for as their job security is considered. At many places it’s hire and fire policy mostly based on moods and whims and fancy of the organisations. Unfortunately if the Journalists fall in the line of sycophants then they have more chances of survival in present scenario in many organisations but not in all. The Press Council of India is there but it does not considered to be powerful enough to take up all the issue concerned with the journalists.      

 Although it’s not in India, but the people across the world who are fighting for the one or other cause have to struggle hard for their safety and their rights. People are coming up strongly for cause and specially for freedom in India and abroad as the pressure to suppress the freedom has increased manifolds these days.

 Julian Assange the founder of the whistle-blowing website Wikileaks has exposed much wrong doing at different scales which happened never before.He is fighting a legal battle with one of the most power country like US and others. But he did not give up and continuously fighting and is currently living in the Ecuadorian embassy in London. Edward Snowden, the computer analyst who turned whistleblower and provided the Guardian with top-secret NSA documents leading to revelations about US surveillance on phone and internet communications of the people. While US has its own version, Assange and Snowden point of view is about the rights of individuals, privacy and freedom.

Besides the Journalists, activists in India and abroad also are fighting in different forms for human rights protection, environment protection and for other cause. For the last 14-years Manipuri activist Irom Sharmila has been on a fast unto death demanding the removal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA). On November 23, The New York Times had carried a story about Wu Lihong, an environmental activist, who was jailed for speaking out about pollution in China’s Lake Tai. Now he is free, but is still calling attention to the industrial waste that flows into the lake. Activists and people all over the world are fighting for different cause by various ways, now it is high time for the Journalists to fight for their rights.  

The issue of the employees of ABP Sanjha has to be taken seriously and need great introspection by the media. The employees were asked to tender their resignations by the Channel and informed that the Punjab government did not let it go on air so the channel left with no choice other than closing its operation. Although nothing in writing was given to the employees what actually transpired to shut the channel. So for the Punjab government also did not come up its version on the issue. A little relief they have is that they were given three months salary in lieu of their resignation.  All the Journalists who were left jobless later on November 27 had organised a candle light march highlighting the issue. Besides the journalists, the legal fraternity, human right activists, civil society members also participated in this movement. In addition to it, on November 28, a press conference was organised by the former employees of ABP Sanjha while highlighting their plight at Chandigarh Press on November 28 while terming it as the death of journalism in Punjab. They were of the view that when they all fight for basic human rights of people and also for animal rights, then why they should not fight together for the journalists rights. The journalists, be it in print or electronic media, don't have much rights to protect themselves. To much surprise while coverage to this protest and press conference was given by the Print media in India and also by radio stations and newspapers abroad, the ABP news did not even show single story about this episode. Now a group of advocates of Punjab and Haryana High Court have decided to file PIL in this regard. This is high time that we all who are feeling concern with Journalism and Journalists should fight together for the freedom of press, for the rights of Journalists and their social security and access of cable network must made free from political pressure.

The struggle for real cause always yield results, however it is not single day work, it will take years and joint efforts by all Journalists and also activists. 

While describing Freedom of the Press  Reader’s Editor of The Hindu newspaper A S Panneerselvan wrote column on December 1, 2014 with headline "A new template for media regulation – 3" said that “the legal provisions for the freedom of the press are clear. Freedom of the press is not recognised as a fundamental right but is folded into the freedom of speech and expression. When it comes to the media’s responsibilities, governing rules are murky, the regulatory framework is weak and the onus of holding the media accountable is left to a byzantine maze of enforcement mechanisms that fails the credibility test. Another important point he highlighted was “It is vital to understand the difference between a media carrier and other forms of carriers. For instance, a power grid is a carrier that transmits electricity from the generating point to the end user. Though there are many forms of power generation — hydro, thermal, nuclear and renewable — the content from one source seamlessly merges with the content from the other. A media carrier on the other hand can play the role of either promoting or inhibiting a particular content source depending on a range of issues — ideology, politics, preference, urban bias, among other things. In the era of convergence, the new regulatory framework must ensure that the carrier is a neutral pipe that will not prohibit smaller players. The digital revolution should not be the preserve of those who can afford a hefty carriage fee” he further added. 

Journalists all over India requires to be united so that they can fight for the cause of journalists. If we all will not fight for our cause then who will fight for us. We all Journalists and like minded people have to be united and fight together.

 Sir, as you are doing great work since you have become the Prime Minister of the

country, I am writing this letter to you with a hope that you will look into matter and  will make require amendments in  existing Cable Television Network (Regulation)  Act so that every channel can go on air without any political pressure. In addition to it  I hope that the central government will make amendments in constitution to make special laws for freedom of press,  journalists definite rights and also responsibilities.

And for most, something urgently needs to be done for 200 young former employees of ABP Sanjha who are jobless.

Jai Hind

KIRAN DEEP