Dr John Mohan Razu
Across the globe Press Freedom Day is being celebrated the 3rd of May every year. The General Assembly of the United Nation in the month of December 1993 on the recommendation of UNESCO’s General Conference that 3rd of May would have to be designated as World Press Freedom Day. Since then, the World Press Freedom Day is observed under diverse themes. The theme for 2022 World Press Freedom Day is: Journalism Under Digital Siege.The theme for 2022 is apt and timely as journalism is come under digital media.
3rd of May is a reminder to all the governments of the world to respect freedom of the press. It is also a period of introspection and self-reflection among media professionals about the issues that concerns press freedom and professional ethics. It is also an opportunity to:
• Celebrate freedom the fundamental principle of press freedom;
• Access the state of press freedom throughout the world;
• Defend the media from attacks on their independence;
• And pay tribute to journalists who have lost their lives in the line of duty.
The theme echoes in multiple ways journalism and journalists cover issues, analyze and evaluate the policies and programs of the ruling dispensation (micro and macro levels)who are surveilled. Increasingly in recent times the journalists are attacked in a digitally-mediated media world, where one section of a society obviously will get dissatisfied or irritated or agitated with the news. As a result, on sensitive issues such as religion, politics and culture attack the journalists, and at times vent their anger by vandalizing offices of the newspaper offices and also the studios where TV channels are located.
In an intensely polarized world and more particularly in a vertically and horizontally polarized Indian society shall never accept objectivity and truth of those materials that the journalists write and stand by the ethics of journalism. More importantly, in a world of digitalized media, objectivity and truth seem to have been lost its relevance and essence. By and large, false news and fake narratives dominate the digital media. The journalists who search for truth and want to speak the truth are increasingly targeted and even terminated.
In recent years we have been witnessing attacks on journalists especially those who cover the crucial issues and write critically about those who are in power; abuse their power and authority. One such example is Jamal Khashoggi, who was murdered in heinous ways inside an embassy because in his writing and reporting exposed thoroughly the ruling regime. The print and visual media covered in their columns for several months the media flashed every information possible to the world at large. The whole world knows who were behind the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, but the truth is yet to surface.
Journalists are amongst those who push truth to power. The dynamics of power usually reigns supreme because the truth is somehow quelled and thus hushed. Those who strive for truth daringly enter into horrendous terrains engulfed with war, conflicts of all sorts, natural and human-made catastrophes, epidemics and many others such as political, economic, cultural and socio-religious problems without any hesitation to bring to the readers and viewers the happenings at the micro and macro levels with candid analysis and interpretations.
The journalists go the field and interact with people where a number difficult problems keep surfacing by taking risks. In a world caught up in war, racial, lingual, ethnic, majoritarian, regional conflicts freedom of the press is important as they bring before us the reality happening in the local, regional, national and global settings. Further, the world we live is gradually turning out to be totalitarian and dictatorial. In such settings the concerned governments are gradually tightening the noose of the freedom of press. They use diverse modus operandi pressurizing the press either to tone down the analysis or give rosy picture or not to cover.
In some cases, the print and visual media are intimidated or warned of the dire consequences. India is not an exception. Barring a few, many succumb to the pressures and sometimes the luring and incentives are offered by the ruling governments both at the Centre and states. Take India as an example that has fallen eight places from 142 to 150 in the 2022 World Press Freedom Index of 180 countries. This index was published on the 3rd of May, 2022 by Reporters Without Borders, points to an overall two-fold increase in media polarization, creating divisions within countries, and between countries at the international level.
India’s ranking, according to the report, fell on the back of increased “violence against journalists” and a “politically partisan media”, which has landed press freedom in a state of “crisis” in the world’s largest democracy. The index says, media in India, among nations reputed to be more democratic faces pressure from “increasingly authoritarian and /or nationalist governments”, a transformation seen since Prime Minister Narendra Modi took over the reins of the country in 2014. Elaborating further, the report pointed out that “Very early on, Modi took a critical stance vis-à-vis journalists, seeing them as “intermediaries” polluting the direct relationship between himself and his supporters. Indian journalists who are too critical of the government are subjected to all-out harassment and attack campaigns by Modi devotees known as ‘bhakts’.”
It also brought to the fore that “India for its policy framework, which is proactive in theory but resorts to using charged of defamation, sedition, contempt of court and endangering national security against journalists critical of government, branding them as anti-nationals.”It ripped open the ways with which journalists are treated in India that “With an average of three or four journalists killed in connection with their work every year (one killed since January 2022 and 13 currently in prison). India, according to the report, is also one of the world’s most dangerous countries for media persons.
Raising serious concern over “Journalists are exposed to all kinds of physical violence including police violence, ambushes by political activists, and deadly reprisals by criminal groups or corrupt local officials …Terrifying coordinated campaigns of hatred and calls for murder are conducted on social media, campaigns that are often more violent when they target women journalists, whose personal data may be posted online as an additional incitement to violence,” it said. The World Press Freedom Index also says that the situation in Kashmir remains “worrisome” and reporters are often harassed by police and paramilitaries, with some being subjected to so-called “provisional” detention for several years.
World’s largest democracy is falling in its press freedom year by year – 133 in 2016, 138 in 2018, 142 in 2021 and in 2022 150. The ruling establishment as usual enters into blame game dismissing the findings, data and facts on the grounds that the previous governments did not take these reports seriously or the sampling has been problematic or methodology employed seem to be inappropriate. Freedom of the press is one of the pillars for any country that believes in freedom of speech in words and letters especially for India. When the ruling dispensation says “it doesn’t matter”, in fact “it matters”.
