Murdering Journalists
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A JOURNAL OF THE PRESS INSTITUTE OF INDIA ISSN 0042-5303 October-December 2017 Volume 9 Issue 4 Rs 60 Murdering journalists: CONTENTS • When the media ignored its own principles / Bharat the much larger attack Dogra • GST – a good and simple tax? / Shreejay Sinha When writer-activist Gauri Lankesh was shot dead in Bengaluru • Do Indian cinema and on September 5, it was not just one journalist or one fearless television mimic life, or vice- female activist who was murdered. It was a manifestation of versa? / Pushpa Achanta • Dhananjoy and the death something far, far larger – the maiming of a big chunk of the sentence / Shoma A. lives and futures of 1.2-odd billion Indians, no less, a big chunk Chatterji of the fundamental rights of each citizen, and a big chunk of the • Can’t we make room for Constitution that we gave to ourselves with such pride 70 years people with disabilities? / ago, says Sakuntala Narasimhan Aditi Panda • Fostering change-makers, making the world a ut aside the political imputations for a moment. As of this writing (end- better place / Sakuntala September*), the case is still being investigated, the guilty are yet to be Narasimhan Pidentified. Just collate the facts on a wider canvas, and what you have, as • Creativity: the missing the larger picture, is a collection of events that spell murder of a basic concept ingredient in Chinese of democracy, something more than an attack on an individual, a woman, an thinking? / Asma Masood activist, or journalist. • Another scribe falls victim to If I cannot eat what my family has been eating for generations (something that violence / Nava Thakuria is eaten worldwide) and am punished for doing so (even lynched) because some • A liberal who did not bow factions decide that it is ‘not acceptable’ to them; if I cannot marry the person of down, but created a big my choice because some groups decide I cannot and should not marry outside impact / Mrinal Chatterjee my religion, community or caste, and am targeted with violence (even death) for • Fact before fiction: my days my ‘disobedience’ (not just khap panchayats** but vigilante groups have done in journalism / Shreekumar this, with the media reporting regularly on incidents from around the country Varma – a news item of September 29 says: ‘Inter-faith marriage disrupted by Bajrang • Once a dancer, always a Dal’); if I cannot pray the way I choose to and am hounded for following a dancer / Seetha Ratnakar particular religion; if I cannot follow a profession as leather worker that my • Time to say, Chak de India! / family has carried on for generations; and if I cannot express dissenting opinion Partab Ramchand on social issues (a report in the Coimbatore-based Covai Post, on religious rituals • An informative website on that degrade adolescent girls by requiring them to parade half naked, brought birds, a labour of love / Rina Mukherji threats of murder to the two writers, and the Network of Women in Media has issued a strong protest about this), what ‘freedoms’ do I have left, as a citizen of • Remembering Sufi Amba Prasad, Ananda Kentish a ‘democratic’ country? Does democracy mean just casting my vote once in five Coomaraswamy, Sanjoy years? Ghose, Ramananda Disagreement is the “most vital ingredient of any decent society”; intelligent Sengupta, Sova Sen, Jerry disagreement “is the lifeblood of any thriving society” – these are quotations Lewis, Jeanne Moreau, from an oration given at the Lowy Institute’s Media Awards event in Sydney Kundan Shan, Tom Alter (Continued on page 3) October-December 2017 VIDURA 1 FROM THE EDITOR We owe it to Gauri Lankesh to report without fear or favour always he brutal killing of journalist usual, we received several top-notch National Triangular Wheelchair and activist Gauri Lankesh entries. Here is what the winners T-20 Cricket Series. Twas one of the most were able to produce (am not The two others, both special horrendous we have heard or seen naming the winners as the awards photojournalists with the – of a journalist in India. A hapless are yet to be presented as we go to newspaper, had taken some victim of hatred, she was about to print): stunning pictures – of 52-year-old enter her house after parking her Malayala Manorama’s chief re- Monu, a dwarf, who transforms car when three bullets hit her, two porter in Thiruvananthapuram himself into ‘Charlie Mama’ at on the chest and one on the temple. sent in a short series of articles. Delhi’s India Gate every day at 4 Gauri Lankesh’s fight was against Titled They Are Also Our Pet pm, and of Suyash Jadhav who injustice, she led a crusade against Children (Arumakalanu Avarum), represented India in the men’s 50m crime. In many ways, it was a moral the articles throw light on the butterfly, men’s 50m freestyle and crusade continuing the legacy of sad plight of children with neuro men’s 200m individual medley at her father who left behind Lankesh disabilities, the issues faced by the Rio Paralympic Games. Patrike, a hard-hitting tabloid. the children and their families, A three-part series on the As veteran writer Sakuntala ineffective implementation of India Spend website, examining Narasimhan rightly says in the government programmes, lack of what living with disability in lead article, Gauri’s killing was a treatment facilities, and scope for India means, particularly with manifestation of something far, social support. regard to access to education and far larger – the maiming of a big Manorama’s chief sub-editor’s employment, 22 years after the chunk of the lives and futures of (Malappuram, Kerala) entry was Persons with Disabilities (Equal 1.2-odd billion Indians, no less, titled Life on Wheels. It is also a Opportunities, Protection of Rights a big chunk of the fundamental short, moving series – of Shabna and Full Participation) Act was rights of each citizen, and a big who is an epitome of indomitable passed, has been cited for a special chunk of the Constitution that we spirit despite being confined to a award. gave to ourselves with such pride. wheel chair; of Roy who, after a It’s stories such as these, about Muzzling the press is not on, fall from a jack fruit tree, becomes the lives of ordinary people, done she points out. Indeed, we need partially paralysed but is now a with loads of commitment and pluralism and liberalism if we sought-after carpenter; of Salma, passion, that will help keep the are to progress as a multicultural affected by polio as a child and Journalism flag flying high in India nation and dissent, whether from wheel-chair bound, who today runs and motivate others to raise the journalists, activists or the common a tailoring unit and wants to start bar. Like Gauri Lankesh always man, only strengthens the polity. a training centre; of Basheer who did – without fear or favour. survived a major accident to start a n the midst of all the gloom, it’s business unit; and others. Sashi Nair Iheartening to see journalists Care to Care? That was the [email protected] plodding along, reporting on article sent by The Week’s special subjects and issues that concern all correspondent in Bengaluru. It urges of us. The Press Institute of India and authorities to sit up and take notice the International Committee of the of the harassment female health care Red Cross (ICRC) present awards workers faced in hospitals. to journalists and photojournalists The top three winners in the every year for best articles and photography category are all pictures on a humanitarian subject. from Hindustan Times. HT’s chief This year, the theme is Disability photographer in Jaipur had sent in – Triumphs and Challenges. As an eye-catching photo-essay on the 2 VIDURA October-December 2017 (Continued from page 1) oppression of Dalits. She even defamation, or even murderous helped Naxal rebels to return to crime does not merit shooting; in September, by an op-ed writer the mainstream, which ought to a due process of law is applied (The Dying Art of Disagreement, have been lauded. Instead, her before judgment is given based on available online). He was not killing was hailed (online) by some an impartial, judicial trial. Killing, referring to the Indian context, political factions as “the death of even of a person found guilty, is but the comments apply aptly a bitch”. In the words of a former seen as barbaric and the death to what we see emerging in our Naxalite whom she brought to penalty is being abolished in many country. Those expressing dissent, the mainstream, “She was for nations. in speech, writing or action, are democracy, love, equality and Warning journalists (or other targeted, punished, even bumped harmony.” Was that a crime? citizens) of ‘dire consequences’ off, by self-styled ‘protectors’ of our When Gauri was convicted last is outrageous horror, no better polity in the name of tradition or year in a case of defamation for an than goondaism. If Gauri had not ‘nationalism’. article where she had mentioned criticised developments in society Gauri Lankesh wrote from a three workers of a rightist party, and politics, she would be alive dissenting perspective, criticising a spokesperson of the BJP from today. Is this not engineering irrational trends she thought were Dharwar warned: “Hope other thought processes and articulation detrimental to our society -- caste- journalists take note.” That was a through ‘or-else’ intimidation? ist divisions, communalism, and threat. In any civilized country, Reducing her death to a gender Illustration: Arun Ramkumar Illustration: October-December 2017 VIDURA 3 issue, or that of journalistic freedom, Hindu University).