‘Fear among scribes in Bastar’

A fact-finding team of the Editors Guild of India, after visiting the Naxal-hit Bastar district of Chhattisgarh, has concluded that “there is a sense of fear among journalists there”. The report of the three-member fact-finding team comes in the wake of alleged instances of intimidation of mediapersons in the region. In its report, “Challenges to Journalism in Bastar”, the team said that newspaper organisations should take care while appointing stringers and give them adequate protection. “Instead, they disown them because they see them as a liability beyond a point,” it said.

“There is a sense of fear in Bastar. Every journalist who is working in Bastar feels that s/he is not safe. On one hand, they have to deal with Maoists who are becoming more and more sensitive about the reports appearing in the media and on the other hand, the police wants the media to report as and what they want,” the report said.

“There is a general feeling (in the government) in Chhattisgarh that a large section of the national media is pro-Maoist,” it said, quoting a senior editor. The report also quoted another editor as saying: “If you wish to analyse anything independently then you can be judged whether you are with the government or with the Maoists. The democratic space for journalism is shrinking.”

It stated that newspapers and other media houses are appointing journalists as stringers in remote areas without any formalities, who survive on commissions from advertisements and distribution of newspapers and rely on other professions.

Meanwhile, Press Council of India chairman Justice Chandramauli Kumar Prasad has expressed grave concern over the arrest of journalist Prabhat Singh by the police in Chhattisgarh for allegedly posting an “obscene message” about a senior police officer on a WhatsApp group. Taking suo motu cognisance of the issue, he has immediately sought a detailed report on the case from the Chhattisgarh government. “The chairman felt that prima facie, the action of the Chhattisgarh police to arrest the journalist impinged on the freedom of the press,” a PCI statement said.