Is this an Eyewash?

The state is attempting to enact an Act ostensibly meant to protect journalists, but how sincere is it when there have been 22 cases of administrative assault on journalists in the last two years?

- Neeraj Mishra

HOW does one ensure protection of working journalists? Every country, including Pakistan, has tried its hand at drafting and imposing laws which usually exist only on paper and have remained difficult to implement. Now Chhattisgarh is attempting to enact an act which will ostensibly provide protection to journalists.

If anything, the draft is an exercise in demonstrating what should not be done to protect journalists. It works on the premise that a committee with a retired judge and director-general of police at the state level and superintendent of police and collector at the district level will ensure the safety of journalists. It completely ignores the fact that the protection journalists need is usually against state oppression. So how will a committee of police officials help in sorting out the grievances of journalists, especially if it comes in the background of what the Bhupesh Baghel government has achieved in the last two years?

One journalist wrote extensively against land grab by officials close to Baghel in his web magazine. He was gheraoed and stopped on a road in Raipur by ten policemen, asked to get down from his car, tested for drunken driving and put in jail for a month. Another journalist, Kamal Shukla, was beaten up by a Congressman because he was writing on the sand mafia in Kanker. Journalists went on strike, but the state went into overdrive to project that it was the result of personal animosity. There have been 22 cases of administrative assault on journalists, resulting in false cases being registered against them in the past two years.