Journalists in India need a safety wall

The Press must have its own mechanism to speak up for those who are threatened

On Sunday night, police officers in Kerala’s Varkala town allegedly assaulted journalist Sajeev Gopalan and stripped him in front of his wife and daughter. Mr Gopalan, 49, says he was targeted because of a story that he had done against the police a few months ago. The case is another reminder of the challenging conditions in which many journalists in the vernacular media work. This month itself has seen a spate of such attacks. Two days after Kannada journalist Gauri Lankesh was murdered in Bengaluru on September 5, two bikeborn assailants shot dead Pankaj Mishra in Bihar’s Arwal district. On September 20, TV reporter Shantanu Bhowmick was killed in Tripura. Since 2015, there has been 142 attacks on journalists, according to the National Crime Records Bureau. As many as 70 journalists were killed in India between 1992 and 2016. Many of them were independent journalists who were murdered close to their home or their workplace.

Why do attackers believe they can get away with attacking journalists? One reason could be the absence of a deterrent and a lackadaisical justice system. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, not a single journalist’s murder in India had been solved over the past decade. The State needs to ensure stringent punishment for the perpetrators if a journalist is assaulted or intimidated in connection with their duty.

A few years ago, the Press Council of India had recommended making this a cognisable offence punishable with a five-year prison term. But nothing came out of it. That appears to be part of the problem. Many recommendations of the Council don’t see the light of the day. There is a case for introducing a regulatory body with a robust redressal mechanism for journalists who are intimidated or attacked. This is the least that can be done for journalists who put their lives on the line while doing their duty.