Home secy asks media to omit terrorists’ names
NEWDELHI: Union Home Secretary Rajiv Gauba on Friday called for establishing a code conduct for media organisations that report terrorism related news. The senior bureaucrat said that news media should play a role in devising a counter terrorism strategy and follow practices such as omitting names and images of attackers. This, he suggested, would help fighting terrorism on an ideological level.
“Governments and news media can play a role in devising a counter terrorism strategy by establishing a code of conduct for reporting on terrorism which includes omitting names and images of attackers. Such practices will deny attackers
the glory that they seek,” Gauba said during his address at the fourth annual counter terrorism conference organised by New Delhi based think tank, India Foundation.
Gauba emphasised said terrorism today posed a threat to modern civilization and that there was a need to fight the menace at an ideological level.
“Radicalisation is the root cause of terrorism and it needs to be fought at an ideological level by the society at large,” Gauba said.
“Time and resources are on the side of forces of modernisation and progress, what is required is strong will power and concerted global action to defeat the regressive forces,” the senior bureaucrat added.
Gauba, an 1982 batch IAS officer belonging to Jharkhand cadre, took over as the Home Secretary in August last year and has been looking over law and order affairs in Jammu and Kashmir where fidayeen squads of Pakistan-based militant groups have scaled up their movement since past few months.
“We in Indian have been facing the scourge of terrorism for over two-and-half decades. Our entire region has been bearing the brunt of some of the biggest terrorist actors of the world whether it is the Al-Qaeda, Taliban, Lashkare-Taiba, Jamaat-ud-Dawa etc. Our challenges arise largely from externally sponsored terrorism fueling secessionist and fundamentalist agendas ,” Gauba said adding that there had however been a paradigm shift on the narrative of terrorism.
“For many years we experienced a very frustrating attitude of many countries treating terrorism in our part of the world as a local issue.
Even worse blame was sort to be apportioned on the victim country and its policies but post 9/11 and post terrorist incidents in many parts of the world especially the west, realisation has dawned upon the world community that you cannot distinguish between good or bad terrorist or between your or my terrorist,” Gauba.