Editors Guild accuses NDA govt of attempting to curb press freedom
New Delhi, Aug 08: The Editors Guild of India on August 8, decried “all attempts” by the government to “interfere” with the independence of the media, taking strong note of senior journalists of two TV channels quitting and frequent instances of broadcast signals being blocked of programmes seen to be critical of the ruling dispensation.
The Guild, an umbrella body of media organisations, in a statement, demanded suitable action against those responsible for “nefarious activities” aimed at “throttling” press freedom and urged media owners not to “cow down” to political pressure being put on them by the government or any other forces. It demanded that the government take note of the cases of disruptions in television programme signals, investigate and explain how and under what circumstances these “egregious violations” are taking place. It said such attempts strike at the root of media freedom and the foundations of India’s democracy.
“It (government) must also assure the nation that either directly or through any proxies or agencies it isn’t involved in this activity. And if it isn’t, these saboteurs must be brought to book. Freedom of airwaves cannot be tampered with,” said the Guild.
Pressure from the government
The strong statement comes days after the managing editor and two anchors of a prominent TV channel resigned. The Congress has alleged that they quit due to pressure from the government for airing stories critical of the Modi dispensation. It said the past few days have seen senior journalists of at least two electronic media channels come out in the open to assert that their employers attempted to either “tailor” or “tone down” content to make it less critical of the government, leaving them with no choice but to resign. The Guild said at least one such instance was reported formally in writing to it.
“The Editors Guild of India condemns the manner in which the right to practise free and independent journalism is seen to be undermined by a combination of forces — some media owners’ inability to withstand covert or overt pressures from the political establishment and frequent instances of blocking or interference in the transmission of television content that is seen to be critical of the government,” it said.
Disruption of TV signals
The Guild said one TV channel has also shared with it screen-shots and details indicating such interference. “Even more worrying are the recent instances where signals of television programmes critical of the government have seemingly been blocked or disrupted in a manner almost Orwellian,” it said. “These undermine the right to be informed and to hold the establishment accountable. This seems a brazen attempt to punish ‘unfriendly’ news channels and silence inconvenient voices.”
The Guild asserted that freedom of airwaves cannot be tampered with and decried the tendency on the part of the government, and the political class in general, to use “selective denial of journalistic access” as a weapon.
“This has become worse when there are few opportunities to ask questions to those in public life or in official positions on public platforms like press conferences, which is a legitimate democratic right of journalists on behalf of all citizens. Denying this right and shunning journalists critical of you are unhealthy practices in a democracy. Unfortunately, it can also lead to one-sided coverage. This unhealthy and unfair practice must be avoided,” the Guild said.
It also reminded media owners that institutional strength and respect is directly linked to editorial independence and undermining the former can result in curtailing the latter.
“Owners and journalists have an equally shared interest in press freedoms and in resisting pressures,” the Guild said. On a related issue, the Guild decried the “cease and desist” notice served by a large corporate group on some newspapersin an effort to block the coverage of an important defence deal. “The company should withdraw this notice. And if it doesn’t, it should be resisted. If needed, we hope the courts will weigh in for the right of journalists to investigate and raise questions,” it said.
Courtesy: www.thehindu.com
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
