NEW DELHI, July 17
(IslamOnline) - Journalists in India are deeply concerned about
growing government intolerance of dissent which could threaten to
ultimately stifle the freedom of speech, a vital part of democracy.
Both Indian and
foreign journalists have been at the receiving end of the big stick
wielded by government agencies. It all started with the celebrated
news portal tehelka.com exposing corruption in defense deals involving
high officials. Instead of bringing the guilty to book, myriad
government agencies began to harass tehelka CEO and editor Tarun
Tejpal Singh and his staff.
Its largest financial
backer, First Global, was hounded out of business. Within months,
endless number of government agencies summoned tehelka staff over 200
times under one pretext or the other. When government saw that no
charge really stuck to the portal, one of its reporters was jailed for
being hand in glove with poachers.
To its credit, the
army has found the portal’s charges against its officers cognizable
and decided to court-martial them. On the other hand, the defense
minister, who had to quit in disgrace, was silently reinducted over
protests from opposition and media.
Another dignitary who
had to quit in dishonor was ruling BJP’s president Bangaru Laxman.
Laxman, who was shown accepting bribe in cash on camera, was
reinducted as chairman of the house committee of Rajya Sabha
(parliament’s upper house).
As the accused
continue to enjoy power, journalists involved in the expose are being
persecuted.
One of the latest
high-profile journalists to be hounded is Alex Perry of the U.S. Time
magazine. Since he wrote an unflattering piece about the failing
health and personal habits of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, he
has unnecessarily been queried about his passport. Government
officials have lately hinted at denying him extension of his
Information Ministry accreditation.
Another relatively
better known case is that of Al-Jazeerah correspondent Nasir M.
Shadid. The Indian government “asked” the Qatari satellite TV
channel to replace him by another reporter. The External Affairs
Ministry spokesperson gave no explanation for the decision. She said
the decision had “nothing to do with his work as a journalist”.
The journalistic
fraternity in New Delhi feels Shadid was kicked out because the
central government did not like his coverage of the anti-Muslim pogrom
in Gujarat, and security forces’ heavy-handed treatment of common
Kashmiris. That the Gujarat pogrom had tacit approval (and even direct
involvement) of BJP leaders is borne out by a dozen independent
enquiries. BJP rules in Gujarat and leads a coalition government at
Center. The most important functionaries at the center, like prime
minister and deputy prime minister, belong to this party.
Truth about human
rights abuses by security forces in Jammu and Kashmir was confirmed
Tuesday, July 16, by J&K Chief minister Farooq Abdullah in the
state legislative assembly. He said five people, killed in cold-blood
by security forces in March 2000 for allegedly being “foreign
terrorists”, were no more than local lads who had nothing to do with
terrorism.
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Mediamen
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This has been borne
out by DNA tests and other corroborating evidence. The young men were
killed by security forces who claimed they were involved in the
massacre of Sikhs at the time of U.S. President Bill Clinton’s
visit. The chief minister said security forces officers had been
trying to destroy evidence and mislead investigation.
The latest on the
list of persecuted journalists is Iftikhar Geelani, Kashmir Times
correspondent in Delhi, who was accused of violating Official Secrets
Act for allegedly storing “sensitive” data on his computer about
India’s troops deployment.
The bottom was
knocked out of the government case when Geelani said the data had been
public knowledge for the last six years and freely available on the
Internet. Pakistan’s Institute of Defense and Strategic Analysis had
published the data in 1996 and circulated it worldwide. Ten Indian
institutions, some of them state-run, had been sent a copy each of the
booklet.
Finding the case
untenable, police are adding new legal clauses to the charges made
against Geelani. They saying they found “pornographic material” on
his computer. Geelani’s lawyers have announced that they would
object to the addition of this piece of afterthought.
Media persons in New
Delhi are worried that Geelani is persecuted for being son-in-law of
Kashmir’s opposition leader, Syed Ali Shah Geelani. His editor
Probodh Jamwal has vouchsafed for his integrity.
The international
organization of journalists, Reporters Without Borders, has expressed
concern over the development. Doyen of India’s journalistic corps,
Kuldip Nayar, has said that difficult days lie ahead for India’s
celebrated press freedom. Nayar, a member of Parliament's upper house,
asked the young generation of journalists to fight back the
government’s arm-twisting tactics.
The country’s
largest political party, the Congress Party, which has ruled India for
most of the years after independence and still rules in 16 states, has
shown concern over the trend
