Photo Credit: Priti Prakash
New Delhi: On the occasion of International Press Freedom Day a panel discussion was held at Indian Womens'Press Corps, the premier press organization for women journalists.
The panelist included President, Press Club of India, Gautam Laheri; President, Foreign Correspondent Club of South Asia S Venkat Narayan; Former President, Press Association of India, Jaishankar Gupta; President, Delhi Union of Journalist, Sujata Madhok; and Co Founder & General Secretary, DIGIPUB News India Foundation, Abhinandan Sekri.
Talking about the challenging times for media, Gautam Laheri said that journalists are facing criminal charges and even being booked under anti terrorist laws. ‘Its an undeclared emergency’, he said. Despite being funded by the taxpayers money, Public Broadcasters such as Prasar Bharti & DD are not giving due coverage to the Opposition, he said. He called for consultation of various media organizations for putting together a national media policy.
Terming press freedom a myth S Venkat Narayan said, 'Any media report critical of the government policy is construed as being not just against the government but against the state too'. He insisted that we need to defend our freedom to write freely and keep people informed.
Sujata Madhok talked about various kinds of attacks that media is facing which include physical, virtual (Trolling, Internet Shutdowns), Legal attacks, Defamation, Sedition as also Financial attack. She condoned the Broadcasting Bill in the IT Act. She raised concern about the Fact Checking unit proposed by the government presently under a stay order. 'The new Labour Laws proposed by the government would seriously undermine the Working Journalist Act', she said.
Urging the importance of self introspection by media, Abhinandan Sekri talked about the need for journalists to understand the value of journalism and have a plan in place.
Jaishankar Gupta opined that journalists have surrendered their freedom to the interests of media owners, government and advertisers. He said today the media is ‘crawling’ and only questions the Opposition. ‘Both Judiciary and Journalism are faltering, he said. ‘We must remain honest to our profession and safeguard our rights and be ready to pay the price for it.’
Lauding the role of IWPC in amplifying the voices of women journalists and advocating for their rights, in a message, Kunal Majumdar of Centre for Protection of Journalist reaffirmed the commitment to defend press freedom to uphold the vital role of journalist in a democratic society.
Steering the discussion on International Press Freedom Day, President IWPC Parul Sharma in her opening remarks emphasised the need to fight against censorship and misinformation and support independent media.
A joint statement was issued by IWPC, Press Club of India, Press Association, Delhi Union of Journalists, Foreign Correspondent Club of South Asia and DIGIPUB on the freedom of press.
