New Delhi, Dec 3 (ANI): Sending a stern warning to the police and paramilitary forces "not to commit any violence against media persons, Press Council of India chairman Markandey Katju has said the PCI will launch criminal proceedings against them for targeting the press covering demonstrations and other incidents.
Justice Katju (retired) issued the warning after the Jammu and Kashmir Police justified a recent assault on some journalists in Srinagar during a baton charge on an unruly mob on the grounds that "journalists could not be differentiated from the rest of the mob."
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah in his letter to PCI had also suggested that journalists should wear brightly coloured jackets or bibs to avoid being at the receiving end of police action while covering protests.
"I do not agree with the police version. I am informed that the journalists had video cameras and other equipment, which clearly distinguished them from the rest of the crowd. At any event, it is obvious that when a journalist is being attacked, he is bound to tell the police that he is a journalist," Katju said in his reply to Abdullah's letter.
Justice Katju said he would was also be writing a letter to the Union Cabinet Secretary, Union Home Secretary, all Chief Ministers and Chief Secretaries/Home Secretaries of all the States in India, and all the Chief Secretaries of Union Territories that he is "not going to accept violence on journalists by the police or paramilitary forces, as it is the duty of the Press Council under Section 13 of the Press Council Act to uphold the freedom of the Press."
Justice Katju's letter reads like a judgment he was delivering on the issue, typical of the strong rulings he used to deliver as a judge of the Supreme Court from which he retired earlier this year.
He affirmed that a journalist while covering an incident is only doing his job.
"He is like a lawyer who defends his client. Just as a lawyer cannot be equated with his client, so also a journalist cannot be equated with the crowd. A lawyer may defend a murderer, but that does not make him a murderer. Similarly, a journalist is only doing his duty of conveying information to the public, and he enjoys the fundamental right of freedom of the media guaranteed by Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution of India," he said. (ANI)
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