People's Democracy

ON June 2, over 150 journalists have condemned the growing attacks on the press after the Tehelka.com exposures, as seen in the raid on the Outlook office in Mumbai. The meeting was organised by the Delhi Union of Journalists (DUJ) at the Press Club of India, New Delhi.

The meeting called for a march to parliament during the monsoon session of parliament as part of a phased agitation. It strongly condemned the attempts of the government and its agencies to curb the freedom of the press, of which the latest example is the attack on Outlook.

Journalists have been targeted in Jammu & Kashmir, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and other states, where the efforts has been to muzzle the press.

Through its sensational exposes, the Tehelka.com website brought the hitherto more subtle attack on press freedom out in the open. Reminiscent of the days of emergency, the government is taking excessive measures to stifle independent journalism, which it perceives as a voice of dissent.

The meeting decided to resist all efforts to curb the rights of the media. It called upon all organisations and concerned people to join hands in order to defend democracy.

The meeting was addressed among others by Outlook editor Vinod Mehta, Tarun Tejpal of Tehelka.com, senior journalist and Press Institute director Ajit Bhattacharya, DUJ president S K Pande, lawyer Rajiv Dhawan, Hans editor Rajendra Yadav, Editors Guild general secretary Alok Mehta, Kamal Mitra Chenoy, Ms Seema Mustafa, Press Club of India president Prabhat Dabral, John Dayal and Javed Faridi. It was presided over by S K Pande.

Earlier, the DUJ had called for a halt to the continuous onslaughts on the freedom of the press, with the attack on the Outlook offices being the latest example.

Calling for intervention by the Press Council of India and a simultaneous agitation by journalists and newspaper bodies, the DUJ had charged that following the Tehelka exposures the press has become a select target under various guises. "Shades of the dark days of emergency and press curbs have begun," a statement issued by DUJ president S K Pande and its general secretary Javed Faridi had said.

Informal meetings against press bashing have begun, the DUJ said, and called upon its members to observe Black Day at short notice and hold a protest meet soon.