Why journalists don’t need protection.

I am sure many of my journalist friends may dislike me for saying this but I have to say it: pushing for a legislation to make attacks against journalist a non–bailable offence is very elitist and this can be misused by journalists themselves.  

After the gruesome murder of   Mid Day crime reporter J Dey in  broad daylight  in Mumbai last weekend, the  journalist fraternity  has been lobbying hard with the government  of Maharashtra  to  bring in a bill  to protect journalists from future attacks. They say this bill will act as a deterrent and the attackers should be put behind the bars. 

But the chief minister of Maharashrtra Prithivraj  Chauhan raised  some  pertinent questions :  who will the bell the cat, the journalist themselves? Or, what is the definition of a journalist? And lastly, who will look into the complaints of corruption against journalists?

All these queries are significant considering the fact that there are many self-styled  journalists especially working in moffusil towns who  runs newspapers which have vested interests and prints stories which are blatantly false and fabricated.  These slanted stories promote or glorify the misdeeds by local netas, be it running an illegal quarrying business or usurping public land and forests.  Some of these journalists turn into blackmailers  and extortionists and even get  assaulted and killed  by  rival mafia groups and in police encounters. The question is do we need to give a blanket protection for these journalists who were anyway no better than  hard- core criminals.

The broader question is why should a journalist behave as if he is some super- hero of sorts  who needs a protective gear  when actually he is  meant to be a watch dog for society’s  social evils.
 
We have a good penal system where the cops, if they want to, can book people who commit murders and assaults and  arrest them promptly. But sadly today the will is not there, either in the police force nor in the political leadership. This is because many crimes are done at the behest of mafia groups who have close to link with politicians.

What we need is non- corrupt and credible police force who will not cow down to the pressures of the   politicians.  Instead, the cops should book culprits within a fixed deadline after a offence is committed. They should also book the main culprits instead of parading some  poor labourers and taporis. Chief minister Pritiviraj Chauhan may be right in disproving the demands of journalists as  is  it sounds unreasonable.

But he should also realise  that  some of his  colleagues have close  links with mafia groups who  run illegal sand, oil  and land business.  Last year , six activists were murdered and five more were severely assaulted  for taking up cudgels against the corrupt  establishment in the state.  He should direct the state home minister R R Patil  to take a firm stand and  tell  the police force  to get cracking before another Adarsh like scam erupts again.