> Hi everybody,
> I'm sure that most of you are in the know of things, and yet I would like
> to share a few thoughts. Let me first very briefly, tell you what actually
> happened: on 28 November Pedestrian Pictures, ( in which I have been active
> for almost a year now), a media activists group, screened a documentary film
> and staged a play, both on the plight of the Srilankan Tamils in the wake of
> the civil war in 2009 May.
> We did hear from the caretaker of the program venue, Leninbalavadi,
> Sreekumar, that the IB had come to enquire. We didn't give this much
> importance as the IB is always present for most of our programs and even
> some of our discussion meetings too.
> On the day after the next, ie. on 30 Nov. a report comes in the
> Mathrubhoomi daily in the front page alleging Pedestrian Pictures' secret
> links with the LTTE....with this newspaper clipping comes the Special Branch
> both Rural and City officers to my office for investigation. Since the 30th,
> their prowling eyes follow me....I think almost everywhere as I see them by
> chance again and again...since I had refused to give my home address, their
> deal was that I save their numbers in my cell and to definitely answer
> whenever they called...the punishment I get for not giving my residential
> address. Being my aggressive self I think I can handle all this
> investigation to a certain extent...
>
> The implication and impact of such media reporting is even scary to just
> think about. This trend should be vehemently opposed at all costs!! and I
> feel that in junctures like this---more so in the cases of Shahina and
> Arundhati --- our friends circle should be kept informed; our friends circle
> should be further widened to include as many more concerned people as
> possible. This support both emotional and material that we can gather from
> friends and well wishers thus, would be the real strength against any
> untoward development like the above, or even worse situations; I believe
> that anyone representing any authority will be unable to help in these
> troubled times as we are generally fighting against an ever increasing nexus
> of power.
>
> There is more to add on what ensued in the Pedestrian Pictures case, but I
> think most of you know about the Press meet we held; anyhow we got good
> coverage in the national media too, with CNN IBN and News X9... We have been
> asked by other malayalam weeklies and a channel to further bring this issue
> to light....
the investigation still goes on,and I am getting used to it.
> Thanks everybody for all the support. We will all need more of it in the
> days ahead.
>
*
The sequence of events at a glance:*
28 Nov. The program 79degrees 6 hours conducted at Lenin Balavadi;
29 Nov. Praveen of Pedestrian gets a call from Mathrubhoomi reporter
saying that he wants info on the organisation and the program to give a news
in his Daily; no untoward questions at all.
30 Nov. Front page four column news in Mathrubhoomi which said: *campaign
for Tamil nationalism: investigation begun in the State capi*tal
30 Nov. Special Branch officers come to my office twice with
appointment; but later seen wherever I went;
1 Dec. Pedestrians booked the press meet ; three of us go to the
Resident Editor Mathrubhoomi, Tvm. with an open letter to him; he reads the
entire letter and says-- we generally trust our reporters; and besides we
have to carry two Tvm news in the front page; the most crucial point is that
in these times of heavy competition in reporting, we really don't have time
to go into the details of such news; because if we don't carry this news and
if some other daily carries it we loose out on our circulation, besides
mistrusting our reporter...yesterday your friend Sudeep called me and so I
am aware of the controversy; Tomorrow we will definitely carry a
correction--;
2 Dec. After all four of us (Zacharia, Sreemith ,Deepu, Pedestrian
Pictures Founder member from B'lore and Elizabeth) spoke on different
aspects of the issue, P S Jayan sabotages the proceedings of the rest of the
press meet by doing an act which would be unheard of in the history of Press
Conferences...taking over our stage and beginning to give his explanation!!!
and hence we quickly moved onto screening the documentary, Mullaitivu Saga,
by Somee Tharan. Due to technical failure the screening couldn't be
completed;
2 Dec, (later in the evening): Deepu gets a call from Jayan first politely
and then later in a threatening tone saying that Pedestrians' problems are
only going to begin; before disconnecting the phone, Jayan warned Deepu
saying that he will be quoted in the next day's mathrubhoomi on all that he
said on the phone; Deepu didn't say anything controversial on the phone and
yet, I, Elizabeth, talked to Kesava Menon on the phone immediately to tell
him about the threatening tone of his reporter's call...but the chief editor
seemed least concerned.
3 Dec. Only Mathrubhoomi reports Pedestrian's Press Meet and that too
totally to our advantage; they spelt out all the 'harsh' words of Zacharia
against them and sort of retraced their own words of the previous negative
reporting they did on 30 Nov.
A meeting of Pedestrian Pictures new members were called yesterday. Ten of
them attended. It has been decided to :
- do a screening of all the documentaries the Pedestrians have produced
so far; show case the entire history of activism which Pedestrian Pictures
is known for nationally; in short do a Retrospective of Pedestrian at the
earliest in Kerala.
- screen Mullaitivu Saga, in as many places as possible in kerala;
- reach out to as many campuses as possible with the documentary films
library collection of Pedestrian Pictures, and also the booklets,
Pedestrians published on various issues.
Elizabeth
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