http://scroll.in/article/820689/the-daily-fix-the-ban-on-ndtv-brings-the-press-freedoms-of-kashmir-and-bastar-to-delhi
The ban on NDTV brings the press freedoms of Kashmir and Bastar to Delhi 2 hours ago Shoaib Daniyal Modi-fied media On Wednesday, speaking at a journalism award ceremony, Prime Minister Narendra Modi reminded the audience about the dark days of India’s 1975 Emergency, when civil liberties were greatly restricted. “Every generation must keep reflecting on the Emergency period in an unbiased manner so that no future political leader can even wish to commit the same sin,” said Modi. Like a good politician, Modi kept a rather wide gap between his words and actions. Even as the prime minister was decrying the Emergency, his own government was muzzling the press. On Thursday, the Union government banned NDTV’s Hindi channel from being aired for 24 hours on November 10. The government claims that the penalty was due to the fact that the channel had broadcast sensitive information during the militant attack on the Pathankot airbase in January. NDTV, however, claims that it was “singled out” and “every channel and newspaper had similar coverage”. This arbitrary action by the Union government points to the restrictive powers the Telegraph Act of 1885 confers on the state over the media. In fact, India is a rare country in 2016 to still have a Soviet-style Information and Broadcast Ministry. The action against NDTV provides a reminder about how poor press freedom is in India: The 2016 World Press Freedom Index released by Reporters Without Borders ranked India at 133 among 180 countries. The report also made it a point to mention that Prime Minister Narendra Modi seems indifferent to the threats against journalists. In one particular egregious attempt to clamp down on a critic, the Union government in September 2015 served a notice to a Gujarati channel for simply asking if Modi was misusing Gandhi’s legacy. The government’s notice says, “The way it has criticised him in the news item seems a deliberate attempt to malign his reputation which is repugnant of the esteemed office he holds." The fact that the Union government thinks “esteemed offices” can’t be criticised is alarming. Even more so is the fact that journalism is an extremely unsafe profession in India. In 2015, India saw 110 journalists killed, putting it among the three most unsafe countries to be a newsperson. While India is a democracy, not all Indians enjoy the same levels of liberty. India’s freedoms are distributed hierarchically. At the lowest layer, in places like Kashmir or Chhattisgarh, press freedom is especially fragile. Hence, the government could ban the Kashmir Reader and arrest Chhattisgarh journalist Prabhat Singh without much fuss. On the highest level of India’s press hierarchy sits the English media in Delhi. Within this structure, NDTV is a well-known brand, having pioneered television news broadcasting in India. That the Modi government could summarily ban even NDTV should ring loud alarm bells for India’s press freedom. -- Peace Is Doable -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
