Humaira Jasmin Tak & Dr. Bilal A. Bhat
The United Nations General Assembly declared May 3 to be World Press Freedom Day or World Press Day to raise awareness of the importance of freedom of the press and remind governments of their duty to respect and uphold the right to freedom of expression as enshrined under Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) and marking the anniversary of the Windhoek Declaration, a statement of free press principles put together by African newspaper journalists in Windhoek in 1991. Every year, May 3rd is a date which celebrates the fundamental principles of press freedom; to evaluate press freedom around the world, to defend the media from attacks on their independence and to pay tribute to journalists who have lost their lives in the exercise of their profession. This day was proclaimed World Press Freedom Day by the UN General Assembly in 1993 following a Recommendation adopted at the twenty-sixth session of UNESCO’s General Conference in 1991. It serves as an occasion to inform citizens of violations of press freedom – a reminder that in dozens of countries around the world, publications are censored, fined, suspended and closed down, while journalists, editors and publishers are harassed, attacked, detained and even murdered. It is a date to encourage and develop initiatives in favour of press freedom, and to assess the state of press freedom worldwide. It serves as a reminder to governments of the need to respect their commitment to press freedom and is also a day of reflection among media professionals about issues of press freedom and professional ethics. Just as importantly, World Press Freedom Day is a day of support for media which are targets for the restraint, or abolition, of press freedom.
History: Back in 1735, there was a case involving John Peter Zenger, a journalist and publisher of the New York Weekly Journal. Zenger was sued for libel after publishing critical stories about public officials, but this famous case was overturned. This case established the right of the press to criticize public officials, and it also indicated that true statements are a valid defense when sued for libel. Thereafter, in 1791, the First Amendment was established. This Amendment is the basis of the freedom of the press. During the early 1900s and World War I, two legislative acts were passed to regulate free speech. These acts, the Espionage Act and the Sedition Act, were enacted in order to censor pro-German, socialist, or pacifist publications. However, in 1931, the Supreme Court held that virtually all forms of restraint on free speech were unconstitutional. In the advent of the Cold War in the mid-1900s, news organizations worked to disclose information such as public records relating to wars. These efforts were designed to promote the policy that failing to release information to the public constitutes a threat to the freedom of the press. Thereafter, in the early 1970s, during Vietnam and the Nixon administration, frequent discussions occurred between news agencies and the government. In 1971, a Supreme Court case entitled New York Times v. United States established the significant rights of the press. In this case, the government sought to suppress classified documents known as the Pentagon Papers. These papers included classified information about the Vietnam War. The New York Times fought against the government’s effort to prevent publication, and the Supreme Court upheld the freedom of the press and its First Amendment rights to speech. Thus, the Pentagon Papers were released.
Freedom of Press: Right of freedom of speech and expression is incorporated in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of the Human Rights, 1948. It states that everyone has a right to hold opinion without interference. This right of freedom of expression includes the right to hold opinions to receive and impart information either orally or in writing or in any other form through any of the agencies of the media. Article 19 of the International Covenants on Civil and Political Rights 1976 also incorporates the right of freedom of speech and expression. In India the right of freedom of speech and expression is incorporated in 19(1)(a) of the Indian Constitution. This right of freedom of speech and expression is a fundamental right in the Indian legal system. The right to free press does not exist independently and is incorporated in the right of freedom of speech and expression; and hence the right to free press is regarded as a fundamental right. The press is regarded as the fourth pillar of democracy, as it is a potent check on the policies of the government, which are formulated with malafide intentions. The press also acts as a means for keeping the elected officials responsible to the people who are supposed to serve. The press not only brings to the notice of the society, the crimes, which otherwise would have gone unnoticed; but also plays a crucial role in initiating legal proceedings in such crimes, thereby ensuring justice. The literal meaning of ‘Freedom’ means absence of control or lack of interference from any authority; so also it means no restrictions. Here freedom of press means the right or the liberty to print, publish, or paint without any interference from the state or any other public authority. But according to the principles of Jurisprudence, no right or freedom or liberty can exist absolutely without restrictions; hence freedom of press is also demarcated by number of restrictions. So here freedom of press means the liberty to print, publish, or paint within the ambit of rational and reasonable restrictions. The whole game is that, what should be the sphere or area of freedom and what should be the demarcating lines of that freedom. When it is said that the freedom of press prevails, then it means that liberty of the press exists within the brackets of restrictions. The crucial aspect is where one should draw the demarcating lines of restrictions; and how much sphere should be allowed for the freedom of press. Freedom of speech and expression is an essential aspect of liberty as stated in Maneka Gandhi v Union of India. The founding fathers of the Indian Constitution have laid much importance on the fact that freedom of speech and expression should be one of the fundamental rights of an individual. So they have placed the freedom of speech and expression in the Article 19(1)(a) which is a constituent part of the chapter on fundamental rights incorporated in the Indian Constitution. There are six freedoms secured in the Article 19(1)(a), and the freedom of speech and expression is ranked first among the six freedoms incorporated in the said Article of the constitution. To express oneself, is an inborn instinct of every human being, and it would not be wrong to say that deprived of freedom of speech and expression a human being would not be a human being. Speech and expression is not only the liberty of an individual but it is one of the basic necessities of the human being. It is because of speech and expression that the human being can not only be developed but also are capable of expressing other emotions and feelings. The freedom of press is one of the most important agency of communicating one’s speech and expression. Hence the freedom of press performs very vital functions of the society.
Pen is the mightiest sword. Speak out loud and stand up together against social issues. Best wishes to you on this occasion of World Press Freedom Day
Importance of free Press: For the democratic functioning of a society, freedom of expression has always been emphasized as an essential and fundamental base of the society. Freedom of speech and expression which includes the freedom of press is considered as the backbone of the democratic society. The extent of the freedom press enjoyed by the press is regarded as the parameter or credentials of democracy of a state. The Press plays an important role because it provides all comprehensive and objective information of all aspects of the country’s Economic, Political, Social, and Cultural aspects. If the democracy has to be meaningful and function effectively, then a free press is a sine qua non. This is the reason very often the freedom of press is described as the oxygen of democracy; and without which a democratic society cannot survive. It is visibly evident, especially since Independence, a free and vigilant Press has acted as a vital agency to curb corruption and injustice. In addition, another important role, the press plays is to formulate the public opinion which helps on one hand imparting the knowledge to the society and on the other hand restraining the tyrannical actions of the government.
Problems faced by Press: India’s gargantuan news market has 82,222 newspapers; Delhi alone has 16 English dailies in circulation. It has close to 800 television news channels, an industry that has almost trebled between 2006 and 2014. Added to that are 124 million broadband Internet connections and 1,500 state-owned, privately-owned and community radio stations. Of this far from monolithic industry the author of the report’s India chapter, AS Panneerselvan, says “I am acutely aware that of the nearly 100,000 professionals in journalism, a substantial number of individuals and institutions uphold the core values and the cardinal principles of journalism. The exceptions are in a minority, but it’s a number sufficient…to colour the popular perception and to undermine public trust.” If the five debilitating problems in the Indian media are not fixed then India’s media boom will be worthless to journalism, writes Panneerselvan. “Even worse, it will of no value to India’s more than 1.2 billion people who may have more infotainment, sensationalism and political spin at their disposal but who will remain ignorant of the facts and analysis of events around them. When that happens is the world’s largest democracy will be seriously weakened.”
1) Paid news: Paneerselvan, who is also readers’ editor of The Hindu, traces the origins of the unethical practice of paid news back to the liberalisation of the Indian economy in 1991. With market forces at play and public investment in private companies, journalists found it sometimes lucrative to write only partially true stories of companies waiting to list on the stock exchanges.The mid-2000s saw business schemes that swapped ad space in newspapers for equity in companies. During the 2008 assembly elections, Hindi dailies published stories about candidates who had no particular news value, even predicting record victories for them. In 2003 Bennett Coleman and Company Ltd, publisher of The Times of India, started a paid content service to send journalists out to cover events for a fee.Television ratings also fail to tell the real picture. Ratings consultants are paid off by TV channels to tamper with the system and they do so in ingenious ways. New TVs are gifted to homes in which the supposedly-secret meters are located and residents are told that they can watch anything on it as long as they are tuned into certain channels on the TV connected to the meter.The power of media escalates beyond the boundary of human control, the fourth pillar of democracy prides itself in being balanced, neutral and showcasing the truth.
2) Opaque private treaties: Most of the Indian media houses are owned or controlled by politically affiliated people. For example, Subhash Chandra, BJP MP owns the Zee Network including channels Zee News, Wion, etc. The European Broadcast Union (EBU) report says that in countries where public media is functional, they have more press freedom and less corruption. So creating a public funding media system could be a step to enhance media freedom. P Sainath exposed the nexus of political and corporate entities in the news media through certain schemes. In October 2008, in the midst of stiff opposition to the government granting permission to trial runs of genetically-modified crops The Times of India ran a story about how no farmer suicides were reported from two villages that had switched to GM seeds. The same story was later republished in August 2011 followed by a barrage of advertisement by GM giant Mahyco-Monsanto Biotech India. The 2011 reprint was a frantic lobbying response to the government’s failure to table the GM bill in parliament, says the report.
3) Blatant blackmail: In 2012 senior editors of the television channel Zee News were arrested for allegedly demanding Rs 100 crore from Jindal Power and Steel Ltd. In return for this pay-off they offered to dilute their network’s campaign against the company in the coal scam. The blackmail was exposed when JSPL chairman and Congress MP Naveen Jindal conducted a reverse sting on the network’s executives.
4) Widening legal regulatory gap:The Press Council of India has dragged its feet on addressing paid news and other unethical practices, according to the EJN report. In April 2003, a photojournalist tipped the Council off on the practice of advertisements being published as news for a fee. Instead of investigating the matter, the Council merely asked media companies to consider their how their credibility is affected, and issued guidelines they should follow to distinguish news from advertisements.The PCI also failed to act on a damning report produced by journalists Paranjoy Guha Thakurta and K Sreenivas Reddy on the immunity of the media using paid news. Instead of publishing the report, the Council chose to keep it reference material because it could dent the image of media houses! The report came into the public domain only later based on a Right to Information petition.
5) Flawed measurements of audience reach and readership:The yardsticks to measure the reach and impact of the Indian media are dubious at best, the report says. The EJN report cites the example of the Indian Readership Survey of 2013, which claims that the readership of English newspapers fell by a whopping 20% without attributing any reasons to the fall. Moreover, the survey found that the leading English paper in Nagpur Hitvada didn’t appear to have a single reader while it had a certified circulation of more than 60,000.
6) Attacks On Journalists: India stands at the 140th position out of 180 countries in Press Freedom Index. India is considered to be one of the deadliest countries for a journalist.The Indian Constitution does not grant any specific leverage for journalists to protect their work. However, Article 19 of the Indian Constitution grants freedom of speech to all citizens with reasonable restrictions. Many times the state has used these ‘reasonable restrictions’ with other laws including the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), the Sedition Act, etc. to muzzle the dissenting voice of a journalist.In the USA, shield law gives the right to keep confidential information and details of sources undisclosed from the authorities. Up to some extent, shield law has strengthened media free in the USA. In Kashmir, freedom of expression and the press are under attack by the Indian government. The reporters like Qazi shibli, Asif Sultan,or now Masrat Zahra and Gowhar Geelani who tried to fill the information gap and expose the gruesome atrocities and humanitarian disaster are jailed, intimidated or murdered if they do not accept to work within a circle. The Journalists inside Kashmir must be extremely careful where they go and what they write as frequently it is noticed those who tried to cover the war, Conflicts have been harassed, attacked, or detained. In J&K there are too many untold, searing stories of the widespread suffering and violence that are destroying Kashmir and taking so many people’s lives.
7) Poor quality: India has over 400 news channels in various languages and another 150 channels are awaiting clearance. The South Asian country also has tens of thousands of news papers and magazines. But the quality of Indian journalism is poor, as evidenced by the fact India ranks 136 among 180 countries in the index compiled by Reporters Without Borders, an NGO. When it comes to press freedom, India fares worse than even countries like Afghanistan and the United Arab Emirates. Commentators criticize how in recent years the media has lowered the quality of India’s public discourse. Media expansion has led to a shrinking of the public sphere, resulting in the spread of elitist and socially conservative values.”The true test of a robust democracy is the independence of its media. Over the past few years our media has become the mouthpiece of the party in power. Coupled with the fact the corporate owners of media houses share close links with the government, the Indian media has tragically lost its voice,” criminal lawyer Rebecca Mammen told DW. Mammen has defended many cases related to press freedom. Serious issues like the beef ban, the crisis in Kashmir, dissent in universities and even the unrest in societies where Dalits – the lowest level of India’s caste system – have been discriminated or killed, have received scant mention in media coverage. The Covid-19 crisis has hit the media sector financially hard at a time when it plays a crucial role in providing accurate information and countering disinformation about the pandemic. The coronavirus pandemic is exacerbating threats to press freedom around the world, with authoritarian states including China and Iran suppressing details of the outbreak. Covid-19 is a major public health problem so all people should have access to accurate and verified information. World Press Freedom Day or World Press Day is celebrated on May 3 annually to raise awareness awareness regarding justice for artists, journalists, musicians, writers and free expression advocates around the world. Tributes are also paid to the people, the journalists, who lost their lives in the line of service. It is concluded that all of us have a responsibility to fight against those who try to replace truth with lies and those who try to turn journalism into a crime. We are strongest when we act in ways that respect our values.
(Dr Bilal A Bhat is Associate Professor at SKUAST Shalimar Srinagar and Dr Humaira Jasmin Tak Research Scholar at the Department of Law, University of Kashmir Srinagar. Views are their own)