New Delhi: Journalists from different organisations today expressed grave concern over the recent attacks on journalists and lynching, which they linked to the ‘’atmosphere of communal hate and fear being created by ruling establishment in connivance with a section of the media.’’ It was time to act than just to voice protest to save the right to life and civil and political liberties, the journalists said at a meeting held at the Press Club of India here. They condemned the hate propaganda being carried out against particular communities by certain TV channels. One of the founding editors of news portal the Wire, Siddharth Vardharajan, said it was unfortunate that the Government, the authorities dealing with law and order and the judiciary were not doing their job to bring violators of law to book.
It was time to name and shame the news organisations which were part of the ‘’sinister design’’ of establishment to communalise the country’s atmosphere, and create a reign of fear so that all voices of sanity were gagged, Mr Vardharajan said. Seema Mustafa, editor of online newspaper the Citizen, noted that while attacks on journalists had been happening in the past, but today they were linked with a larger agenda of communalisation. Breaking trade unions, making the position of journalists vulnerable through contract employment etc were all part of a larger sinister agenda to impose a system where no one dared to question any wrong, she said. She said it was high time that journalists were united and enhanced their vigilance. NDTV journalist Ravish Kumar said the appearance of mobs was not incidental or random but systematic attempts had been made to create these mobs to further the agenda of suppression of liberties. He said that polarisation was not just against one community. ‘’Its power can turn anyone into murderer. We are not safe even in our neighbourhood.’’ Several other journalists also shared their concern over the prevailing situation. The immediate context of the meeting was the attack on a Kashmiri journalist Basit Malik in Sonia Vihar area of the Capital, jail term for two Karnataka journalists on the charges of defamation of legislators, and lynching of a youth in a train near Ballabhgarh in Haryana. The youth was returning to his village in Haryana after Eid shopping in Delhi.Three of his relatives were also injured.
