Freedom of speech and expression is the cornerstone of democracy, and proving the world wrong, India surprised and shocked everyone in equal measure when the country stood as one to preserve, protect and promote democracy. Despite the few odd spells of authoritarian diktats from time to time, in one or the other part of the country, or even across the country during the declared emergency – 1975 to 1977 – India and Indians enjoy a free press.
The country’s right, left, and centrist political forces show solidarity and unanimity on the surface that “they are all for a free press” but it is in practice that questions arise on the true freedom of the media, how much it is allowed to function objectively.
If media practitioners of yore, of the emergency era, shudder even today at the very ideas of the kind of suppression of the free media at that time that was in operation, current-day media practitioners bemoan that there is an undeclared emergency in operation today.
The state of the media and the efficiency of the media practitioners, whether in terms of the language they use, the issues they raise and the narratives they set, there is an ongoing debate over the quality of journalism in practice. Whether one takes the national media or the regional or vernacular media in regions where regional political forces are in control, the media industry operates within the parameters and boundaries set by the political masters.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), often, is blamed for the kind of stranglehold it has over the media – print and electronic using different kinds of allurements or coercive threats – but just scratch the surface a bit and similar, if not tougher, actions are visible in different states. By and large, among the political formations that appear on the surface to be more tolerant of critical media is the Congress, but even it seems to have been bitten by the bug of a control freak as is shown by a few decisions of the Congress-led state governments – in taking coercive actions against media men or media groups.
Et tu, Left Front?
But similar action from a Left Front was the least expected, given the fact that their influence today is limited to just one or two small pockets in the country – Kerala, and well, Kerala – where CPM-led Left Front has been in power for over seven years now.
Yes, the tiny state of highly literate and educated Kerala is a two-horse race politically, with the Left Front taking on the Congress-led left-of-centre political formation, United Democratic Front, even as the BJP is making strong attempts to break out as the third political force in the state.
And herein begins the media game, or the media “management” of the Pinarayi Vijayan-led Kerala government that embodies all the elements of a concerted effort to prevent any media exposé of the happenings in the government. And this, at a time when Left Front’s leading national icons, Sitaram Yechury and Prakash Karat are trying to mobilise public opinion against BJP-RSS efforts to gag free and independent media in the country.
For the moment, without going into the antecedents or political leanings of media organisations, one should at the outset express dismay and anger and condemn the police action against journalists and staff of YouTube media channels that take an anti-government stance in Kerala. Booking journalist Shajan Skariah, editor and publisher of YouTube channel Marunadan Malayalee, under SC/ST Act, and his continued detention is something that all right-thinking journalists, of any school of thought, ought to oppose and fight. But, more important, the state government also unleashed state police against the media organisation, raiding its offices in Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram, and confiscating computers, cameras, memory cards etc. from its personnel. Raids were also conducted at the residence of the organisation’s journalist, to browbeat the media channel that is a strong critic of the Left Front government.
Strong-arm tactics
Strong-arm tactics against uncomfortable media has been the tried and tested formula of many a state and Central government since times immemorial, but this is something that is not expected from a Left Front government that criticizes the Central government for harassing the media, precisely.
The use of SC/ST act to counter the uncomfortable persons is not new, last year too, CPM MLA PV Sreenijin made a complaint under Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act against Twenty20 party’s chief coordinator and industrialist Sabu M Jacob, Aikkaranadu Panchayat President Deena Deepak and four other panchayat members.
Now the action against Shajan Skariah is an example of the intimidation being deployed against the media by a government that is facing several scams ranging from gold smuggling by people close to the CM to awarding contracts in traffic CCTV cameras to allegations of corruption in waste management in Kochi, to name a few. The increasing use of threats of arrests and raids to silence journalists and media organisations takes away the sheen of the Pinarayi Vijayan’s governance model. He has targeted the media, and his political opponents, the Congress. But most notably against journalists, for reports critical of his government and for trying to effectively muzzle the media. And the fact that Vijayan holds the home portfolio only makes it imperative that he reigns in the police force.
According to media reports, staffers of Marunadan Malayalee have alleged police high-handedness when they raided the offices and residences of the employees across the state in connection with the case against Shajan Skariah. He was accused of making derogatory statements against an MLA named Sreenijan, during the telecast on May 23. The journalist is on the run and the police are on the lookout for him. The Kerala Union of Working Journalists has condemned the police action. Marunadan Malayalee management alleges that the case was fabricated and it hoped for justice from the Supreme Court.
BJP and Congress condemn media bashing
“This case is registered as an SC/ST atrocity case. This never happened in the video. He just raised certain allegations against the MLA. But the court has seen something other than the criticism. They considered this criticism a caste atrocity, one that was not true,” the management of the media group said.
Here, in Kerala, condemnation of the state government’s alleged media repression came from two national parties that are opposed to each other – the BJP and the Congress. Former Union Information and Broadcasting Minister, Prakash Javadekar, charged the Left Front government with “terrorizing the media” for exposing its alleged wrongdoings, and the Leader of the Opposition in Kerala assembly, VD Satheesan of the Congress, said, “The CPI(M) is hunting media houses and reporters who criticize it or the state government and the police are having double standards.”
But the police deny that the actions were designed to curb media freedom. Police maintained that all actions were part of investigations to trace the group’s absconding editor and did not construe a crackdown on activities of the media house.
The author is a senior journalist tracking social, economic, and political changes across the country. He was associated with the Press Trust of India, The Hindu, Sunday Observer and Hindustan Times. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18’s views.
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