THREATS TO MEDIA FUNCTIONING IN ORISSA: A Special Report from the Free Speech Hub of the Hoot.org

 Note:Our sincere thanks to senior journalist Prasanta Patnaik, this is executive summary of a long report.

The intimidation of journalists in the form of physical attacks, threats and initiation of legal proceedings against them has reached a peak in Orissa. There have been 12 physical attacks on reporters, stringers or camera persons this year, and 6 cases of threat and intimidation, up from 3 attacks in 2009. Between 2004 and 2009, four cases of sedition were filed against stringers or reporters and a writer.

The attacks occurred either in retaliation for reports written or while the media- persons were on reporting assignments. The perpetrators fall in many different categories: sarpanchs(3), politicians and their henchmen (3), a bank manager, students, Central Industrial Security Force jawans, and Indian Reserve Battalion (IRB) personnel. In three cases the police were present but chose not to act. Cases filed have not made much headway. (Details of cases and the current status of police complaints filed are in the annexure below this report.)

The profession of journalism is undergoing changes in Orissa. This is partly an outcome of the rapid growth of the print and the electronic media as well as the hold that political parties and businesses have acquired over these. The most widely broadcast channels and the largest circulating daily are owned by powerful people. Given this reality, reporting the depredations caused by national and international business houses that have descended on the state to exploit its ample natural resources has become a perilous task.

As mining and industrialisation-related growth accelerates along with protests against these by the displaced populations, it is in the interest of the pro-development lobby to suppress all type of negative publicity. This is done by controlling the media through ownership, doling out largesse in the form of advertisements to others and intimidating those who cannot be neutralised by these. Among the worst affected are the faceless, and often nameless, stringers who form the feeder lines for the city-based media and have to bear the first brunt of media suppression by the powerful.

The attacks on journalists are inextricably linked to the changing equation between the state and civil society, brought about by the triumvirate of aggressive industrialisation, political interests and competitive media houses.

The state government either actively supports the corporations branding the critical media as Maoists, anti-national or seditious, or plays the role of a spectator. Its failure to take swift and punitive action in these cases has sent a clear message: the messenger can be shot.

 
This report by the Free Speech Hub Coordinator GEETA SESHU is based on visits to Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Puri, and Jajpur (Kalinganagar). Telephonic interviews were conducted with journalists who were attacked in Behrampur, Angul and Athgarh.

 

Attacks on journalists in 2010:

·        On February 9, Dinesh Das and Ashok Pradhan, journalists from Pioneer and a local Orissa newspaper, Athgarh Prahari, respectively, were assaulted by Premananda Gochchayat, the Sarpanch of Dhaipur, Athgarh, for reporting on corruption in the NREGA scheme.

·         On February 20, Abhay Pati, a reporter of OTV, was assaulted by the Manager of Cuttack Urban Co-operative Bank, Jajpur, Gour Prasad Das, when he was covering a vigilance raid on the banker’s house.

·        On March 16, journalists covering a clash between members of the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and the opposition Congress party were attacked allegedly by BJD workers and police personnel in Bhaapur Block of Nayagarh district.

·         On April 5, three journalists - Amulya Kumar Pati of the New Indian Express, Manas Jena and Sujit Mullick, stringers for Oriya newspapers -   were attacked by supporters of State Finance Minister Prafulla Chandra Ghadei when they went to report a police lathi-charge and firing on villagers of Baligotha, Gobaghat and other villages in Kalinganagar on March 30.

·         On April 22, ten journalists representing different newspapers and television channels were severely beaten up by the management and hired security guards of the privately-owned Silicon Institute of Technology in Bhubaneswar, when they went to cover students protesting the death of their colleague, Shamsuddin, allegedly due to food poisoning in the college canteen.

·         On May 6, Biranjan Mallick, a journalist working for Khabar, an Oriya newspaper, was tied to a tree and beaten up for investigating an NREGA scam in Balanga, Puri district.

·         On May 8, several jawans of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), a paramilitary force, attacked journalists and a television camera crew to prevent them from filming their assault on a truck driver who had fatally run over the young daughter of a CISF jawan in Angul.

·         On May 31, journalists who went to MKCG Medical College, Behrampur, to cover a clash between relatives of a patient who had died due to the alleged negligence of the medical students in charge, were attacked by the students in full view of the police.

·         On June 9, Akhand, a journalist working for Kanak TV in Pipili, Puri district, was severely beaten up by Pravakar Behera, a local politician and ward member of the ruling BJD, for writing about the latter’s illegal tree-felling.

·         On July 1, Suryamani Mishra, a journalist working with Khabar who has written against communalism, land scams and the builder mafia, was attacked by unidentified persons in Bhubaneswar.

·         On July 13, Indian Reserve Battalion (IRB) personnel molested an ETV journalist (name withheld) and her cameraman, Debasis Mullick, when they were covering the ISKCON rath yatra in Bhubaneswar.

·         On July 23, Ramnarayan Das, a reporter of ‘The Samaja, was assaulted by the former sarpanch of Nirakapur in Khurda district when he went to report on the self-immolation bid of a social worker. The attack took place in the presence of the area tahsildar and the police.

Threats and intimidation:

·         On January 3, 2010, Banka Bihari Bishoi, a, reporter The Samaja, was abused and threatened by the Nabrangpur District Collector Rupa Mishra, ostensibly because his newspaper did not give the latter adequate coverage.

·        On February 13, Bolun Gangopadhyay, a freelance journalist from West Bengal, who was on her way to Niyamgiri, site of the resistance to the Vedanta Alumina refinery and bauxite mining projects, was picked up by police on suspicion of being a Maoist.

·        On March 11, the Chhatrapur police raided the residence of well-known journalist and writer, Dandapani Mohapatra, without a search warrant, alleging ‘links’ with Maoist leaders.

·         On April 6, the Lok Pal, Justice P K Patra, was asked to take action against the media for reporting on his order on the irregularities in the acquisition of land for the Rs 15,000 crore Vedanta University project of the Anil Agarwal Foundation.

·         On May 10, senior journalist and correspondent of India TV, Prasanta Patnaik protested the increasing surveillance and monitoring of his movements by police in Bhubaneswar and demanded security for himself and his family.

·         On June 9, accomplices of a Bhubaneswar ganglord sent a dire warning to Bhabani Das, a photojournalist working for Orissa daily, The Dharitri, and asked him not to report on their activities.

Most journalists work or write for media houses that are run by business groups having interests in mining, real estate or education.