News needn't be convenient. Don't shoot the messenger

In the past few months, I’ve seen many journalists crib about the excesses of the government, slam them for the lack of morals or turn on their own organisations for suppressing stories that were inconvenient. But more disturbingly, I’ve seen journalists come under attack for reporting the news as they see it. And some of these attacks aren’t just by Twitter trolls.

In April this year, a HOOT study said that 54 attacks and 25 cases of threatening journalists took place in the preceding 16 months. Nearly two months after scribe Gauri Lankesh was shot outside her Bengaluru house, the case remains unsolved and the killers at large. The 2017 World Press Freedom Index by Reporters Without Borders ranks India an abysmal 136 out of 180 nations. While we are doing better than Pakistan (139) and China (176), it is a sad commentary that even strife-torn Afghanistan (120) ranks better. A report by the Press Council of India states that of the over 80 journalists killed since 1990, there has been a conviction in only one case.

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Matters, it seems, have come to such a pass that the central government has issued an advisory to states last week to ensure all attacks on journalists are investigated promptly and perpetrators get prosecuted in a ‘time-bound manner’. The advisory to the Director Generals of Police says,” States should also take all preventive and deterrent action as deemed required. States are already empowered to provide security to individuals based on threat perceptions.”

"The Fourth Estate is an important institution of the democracy. It ensures that citizens are able to express their opinions freely without any fear and coercion as provided under the Constitution of India. It is the duty of the state to ensure safety and security of the journalists who ensure that the Fourth Estate discharges this key duty," the advisory said.

I question why such an advisory is required? Aren’t state agencies committed to ensuring freedom of the press? We have laws. What we need is a better implementation of the criminal justice system. This isn’t just about press freedoms, it is about people being killed for just doing their job – telling a truth that was perhaps too inconvenient.