A senior crime reporter, well known in all circles as a honest, hardworking journalist, is murdered in broad daylight. And all that the Mumbai police and the state home minister have to offer till date is conjecture and theories. Despite a series of arrests, it is clear from reports that the police are not at all close to cracking the case. Journalists, thus, cannot be excused for asking hard questions and floating conspiracy theories that name the powerful and the influential as having a stake in J. Dey’s death.
In India it is becoming increasingly common to kill the messenger. Journalists with a nose for the news often dig up uncomfortable facts and are killed or beaten with impunity. Their killers are rarely caught with the result that journalists are now increasingly at risk if their stories penetrate deep into the dark world of the underground. The Dey murder must be solved convincingly, and the guilty brought to task to ensure some levels of safety for journalists across the country. The Mumbai police seem quite unequal to the task, and it is time for the case to be passed to the CBI, not that it has crowned itself with glory in the recent past.
Journalists covering conflict and crime do so at their own risk. Unlike the major foreign newspapers that ensure that a journalist in a conflict zone is well equipped with bullet proof jacket and related paraphernalia, in India the reporter is on the job without even insurance cover! He is very much on his own as the pictures coming out from conflict zones like Jammu and Kashmir reveal. The journalists employed by big media houses in the Valley are reporting amidst gunfire without even a helmet on their heads. It is, therefore, imperative for journalists to come together and step up the pressure not just on governments and political parties, but also on the industrial houses running newspapers and television channels to implement basic safety norms for journalists sent out to cover conflict and violence. Reporters breaking sensitive stories should be given full support, which is not happening right now. Proprietors should make it clear to the local authorities that the reporter has their full backing, and is not alone. This does not always happen.
There is a move by the Maharashtra government to use Dey’s murder to bring in a legislation ostensibly for the safety of journalists. The issue is not the lack of laws, but the cover up operation that usually follows such deaths. For instance till date, the murder weapon that killed Dey has not been sent for forensic examination. Why?
The media to be free has to be safe. And to ensure the safety of the reporter both the government and the proprietors have to come together to create an atmosphere where no one dares hit a journalist, for fear of dire consequences.
