Now, Congress backs law to protect journalists

Following protest march, party does a volte-face to support law to curb attacks on journalists, MPCC chief asks party ministers to back it in cabinet meeting

After dilly-dallying for over a year, the Congress has now decided to support a legislation to protect journalists from assaults.


Journalists take out a rally to protest the murder of senior reporter J Dey. The reporters demanded that the government take swift action in the case and bring the culprits to book

After leading a delegation of party leaders to lodge its concern on the attacks against media persons to Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan on Monday, MPCC chief Manikrao Thakre said Congress ministers would be asked to support the proposal in the state cabinet meeting.

The proposal, if approved by the cabinet, will be tabled in the Monsoon session of the state legislature next month.

The demand for the bill comes after a number of attacks and ransacking of media houses by political parties and other organisations.

The Congress move comes in the backdrop of the CM's assurance to media persons who participated in a 'silent march' yesterday to protest the murder of MiD DAY's senior journalist J Dey.

Change of heart?
Incidentally, the Congress' change of heart comes after its initial hesitation over a similar proposal that came up for discussion before the cabinet and later in a meeting where representatives of all the political parties were invited for deliberations.

In one of the meetings, specially called to gauge the political mood, the proposal was not accepted and leaders cutting across party lines opposed the idea of a law protecting journalists because according to them, the media uses its freedom to malign their image with malicious stories.

Since then, a point of deliberation has been as to who qualifies as a journalist, an accredited reporter or anyone who writes in a publication.

Moreover, questions were also raised as to why the Home Department had initiated the bill proposal earlier as the matter falls under the jurisdiction of the Information and Public Relations Department headed by the CM.

As such, this time, the current proposal has emanated from the body headed by the CM.

However, the Congress's about-turn may baffle other parties, not excluding its own leaders, admitted a Congress minister on condition of anonymity.

Experts say it will be interesting to see how the proposal gets approved both in the cabinet and the state legislature.

Meanwhile, Mumbai Congress chief Kripashankar Singh, part of the delegation meeting the CM, demanded compensation for Dey's family.

"The government should offer some compensation to meet the needs of the family," he said.

Apart from him, the delegation comprised of MP Eknath Gaikwad, MLC Subhash Chavaan, party spokespersons Sanjay Dutt and Anant Gadgail, former MP Rajanitai Patil and others.