Journalist by definition is a whistle blower. It is not like other cool jobs where you put in eight hours of labour, get a salary and forget the rest. It is a job, no doubt but it is campaign also. A campaign against the high and mighty who would like to make the people see the reality the way they see.
Problem occurs when a journalist stands up. He smashes the empire of falsehood and rubs the nose of "powerfuls" to ground. But power is power and it can not rest without taking revenge. Revenge becomes easy in a poor country like ours where you can win anybody on your side with money or muscle to implicate a troubling whistle blower in a false case. An activist or a journalist is not man of huge means and he can be silenced easily. If he refuses to keep mum, he can be murdered by not very expansive supari mode popular with the devils.
A prominent RTI activist and ‘green crusader' Amit Jethwa was shot dead near the Gujarat High Court. Jethwa was campaigning against alleged illegal mining in the Gir Sanctuary areas in Saurashtra region, which is allegedly backed by some politicians.
The other day T P Nandakumar ,the Chief Editor of the much popular CRIME magazine in Kerala was arrested by the Kerala Police. The charge against him is to attempt of defaming an NRI.
You can have any number of cases which keep trickling in from various parts of the country. The guy who dared Obama Administration with his WikiLeaks revelation was also slapped with rape charges. Though lucky for him it was withdrawn soon.
Unfortunately government has made no move to offer security or protection to the whistle blowers. Government perhaps can not also do so. No great change has ever come about by government's effort. People of the state will have do something. Unfortunately there is no move from us also so far. It is high time we focus attention on it.
Problem occurs when a journalist stands up. He smashes the empire of falsehood and rubs the nose of "powerfuls" to ground. But power is power and it can not rest without taking revenge. Revenge becomes easy in a poor country like ours where you can win anybody on your side with money or muscle to implicate a troubling whistle blower in a false case. An activist or a journalist is not man of huge means and he can be silenced easily. If he refuses to keep mum, he can be murdered by not very expansive supari mode popular with the devils.
A prominent RTI activist and ‘green crusader' Amit Jethwa was shot dead near the Gujarat High Court. Jethwa was campaigning against alleged illegal mining in the Gir Sanctuary areas in Saurashtra region, which is allegedly backed by some politicians.
The other day T P Nandakumar ,the Chief Editor of the much popular CRIME magazine in Kerala was arrested by the Kerala Police. The charge against him is to attempt of defaming an NRI.
You can have any number of cases which keep trickling in from various parts of the country. The guy who dared Obama Administration with his WikiLeaks revelation was also slapped with rape charges. Though lucky for him it was withdrawn soon.
Unfortunately government has made no move to offer security or protection to the whistle blowers. Government perhaps can not also do so. No great change has ever come about by government's effort. People of the state will have do something. Unfortunately there is no move from us also so far. It is high time we focus attention on it.
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