The right to talk and write

Journalists in India have no special rights. Unlike the United States, freedom of the press in the country does not flow from any special provision or amendment to the Constitution, but from the right to free speech and expression. Article 19(1) (a) of the Indian Constitution confers this right subject only to reasonable restrictions specified in Article 19(2). Therefore, to propose licences, qualifications and common entrance examinations for journalists, as Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari did a few days ago, is to try to circumscribe and limit the fundamental right to freedom of speech and expression. Dissemination of information might be the business of some news organisations, but it is also an essential part of the everyday activities of countless Indians who talk, post, upload or tweet what they see, hear, sense or think. What distinguishes journalists employed by a news organisation and private individuals taking advantage of social media and personal communication channels to disseminate information is not the nature of their work, but the public standing and credibility that they command. Any attempt to prescribe licences and qualifications for journalists will necessarily end up limiting what ordinary citizens can do. As in other democracies, newspapers in India do not require a licence to operate. In authoritarian or managed democracies, where press licensing is the norm, the threat of a cancelled licence is often enough to ensure the media toes the official line. If journalists are to be given licences, can newspaper licensing be far behind?

All of this is not to say that news organisations need make no effort to improve the standards of their journalism. In the race to be the first to break the news, television channels, and sometimes newspapers too, often get their facts wrong and the context mixed-up. But, as the best journalism schools have already realised, practice, not theory, makes a good journalist. Mr. Tewari’s proposal seems more like a trial balloon: he gave no details of what exactly he had in mind, and did not appear to have given serious thought to all the implications. Indeed, his train of thought mirrors that of the Press Council of India Chairman Markandey Katju, who, some time ago, set up a committee to decide on minimum qualifications for a journalist. The Minister wants the minimum qualification to apply equally to subject experts contributing to a news organisation, reckoning that they would not resent the requirement. What is mooted as an exercise to raise the quality of journalism could just as well pose a threat to the free flow of information, and to the freedom of speech and expression.

Keywords: Constitutional amendment, freedom to write, freedom of speech, Indian Constitution, newspaper licensing, Manish Tewari, common entrance exam for journalists, journalists' right

An Iranian journalist has been killed by Salafi terrorists near the Syrian capital, Damascus.

 

Hadi Baghbani was a documentary filmmaker who had traveled to the war-hit country to make a documentary about the Syrian crisis but was slain by the Al-Nusra Front Takfiri terrorists Tuesday night.  

 

Syria has been experiencing deadly unrests for more than two years. Scores of people have been killed and thousands have been displaced as a result of the clashes between foreign-backed rebels and government forces. 

 

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Araqchi condemned the incident on Wednesday and called on concerned international organizations to pursue the case and fulfill their responsibility to safeguard media officials and journalists.  

 

He added that the countries that fund armed Syrian groups and encourage them to kill Syrian people and foreign nationals are responsible for the death of the Iranian journalist. 

 

He also offered condolences to Baghbani’s family and Iranian media people.

Social Networking

Facebook is a social utility network and most popular among other social media network followed by twitter, YouTube, Google+  and other social networks like  e-Blog, Metacafe, Flicker etc.

Social Utility Network (SUN) enables people to meet with different peoples of the world and to keep in touch with their different friends, relatives and acquaintances. It enables them to communicate with their near ones, kiths and kin. It also provides a better opportunity for freedom of speech, expression of feelings, sharing of ideas etc by sharing pictures, videos, texts etc. It is not only used for personal purpose but people used it for official, social and commercial purposes.

It is an important to understand that these social networks provide so much facility to the users. Every account holder gets news updates; messages and every kind of required information through these social networks, instead of these some users indulge in the misuse of these social media networks and try to create a hateful environment in the society.

Now a number of its users get fake accounts and upload irrelevant pictures, videos, write irrelevant comments and post irrelevant texts on other’s Facebook walls which ultimately lead to the insignificance of this social media network.

Already the age criterion that is eligible to get a Facebook account is above 13 years but minors also make efforts to have their Facebook account. So those fake accounts users land other users in trouble and kept them away from its actual goal. As a result social utility networks loss its creditability and its importance.

 It becomes the duty of the every user to use social media in a right and proper way. Everyone ought to try to take the advantages of these social media networks. Now it has become a trend that every youth holding different brands of mobile phones in their hands while it may be in their home, play ground, school, college and university campus even while traveling and they chat, tweet, share pictures and videos with others.

If they were doing so, they have to think that they have to use in a right or proper way. Otherwise it will land them in trouble. If they were not using it without any moral or social response they were only waste their money and time because time is very precious for everybody.  Once it slips out of hands, it cannot be regained, because ‘time and tides waits for none’. It is very important to keep our conscience alive and regulate these social utility networks accordingly with moral and social ethics.

 by: Abdul Hussain Muntazree

R/o: Chumikchan Sankoo

published in 'Rangyul' a fortnightly newspaper from Ladakh