By Ranjona Banerji
While we’re being distracted by international conspiracies against yoga and tea, it is worthwhile to listen to Mandeep Punia. The young journalist was picked up by the Delhi Police on January 30 from the farmers’ protest at Singhu, what is being called a “border” between Haryana and Delhi. He was released on February 3.
Punia’s “crime” was that he posted a video on social media where he reported that a group of 50 to 60 people had arrived at the Singhu protests, attacked the farmers there with stones and a petrol bomb and tried to set fire to their belongings. He identified two of the attackers as being part of the BJP. He was arrested that evening. He was accused of attacking a police constable and was recorded as a protestor and not a journalist.
Punia is one of a band of freelance journalists who have assiduously covered the farmers’ protests, going beyond the largely pedestrian work done by the mainstream media. In this interview with Caravan magazine, he says about his experience with the police:
“When they were beating me in the tent, I kept asking what was my crime. They kept saying again and again, “You want to report? Make a video? Come, we will make you do it.” A policeman was breaking my camera, and he was saying, “Issi mein hai na iska?” [This has it, right?] It had footage of those who were pelting stones at the farmers. They broke it. I have no idea where it is. I had a Samsung phone, they broke that. There was another phone that they broke.”
He said about Arnab Goswami and our contradictory attitudes about the freedom of the press:
“The ruling party spoke up in his support because he toes the government’s line. In a way, he is a durbari [courtier] journalist. When a durbari journalist is put in jail, obviously the durbar will be agitated. His leaked WhatsApp chat has anyway exposed him as a government partisan. So, obviously, they will shout, “press freedom, press freedom.”
But they will not shout “press freedom” when journalists from The Caravan are attacked. [On 11 August 2020, three journalists from The Caravan were attacked by a Hindu right-wing mob in northeast Delhi while they were reporting on the communal violence in the city in February 2020.] They don’t talk of press freedom when all these colleagues are attacked. They didn’t talk of press freedom when Siddique was arrested; they keep silent when Twitter accounts are suspended.”
https://caravanmagazine.in/interview/-journalist-mandeep-punia-on-journalism-jail-and-reporting-in-prison?utm_source=mailer&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=special_reads
This is Punia’s report from Tihar jail, where he used his time there to speak to jailed farmers:
https://caravanmagazine.in/crime/mandeep-punia-tihar-jailed-farmers-steadafast-refuse-to-take-back-protest?utm_source=mailer&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=special_reads
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From Punia’s perspective, he was doing his job, at the protests and in jail. Caravan is one of the magazines he writes for and they were vociferous in their support for him when he was arrested.
Caravan has been targeted by the Indian government for its reports, via getting Twitter to “withhold” its accounts on the social media site. Multiple FIRs were also filed against the Paresh Nath and Anant Nath over tweets on the death of the farmer Navreet Singh, the family’s accusations and the police report.
https://www.livelaw.in/top-stories/shashi-tharoor-rajdeep-sardesai-supreme-court-sedition-framers-protest-death-sikh-youthmrinal-pande-zafar-agha-paresh-nath-169315
Twitter however has since refused to give in to immense government pressure to suspend accounts which support the farmers’ protests. Since that one tweet by music star Rihanna, the issue has become global. Twitter India now finds it difficult to toe the government line. And perhaps especially after Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey retweeted celebrity accounts showing support.
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/amphtml/pranavdixit/tweets-flow-twitter-india?__twitter_impression=true
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And then there’s the intimidation game by media organisations themselves. Times Now has hit media watchdog site Newslaundry with a Rs 100 crore defamation suit over a video that apparently defames two of Times Now’s top TV people. The “offending” video has to do with the coverage of Sushant Singh Rajput’s death.
Unlike these two TV people, there is no journalist worth her or his salt who can condone the absolute horrific nonsense that masqueraded as journalism during the coverage of the actor’s death and the subsequent vilification of Rhea Chakraborty.
We may have forgotten about it now, but cringe-worthy, sensationalist, irresponsible exaggeration of Rajput’s death and the media casualties created along the way is one of the worst chapters in recent media history. No defamation suit can excuse Times Now.
https://www.barandbench.com/news/litigation/times-now-defamation-suit-100-crore-newslaundry-reply-bombay-high-court
Ranjona Banerji is a senior journalist and commentator. She is also Consulting Editor, MxMIndia. Her views here are person