NEW DELHI: Who decides who is a journalist and who is not, asked several journalists at a meeting organised by the Press Club of India on Tuesday, as they condemned the harassment and detention of media professionals covering the anti-CEC protests over the past few days.
They also held a silent protest march around the perimeter of the club with the Rapid Action Force personnel shadowing them at every step, recording their movements.
Many of them expressed concern over curbs reporters faced on the ground and condemned police action against them.
Discussing difficulties they faced in covering the protests, many media professionals recalled being asked by security personnel to show their PIB cards. Senior journalist Ajit Anjum noted, “It takes 20 years to get a PIB card, and I don’t have one despite 35 years of experience. It doesn’t mean I’m not a journalist.”
Sarthak Jaiswal of The Quint recounted how two journalists were taken to Chanakyapuri police station on October 10 and kept there throughout the afternoon as police sought to authenticate their press credentials. Anmol Pritam and Astha Savyasachi of Newslaundry spoke up about how they had been detained and their phones seized.
Ayush Tiwari of Scroll, who was detained while covering protests at Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg on October 10, claimed, “Several journalists were picked up despite carrying press cards.”
Scroll executive editor Supriya Sharma had earlier said the platform’s political editor Shoaib Daniyal and Ayush were detained.
Industry veterans Siddharth Varadarajan and Rajdeep Sardesai also slammed the harassment and surveillance of journalists.
Sangeeta Barooah Pisharoty, president of the club, said the public meeting was an exercise to “document what should not be done to journalists in a democracy.”
