Prepare for the worst. That was the message from a seminar on ‘Freedom of Expression for whom?’ organised at the Press Club in Hyderabad on Monday. Framed against photographs of slain journalists Gowri Lankesh and Shantanu Bhowmick, Retd. Justice B. Sudershan Reddy said that the pace of events showing intolerance have quickened.
“I thought there is no use talking about freedom of expression because the pace of killings has only intensified. Freedom of expression is not there because of the Constitution. It is part of human culture. It is part of human dignity,” said Justice Reddy as he delved on the debate from a constitutional and philosophical perspective.
‘Disdain for the poor’
“There is a disdain for the poor and the downtrodden by the current dispensation. That’s why they could speak about the poor not needing right to privacy.
About how the poor go to mid-day meals only to eat and not to study. We are being given a choice between food and freedom of expression. This has to be questioned. We need to relearn to speak truth to the power. To assert the moral foundation of the society,” said Justice Reddy in his keynote address, laced with quotes from M.N. Roy, Amartya Sen and B.R. Ambedkar.
“In Hyderabad, journalist Ghulam Rasool was killed by police in 1992. But now the government is using goondas to do its dirty work. There is no trace and no answerability. Can’t the police trace the culprits? It can, but it won’t,” said civil rights activist Vasanth Kannabiran as she linked rising assertion of people to cultural freedom and identity.
Setting the tone for the seminar, Srinivas Reddy, a senior journalist, said the days in the run-up to Emergency imposed in the ’70s were being repeated.
“Freedom of expression is written into the Constitution but now freedom to kill seems to be the norm.
The series of events over the last few days suggests that. Section 499 of Cr PC is being used in a major way to silence journalists. We cannot let this go on with imperilling democracy,” said Mr. Reddy.
