“Whether it is the laws of defamation or the laws of contempt or laws of sedition — all of these are routinely and worryingly used against the press in India,” said former Chief Justice of the Delhi and Madras High Courts Ajith Prakash Shah. Justice Shah was delivering the convocation address at the Asian College of Journalism in Chennai on Wednesday.
Delivering the Lawrence Dana Pinkham Memorial Lecture on the ‘Free Press and laws of contempt, defamation and sedition,’ on World Press Freedom Day, Justice Shah elaborated on how to be on the right side of defamation, contempt and sedition laws in such a way that the press can remain free, independent and critical.
In his introductory remarks, N. Ram, Trustee, Media Development Foundation and Chairman, Kasturi and Sons Ltd, said, “Several newspapers in developed countries now put their content behind a pay wall, unlike in India, and they have begun to earn significant digital revenue. There is no evidence yet [that] a viable business and revenue model is available for stand alone digital journalism. For young people in developed countries, it has become extraordinarily difficult to find jobs... The Indian situation has been quite different. With all the news media still in the growth mode, prospects for employment and career development has been quite bright. It has fully reflected in ACJ placement experience year after year. ACJ has also received record number of applications for 2017-2018,” he said.
Scribes honoured
The evening also saw presentation of the Asian College of Journalism Award for Investigative Journalism for 2016, to Shyamlal Yadav and Jay Mazoomdaar of The Indian Express. The duo were presented a trophy, citation and ₹2 lakh for their series on Jan Dhan accounts titled 'The One Rupee Trick' in September, 2016.
The winners were chosen from 84 entries by a three member jury consisting of Mr. Shah, well-known economist and columnist Jayati Ghosh and former Chief Editor of Outlook Krishna Prasad.
Reading out the citation, Mr. Krishna Prasad, said, “ In the jury’s considered view, the series measured up to the basic canons of contextual reporting — exposing wrongdoing in a flagship government scheme in the larger public interest. In doing so, Yadav and Mazoomdaar drew the nation’s attention to how public servants have fallen prey to perception management in a media-saturated era, by spending out of their own pocket to dress up data."
The jury also made a special mention of four other entries: Nikhil M Babu in India Spend: Unspent Money For Dalits/Tribals, Raghu Karnad and Grace Jajo in Akshar Magazine : Confessions of a Killer Policeman, Kumar Sambhav Shrivastava in Hindustan Times : The Jungle Gangs of Jharkhand, Utkarsh Anand in the Indian Express : The Great Government Bank Write Off.
