Manipur - State Of The Media
- Part 4 -

By:- Romeo Naorem *

Media Gag by the State

Harassment by government is not a new phenomenon; it is not the insurgent outfits alone who are trying to browbeat mediapersons. Many seasoned and senior journalists and editors, who have the courage to expose the wrongdoings of the government in power, have been arrested on cooked-up charges, and defamation suits have been initiated against them.

The high handed attitude of the state authorities can be gauged from the arrest of Naorem Birendrakumar, editor of The Paojel, who published a one-paragraph report on the hike in the price of rice.

A very recent debacle of the Press with the state police officials is an unfortunate example of the maltreatment of the Press in Manipur. On the morning of October 10, the Director General of Manipur Police, Y Joykumar Singh, called S Hemant, the president of AMWJU, its general secretary Biren Yambem, editors of some newspapers and senior journalists to his office and 'forced' them to reveal their source of a particular news published that day.

Talking to Kamaljeet Chirom, NEV Manipur correspondent, S Hemant who is also the editor of "Eikhoigi Panthung" a Manipuri monthly said, "The DGP forcefully made the journalists to reveal their source. The editors and journalists of Sangai Express, Naharolgi Thoudang, ISTV and Imphal Free Press were called.

ISTV and Imphal Free Press did not mention IRB personnel being involved in the fertilizer scam. But the other three did. However, the news published was not similar in the facts due to which the DGP took advantage. Then he said how could the news be different when you all went together to cover it. You are trying to sabotage us.

The ones who gave out the news was a post commander of IRB post at Heikakpokpi and the other was the OC of CID at Palel. They were immediately transferred. But we insisted that they should not be transferred, so they were put back. They are doing an internal inquiry."

In another incident, during the "cease-work strike" in August, last year, the state government tried to take advantage of the absence of the Press. In a bid to curtail propaganda of the proscribed secessionists' organisations through local print and electronic media, the Government of Manipur clamped an official order on August 2, 2007 under Section 95 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973.

The order says that, 'any printed material i.e. either newspapers or books and any document whether printed or in electronic form shall be forfeited to the state government if they contain any material which are directly attributed to unlawful organisations, organised gangs, terrorists and terrorists related organisations considered to be subversive and a threat to the integrity of the state and the country.

The order of the state home department further forbids obituary notices of slain militants that would be glorifying them as martyrs of a freedom struggle. Publication of threats of any sort by terrorist organisations or unlawful organisations, publication of any code of behaviour, dress code or social practice decreed by such organistions, publication of any justification for killings, causing injury, assault, kidnapping, imposition of fines or warnings by such organisations, publication of notices for payment to terrorists related organisations or unlawful outfits in cash or kind and publication of items in the form of invitation to the aforementioned organisations to settle or solve disputes are all altogether banned by the official order'

The love-hate relationship shared by the Press and the state authority is rather interesting. The Government of Manipur issuing a directive telling the media what they should and should not publish in such hard times, when the media was reeling under the pressure of the undergrounds, was rather obstreperous, though it might mean well. It is bad enough that the media is under siege from non-state actors.

Now they are also in the line of fire of the State. Trapped in the middle the only respectable thing that media could do was to raise a stink against the government diktat because that is a softer option. Mediapersons would find it difficult if not impossible to defy the non-state actors. The government is open to dialogue whereas, with militants it is a one-way communication. The state authority should be aware of this dilemma and stop pushing the media into a corner.

Many times when reporters are beaten up in their line of duty, say while reporting an ambush, the media boycott all the government and Army functions. At the same time, the government has come out with generous gestures like grants whenever a journalist is ill or dies, or is injured or kidnapped. The government, in consultation with the AMWJU, opened a pension scheme for retired journalists in recognition of their services; the relationship between the media and the government practically ends there.

Media ! Watch out for the "Thin Red Line"

James A Garfield in a speech to the Ohio Editorial Association said, "The chief danger which threatens the influence and honour of the Press is the tendency of its liberty to degenerate into license." It is rather ironic that sometimes many in the mainstream Indian media blame the vernacular and the regional media for subtly pursuing an "us versus them" narrative.

The oft repeated word is 'the Northeast (Manipur) media sometimes behave like the mouthpiece of a militant outfit.' The moot point here is media freedom is just a cliché, which is long past its prime.

In Manipur, the media very often hold 'sit-in protests and processions' to sort out its convoluted problems. It is at times like this that the media become both the subject and the object, and things can get pretty fuzzy and blurry, and journalists need to get into an introspective and retrospective mode.

The Manipur media need to critically and objectively address these glitches, giving the State no room to assert its authority to gag media freedom on the alibi that media has been temporarily hijacked by militants.

To be continued ....