Are journalists safe in our country?A day after veteran investigative journalist Jyotirmoy Dey was shot dead by killers on motorcycle in Mumbai, Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan on Sunday asked the Mumbai police to urgently complete the investigations into the murder.
Dey, who wrote under the byline 'J Dey', was Editor (Special Investigations) with the Mumbai and was shot in broad daylight at Powai on Saturday.
There has been much noise and fury about press freedom. 'We want a free press,' you hear the journalists cry, and surely that is an entirely reasonable request of any administration, in any civilized country. But what is meant by a free press? A journalist is expected to share the responsibility for establishing a civil and secure society. It does not give the journalists the right to be above the law and have the freedom to publish absolutely anything they want.
Press freedom carries with it an awesome responsibility, the responsibility to build a better society, not break it apart, to improve our knowledge, not fill the web and airwaves with lies and extremist nonsense. It is a responsibility that should be self imposed and self-regulated irrespective of any other legal requirements and treated as a great treasure to be protected and fought for.
Real news is an unembellished factual reporting of events, no more and no less. An opinion piece is based on the factual reporting of events overlaid with a hopefully erudite analysis of the implications of this news. It is often told from a particular view-point, but a properly edited opinion piece flags to the reader the particular bias of the writer, so you can intelligently distinguish fact from opinion.
Good journalism and reporting should be a quest to find out the facts by speaking to as many sources as possible, from all sides and angles of a story while also getting the news as quickly as possible to the public. Dey was a good journalist. He was diligent and responsible in his work, fair and balanced in his approach. He would do his job properly and professionally. Then why was he killed? His death gives rise to the question whether we really have the right environment for an entirely free press?
Dey, who wrote under the byline 'J Dey', was Editor (Special Investigations) with the Mumbai and was shot in broad daylight at Powai on Saturday.
There has been much noise and fury about press freedom. 'We want a free press,' you hear the journalists cry, and surely that is an entirely reasonable request of any administration, in any civilized country. But what is meant by a free press? A journalist is expected to share the responsibility for establishing a civil and secure society. It does not give the journalists the right to be above the law and have the freedom to publish absolutely anything they want.
Press freedom carries with it an awesome responsibility, the responsibility to build a better society, not break it apart, to improve our knowledge, not fill the web and airwaves with lies and extremist nonsense. It is a responsibility that should be self imposed and self-regulated irrespective of any other legal requirements and treated as a great treasure to be protected and fought for.
Real news is an unembellished factual reporting of events, no more and no less. An opinion piece is based on the factual reporting of events overlaid with a hopefully erudite analysis of the implications of this news. It is often told from a particular view-point, but a properly edited opinion piece flags to the reader the particular bias of the writer, so you can intelligently distinguish fact from opinion.
Good journalism and reporting should be a quest to find out the facts by speaking to as many sources as possible, from all sides and angles of a story while also getting the news as quickly as possible to the public. Dey was a good journalist. He was diligent and responsible in his work, fair and balanced in his approach. He would do his job properly and professionally. Then why was he killed? His death gives rise to the question whether we really have the right environment for an entirely free press?
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