PRESS Council chairman Justice C K Prasad to speak at the Press Club on 29 November
AS professional journalists, our occupational risks are on the increase. A few days ago on 11 November, a stringer working with Dainik Bhaskar, Dharmendra Singh, was shot dead by motorcycle borne assailants in Rohtas district Bihar, for filing articles against the mining mafia. This is the second killing of a journalist in Bihar in six months and the 6th death of a journalist in the country this year.
Closer home, on November 4, outside TATA’S Bombay House HQ, our photojournalists were brutally assaulted by security guards and three of our colleagues had to be hospitalized for several days. It is only after a massive movement and rallies led by the Press Club that some of the guards were arrested. Our demand for termination of the security agency ‘TopsGrup’ is still to be met by the TATA management.
At an institutional level, while paying lip service to ‘Press Freedom’, the government never misses a chance to muzzle sections of the media that prove inconvenient to it. The latest case is that of NDTV India that was banned for a day for ‘misreporting’ the border skirmishes with Pakistan. It was only the storm of protest that forced the I&B ministry to back down and suspend the ban order.
To discuss these issues, the Mumbai Press Club has invited the Chairman of the Press Council of India (PCI), Justice C.K. Prasad, to Mumbai to address a conclave on the subject:
‘DEFENDING PRESS FREEDOM IN A DIGITAL AGE’
On Tuesday, 29th November 2016, at 11.30 AM at the Central Hall, Mumbai Press Club
Justice C.K. Prasad’s Keynote address will be followed by a short panel discussion and Q&A.
Following a break for lunch, we will reconvene at 2.00 PM for a Press Conference on:
‘PRESS COUNCIL’S INTERVENTION: SPECIFIC VIOLATIONS AND CASE STUDIES’
Besides Justice Prasad, presentations will also be made by S.N. Sinha, Member – Press Council and President of Indian Journalists Union (IJU) and K. Amarnath, Member – Press Council and Convenor of PCI’s Safety Committee.