Journalists protest against media ban in Parliament, Mamata said – autocratic act of the government
Media personnel are recording the comments of MPs on camera near the entry and exit gates of the Parliament House, but now they have been restricted to a circle made for them. They have been removed from the ‘Makar Dwar’, where they used to interact with MPs.
New Delhi: Journalists protested in Parliament on Monday (July 19) as they were removed from the Makar Dwar, where they interact with MPs. The move was also raised by the opposition in the Lok Sabha during the discussion on the Union Budget 2024-25, after which Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla met a delegation of journalists and assured them that he would look into the matter.
According to NDTV, media personnel are recording the comments of MPs on camera near the entry and exit gates of the Parliament House, but now they have been restricted to a circle made for them.
Trinamool Congress chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has termed this ban imposed on the media as an ‘autocratic act’.
She said, ‘This is an autocratic act… The opposition should unite against this dictatorial act.’
Earlier in the day, opposition leader Rahul Gandhi requested Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla to lift the restrictions imposed on the media. To which Birla reminded Gandhi of the rules of parliamentary procedure and said that such issues should be discussed with him personally and should not be raised in the House.
Gandhi and other opposition leaders such as TMC leader Derek O’Brien, Congress MP Karti Chidambaram and Shiv Sena-UBT MP Priyanka Chaturvedi also met media persons at the media complex.
O’Brien said, “This is censorship. This is completely unacceptable. We are with you in this fight.”
Later, the Lok Sabha Speaker met a group of journalists and assured them that all their grievances will be addressed and they will be provided better facilities to discharge their duties.
The move to ban the movement of journalists in the Parliament complex comes weeks after the Editors Guild of India (EGI) earlier this month called on the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha chairmen to lift the ban on journalists attempting to cover Parliament proceedings.
The Guild had said that of the nearly 1,000 media persons accredited to cover Parliament, “only a fraction” are allowed to do so and this permission is “without a transparent process or methodology”.
In a statement on X, the Press Club of India tweeted a video in which journalists covering Parliament are seen in a glass room and demanding the removal of restrictions on their movement.
“Journalists protested against the restrictions on their movement in the Parliament premises,” the statement said, “They were even prevented from standing in front of the ‘Makar Dwar’, the gate where they used to interact with MPs from all parties.”
Demand to lift the ban
After this, Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi raised the issue in his speech during the discussion on the Union Budget 2024-25. In his speech, Gandhi referred to an episode from the Mahabharata story to attack the BJP, in which Abhimanyu was killed after being trapped in a Chakravyuh. He said that a Chakravyuh has also been created around the media.
Addressing Lok Sabha Speaker Birla, he said, ‘Sir, you have created another Chakravyuh. You have locked the media in a cage. Please let them come out.’
Gandhi then said that ‘the media is poor’, but Birla interrupted him and asked him not to use the word ‘poor’.
Birla said, ‘They are not poor. Do not use the word poor for the media.’
After this, Birla told Gandhi that he can raise this matter before him not in the House but in his chamber.
Later, Gandhi, other MPs from Congress, TMC and Shiv Sena (UBT) went to meet the journalists.
TMC MP Sagarika Ghose called the incident an “attack on civil rights”.
“This decision is completely unacceptable and should be withdrawn immediately. How can the press be removed from the people’s house? Removing journalists from Parliament is an attack on citizens’ rights,” she said.
Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Priyanka Chaturvedi, who also met the journalists, called the decision “yet another arbitrary decision by the government”.
Courtesy: The Wire
Note: This news was originally published in thewire.com and was used only for non-profit/non-commercial purposes, particularly for human rights.