Press Club demands high level inquiry into the high handedness of Delhi police against photojournalists demanding immediate suspension while the probe is on
The largest Journalist body of India Press Club of India it’s serious concern and condemnation on the assault in the photojournalists by Delhi police on the basis of the photo released by the Working Cameramen’s Association that was released exhibiting the unruly senior police officers holding some photojournalists by the throats and threatening others with dire consequences. According to the press statement issued by the president of Press Club of India Gautam Lahiri and the General Secretary Neeraj Thakur the PCI condemns the assault on photojournalists by Delhi police especially the senior officers. Demanding a high level enquiry by a retired judge into the high handedness of Delhi police in order to get due justice to the working photojournalists and enable them carrying out their official duties without any hindrance the PCI said that some of the assaulting police officers and personnel can be clearly identified in the image and demanded their immediate suspension. Taking this judicial assault on the photojournalists extremely serious the president and secretary general of Press Club of India said that it is the job of reporters and photo journalists to cover political protests and as such photojournalists who were assaulted by Delhi police were merely doing their job being their daily routine. From the pictures in certain newspapers it is absolutely clear that the senior police officers grabbed the throat of Mr.Arun Thakur from the India today group who has been in the profession for more than two decades – in the most threatening manner . Another photo journalist Salman Ali of Hindustan Times fractured his elbow in the melee triggered by the Delhi police . Any form of assault on journalists and photographers is totally unacceptable said the PCI statement. Reminding the Delhi police of the fundamental rights of journalists the PCI statement said that we should like to remind the top brass of the Delhi police that Freedom of Press is a Fundamental Right which the Supreme Court has underlined on a number of occassions in the most emphatic terms. Given an instance in this regard it said that recently on March 24 a Supreme Court bench of justices A.S.Oka and Ujal Bhuyan stated Now, the time has come to enlighten and educate our police machinery on the concept of freedom of speech and expression guaranteed by Article (19)(1a) of the constitution and extent of reasonable restraints on their speech and expressions adding that from the from the behaviour of Delhi police this morning ( the other day) this seems that even the words of caution by the highest court of the land have fallen on insensitive ears. It may be recalled that the incident happened on the day of protests against the arrest of Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal by AAP activists and the mediamen and photojournalists had gone their to cover it. Meanwhile the senior Delhi police officers in the picture grabbing the throats of a photojournalists has denied these incidents saying that they had just pushed them and the pictures were taken from such an angle that it looks like we are grappling their throats etc. Additional DCP Kumar claimed that I was trying to protect one of our personnel. I don’t know from which angle the photograph was taken but it made it appears that I was choking a photojournalist .I only tried to push him. Similarly DCP Devesh Mahla said that he was standing behind and wanted to calm the people not fight them.
