The Editors Guild of India and PEN Delhi released statements on Thursday, 2 April, condemning the recent government PIL before the Supreme Court, which placed the blame on the media for causing panic among migrant workers leading to their mass movement in the wake of the 21-day nationwide lockdown to curtail the spread of the novel coronavirus.
In the PIL, the Centre sought a direction from the apex court that “no electronic/print media /web portal or social media shall print/publish or telecast anything without first ascertaining the true factual position from the separate mechanism provided by the central government.”
The Supreme Court in its ruling directed the media to “refer to and publish the official version about the developments.”
In their statement, the Editors Guild stated that it finds the advice of the apex court “gratuitous and unnecessary.”
“Blaming the media at the juncture can only undermine the current work being done by it under trying circumstances. Such changes can also obstruct in the process of dissemination of news during an unprecedented crisis facing the country,” the Guild’s statement noted.
The Guild’s statement also highlighted the FIR filed by the Uttar Pradesh Police against Editor-in-Chief of the the news publishing website The Wire and recognises that the police action at this stage “is an overreaction and act of intimidation.”
The FIR and the Supreme Court direction also led to PEN Delhi releasing a statement on 2 April.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday, 23 March, said that the COVID-19 is a lifetime challenge, which needs to be tackled through new and innovative solutions, while speaking to representatives of television news channels through a video-conference.
The PM also requested the media houses to refrain from negative coverage, stating that the “the media should counter pessimism and panic through positive communication.”
In response to the Prime Ministers request, PEN Delhi stated that “in the past, it is the media’s critical reporting on other disasters that has provided much needed information to the State to act.”
The Union Ministry of Health and Family Affairs on Thursday reported that the death toll due to COVID-19 in India has risen to 53, while the number of cases has gone up to 2,069.
More than 1,000,000 cases of the novel coronavirus have been officially detected worldwide since the pandemic emerged in China late last year, according to the John Hopkins Resource Centre on Friday.
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