Journalists owing affiliation to various media organisations on Wednesday staged a strong protest against the attacks on mediapersons at the Patiala House court in New Delhi and demanded among other things the arrest of BJP Delhi MlA OP Sharma and removal of Delhi Police Commissioner BS Bassi from his post.
Displaying placards that carried slogans like Stop Attack on Journalists!’, ‘Stop Shooting the Messenger’, ‘Arrest those goon lawyers’, ‘Arrest OP Sharma’, ‘Sack Delhi Police Commissioner, the protesting journalists walked from the Mumbai Press Club to the nearby gate of the historic Azad Maidan. They later held a protest meeting at the Mumbai Press Club.
Apart from the Mumbai Press Club (MPC), the other media organisations that participated in Wednesday’s protest were TV Journalists’ Association and Bombay News Photographers Association. Among the journalists who took part in the protest were Darryl D’Monte, Nikhil Wagle, cricket writer-commentator Ayaz Memon and Mumbai Press Club president Gurbir Singh.
In a statement, the Mumbai Press Club said: “We are shocked and disturbed at the attack on journalists on duty at the Capital’s Patiala Court premises by Men in Black claiming to be lawyers, and some goons led by BJP Delhi MlA OP Sharma. The brutal violence inflicted on scribes that were reporting the court proceeding related to the JNU arrests involved dragging out reporters from the courtroom and assaulting them. The temerity of attackers was so brazen that they equated covering the court proceedings against Kanhaiya Kumar for sedition as an “anti-national” act!”.
“The fact that journalists were beaten up slapped and kicked around for being in a courtroom and for reporting a sedition proceeding in the Patiala courts, speaks volumes of the extent that fascist elements within the ruling party and Government can go to snuff out the right to legal defence. What was most shocking though was the complete and nonchalant abetment of the police force at the courtrooms that allowed the journalists to be beaten before them and who thought nothing of arresting or restraining the attackers,” the statement said, adding that the police could have prevented the violence at the Patiala House court.