The home ministry’s move to ask journalists accredited with the Press Information Bureau — the information dissemination and media interface arm of the Centre — to get police verification done every year reveals a sense of paranoia vis-à-vis the fourth estate. The ministry says this will help it keep a check on document thefts and ensure security of confidential information. Accredited journalists, it says, have easy access to government offices and ministries, hence such checks are mandatory.

How many of the thousands of journalists with PIB accreditation have been accused of or booked for stealing data from government offices? A handful, if at all. Winston Churchill famously said that the Ship of State is the only ship which leaks from the top. The powers that be routinely use selective leaks to publicise information, or even float test balloons. Blaming journalists when sensitive or controversial information leaks cause blowback is routine, and even understandable. But to view all journalists as potential information thieves does not augur well for a democracy.

Getting police verification for obtaining a PIB tag is not new. But asking scribes to repeat what used to be a one-time exercise can only be viewed as a move to filter out ‘trouble-makers’ and tackle whistleblowers. Club this with the report that the PIB is contemplating issuing radio-frequency identification or RFID/smart cards to journalists for “enhanced security”, and the message that comes through is one curbing freedom of expression, by misusing digital technologies. Can one blame those who juxtapose such moves with reports of a silent Emergency in the air? Censorship was a key feature of the Emergency, which several journalists vehemently protested and paid dearly for.

Assistant Editor

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