Rajan Gandhi
India is ranked as low as 136th out of a total of 180 countries on a global ‘freedom of the press index’ and the best ranking was 80th in 2002 under NDA regime. The freedom of the press in India is threatened by both state and non-state actors. The State uses archaic colonial-era laws to suppress dissent and free expression while gangsters, mining lords, and liquor and building contractors use threats, intimidation, and violence to suppress stories that expose their criminal and illegal acts, in the knowledge that they usually have the police and the political class on their side. Those who care for the future of Indian democracy, however, should be deeply worried. For freedom of the press is vital to the security, prosperity and happiness of a country and its citizens.
The first great Indian liberal, Rammohan Roy was the first one to register his protest way back in 1824 to the Government of Bengal protesting restrictions on press freedom. The instant provocations for the First Amendment of our constitution post independence in the year 1951 itself ,within a year of adoption of constitution, were ban on Romesh Thapar’s Left-leaning magazine “Crossroads” by the Madras government which was set aside by courts on the grounds that it was ultra vires of the constitutional provisions related to the right to freedom of expression; and Nehru’s displeasure with the RSS mouthpiece, “Organiser”. Nehru’s pretext of intolerance was that part of the Indian press is dirty, and indulges in ‘vulgarity, indecency, and falsehood.’ To teach it manners, Nehru proposed an amendment to India’s constitution that would impose severe restrictions on freedom of speech and expression. He asked for the power to curb the press and to punish persons and newspapers for ‘contempt of court, defamation and incitement to an offence’. Nehru’s illiberality evoked a considerable response in Parliament, the fiercest from Shyama Prasad Mookerjee. However, on October 23rd 1951, he got new act passed called “The Press Objectionable Matters Act”. It was similar to the legislation passed during the British regime in 1908, 1910, 1930 and 1931. The passage of this act brought protest from editors and journalists throughout India. Delegations and protests were made to Nehru and other members of the Government. Finally, in order to pacify the journalists, Nehru, in October 1952, announced the formation of the Press Commission composed of distinguished personalities to look into the whole issue of the press in India. The Press Objectionable Matters Act was allowed to lapse in 1956. The Press Commission Report issued its recommendations in 1954.
Similarly, during Indira Gandhi’s regime, a propaganda barrage was mounted against the press, which appeared to be not easily amenable to the wishes of the Government. In 1971, the government led by Mrs. Gandhi made its first attempt to control the press when her own Ministry of Information and Broadcasting prepared a draft scheme to “diffuse” the so-called monopoly press, i.e., ownership of newspapers with a circulation of more than 15,000. In fact, in the Parliament she had gone to the extent of declaring that freedom of the press did not mean going against the national policy of the country. When war was declared with Pakistan in 1971, on December 4 the Defence and Internal Security of India Act was signed into law. This Act imposed upon the press restrictions similar to those of the Newspapers Incitement to Offences Act of 1908, the Indian Press Act of 1910, the Indian Press Ordinance of 1930 and the Indian Press (Emergency Press) Act of 1931: it prohibited the printing or publishing of any newspaper, book or other document detrimental to the defence and security of India. It empowered the Government to confiscate copies of any printed matter which might be inflammatory and to close down the presses; and it empowered the state and local Governments to impose censorship .Mrs. Gandhi’s antipathy to the press continued and got further intensified after the declaration of internal emergency on June 26, 1975. The emergency lasted for 19 months and this period is considered to be the darkest period in the post independence history of the freedom of the press. The same day, under her direction, the Government issued the “Central Censorship Order” and “Guidelines for the Press in the present Emergency”. It was for the first time in post-independence India, stringent pre-censorship, which was something unknown and alien to the people of free India, was imposed on the press. The Central Censorship Order, addressed to all printers, publishers and editors, prohibited the publication of news, comments, rumours, or other reports relating to actions taken by the Government in any newspaper, periodical or other documents without their first being submitted for scrutiny to an authorized officer of the Government. The Chief Censor of the Government was given total responsibility of supervising and directing the entire censorship operation throughout the country.
(To be continued)
