CHANDIGARH: Punjab Sikh Journalists Association pleaded for measures to ensure that the press in Punjab functioned truly independently and was not used as a tool of oppressive state machinery as was the case at present.
The association convener Sukhdev Singh told a team of the Press Council of India on Jan 8 that the government and semi-official media such as AIR, Doordarshan, PTI and UNI should be overhauled so that it reflected the multi-community composition of the society and was not merely a Brahman Banias outfit.
The team headed by B.G. Verghese which included Vikram Rao and J.D. Akhtar spent three days in Punjab to assess the situation in the state and the alleged pressure of militants on the media. Sukhdev Singh also argued in favour of drastic changes in The Tribune Trust and the management of the Indian Express so that these organisations represented not merely the world view of a particular community but all sections of the society.
Sukhdev Singh asked the PCI team as to why it did not come to Punjab when Sikh journalists were persecuted, dismissed from service and put behind bars for years. In this connection, he cited cases including those of Jaspal Singh, Gulzar Singh Sandhu (Punjabi Tribune), Bharpur Singh Balbir (Aj Di Awaz), editors of two monthly magazines of Ludhiana and Jalandhar and registration of cases against Ajit and its editor Barjinder Singh and finally Sukhdev Singh (The Tribune). Sukhdev Singh said he himself was dismissed from service without show cause or enquiry and merely on the ground that he had written an article critical of the operation Bluestar.
When Verghese asked Sukhdev Singh for suggestions to improve the situation, the Sikh association convener said that in the first instance the PCI regulations should be amended to provide for enquiry into the State-sponsored cases against journalists other than those relating to moral turpitude.
Secondly, Sukhdev Singh asked the PCI team to recommend changes in the composition of the media managements such as The Tribune Trust, the Indian Express management, the PTI, UNI and the official media so that these organisations reflected the social variety, Sikhs, Muslim, Christian or Dalits were grossly underrepresented in those media groups. Most of these organisations at present were the mouth pieces of Arya Samaj, RSS or other Hindu fundamentalist organisations, which came in frequent conflict with Sikh society.
Article extracted from this publication >> January 11, 1991
