[:en]Ahmedabad April 9: Coming from all across the state, journalists on Tuesday formed a state level body to ensure safety and security for working journalists in Gujarat.
The formation of such a body was necessitated after umpteen number of incidents of attacks on journalists that occurred in and outside Gujarat. What ignited Tuesday’s outburst from the scribes in Gujarat was the status of a recent incident of a journalist Chirag Patel, who was found dead in mysterious circumstances a couple of days back.
Many from the journalist community still find that there are holes in the police’s theory of Chirag committing suicide. The death of the Scribe was itself dubious in nature. The present status of the case is still unknown.
The scribes from Gujarat on Tuesday formed a state level committee which will be functional through a 16 member coordination committee. The body will present the BJP government with various issues and demands the journalists are facing in Gujarat in their line of duty.
A panel from the body will put these demands to the Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani on April 15 through a memorandum. The key demands and issues of journalists in Gujarat are for the government to take immediate action in Chirag Patel death case. The panel also urges the government to bring in a law for the security of journalists.
It has been seen that scribes faces various forms of police atrocities like, getting charged with wrongful IPC clauses and the police implicating journalists in false cases like extortion, blackmailing, obstruction in line of Duty, impersonating police officials, etc. The body wants the Gujarat government’s home department to issue a circular for police personnel guidance.
The journalist body wants from the Gujarat government an atmosphere where a journalist can function freely and also wants the government to provide special security to women journalists in the state.
The journalist body also pledged on Tuesday to form a permanent committee which can help scribes which faces tough situations like attacks on them and provide support to such journalists.
Similar committees will also be formed at the Block/ district levels which will put forward all these demands to the local establishments, administration and elected representatives. The actions of these committees will be informed to the state level coordination committee.[:]
