Reporters Without Orders Ep 22: Media and farmers, Violation of Arms Act, Shillong violence and more

On this episode of Reporters Without Orders, the discussion kicks off with the issue of sale of swords and blades online, as reported by The Indian Express. Rohin says, “If we study the Arms Act (1959) and Arms Rules (2016), all non-fire arms that are over 9 inches in length and more than 2 inches in width require a license for both sale and purchase.” Rohin has also done a story on the same. For his story, Rohin also talked to a seller based in Jalandhar and tried to place an order for 1500 swords. He asked the seller if the delivery could be stopped on the way? To his surprise, the seller told him that a written note from a politician could be a good antidote. “You just get a written note from a politician. When the politician has given permission, who are the police to stop?” the seller told Rohin.He also speaks about the representation of the farmers' protests in TV media. “They are showing pictures that show farmers throwing vegetables and milk. They are trying to show that the viewer isn’t participating in the protests, but the farmers who are, are actually misbehaving, destroying the food supply.”Nidhi talks about the story of a woman who died of starvation as she did not have a ration card. This story was underplayed in the mainstream media, Nidhi says, adding, “In January this year, another woman died due to under nutritional exhaustion and the fact-finding team then said that she was denied the ration since October last year. This was because the Aadhaar-enabled machine in the local ration shop failed to authenticate her biometric.”The panel also discusses Nidhi's report on Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) vehicle mowing down a young man during clashes after the Friday prayers in Srinagar. Cherry asks her, “Was there a sense of rage or fear among the locals when things started going out of hand?” Nidhi replies, “It was frenzy!” She says, “To just watch a man getting crushed under a vehicle like that is not fun.”Amit speaks about the tension brewing in Shillong, Meghalaya. Referring to an article by Scroll.in, Amit says, “These details were very important and somehow the national media ‘failed to report it’...until a delegation was sent by Captain Amarinder Singh, the Chief Minister of Punjab.” He adds, “It also shows...how alarming the situation is on the ground.”Our Campus Politik editor Sumedha talks about Assam's National Register of Citizens (NRC). She says, “June 30th is the deadline for the National Register of Citizens. This is a news has only been covered in fragments over the months ever since the first list came in December.”She adds, “2.9 million women, who are trying to submit their documents so that they get themselves verified, are not able to do so.” She adds, “These women are also facing threat...and sexual harassment by local officials as well. There is a detailed investigation report that Al Jazeera covered. But I don’t see a lot of mention of this in the Indian media at least.”Cherry says that the follow-up to Cobrapost sting has been very weak in reference to the legal notices the website has been receiving. She also adds that Sudarshan  TV also got a legal notice from Delhi Minorities Commission for allegedly airing a report where they referred to some locals from North Delhi's Bawana area as 'Rohingyas' and 'Bangladeshis'.Cherry says, “I went online to check the report...It was slightly disturbing to find both the anchor and the reporter agreeing and implying that the high crime rates in the area was because of the area being dominated by Rohingya Muslims and Bangladeshis.”  All this was without actual evidence being cited. “You’re not giving any evidence! Have you done a population census!?” she asks.

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