The Chennai Press Club, on Monday, May 1, condemned the booking of two reporters allegedly based on false complaints in the last 10 days. Criminal charges were registered against two reporters — Vinoth Kumar, a NewsTamil 24x7 reporter from Salem, and Stalin, a Makkal Kattalai reporter from Tambaram. The press club said that such complaints were made to threaten journalists. It also urged Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin to intervene in the issue and take appropriate action against those responsible for lodging the alleged false complaints against the reporters.
According to the statement released by the press club, Vinoth Kumar, a NewsTamil 24x7 reporter, was booked by Salem B1 Town police after he aired the news of an aggrieved mother’s request to rescue her child was denied by the District Child Protection Officer (DCPO). Prema, a Salem resident, attended a public grievance meeting at the Collector’s office on April 17, where she requested DCPO R Uma Maheshwari to rescue her 15-day-old daughter from a neighbour. Prema said she had given her third child to her neighbour due to financial constraints. However, when she decided to keep the child and asked the neighbour to return her, the child had already been given to someone else.
At the grievance meeting, Uma allegedly told Prema to approach the police station instead to get her child back. Vinoth, who was reporting the meeting, intervened in the issue and asked Uma why Prema had to visit the police station when it is the Child Welfare Department’s duty to rescue the child. He later telecast the news.
After the news was aired, the Child Welfare Department rescued the infant. However, on April 20, Uma lodged a complaint against Vinoth for obstructing her from performing her duties. Salem B1 Town Police booked the reporter under sections 447 (committing criminal trespass), 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of their duty), and 506 (i) (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
Talking to TNM, Vinoth said, “If the news was baseless and fabricated, they [government officials] could have issued a statement against it or approached me directly and we would have issued a clarification that we had mis-reported. Instead, they lodged a complaint against me. This kind of action would stop journalists from reporting and acting independently.” He further added that the action was taken against him after the District Collector pressured Uma to file a complaint against Vinoth.
In another incident, Tambaram T1 police booked Stalin, a Makkal Kattalai reporter, under sections 387 (puts or attempts to put any person in fear of death or of grievous hurt in order to commit extortion) and 506 (i) (criminal intimidation) of the IPC. This came after Stalin published an article about a private, car-driving training institute located outside the Tambaram Regional Transport Office (RTO). According to the statement released by the press club, Stalin published news against the training institute’s owner Mahesh who allegedly disrupted public peace when a newly appointed motor vehicle inspector refused to issue a licence to a student from Mahesh’s institute.
Mahesh lodged a complaint against Stalin on April 28 alleging that the latter tried to extract money from him. Mahesh also alleged that Stalin visited his institute on April 5 and demanded a bribe from Mahesh’s assistant Gokul. The complaint also said that Stalin made a call from Gokul’s phone to Mahesh to threaten him. Based on the complaint, the T1 police filed a First Information Report (FIR) against the reporter.
The press club’s statement questioned whether the police was under pressure from anyone to file an FIR within five hours after the complaint was lodged, even though the complaint was given 23 days after the alleged incident occurred.
Speaking to TNM, Stalin said that he has published several exclusive stories, including ones on the corruption inside the Tambaram RTO. His reports have also exposed Mahesh’s friendship with several officers in the RTO “My news led to action against a few officers in the RTO. To stop me from doing my work, Mahesh lodged a fabricated complaint against me. If my work damaged their reputation, they should have filed a defamation case instead of saying I was demanding bribes and threatening others,” Stalin said.
The Chennai Press Club urged the state government to implement the promise of setting up a separate commission for the welfare of journalists and media houses, so as to ensure that reporters function freely and democratically, and to prevent people from filing false cases against them. The statement from the press club also urged the government to enact the Journalists' Protection Act.
“The government should intervene in this matter to stop people from lodging fabricated complaints against reporters. This trend is dangerous because it pushes freedom of the press into an abyss,” Bharathi Thamizhan, joint secretary of the Chennai Press Club told TNM.