The Arrest Of A Journalist

The Telegraph’s Editor at Large R Rajagopal writes on the arrest of Mahesh Langa, Senior journalist of The Hindu based in Ahmedabad and the multiple concerns that this development has evoked in him, which also includes the manner in which large sections of the media have covered the arrest.

The following is a note to my friends that I am compelled to say I wrote in my personal capacity because I no longer know when personal messages become social. The note is personal but the subject is social and political.

Mahesh Langa, senior assistant editor with The Hindu newspaper and based in Gujarat, was arrested two days ago, making him the senior most journalist from a legacy media house to face such action in recent memory.

The arrest has thrown up several insights into the state of the media:

1. The silence of the media in general, other than sticking to handout or plain-vanilla journalism. Most newspapers buried it in remote inside pages. Some newspapers did not carry it at all. Contrast it with the eagerness by a section of the Indian media to safeguard democracy and secularism in Bangladesh!

Exasperated, a senior journalist messaged: “Newspapers are dead.” The Wire is among the few, if not sole, media organisations that has highlighted that Langa’s name was not in the FIR.

2. Langa has been writing a series of incisive reports that the “golden” Gujarat government would have not found charitable. Some of the topics he covered recently include the diamond industry and the headwinds it has been facing. Other subjects include controversies on the BJP’s membership drive in Gujarat, how loan sharks are sucking the poor dry dry in the State and “ghost” teachers on Gujarat payroll but settled abroad.

3. The Hindu editor has appreciated the professional work of Langa. But the editor said “while we have no details about the merits of the case, we are given to understand that this is not related to his reports published in The Hindu”. The statement raises more questions than answers. How was the editor made to understand that the case is not related to Langa’s journalism? Has any newspaper anywhere in the world been ever “given to understand” that any case had been lodged against its journalists for their reports? Unless The Hindu clarifies this point — the basis of its suggestion that the arrest is not linked to journalism — doubts, if not misgivings, would continue to swirl around the statement.

4. The need for absolute clarity on the subject is paramount because if the arrest has anything to do with journalism, it marks an alarming slide. So far, journalists were hounded for making life difficult for powerful individuals or for posting opinion that challenged the leadership. Langa’s journalism covered issues that are at the heart of journalism. If clarity does not emerge fast, the chilling effect will be exponential: many journalists could think twice before carrying out conscientious journalism.

5. Contrast the editor’s statement with the post of Nitin Sethi, the founding editor of Reporters’ Collective. Sethi posted: “A journalist that doesn’t pander to the powers that be. Mahesh Langa. I have known him for two decades.” It is heartwarming to realise that Sethi has upheld a cornerstone of law — “presumed innocent until proven guilty” — and did not hesitate to say what he knows about Langa. I do not know Langa but as a journalist, he scores high in my count. He has done stories that few reporters of the so-called national media have pursued. His reports give me a more rounded idea of Gujarat than what I have gathered from other reports. He is a fine journalist by my yardsticks. When the chips are down, a journalist must have the instincts and judgement, including that based on personal experience and not just textbooks, that he can fall back upon to arrive at a conclusion. That lies at the core of decision-making, however unpopular the decisions might be, in newsrooms.

6. The details of the case known so far do raise several disturbing questions. The owner of the firm, Langa’s cousin, has not been arrested. Neither has been the son of a BJP leader. Langa’s name was not in the FIR, which need not foreclose action, but it is unusual that a senior journalist is picked up in haste. Does the case mean that we should keep track of what our relatives are doing and ensure that they follow the law?

7. Langa must account for the Rs 20 lakh allegedly found. But at first glance and because several other suspects have not neen arrested, there appears to be undue zeal in arresting Langa.

8. Of course, we do not know the full facts of the case. What we can do is to present the known facts as prominently and as clearly as possible. Burying the story or not touching it only reaffirms the worst suspicions. Our job is to make maximum noise, not to seek comfort in places below the radar.