“I’m sorry I don’t want Republic TV here. You guys have been covering up [Gauri Lankesh’s] murder. You guys have been trying to show her in bad light. Get out. We don’t want you here,” yelled Shehla Rashid, the former vice-president of JNUSU, at Snehesh Alex Philip, the deputy editor for strategic affairs at Republic TV, who was covering the rally outside the Press Club of India, New Delhi.

Gauri Lankesh’s brutal assassination on September 5 has made journalists across India point out the worrying trend of dwindling press freedom in India. Lankesh was a senior journalist who has long fought what she saw as the creeping oppression of Hindutva forces in this country, and even as her murder is being investigated, it has made the press and activists among others question the safety of an anti-Hindutva voice in BJP-ruled India.

Lankesh stood for freedom of press, the power of unflinching journalism and the right to report, no matter what the consequence. In her case, the consequences ranged from death threats, to a defamation conviction, to murder.

For those present outside the Press Club of India – protesting the dire lack of journalistic freedoms in India, grieving the loss of a fine journalist and fighting fascist forces – to ask a reporter to “get out” is not only ironic, but downright hypocritical.

But is that all? Before deciding if her actions were right or wrong, we have to understand why Shehla Rashid, a student activist and a vocal proponent of free speech and journalistic freedom, asked a reporter to leave a protest by the press for press freedom in a public space?

Shehla Rashid. [Photo: Indiatoday.in]

Rashid, in her tirade, continued to accuse Republic TV, Arnab Goswami’s journalistic venture – a channel that has shown an unsubtle, far Right and pro-BJP lean – of painting a skewed portrait of the slain editor.

She said:

These people [Republic TV] they have a hand in covering up the assassination of Gauri Lankesh. These people – they work on the orders of the BJP MP- who funds the channel and that is why they have been covering up the association. Shame on those people who are trying to show… Take the attention away from the RSS and the BJP and the Hindutva brigade which has been threatening Gauri Lankesh for the better part of the last two years.

We know what has been happening. We know how Shahid Azmi was murdered. We know how [Narendra] Dabholkar was murdered. How [Govind] Pansare was murdered. How [Malleshappa Madivalappa] Kalburgi was murdered. This is nothing else but cold-blooded ideological murder. This is a political Assassination and it has to be seen as such. Anyone who is celebrating this murder, we condemn in the strongest possible words…

It is a shame, that people who are being followed by our honourable Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi Ji – I don’t even want to repeat the thing that they are saying. We’ve seen journalists like Jagruti Shulka, who worked in Zee News, has said that the death was very well-deserved, that the murder was okay. They justify these murders. Swapan Dasgupta is trying his best to say, well, oh, this murder is being politicised.

Rashid was wrong

Journalists across the board have condemned the actions of Shehla Rashid. Most seem to agree that it is of no consequence who the reporter works for. Just because one finds a channel distasteful, one cannot ask its reporters not to do their job.

Humiliating reporters a shame, that too on pretext of protecting liberal ideas. PCI musn't let activists throw out reporters doing their job https://t.co/rLet4pfQjH — Shekhar Gupta (@ShekharGupta) September 7, 2017

what Nonsense!! The place didn't belong to @Shehla_Rashid . Press Club of India belongs to the press. How can she ask reporters to get out?! https://t.co/XnA1gewxsi — richa anirudh (@richaanirudh) September 7, 2017

Really? This is spine? Humiliating a journalist for doing his job? Wah! Good on @sneheshphilip for being dignified about it https://t.co/2rMFM1YNQx — Padmaja joshi (@PadmajaJoshi) September 7, 2017

people are free to say what they want about @republic, but they are not free to stop them from covering a public protest https://t.co/XCGidwHr5c — Hartosh Singh Bal (@HartoshSinghBal) September 8, 2017

It is after all hypocritical to be protesting the death of the free press and asking a reporter to “get out” in the same breath. We must not forget the kind of outrage that took shape when Stanley Pignal, The Economist’s Mumbai-based correspondent, was barred from entering a press conference by the Reserve Bank of India on its policy and interest rates announcements after the newspaper carried editorials criticising Prime Minister Narendra Modi's demonetisation drive.

Be it The Economist or Republic TV, reporters gather facts. We must realise that despite their opinions and regardless of their employer's editorial policy and direction, reporters are just doing their jobs. And most importantly, ideological differences are a part of a free-flowing democracy. Trying to put a stopper on or being intolerant of a media outfit just because its political leanings don’t align with your own is what the liberal media has accused the nationalist Right of doing for more than three years now.

Author, journalist and columnist Samrat sums this up succinctly, “There are intolerant people on all sides of the political divide. If you actually care about intolerance, you should fight it on both sides, not one.”

Rashid is right

The key phrases to look out for in Rashid's tirade are Republic TV is “covering up the assassination” and “they work on the orders of BJP MP”.

They both have some merit. Rajeev Chandrasekhar, one of the largest investors and a director in Republic TV, who has been a BJP Rajya Sabha member from Karnataka since 2006, and was appointed vice-chairman of NDA in Kerala in September 2016.

That Republic TV has an ultra-nationalist bent, utter disdain for the “cocktail media of Lutyen’s Delhi” and panders to whataboutery and hypernationalistic rhetoric is no secret. The channel also takes the toothless Opposition to task almost as often as BJP members themselves do.

Photo: Republic

Regarding the covering-up part, media watchdog Alt News on September 7, pointed out how Republic TV misreported a statement from Karnataka home minister Ramalinga Reddy. The channel, in a web report, quoted Reddy as saying “Will probe Maoist links to murder”. Other journalists present at the presser said that Reddy never made the statement.

What really happened? Reddy was asked: “She [Gauri Lankesh] played a major role in asking Naxalites from Chikmagalur to surrender. Few have already surrendered. Do you think their groups have played role in this Murder?”

To which he said, “Only after investigation we can come to know”. Not at all the same as “Will probe Maoist links to murder”.

Some have argued that Republic TV is acting like an unofficial mouthpiece of the government, and its past and continuing indiscretions make barring the channel's journalists from reporting on Gauri Lankesh’s murder reasonable. The channel can twist facts as it has already done at least once in this case, and it can try and shift the blame.

Read post-war Europe debates. You can't be tolerant towards intolerance. That's why you can't preach fascism in a free market place of ideas — Sushant Singh (@SushantSin) September 8, 2017

More power to Shehla Rashid but uncomfortable with her standing outside #pressclub throwing anyone out. She is not a journo or club rep. https://t.co/0xp57zeDbZ — Saba Naqvi (@_sabanaqvi) September 8, 2017

Giving fascists a "platform to speak" in the name of fair play or neutrality is exactly like arming the Nazi while condemning Nazism. THINK. — Angiography (@angshukanta) September 8, 2017

If I am allowed to take recourse to whataboutery for once, didn't anybody have a problem when "reporters" of this channel harassed Tharoor? https://t.co/QbBsdrzPyx — Anand Kochukudy (@AnandKochukudy) September 7, 2017

G Sampath, social affairs editor at The Hindu argued in a Facebook post: “People who day-in and day-out endorse, and enact, the suppression of dissent in their TV studios automatically surrender their journalistic credentials. They cannot expect to be treated like normal journalists when they venture out of their studios.”

“If tomorrow ISIS starts a TV channel, reporters who join the channel, let's say for purely legitimate reasons (to earn their bread) must not expect to be treated as normal journalists. Spreading hate and channelling incitement to violence is not compatible with journalistic values,” he added.

Fair enough, some may think. Free speech and journalistic freedom do not cover bigotry, hate speech and propaganda that Republic TV has and continues to brazenly indulge in.

Depriving a channel like that the opportunity to (mis)report would do the profession more good than defending it on the shaky foundation of the all-encompassing free speech.

How must the profession of journalism survive: Should it not choose to fight the evils in its own backyard?

The cleanup must begin at home.

Also read: Why I disagree with people wanting to block Narendra Modi on Twitter