Safety and Security of
Journalists: Yet Awaiting
Intervention from Indian
Academy and Industry
C. S. H. N. Murthy
1
Abstract
The article is an overview of the growing concerns about escalating violence
against journalists in India and a matching lack of interest in Indian academy
to understand the various implications of such violence—both pedagogically
and sociologically. The fact that about six journalists were killed in a span of
two to three months—September–November 2017—speaks volume about
the magnitude of the problem in India—the world’s largest democracy that
has the largest volume of media presence. By far, the safety and security of
journalists was never part of a serious debate among Indian media houses or
Indian journalism education except by way of expressing a symbolic condolence
whenever a journalist was killed in action. Although Indian academy has displayed
abject ignorance of this important component of journalists’ training despite the
UNESCO proposing a model curriculum for safety of journalists at University
level in 2007, the media industry which runs its own media schools in India
to train its recruits is never concerned about the safety and security of the
journalists. Using the methodology adopted by the Freedom House in its report
on Freedom of Press (2016) for determining the varied ways in which the
pressure was laid on the objective flow of information, the present study throws
light on several dimensions involved in evolving a pedagogy for the ‘safety and
security of journalists’ from sociological perspectives.
Keywords
Indian journalism education, media houses, pedagogy, safety and security of
journalists, impunity, conflict covering
1
Professor and Founder Director for Media and Film Studies, Paradigm Institute of Media and Film
Studies, New Mettuguda, Secunderabad, Telangana, India.
Corresponding author:
C. S. H. N. Murthy, Professor and Founder Director for Media and Film Studies, Paradigm Institute of
Media and Film Studies, New Mettuguda, Secunderabad 500017, Telangana, India.
E-mail: cshnmurthy@yahoo.co.in
Asia Pacific Media Educator
28(1) 1–19
© 2018 University of
Wollongong, Australia
SAGE Publications
sagepub.in/home.nav
DOI: 10.1177/1326365X18772359
http://journals.sagepub.com/home/ame
Article