Freedom of Speech & Expression, Assignments of Constitutional Law

Download Freedom of Speech & Expression and more Assignments Constitutional Law in PDF only on Docsity! Article on freedom of expression in view of recent arrest/release of Arnab Goswami  Justice for Anvay Naik? Arnab Goswami was arrested by the Maharashtra Police for charges of ‘abetment of suicide’ of an architect and his mother who worked for the so-called ‘number one’ channel yet not got paid. Distressed, it was alleged, both mother son duo committed suicide. The police that time ‘investigated’ the matter and found no foul play and closed the case. The distraught family was running here and there but Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and his administration was protecting the person from all the allegations. None can justify police action to intimidate journalists but Arnab Goswami does the other way round. I am sure, police had done their homework well. It went to his home to arrest him in early morning. Perhaps, that was not a great time as far as Arnab was concerned as he wanted to make everything a public spectacle as his channel does when Riya Chakraborty was being arrested. The policemen were requesting him to cooperate while he was accusing them of ‘beating’. It was really sad to see a senior person making a mockery of himself. Even in his arrest, Arnab was thinking of TRP for his channel and wanted his wife and son to broadcast live the ‘entire’ event with him as an ‘anchor’ of the live show. This is a problem with those who think themselves above the law and right to thrash anyone. While a newspaper office in Kashmir is shut down, freedom of the press is violated only when Arnab Goswami is arrested for alleged abetment of suicide. Incidentally, Arnab Goswami led a ‘witch-hunt’ by TV channels against Rhea Chakraborty, demanding her arrest for abetment of Sushant Singh Rajput’s alleged suicide, with even insinuations of homicide, when there was no evidence. Sushant Singh Rajput left behind no suicide note, Anvay Naik did. Anvay Naik blamed non- payment of dues by Arnab Goswami’s Republic TV and two others as the reason for taking his own life. His family has been demanding justice for him. If #JusticeForSSR was legit when Rajput didn’t even leave behind a suicide note, why not #JusticeForAnvayNaik? Please note that Goswami has not been arrested for his comments against Sonia Gandhi or Aaditya Thackeray. He’s not being arrested for anything he said on his channel about the Palghar incident of the murder of sadhus, which he needlessly tried to communalise. He’s not been arrested for his ‘witch-hunt’ against Bollywood actors. If he was arrested for any of these, you could have said it’s an assault on free speech. He’s been arrested for alleged abetment of suicide. When Left-liberals are put in jail as political prisoners, Right-wingers say the law will take its own course. Why not let the law ‘take its own course’ in Arnab Goswami’s case? While Arnab’s arrest is obviously caused by politics, please also note that the suicide in question took place in 2018 when there was a BJP government in place and the Mumbai Police didn’t make much of it then. If Goswami’s arrest today in an abetment to suicide case is political vendetta, then his getting away with the same charges in 2018 can be called political protection. In other words, Arnab Goswami is getting a taste of his own medicine. India has now officially descended into legal harassment and politically motivated cases from both sides of the political divide. That’s terrible, but who started the fire? Smriti Irani says Arnab Goswami’s arrest is “fascism” but we didn’t hear anything at all from her when a journalist in Tamil Nadu was arrested for his Covid-19 coverage. Where was Prakash Javadekar’s concern for press freedom when journalists in Kashmir were detained and allegedly assaulted by police during the Covid lockdown? When a journalist in Gujarat is arrested and charged with sedition merely for a speculative story that the state may see a change of chief minister, how many people demanded universal condemnation? The Modi government is arguing in court that sedition charges against journalist Vinod Dua should not be dropped. His crime? Abetment of anyone’s suicide? A suicide note blaming him? No. Merely criticizing the Modi government. It is inexplicable why Arnab Goswami deserves greater freedom than Parashar Biswas, a journalist in Tripura who was beaten up after criticising Chief Minister Biplab Deb’s threat to the media on his handling of Covid-19 pandemic. I saw one clip being spread by Republic network with the reporter virtually crying, they are taking Arnab Sir in the van. Can you imagine, Editor in chief of India’s number one channel being taken in a ‘van’ on the back side. Arnab’s wife and other members of the channel were behaving as if such things don’t happen and were specifically meant for it. It is not the job of a reporter to ask who is investigating the case. The best way for him would have been to violated people’s rights. His show became the biggest narrative against free thoughts and freedom of expression. His friends are asking ‘liberals’ to support or where they are, but fortunately most of them have spoken for his freedom. The question is Arnab Goswami must listen to his own argument that he gave in the Sushant Singh Rajput’s case to keep Rhea Chakbarborty in jail. Each word of the ‘investigating agencies’ was considered as gospel truth according to Republic TV. With yesterday’s event, will Arnab have a change of heart that all that the investigators say are not the final truth and people have a right to get legal aid and that let the process of law take its own course? Arnab could have shown much bigger maturity during his arrest but he behaved as if he cannot touched and looked like overly pampered boy who was not ready to listen to any one as he forgot that it was not ‘reel’ life show on his channel but real life event where he was an accused and the process of law take its own time unlike his channel where in just one hour he declare every one disagreeing with him as guilty. We will only say that let Arnab get all the legal aid pass through all the processes so that justice is done and it is possible only through due process of law and not through fixed shows of his programs which created mental traumas for so many people in his attempt to influence the process of law.  Conclusion It makes sense for liberals to condemn the arrest of Arnab Goswami because they have been consistently condemning legal action as a form of political vendetta, the suppression of free speech, and the chilling effects on freedom of press. Liberals spoke up for the journalist who was only doing his job in trying to cover the Hathras gang rape and murder recently. You know who was silent or even justifying their arrests? The same people who were championing Arnab Goswami’s ‘witch-hunt’ of Rhea Chakraborty on fictitious charges. When Right-wingers speak of Arnab Goswami’s freedom, they reek of hypocrisy, because for them freedom of speech is dependent on the person’s politics. Liberals, however, are condemning Arnab Goswami’s arrest because they are in principle opposed to putting political opponents in jail. If the Right-wing may please agree with this principle and start demanding the release of political prisoners regardless of political ideology, we’d be a freer, better, saner country. -Penned by Ms.Purva Basrur (T.Y.LL.B)