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Journalism of Courage
As Rafael Nadal created history on Sunday night by clinching his 21st Grand Slam, what caught the eyes of Twitter users was a tweet from the Pune City Police. It was a message to get vaccinated using a witty hashtag #NOVACCineNoTrophy—a catchy wordplay on defending champion Novak Djokovic getting barred from playing Australian Open because of the vaccination rules.
Djokovic, who along with Roger Federer holds 20 Grand Slams wins, is known for his stance against getting vaccinated. Djokovic, who tested positive for Covid-19 in December last year, was deported from Australia and not allowed to play the Australian Open because of the country’s strict immunisation norms.
On Sunday, Nadal defeated Russia’s Daniil Medvedev in a nerve-wracking final, even after losing the first two sets. With this win Nadal surpassed the other two from Big Three—Djokovic and Federer—to win his 21st Grand Slam title.
After the match, posting a photo of Nadal and Djokovic, the Pune City Police tweeted, “Get vaccinated today. #NOVACCineNoTrophy #RafaelNadal #AusOpen.” The tweet has received a significantly higher number of responses than what the Pune Police usually get for their posts on Twitter.
Since the beginning of the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic, the Pune Police have been running Twitter campaigns dedicated to a range of subjects. While some of them use memes, hashtags, trending topics to create awareness about Covid-appropriate behaviour, some others are dedicated to capturing the lighter and candid moments from the police deployment.
Some of the Twitter campaigns introduce people to various aspects of policing like police transport, police communication, beat marshals, dog squad, quick response teams (QRTs), registration of FIRs, anti-eve teasing squad etc. And some other campaigns are dedicated to core safety and security issues like Cyber Crimes, Crimes against women, children and the elderly and the issue of narcotic drugs.
Speaking about the series of campaigns, Pune City Police commissioner Amitabh Gupta said, “Engagement on social media is one of the key aspects of the people-centric community policing. Social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram are important tools to spread awareness about various aspects of policing and also keep stressing Covid appropriate behaviour. The memes, the hashtags and trending topics certainly make these tweets more engaging and help us reach more people.”
The Pune Police have a dedicated team that handles posts on social media and also the responses to the queries raised by people on these platforms.
Another important participatory Twitter campaign undertaken recently by the Pune Police is centred around the ‘My Safe Pune’ app launched by them. Under this Twitter campaign, citizens were asked to suggest various spots in Pune that required increased police patrolling and the Pune Police further analysed the possibility of adding those areas to the list of those covered by the patrolling beat marshals.
