Tags:
Journalism of Courage
The Rajkot police today arrested the executive editor,reporter and photographer of a leading vernacular daily,Divya Bhaskar,that had recently published a photograph of Rajkot Police Commissioner Geetha Johri partying on New Years eve. The paper was accused of manipulating news allegedly to increase readership.
Executive editor Kana Batwa,reporter Aniruddh Nakum and photographer Prakash Ravravi were later released on bail. Gujarat editor of the paper Avnish Jain,who is based in Ahmedabad,was also named in the FIR that the police had filed on January 5.
Photographs taken that evening have been taken by the police and were produced in court, said the police.
The complaint filed by Malaviyanagar Police Inspector S K Rai said the two reporters and the photographer had gatecrashed a private party,taken photographs of a couple in a manner that the images appeared obscene and published them alongside a photo of Johri and her husband. The caption of the photographs further questioned the propriety of Johris presence at the party.
Batwa maintains that neither was the party private nor its venue. He said the party was organised at Neel City Club,for which passes were sold,and that his staffers were carrying entry passes.
Speaking to The Indian Express earlier,Johri had called the publication of her photo a breach of privacy. She had said that she and her family were invited to the party along with other IAS and IPS officers and she had asked the newspapers staff not to take her pictures. Johri had also said that her photo and an unrelated one of a couple dancing intimately were clubbed together to give the party an obsence touch.
A member of the SIT initially investigating the Godhra riots cases,Johri was later removed following her role coming under a cloud.
