WB govt proposes conduct code for journalists

Disclosing the recommendations of the committee set up to probe the recent assault on journalists at Writers8217; Buildings by state government employees, Bhattacharya said: 8220;The government has thought of a code of conduct because it didn8217;t want such incidents to be repeated.8221;

The committee, in its report submitted to the State Home Ministry last week, let go the employees who bashed up the journalits with mild reprimand and warning but decided on a code of conduct.

8220;The Chief Secretary will sit with various press associations and work out the code,8221; announced Bhattacharya. He added that no exemplary punishment could be taken against the assaulters as they had filed a counter-FIR with the police.

The report has said that even though senior staffers of the Information and Cultural Department were present, they did not intervene. 8220;They could have done much to prevent the violence from escalating,8221; Bhattacharya, who looks after both the Police and Information Department, said.

Incidentally, the attack on journalists came at a time when top CPM leaders, including Chief Minister Jyoti Basu, were making direct attacks on the media for every tactical debacle of the state government and accusing them of 8220;taking an anti-Left stand8221;.