Kohima Press Club (KPC) has expressed deep concern over the indifferent attitude of BJP toward journalists.
In a statement, KPC reminded that the club on February 18 had written to the top brass of State BJP, as well as party’s national spokesperson and in-charge of Nagaland Nalin S Kohli over the “uncouth behaviour and bullying of journalists” by State BJP media convenor, but regretted that the party had failed to respond to date.
KPC said that the media convenor had resorted to “unwarranted aggression and unprofessional behaviour” on February 18 when three journalists interacting with her in “Press 4 BJP Nagaland” WhatsApp group drew her attention to a piece of misinformation regarding the visit of a Union minister to Nagaland. At least two leading newspapers in Nagaland that used the communiqué from the State BJP media cell ended up publishing factually inaccurate news.
It said that when the convenor displayed ignorance about the misinformation, one of the journalists advised the official to stay updated about the party’s activities and ensure that all press statements were cross checked by the media cell. To this, the officials responded with “extreme aggression and called the journalists engaged in the conversation to fight,” KPC stated.
Concerned over the development, KPC said it wrote to the State BJP leadership seeking clarification on the behaviour of the party functionary, and attached screenshots of the conversation to the party leaders. Despite this, KPC said the convenor launched an “unrelenting personal attack, singling out one particular journalist” even the following day, amplifying a false narrative to the point of even saying the journalist was seeking limelight at her expense as was is election time. Instead of accepting the mistake, KPC said the convenor continued online harassment in an attempt to malign the character of the journalist concerned.
According to KPC, the state BJP leadership’s silence on the issue was an indication that the party condoned such unprofessional and loutish behaviour of its party functionaries while dealing with members of the Fourth Estate. It also showed that the BJP was apparently indifferent to the dissemination of wrong information about its activities by its own media cell, it added.
The statement mentioned that members of KPC who were irked by BJP’s indifference had so far maintained professional dignity, not seeking to take advantage of the situation and continued reporting the party’s political activities. Despite this, KPC said the Nagaland BJP, including the national spokesperson, seemed highly reluctant to address the wrongdoing of its functionary, which implied that the national party had no regard for the media fraternity of Nagaland.
While condemning the “cyber bullying” of journalists by State BJP media cell convener, KPC demanded that latter publicly apologised to the press fraternity.
If otherwise the BJP felt that the behaviour of its media cell convenor was justified, KPC asked the party to make public its response, claiming that it could provide evidence of bullying by making public screenshots of the convenor’s tirade on WhatsApp groups.