Police calling scribes for interrogation, making them wait for long hours: 2 prominent media organisations

This creates hurdles in discharging their professional duties, especially in view of the pandemic crisis created by Covid-19, they said

The Press Association and the Press Club of India have petitioned Home Minister Amit Shah against Delhi Police frequently summoning journalists for interrogation in cases of arrests of their colleagues and making them wait for hours, seriously hampering their normal professional duties.

In its memorandum, the two prominent organisations said that they have no intention to create any hurdle in the process of investigation and made it "very clear" that journalists will fully cooperate with the investigating agencies.

However, Jaishankar Gupta and C K Nayak of Press Association and Anand Sahay and Anant Bagaitkar of Press Club of India said that it was brought to their notice that some of the journalists are frequently summoned to the police stations for interrogation by the investigative agencies in connection with cases of arrests of fellow journalists.

"It has been observed that the journalists, most of them accredited to the Government of India, are called to the police stations and made to wait for them for hours seriously hampering their normal professional duties. They were asked routine questions and let off in the night or after long hours, directing them to appear again," they said.

They added, "In our view, this creates hurdles in discharging their professional duties, especially in view of the pandemic crisis created by Covid-19."

"We wish to make it very clear that journalists will fully co-operate with the investigating agencies. The best possible way is to contact the concerned journalist(s) and interrogate him/them on a mutually agreed and convenient date, time, and venue. The venue can be either near his home or office and it should be completed in a stipulated time so that the journalists can perform their professional duties also," the memorandum said.

"We have no intention to create any hurdle in the process of investigation and in fact of the view that truth should prevail in the case, guilty should be punished and let the law take its own course," it added.