Centre’s dos and don’ts on interviewing prisoners
SHILLONG: The recent directive of the Centre asking the media, pressure groups and others to deposit Rs.1 lakh as security deposit to the government to interact with under trial prisoners will pose a hurdle to bring prison administration under scrutiny.
The directive is also applicable to visitors, whether foreigner or Indian including individuals, companies researchers and film makers.
As per the directive of the Union Home Ministry which was sent to all the states including the Meghalaya Prisons department, the “visitor shall submit a security deposit of Rs.1 lakh by way of demand draft/ local
banker’s cheque in the name of the Jail Superintendent of the concerned jail”.
Sources said that such a directive will put a stop to the small media houses in the North East from getting first hand information from under trial prisoners on the state of affairs in prisons.
Moreover, it also deters the NGOs from carrying out interactions with the UTPs.
Earlier in Meghalaya, the under trial prisoners had revealed to visiting media persons their poor health conditions, among others. Moreover, the under trial prisoners had also revealed to the media many twists and turns regarding the infamous Shillong jail break of May, 2009 involving notorious criminal Fullmoon Dhar who was ‘allegedly’ shot dead by the police.
As per the Centre’s directive, in case of violation of the guideline following an undertaking, the jail superintendent will forfeit the security deposit of Rs.1 lakh and initiate legal action.
The directive came after the BBC documentary on the Nirbhaya rape case which showed the interview of one of the rapists Mukesh Singh in jail.
One of the directives also hints at censorship as “the final version of the documentary /film/research paper/articles/books to be released/published is to be submitted to the concerned state government/head of the prison department for final no objection certificate for publication/release”.
There is strict directive not to release the work without obtaining no- objection certificate.
The directive also says that in case of newspaper/magazine/web based articles, the visitor will follow the norms of journalistic conduct prescribed by the Press Council of India before preparing the material for publication.
The directive also says that no private individual, press, NGO or company should ordinarily be allowed entry into prison for the purpose of doing research, making documentaries, writing articles or interview, unless the State government feels that a particular work is for creating positive social impact, or it is related to prison reforms. Moreover, the State government can decide to invite press or filmmakers to cover a particular event.
While Indian visitors should submit application 30 days in advance, for the foreigners, the time period is 60 days. In case of print media, the application will have to be submitted seven days ahead.
The jail superintendent should be present during the interviews and the “jail superintendent should immediately intervene on the spot if he feels that a certain video clip or an interview being conducted is no desirable”, says one of the directives.
After the work, the materials and equipments will have to be handed over to jail authorities for three days. “The jail superintendent will hear all the recordings carefully and if he finds anything objectionable, he shall delete the portion,” according to the directive. Moreover, the jail authorities are free to edit the work.