New Delhi, 24 August 2020: Journalists organisations express serious concern at the shut down of English premier daily of Meghalaya “The Shillong Times” by the authority on the plea of violation of Covid-19 protocol. The Indian Journalists Union (IJU) said in a press release that “Given that media is an ‘essential service’, the newspaper management should have been allowed to make requisite arrangements to come out with the edition by taking all precautions”. IJU demanded the authorities in Shillong review their order.
A copy of the government order issued on Saturday said there was “detection of positive COVID-19 cases/high rick contacts in the specified location Rilbong….all staff quarters share a common entrance and all protocols of social distancing wearing of face masks and all sanitisation were being violated,’ and it was necessary to declare it as containment zone.
However, the Shillong Times has contested the accusation saying all protocols were in place but ‘an official order picked holes’. Its Editor Patricia Mukhim said- “All we are asking is that since those tested positive are under quarantine, the rest of the staff testing negative and who are not direct or secondary contacts of machine workers, be allowed to work from their home with skeletal staff being allowed in newsroom. But even that is not being allowed although the office was sanitized last evening. What sort of authoritarian regime is this which does not even allow essential services to function?”
But government officials point out that Covid19 SoPs come into play whenever any Covid19 positive cases surface and in the course of the pandemic, the state has had to shut down for a few days, hundreds of localities and buildings, whole markets, shops, several police stations, hospitals (Bethany Hospital for 40 days) and other premier hospitals, and recently even the Meghalaya High Court (MHC) which closed for three days following COVID19 contact tracing among the staff.
In a statement, IJU President and Former member, Press Council of India, Geetartha Pathak and Secretary General and IFJ Vice President Sabina Inderjit said that while authorities are in their place in ensuring safety of people, they should have discussed the issue with the newspaper management rather than an ad hoc closure.
