On Tuesday, 90 journalists in Maharashtra from news organisations across platforms and languages held an urgent Zoom meeting.
Their discussion spanned their two main demands from chief minister Uddhav Thackeray: to get them vaccinated on a priority basis, and to be allowed to use public transport.
“If this is a war, and we are in a battlefield, just give us the armour,” said journalist Smruti Koppikar.
Koppikar’s comment summed up the sentiment of journalists across Maharashtra, who have been reporting during the pandemic for over a year, but without the additional protection of being declared frontline workers. According to journalist union Marathi Patrakar Parishad, around 126 journalists have died of Covid in the state in the last eight months.
In Mumbai, Covid deaths include Vivek Bendre from the Hindu, Sadanand Shinde from Navakal, Sumit Ghoshal from Business India, Shashi Baliga, Sabaji Palkar from ANI, Sanjay Rokde from NDTV, and Jayaram Sawant from Daily Sagar.
The central government has not declared journalists as frontline workers, . In fact, on April 4, the Modi government wrote to all states and union territories, asking them not to permit any fresh registrations of healthcare workers or frontline workers.
But over the past couple of weeks, at least 12 states have either declared journalists as frontline workers or allowed them to get vaccination on a priority basis.
But not Maharashtra, despite being one of the states hardest hit by Covid. Cabinet ministers like , , , and have written to Thackeray asking that journalists be designated as frontline workers. So have opposition leaders like .
So far, chief minister Thackeray hasn’t said a word.
Some journalists suspect that the state government is dragging its feet because there are financial strings attached to being a frontline worker, such as insurance and other monetary benefits. Hence, their immediate demands are simple: vaccination and access to public transport. The rest can come later.
Following Tuesday’s Zoom meeting, alongside efforts from senior journalists and cabinet ministers, many attendees hoped their issues would be addressed during a state cabinet meeting held on Wednesday.
Nothing happened. According to PTI, health minister Rajesh Tope on Wednesday said there weren’t , and that the proposal of vaccinating journalists under the frontline category could be discussed after the state gets vials in a large quantity.
As a result, journalists told Newslaundry that they plan to step up their agitation, from refusing to report on government stories for a day to gathering for a physical protest. None of these plans have been finalised, but the signal is clear: enough is enough.
Journalist Jatin Desai, who has been at the helm of organising the agitation, said their protest would intensify in the coming week to get the government to listen. On their demands not being discussed…