Journo writes on teachers' scam, gets cops' notice

...served notice by city police in connection with a story on recruitment scam

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: A journalist with a Kannada investigative news portal has been served notice by the city police in connection with a story recently published regarding a recruitment scam of high school teachers in Karnataka.

According to sources, G Mahantesh, the editor of The File, was served a notice under CrPC section 91 (produce documents to prove defence) on January 5 and was asked by Bengaluru police to reveal the source of the document on which the story was based. The notice also asked for the identity, name and address of the sources.

The File, a Kannada online investigative journalism portal, had carried a follow-up story in November 2022 soon after the Karnataka Criminal Investigation Department (CID) arrested at least 60 people including the managing director of Karnataka Textbook Society, Made Gowda, and other top officials in connection with irregularities in the recruitment of high school teachers in the academic year 2014 and 2015.

However, two months after he was arrested in connection with the scam, a note issued by the Public Instruction department, which administers school education in Karnataka, stated that Made Gowda and two others would be reinstated in their positions.

A copy of the note issued by the Public Instruction department was published in a report on The File on November 10, 2022. In reaction to the notice, Mahantesh said that the publication will not divulge information on the source in the story to the police. He said that this is an attempt to intimidate independent news outfits.

The File has reported extensively on several malpractices and irregularities across government departments. He insisted that as more and more departments are becoming paperless, any leak of a document which can be the source of most journalism, is being criminalised by misusing cybercrime laws.

"It is wrong of the police to demand that a journalist reveal his sources. Why should I reveal my sources? The File has backed all its reports regarding scams, malpractices and corruption in recruitments, with documents accessed through RTI and sources," he said.

There are no special provisions in India giving a journalist protection of source confidentiality in a court of law. This is despite the 93rd and 185th Reports of the Law Commission of India recommending that journalistic privilege, subject to reasonable restrictions, should be codified into law.

However, senior police officers from the cybercrime department stated that the notice was a "common procedure" and wasn’t meant to prosecute or intimidate anyone. 

The cops alleged that a case has been filed by the PID alleging that internal office files had been illegally leaked which were further broadcasted on the news portal.

"We mention in the chargesheet that such a notice was issued to a person, but they declined to share information. The Karnataka Police Act empowers us to seek documents from anyone in connection with a case. Meanwhile other journalists and reporters expressed disappointment on the police action for asking for source documents from a journalist. "It is not the ethics of journalism to divulge the name and details of a source who gives information about a scam, illegality, malpractice, maladministration," a news portal, Hate detector, tweeted in its page.