346 Journalist Died Due To Covid : Plea In The SC Seeks Compensation, Medical Benefits For Media Persons

BACKGROUND

• As the risk of Covid-19 has risen nationwide it has widely affected several families who lost their loved ones due to this virus especially of our frontline workers who risk their life to help other people.
• Journalists are no exception to this and have served the nation duly with their services however, Institute of Perception Studies and its media initiative 'Rate the Debate’since last year, the institute has been conducting research into the deaths of journalists due to COVID-19 and discovered data that showcases lack of medical facilities for scribes.
• There have been 253 deaths of journalists due to COVID-19 which have been verified and 93 death which are unverified between April 1, 2020 to May 19, 2021.
• The data further reveals that 34% of the deaths have occurred in the metro cities whereas 66% of the deaths have occurred in the smaller cities between the age group of 41- 50 years.

DETAILS

• Therefore, an Intervention Application has been filed in the Suo Moto COVID case before the Supreme Court, to bring spotlight on the situation of journalists and media person for seeking proper healthcare and adequate treatments for them along with their families, this plea was led by Sr. advocate Salman Khurshid Advocate Lubna Naaz on behalf of Dr. Kota Neelima, who is the Director of Institute of Perception Studies and its media initiative 'Rate the Debate'
• They submitted their data collection with regards to the deaths of the journalists from last year to the court.
• The IA further states that despite writing a letter to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare requesting it to announce the media persons as frontline workers yet the Central Government has not designated them for vaccine prioritization.
• Also, the guidelines of the Special Drive under Journalist Welfare Scheme (JWS) launched by the Central Government is not fully accessible as its guideline leave behind a major no. of managerial or supervisory level journalists
• Also, some journalists are employed in an organisation sharing similar post of authority yet one of them is sanctioned with power officially and the other not which makes it difficult for them to avail the JWS program therefore violating their art 14 right from the Constitution.
• The guidelines also state that the cameraperson and the correspondents should have at least 15 yrs of full-time job experience in their 6.1 rule while 6.2 limits the eligibility to those who reside in Delhi or its periphery.
• The AI is also in the support of demanding for the ex-gratia payment for the families that have lost their loved one due to COVID-19

DEMANDS

• The government must include all staff such as editor, videographer, spokesperson, technical department as media personnel and permit them to utilise the services free of cost and at priority
• For the scheme to be a success the government must not consider the accredited individual only as that excludes a large no. of professionals without adequate facilities
• To make registration for the vaccine not compulsory for these frontline warriors and allow them walk-in facility
• To have a fixed rate of compensation for these journalists and their families in case of the death of these frontline warriors which would implement throughout all states and union territory
• To either reimburse the journalists medical bills or provide them with free treatment at both government and private institutions depending on the availability of bed at that point

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THIS APPEAL? DO YOU THINK THE DEMANDS WOULD BE GRANTED BY THE APEX COURT?