Police media tags will prevent beatings, says NUJ
The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) have advised media practitioners to comply with the request for journalists covering Pakatan Rakyat's Himpunan Kebangkitan Rakyat (People’s Uprising Rally) this Saturday to apply for special media tags from the police.
The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) has advised media practitioners to comply with the request for journalists covering Pakatan Rakyat's Himpunan Kebangkitan Rakyat (People’s Uprising Rally) this Saturday to apply for special media tags from the police.
This, NUJ president Chin Sung Chew (
left
) said, would help police curb a recurrence of incidents during the Bersih 3.0 rally last year which saw some journalists being beaten up by police.
"The police intention is good, so we have no problem with it," he said when contacted yesterday.
The Kuala Lumpur police had on Monday contacted several media outlets, informing them to submit names of journalists covering the rally to that press tags can be issued, for their "protection".
However, Chin noted that the police decision was made without consulting the union.
He reminded media practitioners that they should still wear their press tags issued by the Information, Communications and Culture Ministry.
He further advised junior media personnel covering the rally for the first time to study the
safety handbook
issued by the NUJ.
"NUJ also urges all (journalists) to strictly follow the guidelines issued by the enforcement authorities while carrying out their professional duty," he said.
'Not for police to issue press tags'
Rather than issue special tags, said the Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ) in a statement yesterday, the police should instead ensure journalists can function unhindered during the rally.
"This is not a closed event organised by the police which requires an access tag from them. The rally is a public assembly and media's role is to cover it.
"The police role is to ensure public safety and facilitate media access to do their job to cover an event that has public interest, not to issue press tags," said CIJ executive officer Masjaliza Hamzah (
right
).
She said that media identification tags should only come from the respective media outlets, the Information Ministry or the NUJ.
The police should have come out with a standard operating procedure (SOP) on how they will deal with journalists during public assemblies, she said.
"The SOP is long overdue, given that no police personnel have been made accountable for beating up journalists during the Bersih 3.0 rally... How will the police be accountable for how they treat the media this Saturday?
"Will police be wearing tags and be easily identifiable and professional and adhere to international human rights standards in executing their job?"
At least nine journalists and photographers were allegedly attacked by police and a videographer was purportedly beaten up by protestors during the Bersih 3.0 rally held on April 28 last year.
Following this, two police officers were charged with beating up a Guang Ming Daily photographer, but were both acquitted on Nov 30 due to lack of evidence.
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