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Afghanistan, according to a global survey, is the most dangerous place for journalists. Eight journalists were killed last year. World over, democracy is at stake; so are the journalists. In India, too, death of a journalist is becoming common.

Gouri Lankesh was a victim last year; but her assailants are yet to be traced. We know now that the gun, which was used to kill her was also used to kill another upholder of freedom of speech. The group that wants to throttle free speech has been established but not the killer. A man from the underworld, who represents a Dubai don, was recently convicted of killing a crime reporter from Mumbai. Perhaps, he knew too much. Nobody is comfortable with these investigators.

A photographer was stripped, thrashed, and confined in Kolkata for trying to take photographs of looting of ballot papers during the Panchayat elections. Another had his camera broken and confiscated. Do not see what you see or write what you see; only write what you are asked to write. That is the new norm almost everywhere.

We talk and read of theories of fascism and dictatorship; but in reality, it is an attitude which the journalists face almost every day today in their workplace. The attitude comes from the politicians, the violent groups (the extremists and the underworld), the corporates, the bureaucrats, and unfortunately sometimes, even from their own publication owners.

Admittedly, in this era of ‘post-truth’ and the social media, everybody is a victim of mixing fact with fiction. But the blame (and not always without reason) goes to the journalist. In this deluge of information, he sometimes forgets his training in verification. Today, the social media allows everybody to write and comment on everything. In other words, everybody today is a journalist – without of course the training in verification that comes with experience. This gives birth to ‘fake’news.

What is more dangerous is the ‘deliberate’ attempt to distort information – with a purpose or agenda. One cannot deny that some journalists within the fraternity may have been ‘sold out’ – either to a political party or to a corporate house – and are part of the distortion process of information. But we cannot and should not paint the entire community of scribes with the black brush. Journalists are the medium of information and not the creators. The source of fake news, many of the global surveys have revealed, are the political parties and their followers. If a journalist becomes a follower of a political party (which today unfortunately they often do) then he has lost his objectivity and his right to remain in the profession. Such ‘migrations’ have done incalculable harm to the profession.  The profession has lost much of its credibility and has made the job of an honest journalist vulnerable.

Death can be an ultimate occupational hazard for a journalist. But now, before he dies, he is threatened and “trolled”. Attempts to dissuade him from investigating unpalatable truths have increased manifold. The ‘public space’, which we thought the social media has created, is shrinking. True, as long as democracy is alive, the journalists will live. But their work has become very difficult, if not hazardous.