New Delhi: Ten India-based foreign correspondents have resigned from the foreign Correspondents Club of South Asia to protest a visit to Myanmar last week by the association’s resident S. Venkat Narayan.
Narayan had been invited by the state-run newspaper Global New Light of Myanmar which “disseminates views of the country’s military junta” which has jailed 70 journalists, the correspondents said.
These comprise bureau chiefs of The Economist, The Washington Post, Agence France Presse, Financial Times, Radio France International and ARD. They journalists sent a letter to the FCC Sunday evening in which they decried the visit, stating they were “shocked and embarrassed to learn that the club’s president, Venkat Narayan, visited Myanmar last week, consulted for an organisation that disseminates the views of the country’s military junta, and participated in meetings with junta representatives that enabled his visit to be portrayed in a manner that brings the name of the FCC into disrepute”.
This letter was also “supported” by 22 other former FCC members, who are currently based in India as foreign correspondents, The Wire reported.
One of the signatories who didn’t want to be named separately told The Wire that they learnt about the visit only when it was reported in the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper. The Myanmar state-run daily had carried at least four news reports on Narayan’s meetings with four ministers in Nay Pyi Taw, the report said.
Narayan didn’t comment on the matter beyond the statement he had circulated to club members on Saturday. Narayan said an attempt was being made “to create the false impression that I led a media-delegation to Myanmar to meet the military junta”.
Narayan told FCC members that he travelled “as a guest of a Myanmarese newspaper and was invited as a journalist to share my perspectives on its editorial content etc”.
Narayan, who is the India correspondent for Sri Lanka’s The Island newspaper, also claimed the reporting done by the Myanmar state media on his visit was “not in my discretion”. “Let me again emphasise that my meetings there with some ministers had nothing to do with FCC,” he said.
He further said he was a professional journalist for over 50 years, and had travelled to 68 countries on work and interviewed scores of foreign dignitaries.
“My visit to Myanmar last week was one such, and I met many diplomats, journalists and ministers in Myanmar to understand what is going on there, when they plan to hold elections, etc., as any journalist would,” he said.
The 10 foreign correspondents, however, were firm in their resolve to resign. Their letter said: “We deplore the notion that the president of a group that is meant to represent journalists and stand up for media freedom would consult for and accept remuneration in kind from a propaganda organ of a regime that has jailed 70 journalists and is ranked 173 out of 180 countries in the latest press freedom index compiled by Reporters Without Borders.”
They also alleged the latest episode “was part of a broader trend of ethical concerns besieging the club”, The Wire report said. “This episode, which continues a pattern of activities that betrays the club’s role in protecting and facilitating independent journalism, has irrevocably destroyed our faith in the FCC as an organisation that can successfully represent our interests. We resign our membership with immediate effect,” the letter said.
An emergency meeting of the club’s board has been convened on 13 June to discuss the issue.
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