 "Espionage issue: Reporting on govt hits security wall")
Journalism for those covering Union economic ministries is not the same any more. Gone are the days when journalists could roam freely in corridors of the many Bhavans housing these ministries in the heart of Lutyens’ Delhi. Nor is access to government officials as unencumbered as in the past.
Welcome to the new information order.
Now, an added caveat for reporting on policy and government affairs is that getting into a central ministry or department is slightly tougher than gaining access to a company’s corporate offices or a political party’s headquarters. Thanks to the recent leak of confidential documents by lower-level staff in at least two ministries, there now are signs of access to officials getting a lot more difficult.
The document leaks at the finance and petroleum & natural gas ministries, unearthed as part of two separate investigations by the Delhi Police and the Central Bureau of Investigation, have rendered the relationship between reporters and bureaucrats tenuous.
Even for journalists with an accreditation with the Union government, gaining entry into the offices of key economic and infrastructure ministries is not an easy task. There is a number of checks and protocols that are being followed from entry to exit.
First up, officers across the stretch of Central Secretariat, which has North and South Blocks, Parliament, and Shastri, Krishi, Udyog and Nirman Bhavans, besides buildings housing other central government ministries, have drastically reduced their interactions with reporters. The reason is invariably the same, that the situation for them is not conducive to interacting with outsiders. “There is increased scrutiny. I will meet you only if the bosses (the minister and the secretary in a ministry) give me permission,” quipped a mid-level officer recently, declining a request for interaction.
Ever since it was established that certain leaks emanated from Shastri Bhavan, which houses a number of ministries, security on its premises seems to have been tightened. Insiders say security staff posted there have been instructed to keep an eye on any non-verified vehicle entering or leaving the building premises after 7 pm.
That apart, the Press Information Bureau, a division of the Union information & broadcasting ministry, has displayed in bold letters that all non-accredited journalists need to get permission from designated officers, through proper channel, before entering the building. It also states, once permission for meeting an official has been granted, it must be ensured the reporter concerned meets only the official for whom he or she has the permission, and not others.
After the meeting is over, it is imperative that the said person returns his/her permission slip to the authorities concerned. The rules always existed, say officials, but those were never implemented so strictly. “These will ensure no one has an easy access to the minister or his junior, and there are layers of check before one manages to meet the ministers,” a senior official said.
Journalists covering the energy sector say such curbs will not hit the reporters as hard as the fact that corporate lobbyists still roam about on some floors of Shastri Bhavan, where the petroleum & natural gas ministry is located.
Reporters recall an incident where company executives of one of the bidders in coal block auction were found moving about outside the office of a joint secretary, for good half an hour. It was only after a peon reported this to the bureaucrat that the executives were escorted to the exit gate. And, this was on a Sunday.
In a key economic ministry situated in another building, even if a reporter has an appointment with an official, the latter has to ensure the reporter, or any other non-government person for that matter, is accompanied from the reception to the bureaucrat’s office by a staff member.
In fact, besides the paramilitary guards deployed at the main entry and exit points of Udyog Bhavan, even peons demand to check PIB cards and verify the accreditation of the reporters. A high-profile secretary at a ministry prefers to call reporters at his residence for exclusive meetings or interviews. Not long after the Shastri Bhavan leaks, the Union aviation ministry at Rajiv Gandhi Bhavan had barred the entry of accredited reporters for 10 days starting March 2. Even accredited ones were not allowed to enter the building until permission was sought from the official to be visited.
Following this diktat, a few reporters raised the issue with the civil aviation secretary, who had called a meeting on March 13. The issue was resolved and accredited reporters were allowed to enter the ministry from March 16.
There are reports that in addition to information officers (IOs) — deputed at all ministries by the information and broadcasting ministry to act as spokespersons for communicating with the media — certain senior joint secretaries, directors or even personal secretaries to ministers at various ministries are also being asked to interact with the media.
This reduces the responsibilities of these IOs, and, as an indirect consequence, they do not allow entry for non-accredited reporters as frequently as they used to. However, the increased scrutiny has also had positive fallouts for the profession and for bureaucrat-reporter interactions. It is one of the worst kept secrets in Delhi’s journalism circles that corporate lobbyists pass on leaked documents to reporters after they are done disseminating information in those papers. That certainly seems to have stopped, at least for now.
Also, reporters are said to be willing to give up daily access to ministries in exchange for an organised flow of information through weekly press briefings. A number of reporters have asked for such on-record or off-record briefings, like the ones conducted by the external affairs ministry. The idea is, if ministries willingly accept a two-way flow of information — unlike press releases, which leave no scope for questions from the media — journalists will not seek as many appointments as they do at present.
Welcome to the new information order.
Now, an added caveat for reporting on policy and government affairs is that getting into a central ministry or department is slightly tougher than gaining access to a company’s corporate offices or a political party’s headquarters. Thanks to the recent leak of confidential documents by lower-level staff in at least two ministries, there now are signs of access to officials getting a lot more difficult.
The document leaks at the finance and petroleum & natural gas ministries, unearthed as part of two separate investigations by the Delhi Police and the Central Bureau of Investigation, have rendered the relationship between reporters and bureaucrats tenuous.
Even for journalists with an accreditation with the Union government, gaining entry into the offices of key economic and infrastructure ministries is not an easy task. There is a number of checks and protocols that are being followed from entry to exit.
First up, officers across the stretch of Central Secretariat, which has North and South Blocks, Parliament, and Shastri, Krishi, Udyog and Nirman Bhavans, besides buildings housing other central government ministries, have drastically reduced their interactions with reporters. The reason is invariably the same, that the situation for them is not conducive to interacting with outsiders. “There is increased scrutiny. I will meet you only if the bosses (the minister and the secretary in a ministry) give me permission,” quipped a mid-level officer recently, declining a request for interaction.
Ever since it was established that certain leaks emanated from Shastri Bhavan, which houses a number of ministries, security on its premises seems to have been tightened. Insiders say security staff posted there have been instructed to keep an eye on any non-verified vehicle entering or leaving the building premises after 7 pm.
That apart, the Press Information Bureau, a division of the Union information & broadcasting ministry, has displayed in bold letters that all non-accredited journalists need to get permission from designated officers, through proper channel, before entering the building. It also states, once permission for meeting an official has been granted, it must be ensured the reporter concerned meets only the official for whom he or she has the permission, and not others.
After the meeting is over, it is imperative that the said person returns his/her permission slip to the authorities concerned. The rules always existed, say officials, but those were never implemented so strictly. “These will ensure no one has an easy access to the minister or his junior, and there are layers of check before one manages to meet the ministers,” a senior official said.
Journalists covering the energy sector say such curbs will not hit the reporters as hard as the fact that corporate lobbyists still roam about on some floors of Shastri Bhavan, where the petroleum & natural gas ministry is located.
Reporters recall an incident where company executives of one of the bidders in coal block auction were found moving about outside the office of a joint secretary, for good half an hour. It was only after a peon reported this to the bureaucrat that the executives were escorted to the exit gate. And, this was on a Sunday.
In a key economic ministry situated in another building, even if a reporter has an appointment with an official, the latter has to ensure the reporter, or any other non-government person for that matter, is accompanied from the reception to the bureaucrat’s office by a staff member.
In fact, besides the paramilitary guards deployed at the main entry and exit points of Udyog Bhavan, even peons demand to check PIB cards and verify the accreditation of the reporters. A high-profile secretary at a ministry prefers to call reporters at his residence for exclusive meetings or interviews. Not long after the Shastri Bhavan leaks, the Union aviation ministry at Rajiv Gandhi Bhavan had barred the entry of accredited reporters for 10 days starting March 2. Even accredited ones were not allowed to enter the building until permission was sought from the official to be visited.
Following this diktat, a few reporters raised the issue with the civil aviation secretary, who had called a meeting on March 13. The issue was resolved and accredited reporters were allowed to enter the ministry from March 16.
There are reports that in addition to information officers (IOs) — deputed at all ministries by the information and broadcasting ministry to act as spokespersons for communicating with the media — certain senior joint secretaries, directors or even personal secretaries to ministers at various ministries are also being asked to interact with the media.
This reduces the responsibilities of these IOs, and, as an indirect consequence, they do not allow entry for non-accredited reporters as frequently as they used to. However, the increased scrutiny has also had positive fallouts for the profession and for bureaucrat-reporter interactions. It is one of the worst kept secrets in Delhi’s journalism circles that corporate lobbyists pass on leaked documents to reporters after they are done disseminating information in those papers. That certainly seems to have stopped, at least for now.
Also, reporters are said to be willing to give up daily access to ministries in exchange for an organised flow of information through weekly press briefings. A number of reporters have asked for such on-record or off-record briefings, like the ones conducted by the external affairs ministry. The idea is, if ministries willingly accept a two-way flow of information — unlike press releases, which leave no scope for questions from the media — journalists will not seek as many appointments as they do at present.