Indian journalists enjoy more freedom than in most countries

Kolkata, Jan 15 (UNI) Indian journalists, thanks to the country's democratic norms, enjoy much more freedom of speech and writing than their counterparts in most of the other countries, feels world famous Ugandan born British journalist Yasmin Alibhai-Brown.

Ms Brown, who migrated to the UK from the largest East African nation during the infamous regime of Idi-Amin in 1972 and had since been associated with a number of leading British and American newspapers and News magazines, said barring a few countries, including the UK and the USA, ''freedom of Press'' almost remained non-existant in most of the countrries, particularly those in Africa, South East Asia and Latin America.

Citing her own example when she had to face the brunt of 'terrible censorship' by the then regimes of several African and South American nations for openly criticising the authority on several fronts, Ms Brown said her efforts to return to her native country Uganda also remained unsuccessful so far primarily because of her ''established identity as a Left-minded media person who always finds loopholes with the government and highlight those in international media.

Hailing the ''freedom'' enjoyed by her Indian counterparts both in print and electronic media, Ms Brown felt that this was possible not only because of the vibrancy of the country's democratic structures, but also because of strong prevailing political awareness among the general public.

She cited the recent example of investigating journalism in India which exposed the serial killing and Child abuse incidents at Noida and felt that such exposure could not have seen the light of the day in most of the African and Latin American countries because of their possible political linkages and contacts.

Asked about the views of the British public regarding the war on Iraq and the subsequent hanging of Saddam Hussain, Ms Brown felt that the way they had overwhelmingly protested against the hanging of Saddam Hussain and came out in streets, such things did not take place during the attack on Iraq which also killed millions of innocent people, including children.

In this connection she also criticised the role of premier British news Channel BBC in projecting the hanging of Saddam. However, in terms of reporting on and about Iraq situation and the role of the British army there, they were more or less impartial in their aproach, she added.

Incidentally, Ms Brown arrived here yesterday on a two-day visit to the city as part of a two week long nationwide tour, organised under the banner of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations under an cultural exchange programme.

UNI