Unbelievable as it may sound, residents of the town of Mudhol in North Karnataka observed a bandh (shutdown) on Tuesday, September 20, to protest “blackmail journalism” and the growing number of imposters masquerading as journalists to extort money.
According to a report in the Kannada daily Praja Vani, the bandh in the town of 100,000 residents was a “complete success”.
Shops and business establishments downed their shutters for a few hours, and vehicles were off the roads.
The protestors included politicians, farmers, even journalists, and a host of other organisations. They marched to the tahsildar‘s office and presented a memorandum.
One protestor slammed weekly newspapers for bringing a bad name to the entire profession, and another targetted the misuse of the right to information (RTI) Act to ferret out information that was later used for extortion.
Mudhol town is famous for its country-bred hounds used for hunting.
Link via Sampadakeeya
Also read: Should media corruption come under Lokpal?
Bangalore journos, papers in mining scam report
‘Editors are lobbying on behalf of corporations’
Bangalore journos named in site allotment scam
Only in India: 90% off for journalists!
Cash transfer scheme is already here for journalists
Media houses are sitting on plots leased at one rupee!
Anti-corruption campaigner’s “error of judgement”
IJR 
This had to happen. Glad it did. Unless we are shamed, no lessons would be learnt.
This is annoying but not shocking. Some of our colleagues are notorious for seeking the brown envelope, highly susceptible to bribes and are extreme extortionists.
Journalism is not only an essential service to humanity, but also a noble profession that needs the intelligent, those with integrity, masters of forthrightness and those who can help societies advance in human fulfillment-those who will always strive and seek to make the world a better place to co-exist as human beings and also with nature.
This is shameful to the deepest sense of the word.
What has come out of the protest? Are the journalists repentant?
wow! impressive!! The journalism profession sure needs a clean up!
[…] Sans Serif reports that the residents of the town of Mudhol in the Karnataka state of India observed a strike recently to protest “blackmail journalism” and the growing number of imposters posing as journalists. Tweet […]
Congrats !!!
Some one some where has put the bell ….C A T …Corrupt awful terrible journalist….masquerading as journalists and some of them as their leader/s are making huge fortune and with this ill-gotten gain are further growing….spreading their wings,let me inform one thing that Hyderabad is sure much better place and will push Bangalore to second place in the CAT j race…..