Journalist held captive at BMCC

Unhappy with MiD DAY for not giving positive spin to festival, professors and students threaten correspondent, don't let him leave room as they insist on apology in print

Journalist held captive at BMCC

Unhappy with MiD DAY for not giving positive spin to festival, professors and students threaten correspondent, don't let him leave room as they insist on apology in print

Au00a0group of college professors and students at the Brihan Maharashtra College of Commerce (BMCC) shamed the institution yesterday afternoon by behaving in a most unprofessional and unruly manner when they detained and threatened a MiD DAY trainee reporter for an article on the college's ongoing annual festival TROIKA.

MiD DAY had on January 11 and 12 had carried two articles on the college festival. The January 11 report stated that the first day of the festival saw a low student turnout, while the next report said the response on the second day was much better.

Upset with the first report, some students from the festival organising committee surrounded the MiD DAY reporter who had gone to cover the third day of the festival. They did not allow the reporter to interact with the participants and began shouting at him for the January 11 article.

When the reporter protested that he had written an objective article, he was asked to wait till a senior professor arrived.

About five minutes later, a lady professor came to the spot and started yelling at the reporter, accusing him of having tarnished the reputation of the college and demanding an apology.

Before the reporter could react, he was told to come into a room to discuss the issue further.

Once inside the room, a male faculty member joined in and at least seven students stood guard behind the reporter. The door of the room was closed and the students and the lady professor started threatening the reporter, telling him he would not be allowed to leave if he did not promise to apologise in a published article.

Despite several requests, the reporter was not allowed to leave the room and was detained while the entire bunch relentlessly grilled him. Even after he had given the phone numbers of senior reporters, the college authorities did not bother to discuss the issue with them and continued to hold the trainee reporter back.

This continued for about an hour-and-half. The trainee reporter was finally allowed to leave when he was on the point of a nervous breakdown, but only on the condition that he would get an apology published.

Click here to see the related report published in MiD DAY on Jan 11