. But generally deadlines have
traditionally slipped by in the place of employment
many of us earlier used to share. At present, I am
dispensing my duties as a reporter at the Herald. So
here, I make it amply clear, that my licence for
unbridled freedom is at present indebted to the firm,
where I draw a salary from. Anyway without delving more
time and space on Utopian and impractical ideals as
freedom of the press, I shall proceed further.

My few years of covering the crime-beat in Goa, have
been marked a considerably easy tenure. And press
freedom, rather the lack of it, has been one of the
reasons for my being fairly successful at the beat.

With reporters from newspapers like The Navhind Times
(manned by any editor) and The Gomantak Times, recently
under Pramod Khandeparkar, as rivals, it has been
rather easy to come up with exclusives. Especially
because, the two competing newspapers do not seem to
carry news which scalds. And when they do manage to
rustle up some exclusives, it is more often in form of
some sort of a balm to cover the wounds of the
Establishment. Or a day or two late.

A few aspects of this deduction could be explained by
interactions I have had amongst journalists from both
the newspapers. Press freedom and ideals in most
newspaper organizations take a back-seat. In The
Navhind Times especially, that's way back.

Editors and crime -- what's the connection?

With the death of former Director General of Police
Rajinder Singh Sahaye, Goan editors (most of them,
anyway) have lost a great patron. Let me illustrate the
extent of the warm hold late Mr Sahaye had over our
enlightened mandarins.

I was in the employ of The Navhind Times some years
back. Press notes handed out to newspaper offices are
meant for lowly hacks to tackle. Lowly hacks meaning,
either sub-editors or reporters, who generally gloss
over them.

Following a press conference addressed by DGP Sahaye, I
came back to office one evening and filed the story. I
was then told that a press note, which had been issued
at the conference, had already been composed by the
editor and that I need not file the story.

Surprising? Not so.

The DGP had made a few important comments, other than
those, which had been mentioned in the press-note. So I
altered the already composed press note, to fit in
these changes. The next day, an irked Mr Sinha, who is
anyway a man of few words, did not have very pleasant
words to say about this.