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Controversial report costs reporter his job at Indian newspaper
Dubai: An Indian journalist who quit his job back home after a
controversial story got him in trouble is working today as a security
guard at a Dubai company.
The story earned Vinod Kumar Prajapat, 39, a front page byline in a
Hindi language newspaper in the North Indian city of Jaipur.
"The story was about an elderly woman who was thrown out when she went
to give a petition to an Indian minister. That story made headlines
and I was congratulated by the public, as well as fellow journalists,"
he said.
But his report was termed as a "packful of lies" by the politician and
he was asked to prove its authenticity. More than 350 eyewitnesses
stood by his story.
Credibility
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"I had to really work to prove my credibility. I realised that a
journalist has to tread carefully when it comes to influential people
who want to keep the truth from coming out,"said Prajapat.
He came to the UAE 15 months ago through an agent after undertaking
weeks of training as a security guard. He reads the Gulf News when he
gets some time out for himself and from his job of standing guard at
the company gates. He is married with two children. Prajapat has also
worked as researcher with a district newspaper in Jaipur.
He earns Dh900 as a 24 hour security guard and his meals are simple:
four parathas [baked Indian flat bread] which he relishes with bites
of onions and green chillies.
His aim is to save enough and get back home.
He says that his mother feared for his life and the family after the
controversy.
Threats
She wanted me to join my younger brother who runs a watch repair shop, he said.
"My mother got very scared. Bullies used to turn up at our door
looking for me," he said. After working as a watch technician in his
family-owned shop in Jaipur for a couple of months, Prajapat also
worked as a supervisor at a construction site in Jamnagar in the
Indian state of Gujarat.
But he soon was looking for greener pastures and a job that would help
him save enough to buy a video camera.
"I still long to go back to journalism, but this time I would like to
work in the electronic media. My English language skills are very poor
and so I buy a copy of the Gulf News and try to read it.
"I want to learn to speak in English and get a job as a news reporter
in one of the English news television channels in India. My adverse
circumstances at home got me here. My first love is journalism," he
said.
Courtesy: Gulf News
By Sunita Menon, Staff Reporter
Published: July 14, 2007, 00:04
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