Home

Crowdfunding Countercurrents

CC Archive

Submission Policy

Join News Letter

Defend Indian Constitution

#SaveVizhinjam

CounterSolutions

CounterImages

CounterVideos

CC Youtube Channel

India Burning

Mumbai Terror

Iraq

Peak Oil

Globalisation

Localism

Climate Change

US Imperialism

Palestine

Communalism

Dalit

Humanrights

Economy

India-pakistan

Kashmir

Book Review

Gujarat Pogrom

Kandhamal Violence

Arts/Culture

Archives

About Us

Popularise CC

Disclaimer

Fair Use Notice

Contact Us

Subscribe To Our
News Letter

Name


E-mail:



Search Our Archive



Our Site

Web

 

 

 

 

Mounting Demand For Special Protection Laws To Scribes

By Nava Thakuria

23 May, 2016
Countercurrents.org

As India witnessed the murder of three journalists this year (eight
since Jan 2015), the demand for special protection laws to
journalists on duty is also mounting. Protesting rigorously against
the killing of two scribes in Bihar and Jharkhand this month, the
media fraternity across the country rose to the occasion for a
national action plan for safeguarding the media persons.

The first incident of journalist murder this year took place in Uttar
Pradesh, where a young scribe named Tarun Mishra was shot dead on 13
February 2016 at Gosaiganj locality in Sultanpur district. Mishra (32)
used to work for a Hindi daily named Jan Sandesh Times and he was
targeted for highlighting the illegal soil mining activities in his
district. Three motorcycle riding miscreants shot at him near to his
residential locality in Ambedkar Nagar and he succumbed to his severe
injuries in the hospital.

The second casualty was reported from Jharkhand, where a television
news channel reporter was killed by the local goons. Two unidentified
people targeted Indradev Yadav (also known as Akhilesh Pratap Singh)
at Dewaria locality of Chatra district on the night of 12 May. Yadav
(35), who used to work for Taaza News, faced the bullets in front of
the village Panchayat office and died on his way to the hospital.
Within 24 hours, the third case of journalist murder came to light
from its neighboring State of Bihar. Unidentified gunmen shot at
Rajdeo Ranjan on 13 May night at Siwan railway station locality.
Engaged with the national Hindi newspaper Hindustan in a senior
position, Ranjan (45) died in the hospital. A senior journalist with
brave image, Ranjan earned enmity with local political goons for his
reporting against those elements.

Both the incidents created instant wave of protests in Ranchi as well
as in Patna and then it spread to other parts of the country. Various
local, national and international media (rights) bodies including the
members of prestigious press clubs based in New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata
etc demonstrated their angers against the vicious attacks on scribes
and demanded distinctive punishment to each & every single perpetrator
of the crimes.

Shashi Shekhar, the chief editor of Hindustan narrated in his column
that ‘journalism today is amongst the most dangerous professions in
the world’, but even though people get attracted to it, as the society
needs truth and journalism is the most powerful medium to bring out
that truth.

“We have made sacrifices and we will continue to do so, till it is
necessary…The first target of this struggle will be to bring the
killers of Rajdeo Ranjan to book. Here I would like to thank friends
in the media for their united stand on the issue….Believe me, we are
nothing without your patronage. And we once again reaffirm our resolve
to continue to be your voice,” added the column.

Even the information & broadcasting minister Arun Jaitley came out
with a statement condemning the killings and twitted, “I strongly
condemn murder of journalists Rajdeo Ranjan in Siwan and Akhilesh
Pratap Singh in Chatra district. Independent investigation may be
instituted and guilty be punished.”

Both New York based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and Paris
based Reporters Without/Sans Borders (RSF) strongly condemned the
killings and called for an authentic investigation into the
incidents. They also expressed concerns that India is slipping down in
the World Press Freedom Index for 2016 turning the largest democracy
as one of the worst places for working journalists.

Facing the heat of protests, the Jharkhand police arrested two persons
suspecting their involvement in the killing of Yadav. According to the
police the arrests were made on the basis of CCTV records, mobile
call details and other relevant evidences.

But adding worries to the Bihar government, Ranjan’s father Radha
Chaudhary and wife Asha Devi demanded a Central Bureau of
Investigation (CBI) probe to unearth the killers and they publicly
declared that they had little faith in the local police. Many Bihar
based journalists also asked for a CBI probe into Ranjan’s murder,
which compelled the State chief minister Nitish Kumar to recommend for
a CBI investigation to look into the affair.

It may be mentioned that the robust media fraternity of the populous
country lost five journalists namely Jagendra Singh (UP), Sandeep
Kothari (Madhya Pradesh), Raghavendra Dube (Maharashtra), Hemant Yadav
(UP) and Mithilesh Pandey (Bihar) fell to assailants last year. Shockingly,
no one has been convicted in all cases.

Lately the Press Council of India chairman justice (retired)
Chandramouli Kumar Prasad came forward to strongly condemn the killing
of scribes and urged the Centre to enact a special law for protection
of journalists and speedy trial of cases of attacks & assaults on the
media persons.

“Nearly 96 per cent of the cases of killing of journalists have not
been taken to logical conclusion and are either languishing in the
courts or in some cases, investigation reached dead-end in the last
two decades, as reported by a Committee of the PCI,” said the press
council chairman.

Earlier the northeast India based scribes also joined in the protest
against the killing of journos in central Indian provinces. The
representatives of various journalist organizations assembled in front
of Guwahati Press Club on 16 May and demonstrated their angers.
Covering their mouths with black clothes, the demonstrators also
demanded stringent actions against the culprits.

The Guwahati demonstrators also supported the move for special
protection laws for the benefit of working journalists across the
country and called upon the Union government in New Delhi to formulate
a national action plan to safeguard the media persons, who pursue
critical journalism for the interest of society, nation and the human
race.

Nava Thakuria is a senior journalist from Guwahati





 



 

Share on Tumblr

 

 


Comments are moderated