ATTACKS ON JOURNALISTS IN INDIA [ ]

Transcription

1 ATTACKS ON JOURNALISTS IN INDIA [ ] YEAR February Chandrika Rai Madhya Pradesh Chandrika Rai, a reporter for the dailies Navbharatand The Hitavada, and his wife and two children were beaten to death in their home in Madhya Pradesh March Rajesh Mishra Madhya Pradesh Rajesh Mishra of the weekly Media Raj, in the central state of Madhya Pradesh, was fatally injured by men who attacked and beat him while he was at a tea stand July Tongam Rina Arunachal Pradesh Arunachal Times journalist Tongam Rina in Itanagar, was shot at the abdomen in the area August Amulya Nath Assam Several journalists were attacked by demonstrators while covering the protests. They included Amulya Nath of News Live TV, who was beaten up and whose camera was taken. Four other journalists reported being the victims of similar violence and a media truck was torched September Azhar Qadri Jammu and Kashmir Azhar Qadri, a reporter for the independent Kashmir Tribune newspaper, was beaten and arrested by police while covering a protest

2 in Srinagar, in the northern state of Jammu and Kashmir 6. September Assam Incidence of violence against journalists during demonstrations that the All Assam Minority Students Union (AAMSU) organized in several cities in the north-eastern state of Assam were noted. 7. December Dwijamani Singh Manipur Dwijamani Singh was killed while he was covering a protest march in Imphal over the sexual violence against a local actress and rising violence against women in India. He worked for the Prime News Channel that covers the whole of North-East region as a cameraman. Singh was shot dead when the police open fired on the crowd. YEAR May - Sujit Bhattacharya (proof-reader) - Balaram Ghosh (driver) - Ranjit Chowdhury Tripura Three employees of Dainik Ganadoot, a local Bengali-language daily based in Agartala, the capital of the north-eastern state of Tripura, were stabbed to death at the (newspaper newspaper s headquarters by two manager) unidentified intruders. 2. July Shashank Shukla Uttar Pradesh According to police accounts, two journalists were killed in the state of Uttar Pradesh. Local television reporter Shashank Shukla found dead

3 in the state s Banda district, and an unnamed journalist found dead in the Lakhimpur Kheri district August Zakaullah Uttar Pradesh The body of a local journalist in Bulandshahr in the state of Uttar Pradesh was found in a gunny bag on the side of a road on Aug. 25. The journalist, identified only as Zakaullah, from a town 20 kilometres away from where he was found, went missing on Aug. 23 and bore injuries consistent with having been beaten to death September Rajesh Verma Uttar Pradesh On Sept. 6, in two separate incidents of violence, freelance journalist Rajesh Verma, working for the IBN7 television channel, and a photographer identified only as Israr, were killed while covering the clashes between two groups in the Muzaffarnagar district of Uttar Pradesh. 5. December Sai Reddy Chhattisgarh CPI-M claimed responsibility for killing Sai Reddy a journalist from South Bastar, Chattisgarh. The group claimed that Reddy worked with the police to dislodge the CPI-Maoists. Reports claim that Reddy helped the security forces in strengthening their base in Maoist areas February Nemi Chand Jain Chhattisgarh Nemi Chand Jain, a 45-year-old journalist based in Tongapal, the tribal Sukma district in the South

4 Bastar area of Chhattisgarh, in central India, was found dead with his throat slit. His body was discovered on the road in the Leda village of the area, around four kilometres away from Tongapal. A note clipped to his belt accused the journalist of being a police informer, according to investigations by the Times of India August Narender Dabholkar Maharashtra Narender Dabholkar was a reporter for the weekly-marathi language print called sadhana. He was allegedly shot dead by two bikers while he was out for his morning walk August Maharashtra A 22 year-old photojournalist was gang raped in an abandoned textile mill, in the city of Mumbai by a group of 5 men while she was on an assignment. YEAR November MNV Shankar Andhra Pradesh A senior journalist MNV Shankar was murdered in the Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh in He was working with a Telugu daily and was hit by two iron rods by unidentified persons, at his residence. Shankar succumbed to his injuries in the local government hospital. He exposed several scamps including ration rice scams.

5 YEAR March Uttarakhand The 30-year-old employee of a Haridwar-based Hindu newspaper was reportedly seized on March 27 by three men driving a luxury vehicle, taken to a remote area and raped by two of the men. She made her way to a hospital for treatment May Tarun Acharya Odisha Tarun Acharya (29), a stringer of Odia TV channel Kanak TV, was on his way to home in Khallikote town of Ganjam district on May 27 night when a few assailants stopped his motorcycle and slit his throat. He died on the spot. The incident happened close to Khallikote police station. Few days before the murder, Acharya had published a news report in Odia daily Sambad about child labourers being employed at Prusty s cashew-nut processing factory in Khallikote. The police accused the owner of the factory for the murder June Jagendra Singh Uttar Pradesh According to the reports, Jagendra Singh an Indian freelance reporter, was burnt alive in Shahjahanpur, Uttar Pradesh on June 1 st. Before he died Singh alleged that the police was involved in setting him on fire and it was one of the police officials who doused him in petrol. Singh and his family were also threatened by the

6 minister Ram Murti Singh Verma for carrying on an investigation against the minister who was allegedly involved in illegal land mining June Haider Khan Uttar Pradesh As per the report an Indian reporter was allegedly beaten and dragged behind a motorcycle in Uttar Pradesh. Haider Khan works for a local news TV channel, and was working on a tip he had received on phone. On his arrival at the informed venue he was allegedly attacked by a group of men June Sandeep Kothari Madhya Pradesh Sandeep Kothari, a freelance reporter who wrote for multiple Hindilanguage dailies, including NayiDuniya, body was found burned and beaten, near railroad tracks 50 km away at Wardha in neighbouring Maharashtra.Kothari had written critically about the activities of manganese and sand mining networks operating in the state. YEAR February Karun Misra Uttar Pradesh Misra, who was the Ambedkar Nagar bureau chief of the Hindi daily Jansandesh Times, was shot by three gunmen on motorcycles while he was driving home May Rajdev Ranjan Bihar Rajdev Ranjan, bureau chief of Hindustan, was shot and killed. Ranjan had published the names on a

7 hit list of 23, allegedly prepared by the Siwan don Shahabuddin. Ranjan himself figured at no. 7 on that list. His wife told a reporter that there were at least four news reports which Rajdev Ranjan has published in Hindustan, which angered Shahabuddin May Akhilesh Pratap (a.k.a Indra Dev) Jharkhand Akhilesh Pratap, a district correspondent for the regional Hindi language news channel Taaza TV, was returning home on his motorcycle at night when an unidentified gunman shot him three times. Pratap, better known locally as Indra Dev, died before reaching the hospital August Kishore Dave Gujarat Kishore Dave, bureau chief for the regional daily Jai Hind newspaper, was found dead in his office at around 9:30 pm, after sustaining six to seven stab wounds to the chest. The motive behind Dave s killing was not immediately clear November Dharmendra Singh Bihar Singh, a reporter for the national, Hindi-language newspaper Dainik Bhaskar, was shot by three unidentified men near his home in Sasaram. Singh died in an ambulance on the way to a hospital. Singh was credited for his reporting by colleagues stating that he used to report fearlessly about the illegal

8 stone-cutting that s [been] going on in the Sasaram district for years whenever the administration found a nexus between [police] officials and this stone-cutting mafia, Dharmendra used to write about it. So we think that it is because of his reporting that he lost his life. YEAR November Sudip Datta Bhowmik Tripura Sudip Dutta Bhaumik, an investigative reporter at the Bengalilanguage daily Syandan Patrika, had worked as an investigative journalist for the last 20 years, and specialized in exposing corruption in the police force. The journalist was shot by a guard outside the office of Tapan Debbarma, a commandant in the Tripura State Rifles paramilitary force. Debbarma had invited the journalist to his office to speak with him about a clarification that the commandant wanted for a November 13, 2017 story that Bhaumik wrote, alleging financial irregularities in the paramilitary force September Gauri Lankesh Karnataka At least three unidentified assailants fired at Gauri Lankesh outside her home, as she returned home from work. She was shot in the head and

9 3. 30 November September chest and died immediately. The female journalist published and edited Gauri Lankesh Patrike, a Kannada-language weekly tabloid known for its criticism of right-wing extremism and the establishment, according to media reports. Naveen Gupta Uttar Pradesh Naveen Gupta was a stringer for Hindustan and also wrote for the Hindi-language daily Swatantra Bharat, as well as another daily Dainik Jagran. He wrote frequently on illegal mining along the Ganga river. As the journalist parked his car one evening inside a complex where his brother has a garment store, two unidentified men called out to the journalist. After talking with the men, Naveen Gupta walked away. Four other men, standing a short distance away, then shot him in the head, face and chest. Naveen Gupta was pronounced dead en route to the hospital. Shantanu Tripura Shantanu Bhowmik, a reporter for the Bhowmik local Bengali language television news channel Dinraat, was beaten to death while he was covering clashes between members of the separatist Indigenous People s Front of Tripura and the ruling Tripura Rajya Upajati Ganamukti Parishad party.

10 5. 21 October Rajesh Mishra Uttar Pradesh Rajesh Mishra was a stringer for the Hindi daily Dainik Jagran. Assailants on motorbikes shot the journalist dead outside his brother s store.