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NE remains safe for journos
by NJ Thakuria
As the year 2019 is approaching the finish line, India appears to improve its journo-murder index with only two casualties and the northeastern region (NE) with none this year. The world witnesses murders of nearly 50 scribes for journalistic works and India’s share has also gone down considerably from six to two incidents of journo-killings. On the other hand, NE has evaded any incident of journalist’s killing for the second consecutive year.
Often described as a disturbed zone because of relentless violence engineered by armed separatist militants, NE (except Tripura) has avoided journo-murder incidents for many years. Tripura reported the murder of five media persons in 2013 and 2017, whereas Assam and
Manipur witnessed the last killing of media persons (Dwijamani Nanao Singh from Imphal and Raihanul Nayum from Dhubri) in 2012.
In contrast, central Indian States continue pouring news related to the murder of journalists regularly. Till the recent time, the region with a population of over 60 million was a breeding ground for insurgents fighting against New Delhi with demands ranging from self-rule to sovereignty. Surrounded by Nepal, Bhutan, Tibet (presently occupied by China), Myanmar, and Bangladesh, the region supports hundreds of newspapers, published in various languages like English, Assamese, Hindi, Bengali, Mizo, Bodo, Meitei, Karbi, Khasi etc and few news channels and portals to cater the need of dedicated audiences.
For Indian working journalists, the year 2017 can be identified as a deadliest year as 12 scribes (Hari Prakash, Brajesh Kumar Singh, Shyam Sharma, Kamlesh Jain, Surender Singh Rana, Gauri Lankesh, Shantanu Bhowmik, KJ Singh, Rajesh Mishra, Sudip Datta Bhaumik, Naveen Gupta and Rajesh Sheoran) were either murdered or killed in suspicious situations. Among the casualties, Tripura reported two incidents of journo-murder (Shantanu and Sudip Datta).
Massive protests erupted across the country against the killings of journalists, more precisely the murder of Ms Gauri in Bangaluru. The then Communist chief minister of Tripura, Manik Sarkar also personally joined in a protest rally at Agartala demanding justice over her murder. But pathetic news was waiting for him as a young television reporter from his State (Shantanu Bhowmik) fall prey to mob violence on 20 September. Later one more journalist’s murder (Sudip Datta Bhaumik on 21 November) by a policeman put Sarkar in the most awkward position.
The country as a whole we lost eight scribes in 2019 to assailants, but only two murders are understood as being related to journalism related causes. Andhra Pradesh based journalist K Satyanarayana and Madhya Pradesh based journalist Chakresh Jain faced the fate because of their works as journalists. However, four other cases are yet to be confirmed that they were targeted for media activities.
Young reporter Satyanarayana, who worked for Telugu daily ‘Andhra Jyothy’, was hacked to death by miscreants at Annavaram village of East Godavari district on the night of 15 October. Local scribes reported that Satyanarayana was targeted in an earlier occasion too and he informed it to the local police. Jain, a freelance journalist died of serious burn injuries on 19 June as he was involved in a quarrel with the assailant at Shahgarh locality.
Others who were killed this year include Vijay Gupta (Kanpur-based scribe shot dead by close relatives on 29 October), Radheyshyam Sharma (Kushinagar-based journalist murdered by his neighbours on 10 October), Ashish Dhiman (Saharanpur-based photojournalist shot dead along with his brother by neighbours on 18 August), Anand Narayan (news channel contributor of Mumbai murdered by miscreants on 4 June), Nityanand Pandey (magazine editor in Thane killed by an employee on 17 March).
Earlier, Kerala-based journalist K Muhammed Basheer lost his life as a running vehicle, driven by a senior government officer, mowed down him on 3 August. Bihar’s scribe Pradeep Mandal was targeted by miscreants on 28 July, but he survived luckily. He contributed a number of news items against the local liquor mafia for Dainik Jagaran and invited enmities from the goons. Meanwhile, a Guwahati based scribe named Naresh Mitra died on 9 December after sustaining head injuries in a mysterious accident inside the city.
While Mexico, Syria, Somalia, Iraq, etc tops the list of journo-murders, our neighbours Pakistan and Afghanistan remain ahead of everyone in South Asia as both the countries witnessed the murder of five journalists each in 2019. Conflict-riddled Pakistan reported the killing of Zafar Abbas, Mirza Waseem Baig, Muhammad Bilal Khan,
Ali Sher Rajpar, and Malik Amanullah Khan for journalistic activities. Afghanistan lost Jabid Noori, Nader Shah Sahebzadeh, Sultan Mohammad Khairkhah, Shafiq Aria, and Rahimullah Rahmani to assailants.
Various national and international media rights bodies including Paris-based Reporters Sans Frontiers (RSF), New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Brussels-based International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) etc have come out with separate reports that
sizable number of journalists were murdered in the world during 2019, which is the lowest death toll in 15 years. Last year the casualties were 95. Those organizations continue demanding due probes and punishments to the culprits.
While defining journalists as individuals who cover news or comment on public affairs in print, radio, television, online outlets etc, those organizations maintained that incidents of abuse, assault-attacks and imprisonment of scribes by government forces, political goons, anti-social elements, etc continue everywhere as over 350 journalists were imprisoned in 2019, where China, Turkey, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Vietnam, etc have taken the lead.
