India Lost Six Journalists To Assailants In 2016

As the year 2016 rolls onward toward its final hours, India stands as one of the worst places for working journalists, similar to the conflict-ridden nations like Syria, Iraq, Libya, Yemen, Mexico, Burundi, etc.

The largest democracy in the globe witnessed the murder of six journalists (since January 1 to mid-December), compared to five journalists last year. As nobody has been convicted in most of the journo-murder cases, the Indian media fraternity is raising its voice for a national action plan to ensure the security and justice for the media.

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

The second incident took place in Chatra, Jharkhand, where a television news channel reporter was killed by local goons. Two unidentified people targeted Indradev Yadav (also known as Akhilesh Pratap Singh) at the Dewaria locality of Chatra district on 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.

The third case of  a journalist being murder came to light in Bihar within 24 hours of the previous incident. Unidentified gunmen shot at Rajdeo Ranjan at the Siwan railway station on May 13. Employed and working for a national Hindi newspaper (Hindustan), Ranjan (45) died in the hospital. The brave journalist reportedly earned enmity with local political goons for his reporting against their misdeeds.

Both the incidents created instant wave of protests in Ranchi, as well as in Patna, and then spread to other parts of the country. Various local, national and international media organizations, including the members of prestigious press clubs based in New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Guwahati, etc. demonstrated their anger against the vicious attacks on scribes and demanded punishment to be exacted on each and 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 under the law, added the column.

Another tragic incident came to light from Punjab, where a brave female journalist named Anshita Bawa died under a mysterious situation. Anshita on April 22 drove her vehicle to meet one of her friends, but she could not reach the location, rather her body was found floating in a canal at the Bool locality in the Sudhar areas.

Initially it was understood as an accident or a suicide, but the post-mortem result narrated a different story. The autopsy report revealed that Anshita (22) was subjected to severe injuries before her death. She suffered nearly nine injuries with a fatal one to her head.

Under pressure from her family members, the local police registered an FIR terming it a case of murder.

The focus then shifted to relatively peaceful State of Gujarat, where a senior journalist was stabbed to death in his office on the night of August 22. Kishore Dave (53) was attacked by miscreants when he was working in Junagadh office of Gujarati newspaper ‘Jai Hind’ and died on the spot. There was no security camera in the one-room office, where an office assistant later found Dave’s blood-soaked body lying on the floor.

Soon the horror returned to Bihar as another journalist fell prey to goons on November 12. Dharmendra Kumar Singh (38), who used to work for Hindi daily ‘Dainik Bhaskar’ was targeted when the scribe relaxed at a tea stall outside his residence during one morning walk in the Amra Talaab locality of the Rohtas district.

Three motor cycle-borne assailants fired at him indiscriminately and succeeded in fleeing from the location. Singh was brought to the Sasaram hospital, but he succumbed to injuries on the way. Local journalists suspect that the stone-crusher mafia was involved in the murder as Singh exposed their illegal activities through recent pieces of reporting.

The killings understandably angered the media fraternity in India and abroad. Amidst protests by local journalist forums, three international media rights bodies namely the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ, New York), the Reporters Sans/Without Borders (RSF, Paris) and the International Press Institute (IPI, Vienna) strongly condemned the incidents and called for authentic investigations into the murders. Those organizations also expressed concerns that India was slowly slipping down into one of the worst places for working journalists in media freedom parameters.

Facing the heat of condemnation, the Nitish Kumar led government of Bihar recommended a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the murder of Rajdeo Ranjan. The CBI registered the case under sections 302 (murder), 120-B (criminal conspiracy) etc of the Indian Penal Code and started investigations.

While there has been some progress in police investigations over some fresh journo-murder cases, to date none resulted in a conviction.

According to the CPJ, over 60 professional and non-professional journalists were killed worldwide this year, where Syria tops the list with the murder of 14 journalists. It is followed by Iraq (6), Yemen (6), Libya (3), Somalia (3), Turkey (2), and Mexico (2). Besides Pakistan, Afghanistan and Myanmar, no neighboring countries of India
including Bangladesh, Nepal, Tibet (China), Maldives, Sri Lanka and Bhutan reported the killing professional journalists in 2016.

India’s troubled neighbor Pakistan lost three journalists (Mehmood Khan from Dawn News, Shehzad Ahmed from Aaj News and Muhammad Umar from Daily Dera News) to assailants, where as Afghanistan reported the killings five journalists namely Nematullah Zahir (Ariana News), David Gilkey (National Public Radio), Zabihullah Tamanna (National Public Radio), Yaqoub Sharafat (Radio Television Afghanistan) and Mohammad Zubair Khaksar (Nangarhar Radio & Television).

Myanmar, which has been changing from a military regime to a multiparty democracy, lost one journalist this year. Sagaing region based scribe Soe Moe Tun, who worked for Daily Eleven newspaper was targeted by the illegal logging mafia in northwest part of the country. The government in NayPieTaw has imprisoned five journalists namely Lu Maw Naing of Unity (since January 2014), Aung Thura of Unity (February 2014), Sithu Soe of Unity (February 2014), Yarzar Oo of Unity (February 2014) and Tint San of Unity (February 2014).

Though Bangladesh has not reported any casualty of mainstream journalists, it lost one Netizen (Samad Nazijmuddin of Ganajagaran Mancha) to criminals. The Muslim dominated country however imprisoned five scribes namely Rahman Mahmudur of Amar Desh (since April 2013), Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury of Weekly Blitz (January 2014), Salam Abdus of Ekushey TV (January 2015), Kanak Sarwar of Ekushey TV (March 2015) and Rimon Rahman of Amader Rajshahi (September 2015).

Tibet (as well China) was also devoid of any journo-murders this year, but the Communist regime in Beijing has imprisoned as more as 49 scribes and 81 Netizens. Similarly, Thailand also witnessed no casualty of scribes, but it has jailed two scribes namely Somyot Prueksakasemsuk of Voice of Taksin (since April 2011) and Nut Rungwon/Somsak Pakdeedech of Thai E-News (May 2014).

According to the RSF’s year ending worldwide round-up, altogether 348 journalists are currently detained in various parts of globe. The newly emerged disturbed nation Turkey has increased the number of detained/arrested journalist and media-contributors over 100 this year.

“Aside from Turkey, the three other biggest jailers of journalists are China, Iran and Egypt. They alone account for more than two thirds of the world’s detained journalists,” said a RSF statement adding that the persecution of journalists around the world is growing at a shocking rate.

Meanwhile, a total of 52 journalists are currently held hostage. This year, all of them are in conflict zones in the Middle East.

Unsurprisingly, Syria and Iraq are among the most dangerous countries, with Islamic State alone holding 21 of these hostages, revealed the statement.

India in 2015 lost Jagendra Singh (Uttar Pradesh), Sandeep Kothari (Madhya Pradesh), Raghavendra Dube (Maharashtra), Hemant Yadav (Uttar Pradesh) and Mithilesh Pandey (Bihar) to assailants. Moreover, the country of tolerance jailed four freelance journalists namely Somaru Nag (since July 2015), Santosh Yadav (September 2015), Surinder Singh (October 2015) and Baltej Pannu (November 2015).

The year 2014 witnessed the murder of only two scribes (MVN Shankar from Andhra Pradesh and Tarun Kumar Acharya from Odisha), but the country lost 11 journalists including three northeastern media employees (Sujit Bhattacharya, Ranjit Chowdhury and Balaram Ghosh from Tripura) to perpetrators in the previous year.
The country recorded the killings of five journalists including one each from Assam (Raihanul Nayum) and Manipur (Dwijamani Nanao Singh) in 2012. The northeastern States, which previously reported the sensational murders of Anil Mazumdar (in Guwahati, 2009) and Jagajit Saikia (in Kokrajhar, 2008), remained relatively safe for the media persons in the last consecutive three years. A bad record holder of over 30 journalists’ murders in the last 25 years, the alienated region has however continued witnessing numerous incidents of threatening and assaults on media persons.

“How many scribes have to face physical assaults and even killings to compel the Union government in New Delhi to launch a national action plan for safeguarding the interest of media persons in our country,” asked Rupam Barua of Journalists’ Forum Assam (JFA). While expressing concern over the development, the JFA leader added that the authority must provide a sense of security to the media fraternity so that they can practice critical journalism without compromise, fear and
trepidation.