By Nava Thakuria, New
Age Islam
23 October
2020
As the
Covid-19 pandemic emerged as a severe health hazard to the Indian media
fraternity many more journalists, start falling preys to the disaster.
Thousands of journalists along with other media employees got infected with the
novel corona virus as they have been playing the role of corona-warriors along
with the practicing doctors, nurses, sanitation workers, police personnel etc.
Lately the casualties among media families because of Covid-19 across the
country start mounting.
The
populous country has lost nearly 50 working journalists to Covid-19 aggravated
complications till date, whereas the worldwide media corona-casualties rises to
nearly 450. The increase of media corona-casualties in the Indian newspapers,
news channels and digital news outlets is precisely tempted by the callous
approach of editor-managements’ towards the scribe while engaging them in
reporting the pandemic from the ground with little pre-cautions and also
preventive arrangements.
Very
recently, a young video journalist from Tripura in northeast India lost his
battle against the corona infection. Jitendra Debbarma (46), who worked for a
Kakborok language cable channel named Chini Khorang, succumbed to Covid-19
complications on 20 October 2020 at Khumulwng hospital, which is around 25 km
away from the State capital city of Agartala. Hailed from Balaramthakur Para
in Jirania locality, the soft spoken
scribe left behind two minor daughters with other relatives.
Earlier,
Mysuru based journalist Pavan Hettur (35), who worked for Kannada daily
Prajavani died of the virus infection at a private hospital. He was admitted
after testing Covid-19 positive and passed away on 18 October. Patna based
photo journalist Krishna Mohan Sharma (63), who worked for Times of India, died
of corona complications on 15 October while undergoing treatment at AIIMS, New
Delhi. Same day, veteran cricket journalist & commentator Kishore Bhimani
(81), died after contracting the virus at a hospital in Kolkata.
The robust
Indian media family lost at least twelve journalists to corona-complications in
September. Ludhiana based veteran journalist Ashwani Kapoor (70), who worked
for highly circulated newspaper Punjab Kesari,
succumbed to Covid-19 at a private hospital on 29 September. Guwahati based
news presenter in All India Radio, Golap Saikia (52) died with corona-infections
on 26 September at a city-based private hospital.
Patna’s
senior journalist Arun Kumar Verma (68), who was associated with various Prasar
Bharti outlets died during Covid-19 treatment on 22 September. Indore
journalist Manoj Binwal (55), who was associated with Hindi newspaper
Prajatantra, died of the virus infection while undergoing treatment on 20
September. A day back, Agra’s journalist Ami Adhar Nidar (50), who worked for
widely circulated DainikJagaran, passed away with the infection.
Jammu based
scribe Anil Srivastava (68), who was associated with United News of India,
succumbed to Covid-19 on 18 September at a government run hospital. Same day Jabalpur’s journalist Harish Choubey
(60), who worked for popular Hindi newspaper DainikBhaskar, expired with the
corona virus infection. Aurangabad based journalist Rahul Dolare (49) died on
14 September at a government hospital.
Same day, Chennai’s popular journalist-actor Florent C Pereira (67) died
of Covid-19.
Punjab’s
Abohar based journalist Naresh Bajaj (57), who was associated with Sach Kahoon
newspaper, succumbed to corona-complications on 10 September. Ravinder Kumar
(30) from Himachal Pradesh, who worked for Dainik Jagran, died of Covid-19 on 9
September. Assam’s rural reporter Dhaneswar Rabha (35) died at Guwahati medical
college hospital on 6 September. Rabha is the first scribe in the region to die
of Covid-19. Next day, senior journalist Ashim Dutta (65) passed away with the
infection at Silchar medical college
hospital.
Months back,
Dhanbad’s journalist Sanjiv Sinha, Gorakhpur’s photo journalist Rajiv Ketan,
Mumbai’s senior film-journalist Shyam Sarma, Nellore’s scribe Narayanam Seshacharyulu, Pune’s television
reporter Pandurang Raikar, Kanpur’s television
journalist Neelanshu Shukla,
Patiala’s photojournalist Jai Deep, Tirupati’s television reporter
Madhusudan Reddy and video journalist M Parthasarathy succumbed to the virus
infections.
The list
also includes senior journalist Prakash Deshmukh from Mumbai, veteran journalist
Ashok Churi from Palghar, television reporter Ramanathan & news
videographer E Velmurugan from Chennai, news presenter Davinder Pal Singh from
Chandigarh, television scribe Manoj Kumar from Hyderabad, print-journalist
Pankaj Kulashrestha from Agra, Orissa’s journalists Simanchal Panda, K Ch Ratnam and Priyadarshi
Patnaik. Kolkata’s photojournalist Ronny Roy became the first scribe in India
to lose his battle against the virus infection.
With all
the casualties, the pandemic has crushed the mainstream media industry. Many
print media owners have stopped publishing physical newspapers and shifted to
the digital space. Some managements closed down their editions in different
localities, reduced the number of pages, cut salaries and even lay off
employees including senior journalists citing the reason of shrinking
advertisement revenues inviting no or little oppositions from the salaried
editors.
When over a
hundred Guwahati based media persons turned positive for Covid-19, the
concerned newspapers, news channels and other media outlets tried to hide the
information. Some infected media persons have however made personal revelations
in the social media. Various organizations including Journalists’ Forum Assam,
Press Club of Assam, etc criticized the media outlets for their selective
reporting over the issue arguing that when they identify other corona- patients
by name & photographs, how come they collectively remain silent while their
own employees turn positive to Covid-19.
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Nava Thakuria is a northeast India based media
activist
New
Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism