Indian Sub-Continent Might Improve In Journo-Murder Index
By
Nava Thakuria for New Age Islam
10 July
2020
As the year
2020 rolls on, Indian subcontinent sets to improve in its journo-murder index
with only two casualties this year till date. First half of the year witnessed
the murder of one scribe each in Pakistan and India for their journalistic
works, whereas Bangladesh, Myanmar, Bhutan, Nepal, Tibet (presently under
China), Sri Lanka and Maldives evaded any incident of journo-casualties in the
last six months.
Pakistan
journalist Aziz Memon murdered after warning of threats against him
-----
Pakistan
reported the first murder of journalists in the subcontinent in 2020 where Aziz
Memon (50) was found dead on 16 February in an irrigation channel near to his
Mehrabpur locality residence. Hailed from Sindh province, Memon used to work
for the privately-owned KTN television and Sindhi-language daily Kawish. Two
other Pak journalists namely Javed Khan and Zulfiqar Mandrani also lost their
lives in separate bomb blasts.
Shubham
Mani Tripathi. Photo: Facebook
----
India lost
a young scribe on 19 June at Unnao locality of Uttar Pradesh to assailants.
Shubham Mani Tripathi (25), who was associated with the Kanpur-based Hindi
daily Kampu Mail as a correspondent fell prey to bullets of two shooters as he
was returning home on a two-wheeler. Seriously injured Tripathi was brought to
a Kanpur hospital, but he succumbed to serious injuries in his head, chest and
back.
A resident
of Brahmnagar in Unnao district, Tripathi was a born patriot and used to report
on illegal sand mining practices in his locality. Recently married to Rashi
Dixit, Tripathi even received threats from unknown individuals, suspected to be
illegal miners, for his news-contents. But the courageous scribe did not bother
and continued his journalistic activities.
Lately, the
UP police arrested three individuals namely Afshar Ahmed, Abdul Bari and
Shahnawaz Azhar suspecting their involvement with the murder. The police also
launched searches for Divya Awasthi, blamed for various land grabbing &
sand mining incidents. Her name was
mentioned in the first information report filed by the victim family.
Aditya
Kumar Ransingh, Reporter of a Web Portal hacked to death
-----
Earlier, an
Orissa based scribe named Aditya Kumar Ransingh (40) was killed on 16 February
along with a Congress leader in Banki locality under Cuttack district. Engaged
with a news portal, Ransingh was hacked to death by two criminals, who were
later arrested by the police. It was reported that the scribe maintained bitter
relationships with both the accused namely Sushat Pradhan and Himanshu
BhusanRoutray.
According
to the international media rights body Reporters Sans/Without Borders (RSF)
nearly 20 journalists have lost their lives due to their journalistic
activities in 2020. Mexico and Iraq top the list with three journo-casualties
each followed by Syria (2), Somalia (2), Afghanistan (1), Yemen (1), Nigeria
(1), Paraguay (1), etc.
India as a
whole witnessed nine incidents of journo-killing in 2019, but only one incident
could emerge as a case of targeted murder. Andhra journalist K Satyanarayana
(45) of Telugu daily Andhra Jyothy faced the fate because of his activities as
a journalist. He was hacked to death on 15 October. Local scribes informed
Satyanarayana was targeted in earlier occasions too.
Others who
were killed in India last year included Jobanpreet Singh (Punjab’s online
journalist was killed in police firings), Vijay Gupta (Kanpur-based scribe shot
dead by close relatives), Radheyshyam
Sharma (Kushinagar-based journalist murdered by his neighbours), Ashish Dhiman
(Saharanpur-based photojournalist shot
dead along with his brother by neighbours),
Chakresh Jain (Shahgarh-based freelance journalist died of serious burn
injuries), Anand Narayan (news channel contributor of Mumbai murdered by
miscreants) and Nityanand Pandey (magazine editor in Thane killed by an
employee).
Kerala’s
journalist K Muhammed Basheer lost his life as a government officer driven
vehicle mowed down him. Guwahati-based scribe Naresh Mitra died after
sustaining head injuries in a mysterious accident inside the city. Bihar’s
scribe Pradeep Mandal was targeted by miscreants, but he survived luckily.
Mandal contributed a number of news items against the local liquor mafia for DainikJagaran
and invited enmities from the goons.
Contrary to
number of journalists, eliminated by assailants, the novel corona virus
pandemic takes a bigger toll as no less than seven journalists died of Covid-19
complications in the subcontinent. Bangladesh alone lost six journalists to the
virus infection where nearly 200 other media persons tested positive for
Covid-19. India also witnesses nearly 150 journalists infected with the virus
with three casualties. Pakistan reports over 50 media persons infected with the
virus.
At the same
time, the pandemic resulted in the killing of hundreds of mainstream media
outlets across the subcontinent. Many surviving newspapers close down editions,
reduce pages, cut salaries and even lay off employees including working
journalists citing the reason of shrinking advertisement revenues in the last
three months. However, as usual, only a few media bodies dared to raise voices
against the media managements for their arbitrary decisions that finally turned
humiliating for the journalists.
Nava
Thakuria is a northeast India based media activist. He contributed this article
to New Age Islam.
URL: https://newageislam.com/current-affairs/indian-sub-continent-improve-journo/d/122335
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