Indian Media Fraternity Sets To Bid Farewell to the Covid-19 Pandemic Year 2020 with the Horrible Statistics of Journo-Killings
By
Nava Thakuria, New Age Islam
29 December
2020
Indian
media fraternity sets to bid farewell to the Covid-19 pandemic year 2020 with
the horrible statistics of journo-killings with some dangerous countries for
working journalists in the world. The populous country lost over 50 working
journalists to novel corona virus infection aggravated ailments and it also
witnessed killings of 15 scribes till the last week of December.
The largest
democracy in the globe along with Mexico emerged as the hazardous places for
scribe this year as the global tally of media-victims to assailants reaches to
92 in 31 countries, said Press Emblem Campaign (PEC), the Geneva based media
watchdog in its recent reports. Mexico, as it routinely observes journo-murders
for several years, witnessed the killings of 12 scribes in 2020 followed by
Pakistan (8 dead), Afghanistan (7), Iraq & Honduras (5 each), etc.
It also
added that the Philippines and Syria witnessed murders of four scribes each,
followed by Nigeria & Venezuela
(three scribes each), Brazil, Colombia, Guatemala, Liberia, Somalia, (two
each), Bangladesh, Cambodia, Indonesia, Egypt, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Yemen,
Russia, Argentina, Cameroon, Ecuador, Mozambique, Paraguay, Sweden, Barbados,
etc (one each).
“Fewer
journalists have died in areas of armed conflict this year, but too many of
them have been targeted for their works in peaceful countries,” commented
Blaise Lempen, general secretary of PEC (www.pressemblem.ch) reiterating the
forum’s stand for condemnations against those incidents of scribe-killings and
consistent demands to punish the
culprits under the law.
More than
580 journalists have died of Covid-19 complications where affected countries
include Peru (93 casualties), India (53), Brazil (51), Mexico (42), Ecuador
& Bangladesh (41 each), Italy (34), USA (30), Pakistan (22), Turkey (17),
UK (12), etc and thus a single year snatched away the lives of over 600
journalists with the pandemic and violence, stated Lempen adding that it is
the worst statistics since the Second
World War.
India
witnessed the latest killing of a video journalist in Rajasthan as Abhishek
Soni (27) succumbed to injuries because of attacks by three assailants. Soni, who used to work for a local news
channel, went to a roadside eatery along with a women media employee on 8
December evening. As they were waiting the assailants started starring at her.
When Soni resisted them, it ended up in hot debates and physical attacked by
them. Finally Soni died in a Jaipur
hospital on 23 December.
Earlier, a
Malayalam journalist lost his life in a hit & run incident on 14 December
evening inside Thiruvananthapuram city.
SV Pradeep (43), who remained critical over the rise of Islamic fundamentalism
in the Communist party ruled Kerala, worked for media outlets like News 18, Jai
Hind, Mediaone, Mangalam, Kairali, etc.
Days
before, sad news broke from Uttar Pradesh (UP), where journalist Rakesh Singh
Nirbhik (35) was found dead along with a friend on 28 November as his house in
Balrampur locality was hit by a sudden explosion. Severely injured Rakish and his friend were taken to the hospital,
where both succumbed to burn injuries. Victim families claimed it as a
pre-planned murder as Rakesh developed enmities against some locals with his
media reports in Rashtriya Swaroop.
Andhra
Pradesh (AP) journalist G Nagaraj (45) was killed by a group of goons at
Hanumantha area adjacent to Tamil Nadu. The Telugu reporter was attacked with
sharp weapons in full public view on 22 November and he died on his way to the
hospital. Nagaraj wrote a series of articles against the real-estate mafia
for Tamil newspaper Villangam to invite
probable enmities.
UP’s
Sonbhadra locality witnessed the murder of rural reporter Uday Paswan along
with his wife on 16 November. Associated
with a Lucknow-based Hindi daily, Paswan
died on the spot as they were attacked by a group of goons. His wife
Sheetla Paswan succumbed to injuries next day in the hospital. Another UP
scribe Suraj Pandey (25) was found dead on a railway track at Sadar Kotwail
area on 12 November. His family members in Unnao locality claimed that the
Hindi reporter was murdered.
Bhopal
based television reporter Syed Adil Wahhab (35) was found murdered at a forest
area on 8 November. Wahhab, who used to work for a Hindi news channel went
missing since the previous day and later his
injured body was recovered by the police. Tamil television scribe
Isravel Moses (27) was hacked to death by a group of anti-social elements
in Kancheepuram on the same day.
Assam’s
Kakopathar based television journalist Parag Bhuyan (55) died in a mysterious
road accident on 11 November night. The government also already ordered a CID
probe into the incident and the police have seized the vehicle that hit Bhuyan
and arrested its driver & handyman.
Another UP journalist Ratan Singh (45), who worked for satellite news
channel Sahara Samay was shot dead by his neighbours in Ballia locality on 24
August. Tinsukia based Assamese television scribe Bijendeep Tanti (32) was
found murdered on 8 August at his rented office.
Weeks back,
Madhya Pradesh journalist Sunil Tiwari (35), who worked for a Gwalior-based
Hindi newspaper was beaten, stabbed and shot to death in Niwari locality on 22
July. Same day, UP journalist Vikram Joshi (45) succumbed to injuries in the
hospital who was attacked on 20 July by
some local goons. Another AP journalist named Ganta Naveen (27) was murdered at
Nandigama locality on 29 June. The digital channel reporter developed enmity
with some influential persons in his locality and they are suspected to
organize the crime.
The brutal
murder of UP’s young and brave reporter Shubham Mani Tripathi shocked the media fraternity. Shubham (25)
continued reporting against illegal sand miners to Kanpur-based Hindi daily
Kampu Mail even after receiving death-threats from the criminals. He was shot
dead in Unnao locality on 19 June by two shooters. Orissa’s portal reporter
Aditya Kumar Ransingh (40) was killed on 16 February in Banki locality.
Last year,
India witnessed nine incidents of journo-killings, but only one case emerged as
a targeted murder for works as journalist. K Satyanarayana (45) of Andhra
Jyothy was hacked to death on 15 October. Local scribes informed Satyanarayana
was targeted in earlier too. Others who were killed last year include
Jobanpreet Singh,Vijay Gupta, Radheyshyam Sharma, Ashish Dhiman, Chakresh Jain,
Anand Narayan and Nityanand Pandey. Kerala scribe K Muhammed Basheer was mowed
down by a vehicle.
Various
local, regional and national journo-bodies in India along with a number of
international media rights bodies like the Committee to Protect Journalists,
Reporters sans/without Borders, International Federation of Journalists,
besides PEC, have denounced the murders of scribes and demanded the concerned
governments to book the assailants under the law ensuring justice to the
victim-families.
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Nava
Thakuria is a northeast India based journalist and country contributor to PEC
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