DIMAPUR, JANUARY 13 (MExN): A report from the media watchdog website ‘The Hoot’ has observed that 2015 was a year when journalists in India were at their most vulnerable.
The report stated that deaths of journalists and writers, attacks against media houses and threats against the media were at an all time high in 2015.
It reported that there were 10 deaths (8 journalists and 2 writers) in the previous year. It further revealed that there were 30 instances of attacks on the media, 3 arrests of media persons, and 27 threats against journalists.
The deadly year for writers and journalists began with senior communist leader, rationalist and writer Govind Pansare being shot at by two persons on February 16, 2015. He succumbed to injuries five days later.
The report further cited that on June 8, Shajahanpur based journalist Jagendra Singh died of burn injuries eight days after he alleged in a video that he was set on fire by a group of police and supporters of UP Minister for Dairy Development, Ram Murti Verma.
On June 12, Kanpur based journalist Deepak Mishra was shot by unidentified persons, after he wrote a series of articles on gambling dens in a small newspaper Dainik Mera Sach. On June 22, Sandeep Kothari, a journalist from Jabalpur was killed after he was allegedly kidnapped and set on fire. He had written against illegal mining mafia and was being pressurised to withdraw a case he had filed on this topic, the report said.
The next month, on July 5, Akshay Singh, a reporter for the Aaj Tak channel died under mysterious circumstances; minutes after interviewing the father of a student whose body was found near a railway track in Ujjain district of MP.
On August 8, Raja Chatruvedi, a journalist in UP was shot dead outside his house by unidentified persons. On the same day, Sanjay Pathak, a stringer with a local newspaper in UP was killed by two persons.
On September 30, freelance journalist, Ajay Vidrohi was shot dead in Sitamarhi days before the Bihar state elections were to be held. On October 10, Hemant Yadav, a journalist with a local news channel was shot dead by motorcycle borne gunmen in Chandauli district of UP. Further, on October 27, Mithilesh Pandey, a reporter with Dainik Jargan was shot dead in his house in Khastha village in Gaya district of Bihar.
These figures, the report said are based on incidents reported in the press and “should be treated as conservative estimates.” It may be noted that figures on attacks against journalists collected by the National Crime Records Bureau for 2015 are not available as of yet.
