Impunity rules: Chilling data from India

IN Media Freedom | 23/11/2012

The list of attacks and threats to journalists, artists, cartoonists, writers, social network users and film-makers between January-November 2012,culled from the Free Speech Tracker

• Journalist Bappi Ray harassed by Dantewada collector in January for doing a story on the beating up of a labourer, BudhramRathore. The latter filed an FIR against the Collector Dr O P Choudhary and when Ray did a story, he was asked to vacate his residence!

• Gay artist BalbirKrishan was threatened and attacked in Delhi in January and his paintings were vandalized.
• Activists of the AIADMK attacked the office of Tamil bi-weekly ‘Nakkheeran’in Chennai in January after it carried a report describing Chief Minister Jayalalithaa as a beef-eater.

• A pro- Shiv Sena mob attacked the office of ‘The Times of India’ in Mumbai in January as they were upset with a news report in Maharashtra Times, about possible defections from the Shiv Sena to NCP, a party which is an ally in state's ruling Democratic Front alliance.
• A violent mob of advocates attacked mediapersons in Bangalore in March to protest the alleged bias in the coverage of the former minister and mining baron G. Janardhan Reddy’s appearance before a CBI court in an illegal mining case.
• Supporters of SP candidate Chandrapal Singh Yadav pelted stones and held 15 video journalists and cameramen hostage at a counting centre in Jhansi in March after the media covered the ruckus they created by workers creating a ruckus.
• Congress MLA from Mawlai Founder Strong Cajee, who was caught on camera sleeping in the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly beat up senior photo-journalist WartonLytan in the State Assembly corridor in March.
• A senior reporter of the Navbharat Times Anand Mishra was assaulted near Dadar Station in Mumbai in April, when he was investigating an illegal restaurant allegedly run by the canteen operators at the Railway Institute.
• The office of ‘The Arunachal Times’ was vandalized by a group of over 10 unidentified youth, who trespassed into the office here in between 3.30 to 4 pm this afternoon and went on a rampage in Itanagar in April. No reason was ascribed for the attack.
• Kamal Shukla, District Bureau Chief of the Hindi language daily Rajasthan Patrika in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh was brutally assaulted in in Kanker, Chhattisgarh, in April. The assault is believed to have been in retaliation for a series of reports that appeared in the local press under Shukla’s name, exposing the illegal clearing of protected forests in the region.
• Disciples of self-proclaimed GodmanNirmal Baba beat up journalists and dragged a television journalist inside the Talkatora stadium in New Delhi in April.
• In April, mediapersons covering a ‘beef festival’ organized by students of Osmania University were assaulted while poet, writer, activist and translator MeenaKandasamy was abused and threatened with various forms of violence, including gang rape and acid attacks. Some placed a price on her head. The verbal attacks were presumably in response to her posts on Twitter about the beef-eating festival at Osmania University, Hyderabad, on 15 April 2012 and the ensuing clashes between groups of students.
• Documentary film-makerFaiza Khan was threatened and an attempt was made to snatch her camera when she was shooting for a documentary on the struggle of residents of Sion-Koliwada in Mumbai in June against builders who are seeking re-development of the area.
• DevendraKhandelwal, a television journalist for a local channel in Danta area of Palanpur district, Gujarat, was assaulted by around 15 people in June. The journalist said he had shot footage of an illegal construction site near Pathawada village on National Highway number 8 in Dantalitaluka of Palanpur. The accused include relatives of sitting BJP MLA Mafatlal Purohit.
• A pediatric specialist, DrPrafullaPatra brutally assaulted four Media representatives of Naxatra TV, Kamyab TV, Seasore TV &Kosal Times of Bargarh, Orissa, in June.  The journalists were questioning the doctor about medical treatment for a poor patient.
• News Camerapersons Sanjib Singh of the television channel ‘Barak Barta’ and BimanSingha of a satellite channel ‘Prime News’, were seriously injured in an attack by a group of miscreants near Bhatpara of Katigara of Barak Valey of Assam in July.
• In July, unidentified persons in her office shot at ThongamRina, associate editor of ‘Arunachal Times’. She was grievously injured in the attack.
• In August, militant organisations have issued a letter to journalists and media houses to stop projecting what they said the struggle of Kashmiris in a negative way or face dire consequences.
• A meeting called to protest the riots in Assam turned violent in Mumbai in August and protesters set ablaze vehicles, OB vans of three TV channels and damaged cameras of mediapersons.
• Days after a militant group threatened senior journalists of Manipur, unidentified men exploded a grenade at the residence of A Mobi, editor of vernacular daily ‘Sanaleibak’ and president of the All Manipur Working Journalists’ Union (AMWJU) in August in Imphal.
• Several journalists, including Amulya Kr Nath, correspondent of Newslive from Goalpara, were attacked by miscreants supporting a bandh call by the All Minority Students Union in protest against attacks on minorities by Bodos. JoyjyotiGogoi TV reporter from Sivsagar of Newslive was badly injured when police lathicharged a mob.Nath is admitted to Goalpara Civil Hospital.
• In September, Maharashtra NavnirmanSena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray threatened Hindi news channels for distorting his statements saying, “I want to tell the Hindi news channel to first understand the issue before it is broadcast... otherwise we know how to stop it.” His reaction comes after some Hindi news channels and leaders of JD(U), RJD and BJP from Bihar attacked him for his remarks that he would brand Biharis as infiltrators and make them leave Maharashtra.
• Photojournalist Caisii Mao was attacked while covering clashes between two armed groups belonging to rival tribes in the district headquarters town. The clashes erupted after a young man belonging to one of the tribes died while in the custody of the other the previous day.
• In September, two offices of television channel Colors, which is to air the show 'Sur-Kshetra', were attacked in separate incidents. Its Andheri (E) operations office was vandalized around 8.30pm by 10 to 15 rod-wielding men, all of whom, the police assert, are Shiv Sainiks. A little later, around midnight, the network's Vile Parle office was pelted with stones by two bike-borne men ostensibly belonging to a little-known and newly launched group called SwarajSena.
• The Tribune’s staff correspondent AzharQadri was allegedly assaulted by Imtiyaz Ismail Parray, Sub Divisional Police Officer, ShaheedGunj, Srinagar, while he was covering a protest by nursing students at the Old Secretariat in September.
• In September, two staffers of the ‘Arunachal Times’ were seriously injured in an attack, the fourth targeted attack on staff of the newspaper. It follows the July shooting of their associate editor ThongamRina,
• A local journalist, Sanjay Malani, was attacked and seriously injured by four armed men in Beed in central Maharashtra in September. Malani and his journalist-friend AbhimanyuGharat were going to their newspaper office from district civil hospital on a two-wheeler at 10.30 pm when a person stopped their vehicle in Subhah Road area of the city. Soon, three more persons arrived at the spot on a bike. The four pulled Malani off his bike and assaulted him with sharp-edged weapons and ran off.
• In September, cartoonist AseemTrivedi was arrested for sedition, for insulting national honour and for causing annoyance under Sec 66 (a) of the Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000. The sedition charge was removed later after a nation-wide protest.
• Journalists covering protesters blocking the vehicles near Vellaikadavubridge in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, were held up by the protestors of Samyukta Samara Samithi for about an hour at Vellaikadavu in October. The latter demanded that the journalists delete the pictures they took.
• In October, Suday Guardian journalist Abhinandan Mishra was threatened by unidentified persons in Farrukhabad when he went to investigate the camps organised by ZakirHussain Memorial Trust, a NGO run by Law Minister Salman Khurshid's wife Louise.
• In October, Himachal Pradesh Congress unit chief and former Union minister Virbhadra Singh threatened media personnel who quizzed him about recent allegations of corruption levelled against him in Ani in Kullu district."I will break your cameras. Don't you have any work to do?", Virbhadra Singh said when reporters questioned him about graft allegations.
• In November, a drunk policeman opened fire and broke the camera of a local journalist Jitu who had gone to cover the Maoist attack on National Mineral Development Corporation in Dantewada, Chhattisgarh.
• In November two young women were arrested under Se 66 (a) of the IT Act when they posted comments on the social networking site, Facebook questioning the shut down in Mumbai and Thane following the death of Shiv Sena leader Bal Thackeray.
• In November, senior editor Kumar Ketkar was threatened by members of a Marathi community, the ChandraseniyaKayasthaPrabhu, for writing about them. This was the same community the late Shiv Sena leader Bal Thackeray hailed from.