Paying tribute to meida corona victims
Northeast’s improved journo-murder index
If nothing unusual happens in the next few weeks, Northeast will complete another year with no incident of journo-murder, the trend sustained for the last five years. In contrast, the country as a whole continues losing 5 to 15 journalists to assailants every year. Till date, this year the populous nation witnesses the murder of four journalists namely Rohit Kumar Biswal, Sudhir Saini, Juned Khan Pathan and Subhash Kumar Mahato. Shockingly, our troubled neighbour Pakistan lost seven journalists since January (Sadaf Naeem, Arshad Sharif, Muhammad Younis, Iftikhar Ahmed, Hasnain Shah, Murtaza Shar and Athar Mateen. Another neighbour Bangladesh reported the killing of three journalists (Hashibur Rahaman Rubel, Mohiuddin Sarker Nayeem and Abdul Bari) and two scribes (Aye Kyaw and Pu Tui Dim) in Myanmar. Tibet (now under China), Afghanistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Maldives have not reported any incident of journalists’ murder.
Northeast comprising eight States witnessed two casualties of journalists (Shantanu Bhowmik and Sudip Datta Bhaumik) to assailants last time in Tripura during 2017. The same tiny State reported the assassination of three media persons (Sujit Bhattacharya, Ranjit Chowdhury and Balaram Ghosh) in 2013. They were killed together in the office of a Bengali newspaper, published from the capital city of Agartala. On the previous year, Assam and Manipur witnessed the murder of journalists for the last time, as Raihanul Nayum and Dwijamani Nanao Singh respectively fell prey to perpetrators. But till the last decade, the trouble-torn region continued witnessing the assassination of journalists annually, where Assam accounted for major share of the victims. The State, supporting a number of newspapers, news channels and presently the plenty of digital platforms, witnessed the homicide of over 30 editors/reporters/correspondents since 1991.
The saga of sensational journo-murder started with the brutal killing of veteran Assamese freedom fighter turned journalist Kamala Saikia. The Septuagenarian teacher was targeted by the banned United Liberation Front of Assam for his fierce criticism about its various disruptive activities. The outspoken media columnist was dragged out of his residence on the night of 9 August and his body was recovered next morning.
Five years later, the murder of human rights activist turned journalist Parag Kumar Das on 17 May in the heart of Guwahati also created a massive public outcry. The executive editor of Asomiya Pratidin was apparently targeted by surrendered armed militants as he used to write articles strongly criticising them as well the governments in New Delhi and Dispur for their anti-Assam policies. Other journo-victims from Assam include Punarmal Agarwala, Pabitra Narayan Chutia, Dipak Swargiary, Manik Deuri, Panja Ali, Nurul Haq, Alfarid Shazad, Jiten Sutiya, Ratneswar Sarma Shastri, Dinesh Brahma, Indramohan Hakasam, Prahlad Gowala, Mohammad Muslemuddin, Bodosa Narzary, Jagajit Saikia, Ranbir Roy, Bimala Prasad Talukder and Anil Majumdar.
Amidst the increasing number of journo-murders around the world, India has slightly improved the statistics, where Northeast has achieved a landmark. Recently, the Geneva-based global media safety and rights body Press Emblem Campaign (PEC) commented that more needs to be done to fight impunity against the crimes with media persons on the ground. Marking the international day to end impunity for crimes against journalists on 2 November, the PEC observed that a slow progress is made, but it’s still insufficient. According to a UNESCO report, 86% of the crimes against journalists remained unpunished. In 10 years, the drop is only 9%. UNESCO reported an upward trend of resolved cases worldwide from 11% in 2018 to 14% in 2022. The year 2022 emerges to be a deadly year for journalists with 107 media workers have been killed till October across the world. It’s an increase of 57% in 10 months compared to last year. Ukraine, Mexico, Pakistan, Haiti emerge as the most dangerous countries for journalists this year. PEC welcomes the global campaign for the adoption of an international convention dedicated to the protection of journalists and media professionals, formally launched by the International Federation of Journalists at the 51st session of the UNHRC in Geneva on 30 September last. The convention highlights existing weaknesses and loopholes in international humanitarian and human rights law and the lack of effective enforcement mechanisms.
By Nava Thakuria
