Page 39 - Tehelka Issue 13 - July 15, 2018

• Writing on the wall Murders of Gauri Lankesh, Shujaat Bukhari and Santanu Bhowmik raise safety concerns for journalists across the country

The daylight murder of Bukhari has mir and it did not find favour with Pa- Shujaat Bukhari cases, t is the network of
become Kashmir’s make or break mo- kistan and militant organizations. It has masterminds and puppeteers that needs
ment with BJP already withdrawing sup- always been a tight ropewalk for jour- to be unravelled.
port to Mehbooba Mufti government. nalists in Valley because terrorist outfits The murders of journalists have reig-
Shujaat Bukhari held an independent have no respect for freedom of speech nited the debate on freedom of the press
opinion on the conflict in Kashmir and and expression. The killing of journalist and the freedom of speech in the coun-
how it could be resolved amicably. The Shujaat Bukhari and journalist-activist try. Among the major economies of the
killing in the heart of Srinagar has caused Gauri Lankesh by unidentified assailants world belonging to the G-20 group, India
widespread damage to the normaliza- have saddened media fraternity and the has witnessed the fourth highest num-
tion process in Kashmir. Fingers are be- protests across the nation are indicators ber of such killings related to journalistic
ing pointed to country’s poor ranking on that it was nothing short of murder of a work, behind Mexico, Russia, and Brazil.
the press freedom index which is just one voice of dissent. Angry reaction to the Most journalists who have been mur-
point above Pakistan. Bukhari had built killings shows how people stood up for dered for their work covered politics and
goodwill for him and credibility for me- Shujaat Bukhari and Gauri Lankesh, who corruption. Another community which
dia that he worked for. He was a promi- held a dissenting view on variety of is- has been targeted is that of Right to Infor-
nent advocate of the ceasefire. Whoso- sues, a sign of vibrant democracy, their mation (RTI) activists. About 70 RTI activ-
ever chose to kill him would have been right to express opinions. Karnataka Po- ists have been killed in India so far since
aware of the consequences of his killing. lice has finally claimed to have cracked the act was passed in 2005, and hundreds
Over the years, Bukhari earned for him- the Gauri Lankesh murder case. A frail have faced assault. Death is the ultimate
self a name as the editor and founder of activist-journalist had antagonised many price journalists, writers, and whistle-
Rising Kashmir and as correspondent of with her anti-establishment stance and blowers pay for challenging powerful
The Hindu. The mindless murder is an at- secularism which led to her death. How- vested interests or for expressing dissent.
tempt to block out the truth by attacking ever, the police lost precious time in un- It is time there is a national debate on the
an important institution of democracy. ravelling the murder of Gauri’s ideologi- precarious freedom of press.
The Fourth Estate. Shujaat was a fearless cal fellow traveller MM Kalburgi three
journalist who advocated peace in Kash- years back. In both Gauri Lankesh and letters@tehelka.com

However, this cannot be denied that one’s choice, in accordance with ar- Rana Ayyub, Nidhi Razdan, Sagarika
female journalists are three times sus- ticles 19 of the Universal Declaration Ghose, Dhanya Rajendran, Masrat
ceptible to online abuses than male of Human Rights and the Interna- Zahra (Photojournalist from Kash-
counterpart. tional Covenant on Civil and Political mir). Besides India, Gul Bukhari from
The UN Human Rights Council Rights.” Pakistan, Taslima Nasreen (author)
Resolution L.13, on the promotion, Female journalists and writers from Bangladesh, Shammi Haque
protection and enjoyment of human in South Asia have since ages been (blogger) from Dhaka.
rights on the Internet, strongly affirms under constant threat of life, sexual Recently, within days of the mur-
that “the same rights that people have harassment and violation of human der of noted Kashmiri journalist
offline must also be protected online, rights for expressing opinions freely Shujaat Bukhari, consulting editor at
in particular freedom of expression, — be it offline or online. The hit list of Times of India, Sagarika Ghose, faced
which is applicable regardless of online victims from India has names death threat on Facebook. On June 23,
frontiers and through any media of like Barkha Dutt, Patricia Mukhim, an ICICI bank official name Karan Bir

Tehelka / 15 july 2018 39 www.Tehelka.com

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