{"id":319889,"date":"2020-02-12T15:09:16","date_gmt":"2020-02-12T15:09:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tehelka.com\/?p=319889"},"modified":"2020-02-12T15:09:19","modified_gmt":"2020-02-12T15:09:19","slug":"speak-the-truth-and-get-killed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/speak-the-truth-and-get-killed\/","title":{"rendered":"Speak the truth and get killed"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>When the Reporters Without Borders (RSF), a Paris based body released its World Press Freedom Index 2019 showing that India\u2019s rank had dropped down to 140 out of 180 countries, the report was taken with a pinch of salt.\u00a0 Then came the 2019 Global Impunity Index of Committee to Protect Journalist (CPJ) released on October 29, 2019 followed by a study \u201cGetting Away with Murders\u201d by two journalists Geeta Seshu and Urvashi Sarkar released on December 23, 2019.<\/span><\/p>\n

In recent years, journalism has become a dangerous profession in India and media persons had to lose their lives while pursuing investigative reports on illegal activities, land grab, corruption, educational malpractices and mafia gangs controlling the trade in anything from sand, crushed stones and timber to liquor, water tankers and oil.<\/span><\/p>\n

At least 198 serious attacks were recorded on reporters during the period 2014 to 2019, and of these, 36 happened in 2019 alone. Six of these are fairly recent, having happened during the protests over the Citizenship Amendment Act. At least 40 journalists were killed \u2014 21 of them were confirmed to be related to their journalistic work. Journalists Geeta Seshu and Urvashi Sarkar, whose study was funded by Thakur Foundation, chose 63 cases in all to follow up on \u2014 where scribes were found to have been attacked for their investigative work \u2014 and found a near-zero conviction rate.<\/span><\/p>\n

It found that \u201cOf the 63 cases studied, FIRs were lodged in only 25 cases. In 18 of these, the cases have not progressed beyond registering of the FIR. Charge sheets were filed in three cases but the process stalled thereafter. In only four cases, a trial has commenced.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

A majority of the journalists attacked or killed belong to small towns and villages, working with regional media as correspondents or stringers. They are the primary information-gatherers, reporters and messengers on corruption, malpractices and unlawful activities of business people, powerful politicians, police and security forces. Powerful criminal gangs wield political clout as they flout the law while law-enforcers and the civic administration are either indifferent or complicit in this criminal activity.<\/span><\/p>\n

The reportage on widespread corruption and malpractices and the more organized illegal activities such as the rampant sand mining across the country, invite bloody reprisal from a well-entrenched network of political power, criminal agents and complicit law enforcing authorities. CPJ\u2019s 2019 Global Impunity Index, released on 29 October 2019, spotlights countries where journalists are slain, and their killers go free.\u00a0 During the 10-year index period ending 31 August 2019, 318 journalists were murdered for their work worldwide, and in 86% of those cases, no perpetrators have been successfully prosecuted. Last year, CPJ recorded complete impunity in 85% of cases.<\/span><\/p>\n

For the past several years, India has ranked among the countries with the highest number of journalist deaths. The International Federation of Journalists listed India as the eighth most dangerous country for journalists. When Gauri Lankesh of Gauri Lankesh Patrike was fatally shot, Reporters Without Borders had said that journalists in India \u201care increasingly the targets of online smear campaigns by the most radical nationalists, who vilify them and even threaten physical reprisals.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In the Gauri Lankesh assassination case, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) filed a 9,235-page charge sheet against 18 persons in November 2018, of which two were still at large more than a year later. However, the case is expected to take much longer as the conspirators have been linked to the earlier murders of two rationalists and have an extensive battery of lawyers preparing to dismantle the case.<\/span><\/p>\n

In March 2018, three Indian journalists were killed in deliberate hit-and-run accidents within 24 hours on 26 March 2018. Sandeep Sharma\u00a0 of News World,\u00a0 who had been investigating the powerful sand mafia in the state, was murdered in Madhya Pradesh, while Navin Nischal\u2013 working for Dainik Bhaskar\u2013 was killed on March 26, 2018 in Bihar. Achutananda Sahu of Doordarshan was killed in crossfire on 30 October 2018.<\/span><\/p>\n

The study on the killings and attacks on journalists in India by Geeta Seshu and Urvashi Sarkar funded by Thakur Family Foundation, Inc found that there is \u201cnear-zero rate of conviction\u201d because the nexus between political power and the law-enforcing administration is often very strong and underscores the <\/span>impunity that accompanies these cases. In other cases, investigating agencies are either indifferent or complicit. The result is a very poor rate of conviction. Since 2010, there have been over 30 cases of deaths of journalists due to their professional work. Convictions have been <\/span>secured in only three of these cases.<\/span><\/p>\n

Highlights<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n