Journalist Assaulted for Reporting on Corruption in India

Violence against Journalists in Eastern Indian State of Orissa Increasing, Local Journalists’ Body Warns

VIENNA, 10 May: A journalist in Orissa, India was brutally beaten on 6 May, a day after his paper published an article he wrote alleging irregularities in a government-funded welfare scheme.

Biranjan Mallick, who works for local vernacular newspaper Khabar in Suninda, a village in the Balanga district of the eastern Indian state of Orissa, was beaten after he wrote a report exposing financial irregularities in the National Rural Employment Guarantee (NREGA) scheme, a government-funded social assistance program administered by rural ‘panchayats’ or councils. Mallick was allegedly attacked by the elected head of the local panchayat and his supporters after officials arrived at the village to assess the veracity of his story.

According to a report by the Media Unity for Press Freedom (MUFP), a local group formed to combat the growing numbers of attacks against the media in Orissa, the attackers tied Mallick to a tree before beating him and stealing his camera and phone. The alleged attackers are reportedly affiliated with Biju Janata Dal, a political party that holds a share of power in the state government of Orissa, MUFP reported.

According to a spokesperson of the MUFP, three persons have been arrested for assaulting the journalist, but the main suspect remains at large. Mallick has also been receiving calls threatening revenge for the arrests and is reportedly concerned for the welfare of his family.

This is the latest in a growing number of attacks against the press in the eastern Indian state of Orissa.

On 8 May, several members of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), a paramilitary force in the town of Angul, allegedly attacked several journalists as they attempted to cover the beating of a local truck driver by the soldiers. The truck driver had allegedly run over the daughter of one of the personnel in his vehicle. When journalists tried to cover the beating, their cameras were seized and at least one journalist was injured.

According to information from MUFP, on 29 April, Chandrakanta Das, a journalist with the Oriya daily Dharitri was assaulted because he had reported on a robbery. Despite a protest by the Jagatsinghpur Journalists’ Association on 5 May, no action has been taken against the perpetrator of the attack.

On 27 April, a group of journalists who had gone to a local educational establishment to cover the death of a student, allegedly due to food poisoning, were assaulted, and at least two journalists were seriously injured.

There have also been several reports of journalists being arrested or harassed because of their alleged links to Maoist Communist insurgent organizations. The state and central government are locked in an increasingly violent struggle with separatist Maoist groups in Orissa and other states in India.

“These attacks against members of the press are unacceptable in a country such as India, which makes proud claims about its respect for democracy and press freedom,” said IPI Director David Dadge. “We call on the authorities to bring the perpetrators to justice and to end the growing trend of violence against journalists in Orissa.”

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MUFP demands arrests of CISF men for assaulting ETV scribe

Media Unity for freedom of Press is deeply disturbed over increasing instances of assault on mediapersons by uniformed men in Orissa. On Saturday, 8 May, when a big pack of CISF Jawans had taken law to their own hands at Angul and were mercilessly beating up the driver of a truck which had accidentally run over a girl student, reportedly the daughter of a jawan at Angul, ETV reporter Jagadananda Pradhan along with fellow journalists representing different media organizations was capturing the event in his camera. Irritated over being captured on camera while breaking law, the CISF jawans not only beat up Jagadananda with brutal wrath but also destroyed his camera and packed it away even as other journalists and cameramen were not spared. All this happened in the presence of the police who were on the spot.

MUFP expresses solidarity with the Jagadananda and all the journalists of Angul and strongly condemns the gang attack by CISF jawans on media persons. It calls upon the authorities to take immediate penal action against the jawans for launching a brutal assault on journalists on duty and to compensate them for their loss and injury.

MUFP celebrates World Press Freedom Day

As we at the MUFP celebrate the World Press Freedom Day today we have a reasons to both rejoice and feel concerned about the developments in Orissa.

2009 offered us compelling reasons to unite under one umbrella and fight all attempts at muzzling and terrorising the media and media persons and that saw the birth of a unique and broad platform called the Media Unity For Freedom of Press. The MUFP has been able to bring together all sections of the media across the state on several issues that threatened media's basic rights and mandate to investigate and report the truth. The sense of unity among media persons on such occasions has been truly encouraging and friends belonging to several journalist unions have joined our efforts in very large numbers.

At the same time we have great many reasons to feel concerned about the growing challenges - be it from the administration, corporate sector, mafias or people who enjoy political clout as well as money and muscle power.

The cases that we have taken up in our brief existence - from attacks on Laxman Choudhury, Jagannath Bastia and Amulya Pati among several others down to the latest bloody attack on media persons at the Silicon Institute of Technology - clearly demonstrate a trend of growing intolerance against the media. Friends working in Maoist zones as well as in areas where people's movements are taking place are among the most vulnerable to repression, physical attacks and even death threats from powers that be. The state government and the district administration are slowly but definitely turning against the idea of a fiercely independent press and we have reasons to apprehend they would fall back on draconian measures whenever they are exposed to public scrutiny.

Our only shield against organised or institutional attacks on the freedom of press is our newly achieved unity which we must preserve and protect against all odds and at any cost. We need to reiterate our commitment to the idea of press freedom through press unity on the World Press Freedom Day and resolve to strengthen the MUFP as a body that is above all divisive and petty considerations and one that is wedded to the idea of defending the self-respect as well as basic and inalienable right of the media to report the truth, come what may.