Being the founding member of Community of Democracies, India had taken a pledge to to uphold the freedom of speech and expression; freedom of press; and freedom of transparency as core principles. For the matter of fact, freedom of expression is also guaranteed under ‘Article 19’ of its constitution. However, over the time, Press freedom in India has deteriorated, with constant attacks on reporters.
Since 1992, over 48 journalists have been killed in India, 38 of which were murdered. It is distressing that of 180 countries, India ranks 138th on Press Freedom Index. India’s ranked 136th in 2017 and 133rd in 2016.
While many of the murder cases went without conviction, the preliminary probe in other cases suggested that journalists working in regional media, politics, crime and corruption were attacked the most.
In 2018 itself, many journaists have lost their lives, the latest being the attack on DD cameraman in Chhattisgarh. Earlier this year, Shujaat Bukhari, editor of Rising Kashmir daily was gunned down in Srinagar on June 14. Last year, senior journalist Gauri Lankesh was murdered just outside her residence in Bengaluru. Sudip Dutta Bhaumik was shot dead by a police officer in Tripura. Three journalists were mowed down by vehicles in back-to-back killings — Navin Singh and Vijay Singh in Bihar, Sandeep Sharma in Madhya Pradesh.
India as a whole, needs to uphold its commitment to the democratic principles and establish a national-level journalist safety mechanism in order to combat impunity.
A failure to do so won’t just endanger fellow journalists, but journalism itself.
