Delhi Diary: Murders Of Journalists Unsettle Media In India

By Shakir Husain NEW DELHI, Sept 25 (Bernama) -- There is a feeling that the Indian media is losing its diversity of voices on important issues. Not only is the space shrinking for dissent, the threat of violence and harassment has grown, senior journalists, say. Shantanu Bhowmick, a reporter working for a news channel, was beaten to death while covering political unrest in the northeastern state of Tripura on Wednesday. His killing follows the assassination of Gauri Lankesh at her home on Sept 5 in Bangalore in the southern state of Karnataka. As they gathered to condemn the killing of Lankesh, journalists at the Press Club of India in New Delhi hoped they won't have to hold such a meeting again. Yet weeks later they had to organise another protest at the same venue last Friday to condemn Bhowmick's murder. Journalists are demanding better protection and a work environment in which they can do their job without fear. T.K. Rajalakshmi, deputy editor of Frontline magazine and former president of the Indian Women's Press Corps, said since the early 1990s media professionals have seen a decline in freedom due to job insecurity from market reforms. However, in the last three years the politics of "cultural nationalism" has generated bigger threats of physical violence. "The nature of employment became precarious long ago. These days people are labelled as 'anti-national' simply because they do not agree with the attempts by self-appointed custodians of society to impose a kind of homogeneity in the social, political and cultural spheres in pluralistic India. “They want to decide what we should eat, what we should wear and what we should think. Journalists are also targeted in this campaign," Rajalakshmi told Bernama. Arfa Khanum Sherwani, a senior journalist and former news presenter with India's state-run Rajya Sabha television channel observed that there is a small group of people who felt they could do anything to force their point of view on others. "They do not fear any prosecution or punishment. They feel they can get away with anything, even murder," she said. Polarisation on social media has reached such levels that many reacted with glee over the murder of Lankesh, whose writings and activism had enraged right-wing Hindu groups. Television journalist Rajdeep Sardesai commented on Twitter that there has been "not one conviction in any case where a journalist has been killed in last 25 years". According to the US-based Committee to Protect Journalists, at least 41 journalists have been killed in India in relation to their work since 1992. Many supporters of right-wing groups in online comments mocked the Bangalore-based woman journalist's murder, using filthy language, which drew a sharp rebuke from a government minister. "Expressing happiness on the killing of anyone is shameful, regrettable and totally against Indian traditions. Social media is not for that," India's minister for information technology Ravi Shankar Prasad tweeted. However, l Prasad himself became a victim of vitriolic attacks by trolls over his condemnation of online hatred. The two murders within weeks highlight the perilous conditions in which many journalists work in small towns and remote places. "These are dangerous times for journalists in India. Outside major cities and in conflict zones, journalists enjoy even less protection and are vulnerable to all kinds of threats," Rajalakshmi said. Outspoken journalists who criticise the right-wing agenda are often bullied and called "presstitutes" by social media trolls. In Sherwani's view, most major media houses "have fallen in line and have their ideological, political and commercial interests aligned with the powerful groups that are trying to silence independent voices." She told Bernama: "There are very few influential journalists left who are not willing to bend and crawl in the face of threats. When bribes and blandishments don't work, financial pressure, threats of violence and other means of coercion are tried." The kind of angry online ideological battles after Lankesh's killing are missing following Bhowmick's murder, but the shock and rage are widespread. Several protests have been organised and more are being planned to ask the government to take steps to protect journalists. "It's the responsibility of national institutions to ensure that freedom of speech is protected and journalists are able to do their work for the interests of India's wider population in a healthy environment. If we are not able to protect our freedom of expression, our democracy would cease to work," Sherwani said. -- BERNAMA