From Our Correspondent
Guwahati: Journalists’ Forum Assam (JFA) has appreciated the Indian envoy in the United Nations for his concern and appeal to the international community on the security of journalists working in theconflict zones across the globe. The northeast India-based media persons’ organization has however claimed that India in general and trouble-torn Assam in particular is recognized as one of the most dangerous places for the working journalists, where the country itself cannot claim a better image.
Mentionable is that India’s permanent UN representative Asoke Kumar Mukerji on Wednesday argued that as the journalists play a crucial role in ensuring citizens’ right for constitutionally guaranteed personal liberty, freedom of speech & expression in reality, every country and its government should take the responsibility to protect the journalists in all situations.
“As the world’s most populous democracy, India is committed to theprotection of these rights for all its citizens, including journalists,” Mukerji has reportedly pointed out in an UN security council debate on protection of journalists in conflict situations.
The JFA, while questioning the sincerity of the Indian machineries on the protection of working journalists across the country, also alleges that the journalists and their families remain victim of circumstances in Assam and northeast India without justice for decades.
“Assam has lost over 20 correspondent, journalist and editors in the last two decades and shockingly not a single culprit has been punished till date. In most cases, the police and authority have made it a habit to ignore useful facts while presenting the cases in the respected courts, giving ample scope for the culprits to go free,”said a statement issued by the JFA.
Signed by its president Rupam Barua nd secretary Nava Thakuria, the JFA statement alleged that even after huge public resentments against the murder of some reputed media persons in Assam namely Kamala Saikia, who was brutally killed by Ulfa militants in 1991 and Parag Kumar Das, assassinated by surrendered militants in 1997, the authority is yet to make anybody accountable for the crimes.
There recent killing of three newspaper employees namely Sujit Bhattcharjee, Ranjit Chaudhary and Balaram Ghosh in Tripura, when they were working in the office of Dainik Ganadoot, an Agartala based Bengali newspaper, speaks a volume about the sense of vulnerability for media persons in northeast India.
Manipur, an insurgency stricken State of the region has lost at least 6 editor-journalists to miscreants in the last 20 years and similarly Nagaland, Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh also often witness the atrocities on media persons.
“In reality, the media persons of the region, most of them are lowly paid and out of insurance coverage remain susceptible to numerous threats from insurgents, surrendered militants and even the anti-insurgent security agencies,” asserted the statement.
The JFA opines that while appealing to the international community for the protection of the journalists, the Indian authority should reorganize its various machinery to ensure safety and security for its own journalists and other media employees, such that they can continue performing their duties without fear.