In India, online campaign seeks to free press from risk of criminal defamation
An online campaign to decriminalize defamation in India is being led by a member of the country’s main opposition party. “Criminal defamation can lead to people being put in jail for something they have said publicly. This law needs to be replaced by a modern, progressive law,” reads the statement on the campaign website.
Kashmir newspaper ordered to suspend printing
New York, October 3, 2016 – Authorities in Jammu and Kashmir should immediately reverse an order to suspend publication of the Kashmir Reader newspaper, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Police arrived at the daily newspaper’s office with an order to stop publishing yesterday.
TV journalists beaten, threatened covering protest
Protesters in Bangalore, the capital of India’s Karnataka state, on September 12, 2016, assaulted Rohini Swamy, deputy editor of the English-language news channel India Today TV, and Madhu Y, a cameraman for the channel, as the two covered demonstrations against a Supreme Court order to divert some water from the Cauvery River to the neighboring…
CPJ Newsletter: We fight back against defamation, highlight impunity in India, and host an exhibit on Shawkan’s works
September edition IOC creates mechanism for journalist complaints after CPJ consultation In early August, we welcomed the creation of a press freedom complaints mechanism by the International Olympic Committee. The move followed years of advocacy with the IOC by CPJ and other rights groups to do more to hold governments that host the Olympic Games…
Journalists attacked by protesters as curfew lifts in Kashmir
New Delhi, August 31, 2016–Authorities in Jammu and Kashmir must take stronger measures to ensure the safety of journalists, and should investigate two separate attacks against staff at the Kashmir Observer on August 29, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.
Dangerous pursuit: In India, journalists who cover corruption may pay with their lives
In the 27 cases of journalists murdered for their work in India since CPJ began keeping records in 1992, there have been no convictions. More than half of those killed reported regularly on corruption. The cases of Jagendra Singh, Umesh Rajput, and Akshay Singh, who died between 2011 and 2015, show how small-town journalists face…
Dangerous Pursuit
Foreword: Journalism as well as journalists in danger from failure to stand up for India’s press P. Sainath This report by the Committee to Protect Journalists does more than tell us that reporting in India can be a dangerous business. Rural and small-town journalists are at greater risk of being killed in retaliation for their…
Dangerous Pursuit
Impunity and lack of solidarity expose India’s journalists to attack By Sumit Galhotra Corruption scandals make for attention-grabbing headlines, but when journalists who expose wrongdoing are killed, their murder is often the end of the story. For eight years India has been a fixture on the Committee to Protect Journalists’ annual Impunity Index, which spotlights…
Dangerous Pursuit
Jagendra Singh: discredited after death By Sumit Galhotra and Raksha Kumar Covered in burns and writhing in pain, Jagendra Singh cries out, “They could have arrested me. Why did they have to beat me and set me on fire?” In the video, filmed at a hospital in Lucknow where Jagendra Singh was being treated for…
Dangerous Pursuit
In search of justice for Umesh Rajput By Sumit Galhotra and Raksha Kumar Parmeshwar Rajput walked exhausted into his lawyer’s office in Bilaspur, weighed down by a black bag filled with court documents, police records, and newspaper clippings about his brother’s death, after the six-hour train and motorbike journey he had taken from his village…