When the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won control of
the government in February, observers worried that an erosion of civil liberties
would soon follow if the party imposed its brand of religious conservatism
on traditionally secular India. Despite these fears, the government placed
no new restrictions on the country's lively and generally free press.
Nevertheless, India's complex political, ethnic, and religious conflicts
make the country a dangerous place to report the news. Journalists covering
secessionist conflicts in India's northeastern states continue to be vulnerable
to attack from both armed rebels and state security forces. On January 13,
Ankur Barbora, a special correspondent for the newspaper Asian Age,
disappeared from Calcutta under mysterious circumstances. Though police claimed
they had conducted investigations in West Bengal, Assam, and Nagaland, they
were unable to discover what had happened to Barbora. The journalist's colleagues
at the Asian Age, however, believe he was abducted -- and possibly
killed -- because of his reporting in the Northeast.
Authorities continue to use laws punishing speech that might provoke ethnic
or religious tensions against the press. In January, for example, four employees
of India's official television network, Doordarshan, were arrested and detained
on charges that their report on a recent massacre in Assam was divisive,
and dangerously exploited the conflict between Assamese Hindus and the indigenous
Bodo community.
The escalating conflict between Indian and Pakistani troops in the northwestern
state of Jammu and Kashmir did not take the toll on the media it had in the
past. Although the local press still receives threats and ultimata from armed
Hindu and Muslim militants seeking to influence coverage, CPJ documented
no physical assaults against journalists this year. Some in the media say
that Kashmiri journalists, fearful of attack, practiced a degree of
self-censorship. Eight journalists have been murdered in Kashmir since 1989,
when the secessionist movement became an all-out war.
Political violence remains a threat to the press. In March, about 50 armed
men who were allegedly members of the state's ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam
(DMK) Party attacked the office of the newspaper Dinamalar in
the southern state of Tamil Nadu. The group assaulted the guard on duty and
destroyed a substantial amount of property. Dinamalar had recently
been critical of the DMK during parliamentary elections. In June, in the
neighboring state of Kerala, a crowd of activists associated with the ruling
Communist Party-Marxist (CPM) severely beat two reporters and two photographers
for their coverage of a double-murder case in which CPM members had been
implicated. Such attacks often occur with the tacit approval of state
authorities, and so are rarely investigated. |
|
|
| Attacks on the Press in
India in 1998 |
| Date |
Journalist |
Incident |
| 07/18/98 |
Ajit
Kumar Bhuyan, Natton Samoy |
Attacked, Threatened |
| 06/16/98 |
Tony
Dominic, Malayala Manorama |
Attacked |
| 06/16/98 |
Josey
George, Deepika |
Attacked |
| 06/16/98 |
Chandra
Bose, Mathrubhumi |
Attacked |
| 06/16/98 |
P.
Manoj, Mathrubhumi |
Attacked |
| 03/01/98 |
Dinamalar |
Attacked |
| 02/26/98 |
The
Kashmir Times |
Censored |
| 01/15/98 |
Hitesh
Medhi, Doordarshan |
Legal Action |
| 01/15/98 |
Pratap
Bordoloi, Doordarshan |
Legal Action |
| 01/15/98 |
Ramani
Malakar, Doordarshan |
Legal Action |
| 01/15/98 |
Deben
Tamuly, Doordarshan |
Legal Action |
| 01/11/98 |
Avirook
Sen, India Today |
Attacked |
| 01/11/98 |
Suparna
Sharma, Indian Express |
Attacked |
|
|
