JANUARY 31, 2003
Parvaz Mohammed Sultan, News and Feature Alliance
KILLED—UNCONFIRMED
Sultan, editor of the independent newswire service News and Feature Alliance
(NAFA), which is based in Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir
State, was shot dead by an unidentified gunman.
Two men entered Sultan's office at around 5:30 p.m., according to news
reports. After a brief conversation with Sultan, one of the men shot him
in the head. The Associated Press (AP) reported that the killer used a
pistol with a silencer. No one stopped the assailants from leaving the
premises, which are located in the press enclave in central Srinagar.
Though Sultan was rushed to the hospital, doctors declared him dead within
minutes of his arrival, police told the AP.
Sultan, 36, was known as an independent journalist and had worked for
several local Urdu-language dailies during his career. In addition to
running NAFA, he contributed investigative stories and columns to the
Urdu-language newspaper Chattan, one of the oldest newspapers in
Kashmir.
Journalists working in the disputed territory of Kashmir, which both India
and Pakistan claim, have long been vulnerable to attack by various parties
in the conflict. Sultan's colleagues told CPJ that though they were not
aware of any specific threats against the journalist, news agencies such
as NAFA are under constant pressure to carry statements issued by competing
political and militant groups.
Police blamed the murder on militant groups but have not yet conducted
a thorough investigation. No group claimed responsibility for Sultan's
murder, and many of the leading militant organizations, including Hezb-ul
Mujahedeen, condemned the killing, as did the All Parties Hurriyat Conference,
the main separatist alliance.
MARCH 4, 2003
People's Media Initiative
CENSORED
India's Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) denied a certificate
to the documentary "Aakrosh," which was produced by the People's Media
Initiative, an independent production company. The denial prevents the
film from being shown publicly. "Aakrosh," or "Cry of Anguish," is a 20-minute,
Hindi-language documentary that features interviews with survivors of
the communal violence that swept the western state of Gujarat in 2002.
On March 4, the CBFC notified the producers of "Aakrosh" that their application
for a certificate had been denied. The filmmakers appealed the decision
to the board's Revising Committee, which met on March 19 to screen the
documentary. In a letter dated March 31, the committee upheld the board's
decision, contending that the documentary "is not a balanced film. It
not only flares up the scars of the riots but also shows the agony of
one particular community, which may lead to communal disturbance."
In the CBFC's March 4 letter to the filmmakers explaining the decision,
a copy of which was obtained by CPJ, the board listed several "Reasons
for Refusal of Certificate," including the fact that, "The film depicts
violence and reminds the people about the Gujarat riot last year. It shows
the Government and Police in a bad light. The overall impact of the film
is negative as it leads to communal hatred."
The film's producers say "Aakrosh" does not show footage of the violence
and is not incendiary. The film "preaches the importance of peace and
communal harmony," said a statement from the People's Media Initiative.
"We wanted to show the futility of the violence and tell the people that
violence of any kind is bad." The filmmakers say they did not identify
the victims interviewed by name or religion to avoid contributing to further
polarization between Hindu and Muslim communities.
The clashes in Gujarat began on February 27, 2002, when a Muslim mob set
fire to a train carrying Hindu activists, killing 59 people, according
to official reports. More than 2,000 Muslims were killed in the retaliatory
violence that followed. Journalists, diplomats, and human rights groups
have reported that much of this violence was organized and encouraged
by political leaders and groups associated with the Bharatiya Janata Party
(BJP), the Hindu nationalist party that governs Gujarat State and leads
India's national coalition government.
Arvind Trivedi, a former actor and BJP politician from Gujarat, currently
heads the CBFC.
APRIL 26, 2003
Doordarshan Television
Radio Kashmir
ATTACKED
At about 1 p.m., assailants detonated a car laden with explosives near
the main gate of an office complex housing Doordarshan Television and
Radio Kashmir, in Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian-controlled Kashmir.
The attackers then threw a grenade into the security post outside the
building and tried to enter the offices. A gunfight ensued, during which
the three assailants and two security officers were killed.
The Indian government owns both media outlets. The week before the attack,
the prime ministers of India and Pakistan made a conditional agreement
to hold peace talks over Kashmir, which both countries claim. After the
agreement was announced, a surge of violent attacks in Kashmir killed
at least 30 people in 10 days.
A little-known group calling itself the Al Madina Regiment claimed responsibility
for the attack on the news organizations in phone calls to local media,
according to Indian press reports. An unidentified caller who claimed
to represent the group told Kashmir Press Service that, "We are not against
a dialogue with India, but it should accept Kashmir as a disputed territory,"
according to The Associated Press.
Separatist militants have targeted Doordarshan Television and Radio Kashmir
before, since they are viewed as mouthpieces for the Indian government.
APRIL 29, 2003
Journalists in Kashmir
THREATENED
The militant group Tehrik-ul-Mujahideen issued a threat against journalists
working "against the freedom struggle" in the disputed territory of Kashmir.
The organization is one of more than a dozen armed groups fighting against
Indian rule in Kashmir, which both India and Pakistan claim.
The rebel group's statement was published by the Current News Service,
a private news agency based in Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian-controlled
Kashmir. In the statement, a senior commander of Tehrik-ul-Mujahideen
was quoted as saying, "There are seven dailies among the local ones and
a well-known news agency which work at the behest of the Indian (intelligence)
agencies and are paid by them," according to a translation of the report
prepared by The Associated Press. "We inform such journalists that they
will be killed if they fail to mend their ways," added the commander,
identified as Dr. Abd-ar-Rabb. The statement did not identify any journalist
or news organization by name.
JUNE 24, 2003
Posted: July19, 2004
Indra Mohan Hakasam, Amar Assam
KILLED-UNCONFIRMED
Hakasam, a correspondent with the Assam-language daily Amar Assam,
was abducted at gunpoint from his home in Goalpara by members of the United
Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA), an insurgent group in the mountainous
northeastern province waging a separatist guerrilla war with India, according
to local news reports.
Hakasam's family filed a report about his disappearance at the Rongsai
police outpost in the Goalpara District of Assam on June 29, 2003. Since
no body has been found and the ULFA has not officially claimed responsibility
for Hakasam's disappearance and alleged death, police have not closed
the case.
However, on February 20, 2004, eight months after his disappearance, ULFA
sources told police officials that Hakasam had died of unspecified "illnesses."
In fact, local police believe that lower-level UFLA members killed Hakasam
long before, possibly on the day of his abduction, according to local
journalists.
Hakasam's wife, Sabitri, appears to be in mourning, according to local
journalists, because she now wears a white dress in accordance with the
Hindu rituals for a grieving widow. Local police believe that Hakasam's
family members may have received information about his execution from
the ULFA, or from the head of their village.
CPJ sources say that state intelligence officials accused Hakasam of having
contacts with the ULFA that were "too good" and claimed that ULFA field
operatives would often deposit extorted money at Hakasam's house for safekeeping.
Local sources say that Hakasam may have had a disagreement with the ULFA
relating to extortion money, which could have ultimately led to his death.
In November 2003, local newspapers had quoted rebel sources saying that
Hakasam had been killed by the ULFA. The Journalists' Union of Assam (JUA)
organized a one-day sit-in strike on November 21, 2003, at the press club
in the town of Guwahati, where Hakasam's newspaper is published, to demand
that the ULFA provide information about the journalist. The JUA also submitted
a memorandum to the Assam Government and Goalpara District authorities
urging them to help locate Hakasam and probe his disappearance. But, by
February 2004, after the unofficial declaration of Hakasam's death from
"illnesses," the movement came to an end.
The ULFA is not known for kidnapping journalists, but they have been blamed
for the deaths of at least one other journalist, according to local journalists
and CPJ research: Parag Kumar Das, editor-in-chief of Asomiya Pratidin,
the largest circulation daily in Assam, who was gunned down in Guwahati
in 1996, allegedly by a splinter group of the ULFA.
JULY 27, 2003
Anirudh Bahal, Tehelka.com
Mathew Samuel, Tehelka.com
LEGAL ACTION
Editor Bahal and reporter Samuel, both of Tehelka.com, a hard-hitting
investigative news Web site, were charged with conspiracy in connection
with a story published on the Web site in October 2000. The Central Bureau
of Investigation (CBI) filed the complaint against the journalists under
the Official Secrets Act (OSA), alleging that information in the story
came from a secret government file. Two officials from the Home Ministry
and Buffalo Networks, which owns the Web site, also had complaints filed
against them.
The charges came after the joint secretary at the Indian Home Ministry
ordered an Intelligence Bureau inquiry into a Tehelka.com story
titled "Are the Dutch Innocent." The ministry claimed that the story contained
information from secret government file number 11011/40/99, titled "Dutch
Interest in India's Fringe Politics," which included the minutes of a
confidential government meeting. The government alleged that Tehelka.com
reprinted the minutes almost verbatim from the secret file. Dutch Ambassador
Peter Loch also protested to the Federal External Affairs Ministry about
the details in the article when it was published in 2000.
The Web site's troubles began in March 2001, when it ran an investigative
story that included a videotape clip showing a politician from the Defense
Department accepting a bribe. Several charges were subsequently leveled
against Tehelka.com by agencies such as the CBI, the Enforcement
Directorate, and the Income Tax and Intelligence Bureau during the next
two years.
Tarun Tejpal, founder and editor-in-chief of the Web site, says that Tehelka.com
is a victim of competing political interests and a largely corrupt Indian
establishment. In 2002, he claims, Tehelka.com spent "35,000 man-hours
combating cock-and-bull charges."
Other reporters from Tehelka.com also claim that the government
has harassed them because of their reporting. Reporter Kumar Badal spent
six months in jail in 2002 on alleged poaching charges after doing an
undercover story on poaching in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.
In August 2003, Bahal was arrested after a CBI officer accused the journalist
of having "threatened" him. Bahal was released on bail the same day.
AUGUST 11, 2003
Ashwini Kumar Tripathi, Rozana
ATTACKED, HARASSED
Security officers in Lucknow, the capital of the northern state of Uttar
Pradesh, denied access to and assaulted Tripathi, a senior correspondent
for the Delhi-based television news agency Rozana, during a visit to the
city by Indian President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam.
In advance of the president's visit, journalists in Lucknow were issued
security passes, along with invitations to cover several functions that
the president was to attend, according to Tripathi. On August 11, the
reporter and his crew attempted to reach one event via a road patrolled
by the Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC), a special state police unit
charged with security during the president's visit. PAC officers intercepted
the journalists' car at an intersection and refused to allow the crew
to pass through, according to Tripathi and other local journalists.
Tripathi stepped out of the car and told them that he was a journalist
covering the day's events. Although the reporter showed the officers his
security pass, they taunted him and then brutally beat him while yelling,
"Kill him, he's a terrorist," according to Tripathi. Terrified, Tripathi
ran from his assailants, but several PAC officers followed him, beating
the reporter with canes and throwing rocks at him as he ran. Tripathi
was able to escape by jumping a barrier wall. There, local residents found
him and hid him in their house. Eventually, other Lucknow journalists
who heard of the attack located Tripathi and brought him to the hospital.
He had sustained severe injuries to his hands and back and remained in
the hospital for three days.
The Uttar Pradesh State Accredited Correspondents' Committee told CPJ
that a case had been filed with local police officials, and that journalists
in Lucknow are awaiting a response.
SEPTEMBER 18, 2003
Parmanand Goyal, Punjab Kesari
KILLED—UNCONFIRMED
Goyal, a journalist with the daily Punjab Kesari, was shot and
killed by three unidentified assailants at his home in Kaithal, Haryana,
north of the capital, Delhi, according to local press reports. CPJ is
investigating the motives behind his murder.
According India's The Tribune newspaper, Goyal's son Naveen Rinku
answered the door at Goyal's home, and three men asked to speak with his
father. Rinku told Goyal about the visitors and asked the men to wait
in the backyard. The Tribune reported that Rinku claims to have
overheard the men threatening his father to stop writing about a local
political figure and the police. Soon after, Goyal was found wounded in
the backyard, and his assailants fled the scene. Goyal was rushed to the
hospital but was pronounced dead on arrival, according to press reports.
Goyal had been arrested on corruption charges in May and was released
on bail in early September. His family says that the charges against him
were false.
Goyal was the district president of the Haryana Union of Journalists.
Local journalists, outraged by the murder, gathered on September 19 for
a moment of silence in his memory and to call for an investigation into
his murder.
SEPTEMBER 25, 2003
Ahmad Ali Fayaz, Daily Excelsior
THREATENED
Fayaz, Srinagar bureau chief for the Daily Excelsior, received
a threatening phone call from a senior officer of the Border Security
Force (BSF) who identified himself as Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Desraj.
According to Fayaz, Desraj threatened to shoot him because of a recent
article he had written about alleged abuses by the Indian army.
Fayaz contacted a local commander to complain about the threatening call
and filed a formal complaint with the police. According to Fayaz, the
local commander spoke with Desraj, who admitted calling Fayaz but denied
making any threats.
Local journalists were outraged by the death threat and have urged national
and local officials to take immediate measures against Desraj.
NOVEMBER 7, 2003
Posted: November 11, 2003
N. Ravi, The Hindu
Malini Parthasarathy, The Hindu
S. Rangarajan, The Hindu
V. Jayanth, The Hindu
Radha Venkatesan, The Hindu
S. Selvam, Murasoli
LEGAL ACTION
The state assembly of the southern province of Tamil Nadu sentenced
five journalists from the daily Hindu and one journalist from
the Tamil-language daily Murasoli to 15-day jail sentences on November
7 after finding them guilty of "breach of privilege" for writing critical
articles and an editorial about local Chief Minister Jayalalitha Jayaram,
whose party dominates the state assembly. The assembly accused The
Hindu of "gross contempt" for four articles published in April 2003.
The Hindu, one of India's oldest and most respected dailies, had
written critically about the government's "crude use of state power" after
political opponents were arrested and independent journalists were harassed.
After the Hindu journalists were charged on November 7, they went
into hiding. Police raided the newspaper's headquarters in Madras on November
8, and searched the editors' offices.
Selvam, the editor of Murasoli, was also charged for printing a
translation of one of The Hindu's editorials and went into hiding,
as well. The journalists sent a petition to the Supreme Court on November
8 asking that the arrest warrants be nullified.
Local and national journalist groups in India were appalled at the sentencing
of the six journalists. On November 9, hundreds of journalists in Madras
went on a one-day fast in protest of the charges. Reporters in New Delhi
burned Jayaram in effigy.
India's Supreme Court stayed the arrest of the six journalists on November
10, but the Tamil Nadu government filed a defamation case against The
Hindu on the same day, and another criminal defamation case filed
by Jayalalitha against The Hindu will be heard on December 22.
DECEMBER 9, 2003
Posted: January 29, 2004
Tahir Mohi-ud-din, Chattan
THREATENED
Members of the militant group Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF)
ransacked the office of Chattan, the well-respected Urdu-language
weekly, and allegedly attempted to kidnap editor Tahir Mohi-ud-din.
Mohi-ud-din told the Excelsior daily that while working at his
office, he received a telephone call from JKLF chairman, Mohammad Yaseen
Malik. According to the editor, Malik objected to the publication of an
anonymous person's "highly offensive letter" about him, and threatened
Mohi-ud-din over the phone using profane and abusive language.
Half an hour later, a group of about 20 men barged into Mohi-ud-din's
office and ordered him to come with them to see Malik. When Mohi-ud-din
refused, the men ransacked the office and tried to set it on fire.
Mohi-ud-din was rescued by police, who took him to the nearest police
station. The editor filed a formal complaint against the JKLF militants,
and police have made one arrest in the case, according to the Excelsior.