Source: Indian Express

The Press Club of India, along with several other journalist organisations, will send a memorandum to the Union Home Ministry on October 5.

Hundreds of journalists in New Delhi walked from the Press Club of India to the Indian Women’s Press Corps (IWPC) in a human chain with black bands around their arms on Monday in a silent protest against attacks on journalists.

Protests were held in other parts of the country.

The Press Club of India, along with several other journalist organisations, will send a memorandum to the Union Home Ministry on October 5, a month after journalist Gauri Lankesh was shot dead in Bengaluru, asking them to provide a status report on attacks on journalists in the recent past.

The journalists first formed a human chain around the Press Club of India, after which the chain moved to IWPC.

“It is a silent protest, but we wanted to give out the message that we will not be silenced. Today is the birth anniversary of Gandhi, who was himself a journalist and epitome of non-violence, so we thought of organising a silent march today. We want to put pressure on the government to take action against those indulging in attacks on journalists,” said senior journalist Rajdeep Sardesai.

In a statement on Monday, these organisations said: “Violence against journalists in any form will not be tolerated in the land that preaches non-violence. Through the peaceful protests, we want to draw attention to the increasingly unsafe environment for journalists….”

In Guwahati, scribes under the Journalists’ Action Committee Assam, held a demonstration in front of the Guwahati Press Club. They raised demanded a protection law for mediapersons.

In Agartala, hundreds of scribes participated in a sit-in for an hour near the statue of Mahatma Gandhi demanding a CBI inquiry into the murder of journalist Shantanu Bhowmick, who was killed on September 20. The secretary of Tripura Journalist Union (TJU), Pranab Sarkar, said: “We demand CBI inquiry.”

In Chennai, about 40 people were detained when they raised slogans seeking justice for Lankesh near Marina Beach. They were later let off, the police said.

SIT to probe Tripura journalist murder
Guwahati: The Tripura government has constituted an SIT to probe the killing of Shantanu Bhowmik, a journalist with a local cable television news channel of Agartala, by a mob on September 20. Tripura IGP (TRS Training) G S Rao has been named head of the SIT, which will have four other members — DIG(CID) Uttam Mazumdar, Additional SP Kishore Debbarma, and Inspectors Prithvish Bhattacharjee and Nityananda Sarkar.