Attack on Caravan journalists: Delhi Union of Journalists condemns attack

On 11 August 2020, three journalists working with The Caravan—Shahid Tantray, Prabhjit Singh and a woman journalist—were beaten, subjected to communal slurs, threatened with murder, and sexually harassed, while reporting in Subhash Mohalla, in northeast Delhi.

The Delhi Union of Journalists released a statement condemning the attack on the journalists and demanded immediate action. The statement is reproduced below. Read The Caravan’s report on the attack here.

The Delhi Union of Journalists condemns the selective targeting by Delhi Police of journalists who have reported or commented on the riots in North Delhi and the recent mob attack on three reporters of the Caravan while covering the aftermath of the riots.

The reporters were physically attacked by a communal mob led by a local politician and were eventually rescued by the Police. A young woman reporter faced lewd sexual harassment by the mob and ultimately sheltered in the police station. However, three days after the attacks the Police have not registered an FIR.

On the other hand several journalists have been interrogated in connection with the riots and the anti CAA protests, including Vinod Dua and Prashant Tandon.

Five months after the February riots no action seems to have been taken against those who attacked journalists at the time although several were injured, including Akash Napa of JK 24X7 TV who suffered a gunshot wound and Arvind Gunasekar of NDTV who lost some teeth. Others who had faced attacks were Saurabh Shukla, Mariam Alvi, Sushil Rathee of NDTV, Runjhun Sharma of News 18, Shivnarayan Purohit of Indian Express, Parvina Purkayastha of Times Now and Akshay Kumar Dongare and Tanushree Pandey of Aaj Tak.

The DUJ warns that all such attacks threaten the entire journalist community and are attacks on the freedom of the press and democracy. India’s ranking on the Press Freedom index fell two places to 142 out of 180 countries in 2020, according to the Reporters Without Borders annual index. It is likely to fall further. The impunity with which such attacks and targeting is taking place in the national capital is ominous.

S.K. Pande                                                            Sujata Madhok

 President                                                           General Secretary