Attack on Caravan journalists: The Punjab and Chandigarh Journalists Union urges authorities to register case

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

The Punjab and Chandigarh Journalists Union has strongly condemned the attack on three journalists including female journalist of 'Caravan'. An emergency meeting was held today under the chairmanship of Union President Balwinder Singh Jammu, who is also member of Press Council of India. Special attention was paid to the journalists present in the meeting and expressed regret over the fact that journalists and writers have been targeted in the country for the last few years. In this connection, Prabhjit Singh and Shahid Tantray and a female journalist were targeted when they went to cover the Hindu-Muslim violence in North East Delhi. According to sources, the youths / attackers got even more angry when journalist Shahid Tantray showed his i-card to be a journalist. The journalists also lamented that the attackers also threatened the journalists during the attack that they belonged to a particular party and could not harm them. The union has urged the Delhi Police, the Delhi government and the Union government to register a case against the accused on the basis of a complaint lodged by journalist Prabhjit Singh. The union demanded financial assistance of Rs. 50 lakh from the Central Government and the concerned state governments to the families of the journalists who died due to corona virus and enacted the Journalist Protection Act so that the journalists could carry out their work without fear. Jai Singh Chibber, Jagtar Bhullar, Santosh Gupta, Bindu Singh and RS Libret among others were present on the occasion.