DALIT ONLINE – e News Weekly

Spreading the light of humanity & freedom

Editor: Nagaraja.M.R.. Vol.15..Issue.37........15 / 09 / 2019

India reporter fears for life after exposing

corruption
Concerns raised over media freedom as Pawan Kumar Jaiswal, who exposed
corruption in school meal scheme, faces arrest

NEWS /INDIA

India reporter fears for life after exposing

corruption
Concerns raised over media freedom as Pawan Kumar Jaiswal, who
exposed corruption in school meal scheme, faces arrest.
by Mohammad Ali
New Delhi, India - An Indian journalist says he and his family are living in fear
after police filed criminal cases against him for exposing corruption in a school
midday meal scheme in Uttar Pradesh state.

Police have filed four criminal cases against Pawan Kumar Jaiswal for filing a
video report that showed a school in Mirzapur district serve children only "roti"
(or Indian bread) with salt.

As part of the state-run midday meal scheme run across government schools
in India, children are supposed to be served cooked food to fight malnutrition - a
major problem in the country.

"The reality is that me and my family are living in fear. The district administration
is behaving vindictively to save themselves and their role in the mismanagement
of the midday meal scheme," Jaiswal, who is a reporter with Jansandesh Times, a
local newspaper, told Al Jazeera.

The video report, showing children eating roti with salt without any vegetables
and "daal" (or split pulse) at the Mirzapur school went viral last month, causing
public outrage.

'Defaming the government'

In the cases filed by the authorities, they accuse Jaiswal of defaming the state
government headed by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The local officials accused Jaiswal and his source Rajkumar Pal under various
sections of the Indian Penal Code including sections 120 B (criminal conspiracy),
186 (voluntarily obstructing public servants in discharge of his functions), 193
(false evidence) and 420 (cheating) on August 31.

"When Jaiswal and his source Rajkumar Pal who tipped him off, got to know that
vegetable was not available in the school, instead of ensuring that the kids were
served with vegetables, they criminally conspired to falsely defame the state
government and recorded a video of students eating only roti and salt," says the
police complaint, a copy of which is with Al Jazeera.
Jaiswal says he wanted to do his job by exposing the corruption in the midday
meal scheme in the district. He said that the school had been serving kids rice,
roti and salt for several weeks.

Despite finding Jaiswal's report true, the state government is yet to withdraw the
complaint against him which means that he could be arrested at any time.

"I went to the school on August 22 when I found [out] that the school was
serving rotis and rice with salt on different days. Seeing the kids eat just roti with
salt melted my heart. I just wanted to ensure the kids are served nutritious food
in midday meal as mandated by the law. So I reported it," Jaiswal told Al Jazeera
telephonically from Mirzapur.

'Local journalists scared'

"All local journalists are extremely scared. We will certainly think 10 times before
reporting," said Jaiswal, concerned about his safety as police have already
arrested his source in the village.

The district magistrate of Mirzapur, Anurag Patel, justified the police action
against Jaiswal, saying that he should not have recorded a video because he is a
print journalist.

Despite repeated attempts, Al Jazeera could not reach BJP leaders for a
response.

Journalists in Uttar Pradesh - India's most populous state - and in the capital New
Delhi, however, have come to Jaiswal's support.

Dozens of local reporters in Mirzapur organised a "pen-down" protest on

Tuesday over the police action which has come barely two months after a Delhi-
based freelance journalist was picked up from his home by the Uttar
Pradesh police.

Prashant Kanojia was arrested in June for criticising Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister
Yogi Adityanath - a hard line Hindu monk known for his anti-Muslim
stance. Kanojia was released after the intervention of the Supreme Court.
Press freedom in India has deteriorated since Prime Minister Narendra
Modi came to power in 2014.

Attack on press freedom

Journalists in Indian-administered Kashmir, which has been placed under
a crippling lockdown for a month, have complained of harassment by authorities.

Due to its crackdown on freedom of the press, India dropped down two places in
the global press freedom index of Reporters sans Frontieres (RSF), a Paris-based
independent media watchdog. India is ranked 140th out of 180 countries, placed
below Myanmar and Afghanistan.

The Editors Guild of India, a prominent Indian body of editors, termed the move
"a clear and classic case of shooting the messenger".

"It is precisely exposes like these that show how valuable free and fearless
journalists are to a democratic society. It is shocking that instead of taking action
to fix what is wrong on the ground, the government has filed criminal cases
against the journalists," said a statement issued by the guild on September 2.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and RSF have
condemned the state action against Jaiswal.

The CPJ called on authorities to "immediately cease pursuing charges" against

Jaiswal.

"Exposing wrongdoing is not defamatory, but rather part of a reporter's job, and
filing a case against him is a form of harassment and intimidation," said Aliya
Iftikhar, a senior Asia researcher with the CPJ.

Scared of further persecution by the government, Jaiswal has released several

videos on social media pleading that he is innocent.
"I have done no wrong. I did what a reporter is supposed to do," Jaiswal told Al
Jazeera.

Editorial : Protect Journalists and Press Freedom

An Appeal to Honorable Chief Justice of India

Protect Journalists.

Edited, printed , published owned by NAGARAJA.M.R. @ # LIG-2 No 761,

HUDCO FIRST STAGE , OPP WATER WORKS , LAXMIKANTANAGAR , HEBBAL
,MYSURU – 570017 KARNATAKA INDIA Cell : 91 8970318202
WhatsApp 91 8970318202

Home page :
http://eclarionofdalit.dalitonline.in/ ,
https://dalit-online.blogspot.com/

Contact : editor@dalitonline.in , editor.dalitonline@gmail.com

An Indian journalist participates in a silent protest against the brutal killing of a senior
Kashmiri journalist Shujaat Bukhari, portrait seen, in Kolkata, India, Friday, June 15, 2018.
Bukhari and his two police bodyguards were fatally shot Thursday by assailants in Indian-
controlled Kashmir. (AP Photo/Bikas Das)
A total of 81 journalists were killed this year, 348 are currently in prison, and 60 are
being held hostage, according to the annual worldwide round-up of deadly violence
and abusive treatment of journalists released Tuesday by Reporters Without Borders
(RSF), which shows an unprecedented level of hostility towards media personnel.

The widely reported murders of Saudi columnist Jamal Khashoggi and the
young Slovak data journalist Ján Kuciak highlighted the lengths to which press
freedom’s enemies are prepared to go. More than half of the journalists killed in 2018
were deliberately targeted.

Violence against journalists has reached unprecedented levels this year, and the
situation is now critical. The hatred of journalists that is voiced, and sometimes very
openly proclaimed, by unscrupulous politicians, religious leaders and businessmen has
tragic consequences on the ground, and has been reflected in this disturbing increase in
violations against journalists.

RSF Secretary-General Christophe Deloire said.

Afghanistan: the world’s deadliest country for journalists in 2018

Afghanistan was the world’s deadliest country for journalists in 2018, with 15 killed. It
was followed by Syria, with 11 killed, and Mexico, the deadliest country outside a
conflict zone, with nine journalists murdered in 2018. The fatal shooting of five
employees of the Capital Gazette newspaper in June brought the United States into the
ranks of the deadliest countries.

China remains the world’s biggest jailer of journalists

The number of journalists detained worldwide at the end of the year – 348 – is up from
326 at this time last year. As in 2017, more than half of the world’s imprisoned
journalists are being held in just five countries: China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and
Turkey.

China remains the world’s biggest jailer of journalists with 60 currently held, of whom
three quarters are non-professional journalists.

Reuters reporters jailed for investigating Rohingya massacre in Myanmar

Despite international protests, Kyaw Soe Oo and Wa Lone, two Burmese journalists
employed by the Reuters news agency who have been held since December 2017, were
sentenced to seven years in prison in Yangon on 3 September. They were convicted on
a trumped-up charge of violating the Official Secrets Act in reprisal for investigating a
massacre of Rohingya civilians by soldiers in the village of Inn Dinn, in the north of
Rakhine state, in September 2017.
Detained Reuters journalist Wa Lone is escorted by police while arriving for a court hearing in
Yangon, Myanmar on Thursday. (Reuters photo)

The army had been forced to acknowledge the massacre and seven soldiers were given
ten-year jail sentences for their role in the bloodshed. The sole evidence against the two
reporters was the supposedly classified documents found in their possession at the time
of their arrest. However, a police officer testified during a preliminary hearing that they
had been lured to a meeting where they were given the documents and then
immediately arrested. The journalists have appealed the decision.

Journalists also live in fear in India

Journalists also live in fear in India. Six were murdered this year and many others were
the targets of murder attempts, physical attacks, and threats. Hate campaigns against
journalists, including incitement to murder, are common on social networks and are fed
by troll armies linked to the Hindu nationalist right.

India has emerged in the world’s five deadliest countries for journalists alongside a
first-time entrant in the list – the United States.

Those who murder journalists often use extremely barbaric methods. A village chief in
the northeastern Indian state of Bihar killed two journalists, Navin Nischal and Vijay
Singh, in retaliation for their reporting by deliberately running them down with his
SUV on 25 March. On the same day in the central state of Madhya Pradesh, a dump
truck was used to run down and kill Sandeep Sharma, a journalist who had been
investigating a local “sand mafia.”

Journalist killed in India

Achyutananda Sahu

Doordarshan | Killed in Chhattisgarh, India | October 30, 2018

Video journalist Achyutananda Sahu, who worked for the government-run broadcaster
Doordarshan, was killed in Chhattisgarh on October 30, 2018, during a firefight
between police and a Maoist militant group, according to news reports.

Chandan Tiwari

Aj Newspaper | Killed in Chatra, India | October 30, 2018

Chandan Tiwari, a local reporter with Hindi daily Aj in Jharkhand’s Chatra district, was
abducted and badly beaten on October 29, 2018. Police said the reporter was found
injured in a forest about 175 miles from Pathalgada, in Jharkhand. He succumbed to
his injuries the next day, according to NDTV.

Navin Nischal

Dainik Bhaskar | Killed in Arrah, India | March 25, 2018

Navin Nischal, a stringer for the Hindi-language daily, Dainik Bhaskar, was killed on
the evening of March 25, 2018, after an SUV ran him over in the town of Arrah in
India’s Bihar state.

Sandeep Sharma

News World | Killed in Ghazipur district, India | March 26, 2018

Sandeep Sharma, a reporter for the local News World television channel in Madhya
Pradesh state’s Bhind district, was killed on March 26, 2018. He was driving on his
motorbike to a government event when a truck veered into him and ran him over,
according to the channel’s bureau chief, Vikas Purohit, who witnessed the collision,
and a report by NDTV. Purohit told CPJ that he took Sharma to the local hospital
where the journalist was declared dead from injuries sustained in the crash.

Shujaat Bukhari

Rising Kashmir | Killed in Srinagar city, India | June 14, 2018

Several unidentified gunmen fired at Shujaat Bukhari, 50, outside his office as he was
leaving for an iftar party (the meal that breaks the Ramadan fast), according to media
reports. He suffered injuries to the head and abdomen, according to a report on
the Free Press Kashmir news website. Two police officers, who had been assigned to
protect him after an attack in 2000, were also fired at, the reports said. All three were
rushed to the Shri Maharaja Hari Singh hospital where they died, according
to newsreports. The Rising Kashmir office is located in Srinagar city’s Press Colony, a
high-security zone that houses other media organizations, according to a report in The
Telegraph newspaper.

India has lost a fearless journalist who risked his life, every day, every hour and every
minute.

Three journalists reported missing in 2018

The two journalists reported missing last year in Pakistan and Bangladesh are no longer
missing, but RSF registered three new disappearances in 2018 — two of them in the
Americas and one in Russia.

Jamal Khashoggi (Saudi Arabia)

Dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s murder inside the Saudi consulate in
Istanbul on 2 October sparked international outcry. Reported missing until the Saudi
authorities acknowledged his murder, Khashoggi was strangled and then dismembered,
according to Turkish authorities. The operation was reportedly carried out by a team
that was dispatched from Saudi Arabia for this express purpose and left immediately
afterwards. Living in self-imposed exile in the United States, Khashoggi had gone to
the consulate to get the papers he needed to marry his Turkish fiancée. His shocking
murder highlighted the appalling nature of the Saudi regime and Crown Prince
Mohammed bin Salman’s oppressive methods. More than 160 NGOs asked the UN
secretary-general to launch an independent international inquiry into Khashoggi’s
death.

“Nobody dares to speak” said Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi before his forced
disappearance

Yaser Murtaja and Ahmed Abu Hussein (Palestine)

Although clearly identified as a journalist, Yaser Murtaja, 30, was fatally shot by an
Israeli army sniper on 6 April while covering one of a series of “Great Return March”
demonstrations by Palestinians on the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel.
Another Palestinian journalist, Ahmed Abu Hussein, 25, was fatally shot while
covering a similar protest at the border two weeks later. Witnesses said he was in a
calm area 700 metres from the border when he was brought down by a clearly
deliberate shot.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is an international non-governmental, non-profit

organization with a recognized public interest function that has consultative status with
the United Nations, UNESCO, the Council of Europe, the International Organization of
the Francophonie and the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
Headquartered in Paris, it has bureaux, sections or representatives in 17 cities (Berlin,
Brussels, Geneva, Helsinki, Istanbul, Karachi, Kiev, London, Madrid, Mexico City,
Rio de Janeiro, San Francisco, Stockholm, Taipei, Tunis, Vienna and Washington),
correspondents in 130 countries and 15 local partner organizations.

Editorial: How many more journalists you want dead

- An Appeal to Honorable Chief Justice of India and Honorable Chairman

National Human Rights Commission

Immediately order for impartial inquiries into cases of murders

of journalists, assaults on journalists & threats to journalists.
Legally prosecute and punish public servants who bury the cases.

Jai Hind.

Edited, printed , published owned by NAGARAJA.M.R.

@ # LIG-2 No 761,
HUDCO FIRST STAGE , OPP WATER WORKS ,
LAXMIKANTANAGAR , HEBBAL
,MYSURU – 570017 KARNATAKA INDIA Cell : 91
8970318202
WhatsApp 91 8970318202

Home page :
http://eclarionofdalit.dalitonline.in/ ,
https://dalit-online.blogspot.com/

Contact : editor@dalitonline.in ,
editor.dalitonline@gmail.com