Journalists are accustomed to being woken up at odd hours, but it usually isn’t to the sound of shattering glass. Late on Monday night, when Tribune reporter Devinder Pal tried to figure out where the noise had come from, he found glass pieces all over his floor — as well as a cloth doused in petrol that was still burning.
Chandigarh can be a dangerous place, but this was no ordinary crime. Only that morning Pal’s newspaper had published the fourth piece of an investigative series by him looking into the web of companies controlled by the Badals, the family that runs Punjab’s government. A petrol bomb being lobbed into the house of the only journalist whose name appears on the reports could not have been a coincidence.
Pal quickly managed to put out the fire without too much damage, and then called the police. “It is absolutely shocking. One is very shaken,” Kanwar Sandhu, executive editor at the Tribune told Scroll.in. “Luckily he was alright, and the fire had been put out, but it is certainly shocking.”
It didn’t seem so to the police, however. Although two Home Guards jawans popped in to Pal’s house, it was only after a reporter and photographer visited the Sector 26 police station in Chandigarh that an investigating officer was sent to the scene of the crime. The following day, a press note from the Shiromani Akali Dal — the party that Pal has been investigating — condemned the attack, but this also didn’t seem entirely genuine.
“If you read the press note they put out carefully, you can see them talking about needing to get fingerprints and things like that, basically implying that we’ve stage-managed the incident,” Sandhu said.
Sadly, this is no isolated incident. While next-door neighbour Pakistan might be more famous for the oppressive environment under which journalists operate there, as a recent Amnesty International report makes clear, India’s own record on the issue is hardly one to be proud of.
Reporters without Borders ranks India 140 out of the 180 countries on its World Press Freedom index. Last year alone saw eight journalists killed in various parts of the country while an International News Safety Institute survey found India to be the second-most dangerous country for reporters.
A sampling of the incidents over the last few years reveals the dangers faced by journalists who operate outside the confines of the big cities.
Sai Reddy, a reporter for Deshbandhu, was beaten and stabbed to death in the Bastar region of Chhattisgarh. The attack was allegedly carried out by suspected Maoists, just five years after Reddy had been jailed by local authorities for sympathising with them.
Rakesh Sharma, who worked for Dainik Aaj, was shot and killed by unknown assailants on a motorcycle in Etawah, Uttar Pradesh, after writing about criminal groups in the region.
Tongam Rina, associate editor of the Arunachal Times who had taken on everyone from the corrupt bureaucracy to the pro-dam lobby, was shot and severely injured by gunmen in Itangar, Arunchal Pradesh.
Chandrika Rai, a stringer in Madhya Pradesh’s Umaria district, was found bludgeoned to death along with his wife, daughter and son after he angered the mining mafia with his reportage.
“Whenever journalists take on powerful people, whether it is governments or companies or mafias, this intimidation has been happening,” said Sachidananda Murthy, Resident Editor of The Week who is also a member of the Press Council of India. “It is increasing. The threats have become more frequent and mobs are willing to come after you… the thing is, in our society, people get away with such intimidation, because nobody is caught, or even if they are caught, prosecution takes years.”
The attacks aren’t always just about the individual, they also function as exemplary punishment, sending a message to other journalists who are thinking about taking on powerful individuals or organisations. While libel chill might be growing in India, physical intimidation and violence is much more effective at stamping out critical voices.
“I’ve been in journalism for over 35 years,” said Sandhu, “and I can see that gradually there are less and less people willing to question those in power. The press is far more vocal today, but they are less willing to question authority.”
Not everyone believes that things have got worse, though. Last year, Hindustan Times reporter Jasdeep Singh Malhotra was killed in an accident on the day his report on Punjab’s illegal sand mafia had appeared on the front-page of the newspaper. Initially, the paper believed that there might have been foul play, but after an inquiry and a government report, they concluded the car crash was just an accident.
“We were very keen to know if there was any mischief, but we didn’t find any foul play,” said Ramesh Vinayak, Resident Editor for the Hindustan Times. “There are incidents where those in power try to browbeat you, but to say that they would go to the extent of harming someone physically, I won’t be able to support that. I have been in Punjab for 27 years now, and we have done some of the toughest stories against the government, but to be very honest, I haven’t been threatened.”
Murthy, who said he has seen an increase in complaints coming in to the Press Council over the last few years, said that the industry — particularly its leadership in the big cities — rarely takes the issue as seriously as it should.
“The problem is really bad in smaller towns, but what happens is the media simply looks at it as an attack on one reporter or one organisation,” he said. “We have to keep writing, be vigilant and the media community should come together to see these as attacks on all of us; an attack on our basic freedoms.”
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Chandigarh can be a dangerous place, but this was no ordinary crime. Only that morning Pal’s newspaper had published the fourth piece of an investigative series by him looking into the web of companies controlled by the Badals, the family that runs Punjab’s government. A petrol bomb being lobbed into the house of the only journalist whose name appears on the reports could not have been a coincidence.
Pal quickly managed to put out the fire without too much damage, and then called the police. “It is absolutely shocking. One is very shaken,” Kanwar Sandhu, executive editor at the Tribune told Scroll.in. “Luckily he was alright, and the fire had been put out, but it is certainly shocking.”
It didn’t seem so to the police, however. Although two Home Guards jawans popped in to Pal’s house, it was only after a reporter and photographer visited the Sector 26 police station in Chandigarh that an investigating officer was sent to the scene of the crime. The following day, a press note from the Shiromani Akali Dal — the party that Pal has been investigating — condemned the attack, but this also didn’t seem entirely genuine.
“If you read the press note they put out carefully, you can see them talking about needing to get fingerprints and things like that, basically implying that we’ve stage-managed the incident,” Sandhu said.
Sadly, this is no isolated incident. While next-door neighbour Pakistan might be more famous for the oppressive environment under which journalists operate there, as a recent Amnesty International report makes clear, India’s own record on the issue is hardly one to be proud of.
Reporters without Borders ranks India 140 out of the 180 countries on its World Press Freedom index. Last year alone saw eight journalists killed in various parts of the country while an International News Safety Institute survey found India to be the second-most dangerous country for reporters.
A sampling of the incidents over the last few years reveals the dangers faced by journalists who operate outside the confines of the big cities.
Sai Reddy, a reporter for Deshbandhu, was beaten and stabbed to death in the Bastar region of Chhattisgarh. The attack was allegedly carried out by suspected Maoists, just five years after Reddy had been jailed by local authorities for sympathising with them.
Rakesh Sharma, who worked for Dainik Aaj, was shot and killed by unknown assailants on a motorcycle in Etawah, Uttar Pradesh, after writing about criminal groups in the region.
Tongam Rina, associate editor of the Arunachal Times who had taken on everyone from the corrupt bureaucracy to the pro-dam lobby, was shot and severely injured by gunmen in Itangar, Arunchal Pradesh.
Chandrika Rai, a stringer in Madhya Pradesh’s Umaria district, was found bludgeoned to death along with his wife, daughter and son after he angered the mining mafia with his reportage.
“Whenever journalists take on powerful people, whether it is governments or companies or mafias, this intimidation has been happening,” said Sachidananda Murthy, Resident Editor of The Week who is also a member of the Press Council of India. “It is increasing. The threats have become more frequent and mobs are willing to come after you… the thing is, in our society, people get away with such intimidation, because nobody is caught, or even if they are caught, prosecution takes years.”
The attacks aren’t always just about the individual, they also function as exemplary punishment, sending a message to other journalists who are thinking about taking on powerful individuals or organisations. While libel chill might be growing in India, physical intimidation and violence is much more effective at stamping out critical voices.
“I’ve been in journalism for over 35 years,” said Sandhu, “and I can see that gradually there are less and less people willing to question those in power. The press is far more vocal today, but they are less willing to question authority.”
Not everyone believes that things have got worse, though. Last year, Hindustan Times reporter Jasdeep Singh Malhotra was killed in an accident on the day his report on Punjab’s illegal sand mafia had appeared on the front-page of the newspaper. Initially, the paper believed that there might have been foul play, but after an inquiry and a government report, they concluded the car crash was just an accident.
“We were very keen to know if there was any mischief, but we didn’t find any foul play,” said Ramesh Vinayak, Resident Editor for the Hindustan Times. “There are incidents where those in power try to browbeat you, but to say that they would go to the extent of harming someone physically, I won’t be able to support that. I have been in Punjab for 27 years now, and we have done some of the toughest stories against the government, but to be very honest, I haven’t been threatened.”
Murthy, who said he has seen an increase in complaints coming in to the Press Council over the last few years, said that the industry — particularly its leadership in the big cities — rarely takes the issue as seriously as it should.
“The problem is really bad in smaller towns, but what happens is the media simply looks at it as an attack on one reporter or one organisation,” he said. “We have to keep writing, be vigilant and the media community should come together to see these as attacks on all of us; an attack on our basic freedoms.”
