Guwahati: Casualties among the media fraternity because of Covid-19
complications across India start kicking as now almost every alternate
day the country is losing a media person to the novel corona virus
infections. The last three media corona casualties even reported
within four days, said Journalists’ Forum Assam (JFA) urging every
scribe to be cautious while reporting from the ground.
Latest report surfaced from Nellore locality of Andhra Pradesh, where
journalist Narayanam Seshacharyulu (56) died of Covid-19 on 3
September 2020. Associated with prestigious Telugu daily Eenadu,
Seshacharyulu was hospitalized in Tirupati few days back after testing
positive for the virus infection. He worked in different localities
like Chittoor, Muttukuru, Guntur, Hyderabad and lately West Godavari.
Seshacharyulu left behind his wife and a son with other relatives.
A day back, Pune (Maharashtra) based television reporter Pandurang
Raikar (42) succumbed to Covid-complications in a Ahmednagar town
hospital. Raikar, who worked for TV9 news channel, tested positive
in the antigen test and he was hospitalized. However, his family
members alleged of delayed treatment by the hospital authority.
Raikar left behind his wife, two kids and a host of relatives.
Earlier, another television journalist Neelanshu Shukla (30) from
Kanpur (Uttar Pradesh) died of corona infections. Shukla, who was
associated with AajTak, tested positive for Covid-19 few days back and
died on 31 August in the hospital. A bachelor Shukla also worked for
NDTV and Republic TV as a Lucknow correspondent.
Weeks back, Maharashtra’s veteran journalist Ashok Churi, who edited
Marathi weekly PalgharTimes, died at a Palghar based hospital, who
later tested positive for Covid-19. The printer-publisher of
AsomiyaKhabar (Rantu Das) also died at a Guwahati hospital, who
tested positive for the virus infection. New Delhi based scribe Tarun
Sisodia killed himself undergoing treatment at AIIMS.
Patiala (Punjab) based photojournalist Jai Deep, Tirupati (Andhra
Pradesh) based television reporter Madhusudan Reddy & video journalist
M Parthasarathy, Chennai (Tamil Nadu) based television reporter
Ramanathan and Orissa’s journalists namely Simanchal Panda, K Ch
Ratnam & Priyadarshi Patnaik, Chennai based news videographer E
Velmurugan, Chandigarh based news presenter Davinder Pal Singh,
Hyderabad (Andhra Pradesh) based television scribe Manoj Kumar, Agra
(UP) based journalist Pankaj Kulashrestha and Kolkata (West Bengal)
based photojournalist Ronny Roy also lost their battles against the
virus.
JFA president Rupam Barua and secretary Nava Thakuria, in a media
statement, appreciated all media persons for relentlessly playing the
role of corona warriors along with the practicing doctors, nurses,
sanitation workers and police personnel in the pandemic. The forum
also urged the Union government in New Delhi to announce a
comprehensive insurance package for the media corona warriors.
However, the forum expressed anguish that even though over one hundred
scribes across Assam got infected with the virus, the worrisome
development has not been reported properly by the concerned news
papers, news channels and digital platforms (except few infected
media persons made personal revelations in the social media). It
appreciated that Eenadu has owned the pain and pride while reporting
the demise of Seshacharyulu fighting the virus infections.
