New Delhi : Punish the culprits of J. Dey by setting up of fast track court : Condemning the brutal attacks on journalists in different parts of the country including the recent killing of senior journalist of Mumbai Mid Day J. Day in strong words, hundreds of journalists under the banner of National Union of Journalists (India) and Delhi Journalist Association today staged a dharna at Jantar-Mantar and demanded immediate enactment of a Journalist Protection Act.
The agitated journalists also demanded that investigation of the attacks on journalists should be carried out by senior police officers equal to SP or ACP and the culprits must sternly be punished by setting up of fast track courts. After the dharna, a memorandum was presented to President of India Smt Pratibha Patil.
The dharna was attended by senior journalists including NUJ (I) secretary general Ras Bihari, Delhi Journalist Association president Manoj Verma, NUJ treasurer Manohar Singh, vice president Subhash Nigam, former NUJ (I) president NK Trikha, veteran journalist Rajendra Prabhu, Aurabindo Ghose, MD Gangawar, Vinay Rai (Zee News), Dinesh Sharma (Punjab Kesari), Ravindra Singh (ETV), Anshuman Tewari, Ramnarayan Srivastava, Rajkishore, Rajsekhar Singh, Nitin Pradhan (all from Dainik Jagran), Kumar Gajendra Chauhan (president, Crime Reporter Association), Satendra Tripathi, Keval Tewari, Ajay Pandey (all from Nai Dunia), Pramod Saini (DJA secretary) and many others.
NUJ (I) secretary general Ras Bihari urged the Union Home Minister P Chidambaram to ensure an adequate security cover to the journalists covering the life-threatening events. Demanding the enactment of a national security Act, he said the proposed Act should ensure that the attack on journalists should be registered as non-bailable office and at least a Magisterial enquiry is conducted in every case. “Such an Act would go a long way to improve security of the working journalists. It would also at least ensure that no attack on a working journalist who is discharging his duty as a recognised representative of the Press, is suppressed or allowed to be ignored,” he said.
Delhi Journalist Association president Manoj Verma said the broad daylight killing of investigative journalist J. Dey in Mumbai on June 11 highlighted the continuing threat to working journalists. “This is not an isolated instance either. In Maharashtra alone, over 180 attacks on working journalists have been reported in recent past. There are instances of even harassing and killing the family members of the journalists, which must stop forthwith,” he said demanding crackdown of the unholy nexus of some politicians and the mafias.
