Committee Against Assault on Journalists

In an unexpected and abrupt manner BJP workers in Raipur party office Ekatm Parisar attacked a journalist on Saturday evening, snatched away his mobile camera and deleted the recordings of the ongoing party review meeting. After BJP's defeat in recently held assembly elections in Chhattisgarh, party had organised a review meeting in its Raipur head office that was being covered by many journalists. The meeting went out of track when party workers started sloganeering and infighting. A journalist with The Vice News Suman Pandey was recording the events as usual with his mobile camera. BJP workers spotted him and started pressurising him to delete the video. When the journo did not relent, they started beating him and snatched his camera. Pandey was injured in this clash. He got a severe cut on his forehead. Local journalists are infuriated at this episode. Pandey has lodged FIR with the local police naming three BJP leaders including BJP district president. Journalists ar...

Haldwani: A local court has ordered to lodge FIR in case of a journalist's death under suspicious circumstances last year. The order is yet to reach Kaladhungi P.S. under whose jurisdiction body of Devender Singh Patwal was found on January 1, 2018. Devender Patwal was Bureau Head of TV100 in Uttarakhand, He was found dead last year under suspicious circumstances. After more than six months of his death, no FIR was registered although many organisations and his family had repeatedly tried for it. Mother of slained journo Ms. Ganga Devi had approached some associates of CAAJ after which a senior advocate of Dehi High Court Anand Mishra took up this case and filed a fresh writ petition in Nainital HC. This case was raised in the National Convention Against Assault on Journalists by CAAJ last September where Ganga Devi put up her testimony in session presided over by Senior Advocate Sanjay Parikh. Now after full one year, the court has ordered to lodge an FIR in this...

CAAJ invites you to a seminar on the need of a Journalis Safety Act in the states of Haryana and Punjab. As you must be knowing, Chhatrapati Ram Chander, the martyred Editor of newspaper Poora Sach has got justice after 17 years of legal battle and the accused Baba Ram Rahim has been convicted to life sentence for his murder. It is unfortunate that the open and shut case like this takes around two decades to reach its logical and legal conclusion. This reflects badly on the plight of journalists' safety and demands for an Act on the line of Maharashtra and a proposed act in Chattisgarh. In the memory of Chhatrapati Ram Chander, some journalists from these two states plus Delhi will congregate in the premises of Punjab University, Chandigarh to deliberate upon the issue,

January 15:  This statement is in condemnation of the judicial harassment being meted out to senior Assamese Editor Mr. Manjit Mahanta, Sahitya Academy Awardee writer Hiren Gohain and farmers' leader Akhil Gogoi in a case of Sedition slapped upon them for participation in a peaceful protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill in Guwahati. On January 9, 2019, Latasil police registered a case against o ne of Assam's prominent scholar and intellectual Hiren Gohain ,  Akhil Gogoi, President of the Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS)  and Manjit Mahanta, Convenor of the Forum against Citizenship Act Amendment Bill, under Sections 120(B) (“punishment of criminal conspiracy”), 121 (“ waging or attempting to wage war, or abetting waging of war, against the Government”) , 123 (“ concealing with intent to facilitate design to wage war”) , and 124(A) (“sedition”) of the Indian Penal Code. On January 11, 2019,  the Guwahati High Court granted bail to Mr. ...

New Delhi 13.01.19 A review and follow-up meeting of CAAJ was held in the Press Club of India, New Delhi on Saturday January 12th, 2018. It was attended by representatives from Delhi NCR, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana. After the successful National Convention Against Assault on Journalists organised in September 2018, this was the first formal meeting of CAAJ constituents where the following agenda was put up for discussion: a) Moving forward with expansion process of CAAJ (membership mechanism etc.) b) A Convention in Raipur for mobilisation in favor of Journalist Security Act, Chhattisgarh, around third week of January. c) Institutionalisation of CAAJ through state level meetings, state coordination committees etc. d) Maintenance of blog, social media accounts and a rapid response team. e) Meeting of CAAJ constituents. f) Other miscellaneous issues that arise out of discussion.  CAAJ core team was involved in the production of a booklet in English...

National Herald / October 05, 2018 Saurabh Agarwal, a Chhattisgarh journalist—who first demanded euthanasia and then attempted suicide on Thursday—narrates the story of his harassment by the state Bharatiya Janata Party government A Chhattisgarh based journalist Saurabh Agarwal tried to kill himself on Thursday, accusing Chief Minister Raman Singh and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Vijay Agarwal of harassment. Before consuming poison, Agarwal--who runs a local Hindi newspaper,  Dainik Syahi,  recorded his video statement and shared it on the social media. As per the information provided by a friend of the scribe, who wished to remain anonymous, Agarwal tried to kill himself by drinking poison in front of the district court, Raigarh. He was rushed to a nearby hospital where his condition remains critical, told his friend. “Saurabh approached the district court demanding euthanasia,” told his friend. His friend told  NH  that Saurabh was slapp...

Without giving any reason, Facebook has disabled personal accounts of editors of news website Caravandaily . The website highlights issues of religious minorities and marginalised groups in India and publishes critical stories on issues of national importance and current politics.

NEW DELHI:  The BJP government in Tripura has used a technicality to shut down the pro-Left Bengali daily Daily Desher Katha, evoking a strong reaction from the media. The Editors Guild described the decision as a draconian step to restrict the freedom of the media, and urged the state government to revoke the decision.