India
Violence, threats plague Indian journalistsPosted Mar 5 2010
This month, Reporters Without Borders recorded 13 cases of abuse committed by the Indian police force against journalists.
The organization is calling for the punishment of offending police officers. The following is a timeline of the reported incidents.
- Feb. 3: A senior member of the Central Reserve Police assaulted and threatened magazine reporter Pervez Majeed after Majeed saw the police use physical force on children. Majeed reported the abuse to the police chief, who promised an investigation.
- Feb. 6: Vishwavijay Azad and Seema Azad were arrested in Uttar Pradesh under police allegations that they belong to an illegal Maoist movement. The Azads founded Dastak Nai Samay Ki, a Hindu magazine.
- Feb. 13: A television reporter for Kannada TV station was beaten by officers and detained for two hours in a Mangalore police station.
- Feb. 14-15: An elite police force called the Greyhounds beat six journalists and attacked vehicles during a pro-separatist protest at Osmania University in Hyderabad.
- Feb. 22: During a peaceful separatist demonstration in Srinagar, police injured Kashmir Times photographer Imran Ali by firing a grenade filled with tear gas at him. At the same protest, police used physical violence against Umar Ganai, a PTI news agency and Kashmir Monitor photographer, and S. Tariq, a cameraman for NDTV.