Watchdog calls out India for failing to protect journalists

NEW DELHI: India is failing to help and protect journalists who are facing violent threats or attacks for their work, an international watchdog agency said Monday, noting a pattern of resistance in investigating crimes targeting reporters.

The Committee to Protect Journalists counted 27 journalists killed for their work since 1992, and noted that it was still investigating more than two dozen cases to determine whether those journalists’ deaths were also work-related. Most at risk are small-town journalists investigating corruption, rather than journalists in big cities like New Delhi or Mumbai.

The New York-based watchdog said in a report released on Monday that it could find only one case in 10 years in India in which a suspect was prosecuted and convicted for killing a journalist, but that the suspect was later released on appeal. “Perpetrators are seldom arrested,” said Sujata Madhok, a member of the watchdog. “The torturously slow Indian judicial system, together with corruption in the police force and the criminalisation of politics, makes it possible to literally get away with murder.”

The findings are supported by another report, released in 2015 by India’s own media watchdog, the Press Council of India. That report found that even though the country’s democratic institutions and independent judiciary were strong, people who killed journalists were getting away with impunity.