Open letter to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi by former civil servants on covid crisis in India

Dear Prime Minister,

We, a group of former civil servants from the All India and Central Services, with a deep commitment to the Constitution of India and with no political affiliations, have written to you as well as other constitutional authorities on a number of occasions in the past, whenever we felt that executive actions violated the provisions of the Constitution.

Today, in the midst of the Covid pandemic and the suffering that has engulfed the people of our country, we write to you in anguish as well as in anger. We are aware that this pandemic threatens the entire world and is not going to leave the citizens of India untouched. And yet, what numbs our senses daily is not just the cries of the citizenry for medical assistance and the death toll in its thousands but the manifestly casual attitude of your government to the magnitude of the crisis and its implications for the mental and physical health of the community of Indians.

The steady erosion of the Cabinet system of governance, the worsening of federal relationships with the states, especially those governed by parties opposed to the party ruling at the centre, the lack of informed consultation with experts and Parliamentary committees, the failure to take the timely advice of expert committees and the absence of effective coordination with state governments have had disastrous consequences for the poor and disadvantaged and now for the better off sections of society as well.

Despite warnings from the international community and our own scientists, the breathing space between the first and the second waves was not used to augment critical resources such as medical staff, hospital beds, oxygen supplies, ventilators and drugs and other medical supplies. Even more inexcusably, no advance planning was done to secure adequate stocks of vaccines, despite India being one of the major vaccine suppliers to the world.

The complacency displayed by you and your ministerial colleagues at various forums not only diverted attention from the looming threat but probably also contributed to both state governments and citizens letting down their guard at a crucial juncture. As a result, your Atmanirbhar Bharat is today compelled to seek the help of the outside world to lessen the agony inflicted on its own people by your government.

Right from the outset of the pandemic in March 2020, your government has never systematically assessed the funds that state governments would need to tackle the pandemic. The PM-CARES fund was set up when there was already a Prime Minister National Relief Fund in place. No disclosures have been made regarding the funds collected and the expenditures on various items. This fund attracted to itself moneys which would otherwise have gone from corporates and the public to the various CM Relief Funds and to NGOs.

Your government has not been prompt in paying outstanding GST dues to the states, which could have helped them defray Covid care expenses. At the same time, your government has incurred unnecessary expenditure on the Central Vista redevelopment project; these funds could well have been more gainfully used to tackle the crisis. On top of this, the harsh restrictions imposed on NGOs, especially those obtaining foreign contributions, have hampered their efforts in providing relief during the pandemic.

While the holding of elections to the legislative assemblies of four states and one union territory may have been unavoidable, you, Mr. Prime Minister, and your party functionaries threw all caution to the winds by conducting huge public rallies in different states, when a restrained campaign by your party would have served as a salutary example to other political parties.

The Kumbh Mela at Haridwar was conducted with scant regard for Covid safety regulations. With two such “super spreader” events taking place just when the second surge of the virus was becoming a major threat, we are now witnessing the horrifying spectacle of the rampant spread of the Covid virus across the rural hinterland of the country.

Your government seems to be more concerned with managing the narrative of “efficient” management of the Covid crisis rather than addressing the crucial issues at stake. Even authentic data on the testing carried out in different states, the number of positive cases, the number of persons hospitalised and mortality figures have not been publicly disseminated. This has had serious implications for the adequate provision of necessary medical facilities in different states as well as for devising appropriate measures in different states to control the spread of the pandemic.

We urge the Government of India to take the following actions immediately:

● Provide for free, universal vaccination to all citizens of India. Government of India must centralize the procurement of vaccines from all available sources and supply them to state governments and all other implementing agencies.

● Coordinate effectively with state governments to ensure the adequacy of oxygen facilities, essential lifesaving drugs and equipment and hospital beds in all States of the country.

● Greatly ramp up RT-PCR testing in both rural and urban areas.

● Make adequate funds available to the States for provision of medical facilities and stop expenditures on non-essential items like the Central Vista redevelopment project.

● Draw on the existing surplus foodgrain stocks to provide free rations to the families of the marginalised and deprived sections of society as well as unorganised labour who have lost their employment opportunities until the ferocity of the pandemic and the hunger and livelihood crisis abates.

● Fully provide, in consultation with state governments, for existing nutrition schemes for school going children and supplementary nutrition for mothers and children in the pre-school age groups.

● Provide a monthly income support for the current financial year to the needy sections of society to enable them to meet contingent expenses and unforeseen emergencies. Economists have recommended Rs 7000 per month per household, equivalent to minimum wages.

● Immediately remove the FCRA restrictions imposed on NGOs so that they can avail of funds provided by foreign governments and charities for Covid management and other related activities.

● Place all data in the public domain and ensure that evidence-based policy measures are implemented.

● Constitute an all-party committee at the central level to advise on and review all government decisions and monitor the control of the pandemic in different areas of the country.

While the above constitute actions to be taken at the politico-administrative level, the most important action relates to building up the confidence and morale of a population hard hit by the loss of their near and dear ones. Compassion and caring have to be the cornerstones of government policy. History will judge our society, your government and, above all, you personally, on how effectively we handle this crisis.

TRP Scam India: Mumbai police summon Republic TV's executive editor and journalist

Mumbai: The Mumbai Police on Tuesday issued a summons to Republic TV's executive editor and a journalist working with the channel in connection with the fake TRP racket it is probing, an official said.

Niranjan Narayanaswamy, executive editor - news, and journalist Abhishek Kapoor have been summoned by the Crime Intelligence Unit (CIU) at 12 noon on Wednesday, he said. On October 10, Republic TV had aired a document, which purportedly belonged to Hansa Research Group and "there are reasonable grounds to believe that the summoned persons are acquainted with certain facts and circumstances of the document and same is required to be ascertained from them", the summons said.

The CIU on Tuesday recorded statements of Pravin Nizar and Nitin Deokar of Hansa agency. The Special Investigation Team of the Crime Branch also visited the office of BARC and made enquiries with some officials including its scientific and technology officer, the police official said.

Vinay Tripathi, arrested by the CIU in the case, has been brought to the city on transit remand and four other accused who were arrested earlier in the case have been sent in police custody till October 16, he said. 

The fake TRP scam came to light when ratings agency Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) filed a complaint through Hansa Research Group, alleging that certain television channels were rigging TRP numbers. Hansa is one of BARC's vendors on engagement with panel homes or people's meters.

Last week, Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh had claimed that Republic TV and two Marathi channels -- Box Cinema and Fakt Marathi -- manipulated TRP. Republic TV rubbished Singh's claims.

Caught on Camera: CNN Reporter gets interrupted by raccoon just before live broadcast

A CNN reporter was just about to go live on television when he was interrupted by a racoon outside the White House.

The encounter, which was caught on camera on Tuesday and was shared widely on social media shows CNN senior Washington correspondent Joe Johns shouting “get lost” and throwing something before he turns back to face the camera. According to a CNN report, Johns was seconds away from going live to provide an update on the president’s health when he spotted the raccoon.

His colleague Omar Jimenez who shared the video on Twitter captioned, “Protector of the night. The hero we deserve. Joe. Johns. The raccoons never stood a chance.” The video has received over 1.9 million views and 5.4k likes as netizens hail Johns’ racoon fighting skills.

Protector of the night.
The hero we deserve.
Joe. Johns.

The raccoons never stood a chance. @joejohnscnn pic.twitter.com/ImyBjZXw42

— Omar Jimenez (@OmarJimenez) October 7, 2020

Some users are also asking if they could avail Johns services and get rid of the racoons at their locality. “Like a bouncer at a night club!” said one user, she further said, “Joe, Can you stop by and get rid of our racoons when you're done there? I like your style!” While another Twitter user said this might be President Donald Trump’s way of attacking the media who have been critical of his administration.

Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict: 4 journalists injured in Nagorno-Karabakh fighting

Yerevan: Two French and two Armenian journalists were injured Thursday in the South Caucasus separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh, where heavy fighting between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces this week marked the biggest escalation in years of a decades-old conflict.

The two Le Monde reporters were wounded in morning shelling in the town of Martuni, the newspaper said. Armenia’s Foreign Ministry said they were being taken to hospital, and accused Azerbaijan of bombarding the Martuni region. A cameraman with the Armenia TV channel and a reporter with the Armenian 24News outlet also sustained injuries in the Martuni shelling, Armenian officials said. It was unclear how badly the four journalists were hurt. A Russian journalist with the independent Dozhd TV channel was reported to have safely reached a bomb shelter.

Clashes in Nagorno-Karabakh, a region within Azerbaijan that has been controlled by ethnic Armenian forces backed by the Armenian government since the end of a separatist war a quarter-century ago, broke out on Sunday and continued unchecked, killing dozens and leaving scores wounded. Armenian and Azerbaijani forces have been blaming each other for continuing attacks.

The two ex-Soviet nations have been locked for decades in a conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, where a separatist war was fought in the early 1990s, ending in 1994, three years after the breakup of the Soviet Union. The 4,400-square-kilometer (1,700-square-mile) enclave in the Caucasus Mountains, roughly the size of the U.S. state of Delaware, lies 50 kilometers (30 miles) from the Armenian border.

Soldiers backed by Armenia occupy the region as well as some Azerbaijani territory outside of it. The president of Azerbaijan said Armenia’s withdrawal from Nagorno-Karabakh was the sole condition to end the fighting. Armenian officials claim Turkey has become involved in the conflict, allegedly sending fighters from Syria to the region and deploying Turkish F-16 fighter jets to assist Azerbaijnai forces.

Turkey has publicly supported Azerbaijan in the conflict and said it would provide assistance if requested, but denies sending in foreign mercenaries or arms. Continued fighting in the turbulent region prompted calls for a cease-fire from around the globe and raised concerns of a broader conflict potentially involving other regional powers.

French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday has expressed concern about Turkey allegedly sending Syrian mercenaries to support Azerbaijan. Macron’s office said in a statement Thursday that he and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the issue in a phone call Wednesday night, and both share concern about the sending of Syrian mercenaries by Turkey to Nagorno-Karabakh.” Macron’s office did not provide further information about the mercenaries.

The Russian Foreign Ministry on Wednesday expressed concerns over reports about “militants from illegal armed groups, in particular from Syria, Libya” being sent to the conflict zone in Nagorno-Karabakh. The ministry didn’t provide further details, but in a statement urged the “leadership of the states concerned to take effective measures to prevent the use of foreign terrorists and mercenaries in the conflict”.

Macron said he and Putin called for restraint and agreed upon the need for a joint effort toward a cease-fire, as part of international mediation efforts for Nagorno-Karabakh led by Russia, France and the U.S. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Thursday refused to comment on Turkey’s alleged involvement in the conflict, but said that “any statements about military support for one of the (opposing) sides” can provoke further escalation of tensions in the region.

“We believe that any participation of third countries in this confrontation can also have extremely negative consequences,” Peskov told reporters.

IJNet: Journalist of the month- independent multimedia reporter Ahmer Khan, 28 years old

At 28 years old, independent multimedia journalist Ahmer Khan has already been nominated for an Emmy for his work alongside a team of reporters on the film “India Burning.” The film, which is part of a series produced by VICE News and Showtime, spotlights the rise of Hindu nationalism in the country. 

Khan was born and raised in Kashmir, a disputed territory between India and Pakistan. He has been reporting since 2013, when he was still in high school. Since then, Khan has worked on projects for various publications including The New York Times, The Guardian, Radio France Internationale, Time, Buzzfeed and the Los Angeles Times covering conflicts, human rights and natural disasters.

“From natural disasters and humanitarian crises, to human rights, I have done it all. But I'm sure there’s still a long road ahead because I'm only 28,” reflected Khan. 

In 2019, Khan won the Agence France Presse Kate Webb Prize honoring journalists working in difficult conditions in Asia. He also won the 2018 Lorenzo Natali Media Prize after discovering the contest on IJNet. 

Also through IJNet, Khan took part in the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma at Columbia University’s annual four-day crisis zone reporting course. During the program, 16 freelance journalists received training on risk assessment, digital security and emergency first aid to prepare them for reporting in hostile environments. 

We spoke to Khan about his career as a young freelance journalist and his experiences reporting throughout Asia. 

IJNet: How did you begin working as a journalist?

Khan: I was 18-years-old in 2010 and, being from Kashmir, I saw public protests begin happening for the first time. Before this I had only heard about the militancy or public unrest in the 90s, in the early days of my life because I was born ‘92. I started my journey when I was in high school, and in college I did freelance work. [It] started with Al-Jazeera in 2014, and then there was no turning back. In my first year of college I went to Nepal to cover the 2015 earthquake that killed more than 10,000 people over there for VICE News. 

I think the reason I went into journalism was because I saw a lot of trouble in my region in Kashmir, which prompted me to do some sort of reporting to report the truth from our region. I have always worked with international media, which is not as biased as national media in India, and I wanted to be a part of truthful and accurate journalism.

Has growing up in Kashmir affected your work reporting on conflicts?

Having a conflict at home, in your backyard, you tend to learn the trade tricks and what to be aware of. I’ve carried that with me into all my reporting. I've traveled across South Asia to report on other countries, for example, the Rohingya crisis, the crisis in Sri Lanka or Nepal and in mainland India. 

I also need to work on a lot of other stories which are unfolding in front of our eyes because South Asia is rapidly changing in every country right now.

Have any particular stories uniquely impacted you or your work?

I think the crisis which unfolded last August in Kashmir really impacted Kashmiri journalists in the sense that a lot of things have changed for journalists in Kashmir. For example, there's a Kashmiri journalist who was rounded up by police and then assaulted and slapped twice in the police station in the main city of Kashmir.

Because our work had become so restricted, I was traveling in 2019 between Kashmir and Delhi to get information and just to use internet connection because we had no internet at that time for several months. The government set up a small media center in Kashmir for the journalists to use, but there were hundreds of journalists and only four computers — state surveilled computers — allowed for us to use. I decided not to use them and I went to Delhi at least 16 times in the first two weeks. I used to come in the morning and go back in the evening, but we had to wrap up everything by four o'clock in the evening and then take a five o'clock flight because the airport security is a big hassle. It takes hours for us to get through the security check in Kashmir. That was really hard, but my work was awarded a couple of times earlier this year, including by AFP, which really brought me happiness. 

What advice would you offer young independent journalists?

I've always said one thing: “If you're really good, or if the story is really good, it will be sold out no matter who you are or where you are.” 

Editors are always out looking for good stories. Obviously, budget cuts have happened recently, but that's everywhere, not in one part of the world. I think young journalists around the world need to understand that they don't need to think so much about their limitations and instead should think more about their work. Obviously there's a lot of competition out there, but if you believe in yourself, if you believe in your story and if the story is original and you touch the human part of it — because every story has a human part to whether it’s culture, sports, economics, human rights or conflict — I'm really confident that you'll be able to sell your story. 

There's a lot of cutthroat competition out there, there is no denying that, but if you do good stories, I think you’ll go far. courtesy: IJNet

Sexual harassment at workplace: Former journalist of India Today Group, Rukmini Sen explained on social media

➤Rukmini Sen

Year 2012-2013. For one and a half years  India Today group and I exchanged numerous mails about formation of a proper sexual harassment committee so that I could present my case against Mr Supriya Prasad. 

Rukmini Sen, Second from left. Photo FB

Aroon Purie/Kalie Purie/ India Today group didn't take any action  in my sexual harassment case for a year.  They delayed the process of justice. India Today Group/Aroon Purie/ Kalie Purie haven't  done anything since then ie for last six years. It took India Today Group one whole year to form  a sexual harassment committee of sorts. However, this new SHC  didn't have the mandatory external member in it (who was supposed to be either well known in the field of law or women's movement).

I insisted that I must be called in front of a proper sexual harassment committee and that my work place owed it to me. I also refused to present my case in front of a half baked SHC. After a year and a half of my pursuing the case with the legal and HR team of India Today and my repeated refusal to present my case in front of a committee that didn't have the mandatory external member the fake committee sent me a mail that they had decided that Supriya Prasad (male Boss) was innocent because among some other vague reasons apparently I knew him from before...whatever that meant.

I read the survivor  account of PHANTOM FILMS case. I have followed closely the Tarun Tejpal case also. I have learnt a lot  from these survivor stories. I have understood yet again how my professional and personal life suffered because of that one complain and my public protest (without which India Today would not have taken any cognizance of the matter). Its been hard to accept that I have suffered in anyway. I have always believed and rightly so that I have been super lucky with support

One of my mentors  was generous enough to offer me a job when I requested him for one in 2013.  I have never been without work because of my thousand  other friends for last four years.

I have also not been without work because I shamelessly ask for work. I ask for work like someone craving for an internship would . I have never been ashamed of labour. I am a worker and I need work. And yet I must confess that I have lost out monetarily. I have lost out on seniority at work. I am seen as a trouble maker by some because of that one complain and may be because of my larger feminist politics and my acute discomfort with sexism. However, it's been twenty three years of being a professional now. I have re-strategized my work life because partly I have had to and partly because I felt there were better ways of living my life. I have equipped myself with new skills.

My morning mantra is simple - I was 21 when I left Lucknow for work. If I could survive then I will thrive now. And no fucking ex Boss can stop me from that. I am aware of my privileges. A middle class upbringing. A Professor mother. A rock solid and doting father. A feminist younger brother. A bunch of cousins and friends who are  fiercely committed to my well being .

In spite of all that the loneliness of being sidelined from the work that I loved for 18 long years is something I still find challenging to deal with. There are days when I wonder whether I should have just made a polite exit. It hurts me like hell when I get to know how some of my favourite  mentors and friends engage with my harasser...take him out for friendly dinners. I should be angry. Very angry. I should be disappointed.  I, however,  feel utterly confused and hesitantly sad.  Is this my internalised misogyny? Is this my lack of self worth I wonder!! Why is sexual harassment not processed  as structural violence by some of the smartest people in media? 

I would have taken Supriya Prasad to court but I picked up my battle carefully. My father had suffered a brain hamorrage in 2012. He had suffered multiple strokes before that. From 2013-2016 (till he lived) he had to go to hospital every month for blood transfusion as he suffered from internal bleeding. I chose my father's health over my self respect. Life is not a social construct. 

I am aware that because of me India Today group has a sexual harassment committee today. I also know that my complaint is still a complaint.

I am absolutely sure that it makes Supriya Prasad anxious when he wants to lay his hand on any woman, kiss her (which he did with an India Today professional earlier. He was asked to resign that time) or generally humiliate a female colleague with sexist and misogynist comments. Every complaint acts as a deterrent. I have no doubt that mine must have done its bit.

Lastly, if tomorrow any woman is harassed by Supriya Prasad again and she wants me to testify with my case I promise to be the first in the line. In fact I have never walked away from the line. The system failed me.

I will be happy to also discuss how Mr Aroon Purie and Kalie Purie are complicit in playing with the well being of their women professionals. There is no point holding India Today Conclave year after year, discussing violence against women but not identifying sexual harassment at work place as systemic violence.  

I will also not say I was touched, kissed or fondled by Supriya Prasad. Because I wasn't. I was subjected to verbal sexism of worst order. That is part of rape culture. Sexist jokes, sexist insults , sexist outbursts, sexist sidelining at professional space are unacceptable and serious harassment. It has harmed my well being and harms the well being of thousands like me.

I wrote about this extensively on Facebook in 2012. I am writing about it again. And yes as I have said earlier I did file a complain with the Sexual Harassment Committee of India Today. The ball is in their court.

Corona crisis and increasing work pressure are putting journalist's lives in danger

Indore, Madhya Pradesh: In the tension of work in the 70-year-old newspaper of the state, a senior journalist was killed yesterday. Employees are being exploited in newspapers due to the corona period. 

Many employees have been chased away in the old newspaper Naidunia due to this. This has increased the work pressure on survivors. Management and editor are pressuring to work from remaining colleagues. In such a case, a senior journalist was killed.

When output head Ujjwal Shukla asked Piyush Dixit to watch two editions together, Piyush Dixit said it is not possible to get so much work done at once. There was a debate between Piyush and Ujjwal Shukla regarding this. After some time, Piyush's blood pressure increased to a dangerous level. The colleagues lay Piyush on the sofa of the office and Kapish Dubey and Sameer Deshpande started massage Piyush's hands and feet. 

Meanwhile, all the physical activities of Piyush stopped suddenly and he also put his neck aside. Meanwhile, senior companion Ramnath Mutkule suddenly made pressure on his chest with hands, due to which his breath returned. After this, Piyush was taken to hospital and admitted. Work tension and pressure has now become on the lives of journalists. 

Last days old partner of Naidunia Marketing Mh. Iqbal had suddenly died. They came to office a day ago. It is said that they were being pressured for bringing political advertisements. Friends say they were in great stress over this. However, Piyush Dixit's health is fine. Everyone praised the efforts of fellow Ramnath Mutkule. While going to hospital, Piyush started crying and told his colleagues that he has small children and wife. He was more worried about his family not his life.

USA: Trump admin proposes new rules to cut stay of foreign students and journalists

Washington, US: The Trump administration has proposed a new rule to limit to four years the period of stay for non-immigrant international students and foreign media representatives.

It plans to cut the duration further to two years for those from certain countries under the F, J and I category visas, used for students, exchange visitors and media representatives, respectively. Foreigners on these visas can currently stay for “duration of status”, or the period of course in case of students, and employment in case of media representatives. This applies also to the dependents of principal visa holders.

The proposed rule, published by the department of homeland security, will be open for comments for 30 days. But it was not clear when it will go into effect. President Donald Trump has only a few months to finalise the rule by January 2021, and longer if he is re-elected.

If he loses the November 3 election to Joe Biden, the Democrat will be under no obligation to implement it. The duration of stay can be extended either by filing for extension with the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) or by going back to their countries of origin for fresh visas.

The two-year rule will apply to people from countries that are either on state department’s list of state sponsors of terrorism or who have an overstay rate of over 10%. “The significant increase in the volume of F academic students, J exchange visitors, and I foreign information media representatives poses a challenge to the Department’s ability to monitor and oversee these categories of non-immigrants while they are in the United States,” the notice said.

The department added it is “concerned about the integrity of the programmes and a potential for increased risk to national security” from people on these visas.There are an estimated 200,000 Indian students in the US, which has admitted an estimated 1 million international students every year. Together, they have generated around $41 billion’s worth of economic activity and supported 450,000 jobs, according to the American Council on Education, which represents US colleges and universities. Incomes generated from foreign students are critical to the financial health of many US colleges.

Pakistan: FIA registered cases against 49 media persons & social media activists under the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act

Islamabad, Pakistan: “Biggest crackdown against journalists & social media activists to date in Pakistan. FIA register cases against 49 journalists & social media activists under PECA. 

Names include Umar Cheema, Azaz Syed, Murtaza solang, Ammar masood, Asad A Toor, Bilalfqi etc,” Mubashir Zaidi tweeted on Thursday night. Zaidi, who hosts the popular talk show, Zara Hat Kay, didn’t give more details. Journalist bodies have condemned the move and have demanded that the cases be withdrawn. The Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists in a tweet vowed to hold countrywide protests if the government didn’t withdraw the cases.

In a statement, the FIA said the agency has received complaints against 49 social media activists from a few complainants with evidence. “Cases have been registered against these activists and the FIA is issuing notices to these activists shortly,” the agency said. The FIA said strict action was likely to be taken against the individuals based on evidence that would be found to be detrimental to state institutions, especially the country’s security forces.

In a tweet after the FIA’s announcement, Murtaza Solangi, one of the journalists charged, said he would continue to fight for constitutionally guaranteed freedoms. “We shall not bow before fascist thuggery,” he tweeted, adding, “We shall not surrender our fundamental rights.”

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) condemned the FIA’s move, tweeting, “The HRCP is alarmed by the news in circulation that the FIA is registering cases against 49 journalists and social media activists under PECA regulations. We demand that the state refrain from such action and stop using the FIA to curb political dissent.”

A fortnight ago, global monitor Human Rights Watch (HRW) had stated in a report critical of the government that a week prior to that, Prime Minister Imran Khan had “asserted there is no media crackdown in Pakistan, and that he and his government are far more unprotected than the media”.

Kashmir-based journalist allegedly beaten and abused at police station for writing a news report accusing the cops

Srinagar, J&K: A journalist, who was summoned by cyber police over his article on alleged intimidation of Twitter users by police, has alleged that he was slapped at the police station and that the SP verbally abused his family.

Auqib Javeed, a Kashmir-based journalist, was summoned on September 18 after his story was published in Article 14, an online portal. In a statement, the Cyber Police Station denied that Javeed was beaten and intimidated. SP Tahir Ashraf Bhatti said the police have already issued a statement. IGP Kashmir Vijay Kumar told The Indian Express that “he would personally look into it”

Javeed, an executive member of Kashmir Press Club (KPC), went to the police on September 19 along with two KPC executives. There, he said, he was slapped by a masked policeman. Javeed alleged that SP Bhatti abused him. “He started abusing my mother and sister… He said I had maligned the image of cyber police.”

The police now admit the only thing wrong with the story @AuqibJaveed's wrote for us was that we ran a photo of the old cyber police building.
And for this he was summoned, slapped, abused & detained there for over 5 hours. https://t.co/jZhMK1q27Y

— Article 14 (@Article14live) September 21, 2020

Javeed alleged that Bhatti was upset about the headline of his article and the accompanying picture of the old Cyber Police Station. “I called the editor, who quickly put out the note and tweet about the photograph… We refused to accept that the story itself was ‘fake and baseless’, as the SP insisted it was,” he said.

The Cyber Police Station stated, “The allegations of excesses by police officials/officer, published subsequently by Article-14 and other social media handles are misleading and factually incorrect, hence refuted. (The) writer was called in the Cyber Police Station Kashmir in connection with clarification of facts mentioned in the article…The writer and other accompanying senior journalists regretted the incorrect detail and assured that story will be tweaked accordingly … Later they left for their respective destinations.”

India: Senior journalist and editor of U Nongsaiñ Hima Lambok Thabah passes away

Shillong, Meghalaya: Senior journalist and editor of the oldest Khasi daily newspaper, U Nongsaiñ Hima, Lambok Thabah passed away on Tuesday morning following sudden illness. He was 52.

Thabah’s sudden demise came as a shock to all his journalist colleagues in Shillong. He was an active member of the Shillong Press Club. Journalists in Shillong told Northeast Now that till 1 am on Tuesday, Thabah was busy texting in a WhatsApp group of media persons. No one realised that they would wake up on Tuesday with the news of Thabah’s death.

Lambok Thabah was extremely popular among the journalists and politicians, and was a perfect gentleman. During his 27 long years of service, Thabah started his career in journalism as a reporter of the Khasi daily Rupang in 1993.

In 2003, he took over as an Editor of U Nongsaiñ Hima. He had also worked with The Shillong Times for a brief period. As an editor, Thabah was hard working and honest. He is a recipient of the Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Award instituted by the Indian Express Group in 2014.

Thabah was awarded for his series of stories on denial of PDS items including rice and sugar to more than 20 families for years at Mawsynram village in East Khasi Hills. The families who were ostracized for demanding their rights, however, finally got justice after Thabah had written a series of reports on the issue.

Three years after Tripura journalist Santanu Bhowmik murder, family is still waiting for justice

Agartala, Tripura: Three years after journalist Santanu Bhowmik was hacked to death while covering a political protest at Mandwi village in Tripura, his family is still waiting for justice.

Santanu Bhowmik, a journalist with Channel DinRaat, a local cable television channel, was killed on September 20, 2017. Speaking to indianexpress.com, Santanu’s mother Papri Nag Bhowmik, 55, Sunday said she wants to see her son get justice before she dies. Bhowmik, who serves in a clerical position with the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC), said: “My son is gone. I just want to see his criminals brought to justice before I die. What else can I ask for?”

Santanu’s sister Pinki Bhowmik, who was pursuing BSc in Horticulture outside Tripura at the time of his death, has now finished her studies and is staying with her mother. His estranged father Sadhan Bhowmik, who had expressed distrust in the then-Left government’s probe and sought CBI inquiry, could not be reached for comment.

Barely two months after Santanu’s killing, Sudip Dutta Bhowmik, of Syandan Patrika, a local Bengali newspaper, was shot inside Tripura State Rifles (TSR) 2nd battalion headquarters at RK Nagar in West Tripura on November 21. Their murders had been among the key issues on which Tripura’s 2018 Assembly polls were fought.

Then-ruling CPI(M) had accused Indigenous Peoples Front of Tripura (IPFT) cadres of being involved in Santanu’s killing. However, IPFT, now a partner in the state government with the BJP, had rubbished the allegations. 

The Left Front government had formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the issue, a move opposed by journalists, who demanded a CBI probe.

This demand found place in the BJP’s Vision Document for the Assembly polls, and shortly after taking charge, Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb handed over the case to the CBI. However, two years later, journalists are angry with the slow progress of the investigation. On Sunday, several memorial programmes were held for Santanu, where the demand to bring his killers to book was repeated.

Santanu’s news channel remembered him in a programme Sunday morning. Samir Dhar, Executive Editor of Channel DinRaat, offered floral tributes in memory of the late journalist and said, “We haven’t got justice for Santanu’s death yet. He was working to expose people conspiring to destabilise peace in the state. He was brutally killed”.

A group of journalists under the banner of Tripura Assembly of Journalists (TAJ) held a condolence meeting in Santanu’s memory in front of Rabindra Shatabarshiki Bhawan in Agartala.

TAJ Chairerson Subal Kumar Dey said, “Justice for Santanu is yet to come. The entire family is helpless today, though the previous government paid Rs 10 lakh compensation to them. The incumbent government has handed over investigation to the CBI, but is not interested in actual progress.” A separate condolence meeting was held at the Agartala Press Club, where club secretary Pranab Sarkar offered tributes to Santanu.

The washington post: College newspaper reporters are the journalism heroes for the pandemic era

In New York, it was the Washington Square News that first reported a covid-19 outbreak in a college dorm. In Gainesville, Fla., the Alligator is the newspaper that has been painstakingly updating a map of local cases. And the Daily Gamecock alerted the public to the ways that University of South Carolina officials were withholding information about covid-19 clusters.

While the pandemic economy has devastated the local news business, there remains a cadre of small newspapers that are more energized than ever, producing essential work from the center of the nation’s newest coronavirus hot spots. Those would be college newspapers, whose student journalists have been kept busy breaking news of campus outbreaks, pushing for transparency from administrators and publishing scathing editorials about controversial reopening plans.

“I do feel and I know the staff feels a sense of responsibility,” said Jacob deCastro, editor in chief of the Indiana Daily Student at Indiana University. “We want to make sure people know what’s going on both on-campus and off-campus so they can make informed choices. We also want to hold the university accountable in keeping students safe and making sure they’re using our tuition dollars to keep us safe, to keep the community safe.”

Working for a college newspaper is a rite of passage for many budding journalists, who get hands-on experience in the kind of reporting and editing they learn about in classrooms. But the pandemic has also demonstrated how valuable this brand of journalism is for the broader public. 

Student-run newspapers have been reporting about the prevalence of covid-19 at fraternity and sorority houses, in campus residences halls and among student athletes. Professional media outlets have been crediting them for scoops, like the one at NYU. And student newspaper editorials taking school administrators to task for reopening plans — like Notre Dame’s the Observer’s front-page editorial titled “Don’t make us write obituaries" and the University of North Carolina’s Daily Tar Heel’s f-bomb headline — have made national news.

“If we weren’t covering these efforts and if we weren’t diving deeper into these issues — I shudder to think about it,” said Elizabeth Lawrence, editor in chief of the Michigan Daily, which has extensively covered covid-19 strikes by graduate students and resident advisers at the University of Michigan, where testing is limited. “The fact that we’re able to keep the conversation on this and really bring it to so many people, is part of the reason the university just feels it needs to respond to it.”

UNC-Chapel Hill’s student newspaper sums up school’s coronavirus policy with an f-bomb The Michigan Daily had been the only daily newspaper in Ann Arbor for the past decade, but this semester they’ve cut back to printing a physical newspaper just once a week. It’s a move other college newspapers have made because of pandemic-related declines in ad revenue.

But that doesn’t mean they are cutting back on coverage, as they keep up with issues including anti-racism protests and campus preparations for Election Day. The Alligator at the University of Florida has even added new beats to cover the Gainesville area. While the city has a professional daily newspaper, its staff is relatively small, while the Alligator has nearly 60 people on staff, and “we can fill in a bunch of gaps,” said editor in chief Kyle Wood.

“We’re doing our best to hold the university accountable if and when that’s necessary" he added, as well as disseminating campus covid-19 information. "But one of our focuses this semester is not to sacrifice any coverage of the university and also expand out into the community. We’re trying to become the community newspaper.”

The contracting media industry has left few local outlets with dedicated higher-education reporters, leaving student journalists as “really the best watchdogs” in this moment, said Frank LoMonte, director of the Brechner Center for Freedom of Information at the University of Florida."They’re the ones who are going to get the invites to parties, and they’re the ones whose friends are going to be reporting symptoms, and they’re following all the right people on social media, so they know first when there’s an outbreak or when there are unsafe conditions."

The coronavirus crisis is devastating the news industry. Many newspapers won’t survive it. Readers are responding. College newspaper websites are breaking online readership records with stories for students, faculty — and, increasingly, parents who are "sending their students off and they’re really not getting that many answers from the university,” said the Daily Gamecock editor in chief Erin Slowey.

Her reporters’ biggest challenge is “not being able to get people on the record” for stories about the pandemic. “People are very fearful over their jobs, whether they work in housing or had an experience in the quarantine dorm.”

Indeed, one of the main setbacks facing student journalists is accessing public information about covid-19. Universities have often cited the Federal Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), a federal law protecting student education records, “as an excuse to not release data that should be released,” said Hadar Harris, executive director of the Student Press Law Association. Her organization is also hearing from student journalists who are “seeing a slowing down, if not complete cessation, to open records requests.” Universities can’t use privacy laws to withhold data on coronavirus outbreaks, experts say

College newspapers have long been filled with journalists who sometimes think of the school newspaper as their actual major. The pandemic has pushed these students to work even harder, as they juggle reporting duties with the same concerns facing the rest of the student body, from navigating the complex maze of in-person and virtual classwork to financial troubles. And then there’s mental and emotional toll of covering a pandemic that has killed nearly 200,000 people in the United States. “I’ve been doing a lot of our updates on testing data, and seeing those numbers at times can be overwhelming,” said Matt Cohen, enterprise reporter for the Indiana Daily Student.

Still, Cohen and his peers, like their professional journalism colleagues, talk about their sense of duty and drive in covering the biggest news story of their lifetimes. “IU is one of the larger campuses in the United States, and having this many students back in person for classes is a big deal,” Cohen said. “Telling the stories of what’s going on so people can have a sense of this is something that impacts everyone’s lives.”

Former Australian reporter in Beijing said his 14-year-old daughter was threatened with detention

 A former ABC reporter in Beijing said Monday that he and his 14-year-old daughter were threatened with detention before they left China two years ago.

Matthew Carney said he had not revealed the 2018 incident until now because he had wanted to avoid “negative consequences” for Australian Broadcasting Corp.’s operations in China. Two weeks ago reporters for the state-funded ABC and The Australian Financial Review newspaper became the last two Australian journalists working for Australian media to leave China due to threats of detention.

Carney was the ABC’s China bureau chief in 2018 when Australia passed laws outlawing covert foreign interference in domestic politics, which he said “outraged” China. Carney said the laws started “three months of intimidation and all types of threats” for him and his family.

Carney told his story in an interview aired on ABC radio and in an account posted on the news organization’s website Monday. There was no immediate response from China. Carney said he was told to bring this 14-year-old daughter, Yasmine, to a Beijing Public Security facility where interrogations and detentions were the norm.

A woman official told him that he and his daughter were being investigated for a “visa crime.” “Your daughter is 14 years old. She is an adult under Chinese law and as the People’s Republic of China is a law-abiding country she will be charged with the visa crime,” Carney said he was told.

He said the woman said his daughter could be detained “with other adults” in an undisclosed location. “She was obviously very skilled in interrogation and in ramping up the fear and the panic,” Carney said. Carney said he offered to leave China with his wife and three children the next day, but was told he could not leave the country while he was under investigation.

With his visa due to expire within days, the official said he could be placed in detention. After consultation with the Australian Embassy and the ABC, Carney said he decided to confess his guilt and apologize for the “bizarre visa violation,” on condition that his daughter was allowed to stay with the family.

Their confessions were video recorded and the woman told him she would write a report to “the higher authority” for judgment. With the family’s visas about to expire, the official said the judgment could be weeks away. But he got a phone call the next day and was told two-month extensions had been granted to their visas.

He said he thought it was “some bizarre theater” to send a message to himself and Australia’s government that “A, if you do bad reporting, B, if your government is going to introduce harsh laws we don’t agree with, well then there is a price to be paid?”

“In retrospect, that’s what I think it was, thank God. They didn’t follow through on their threats,” Carney said. Carney said he made the sudden decision to leave China after a Chinese woman threatened to sue him for defamation over a story he reported about Chinese attempts to engineer better citizen behavior.

He had legal advice that that he would be banned from leaving once legal proceedings were initiated against him. Australia updated its travel advice in July to warn its citizens of potential arbitrary detention on security grounds in China.

Chinese-Australian spy novelist and blogger Yang Hengjun has been detained in China since he arrived on a flight from New York in January last year in what some suspects is a Chinese reaction to deteriorating bilateral relations. The 55-year-old has since been charged with endangering state security.

The Chinese foreign ministry said the day the last two Australian journalists working for Australian media in China left the country that Australian citizen Cheng Lei, a business news anchor for CGTN, China’s English-language state media channel, had been detained on suspicion of national security crimes.