(RSF/IFEX) – In a 17 August 2000 letter to the chief minister of West Bengal State, Jyoti Basu, RSF protested assaults on journalists by activists of the Communist Party India-Marxist (CPI-M, the ruling party in this eastern Indian state). The organisation asked the chief minister if his declarations condemning the attacks could be followed by […]
(RSF/IFEX) – In a 17 August 2000 letter to the chief minister of West Bengal State, Jyoti Basu, RSF protested assaults on journalists by activists of the Communist Party India-Marxist (CPI-M, the ruling party in this eastern Indian state). The organisation asked the chief minister if his declarations condemning the attacks could be followed by acts and sanctions against the authors of the assaults. RSF also asked him to approach the leaders of the CPI-M in order that such violence against media workers never be repeated. “Your duty as a chief minister is to protect journalists who are merely trying to do their work,” RSF’s secretary-general Robert Ménard reminded him.
According to information collected by RSF, on 10 August, around twenty employees of the department of information of the provincial government, based in Calcutta, attacked a group of journalists while they were covering an event inside the administration building. The civil servants, members of a union organisation affiliated to the CPI-M, criticised the journalists for “supporting” the representatives of another labour union. At least twelve reporters were attacked and their professional equipment was confiscated or damaged. A journalist with the daily “The Times of India” was hit in the face. A few hours later, Deputy Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharya apologised for the incident and declared that an internal inquiry would be launched.
On 13 August, several journalists were attacked by CPI-M supporters during the municipal elections in Barrackpore (West Bengal State). Alerted by rumours of fraud during vote counting, the reporters came to cover the polls and were beaten inside an official building by a group of activists. Cameras were smashed, and police detained three CPI-M activists. Chief Minister Basu condemned the attack the next day.
