Danger of being an investigative journalist in India exposing corruption and other crimes
Last updated on 16th May 2016
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Maha-jungle-raj-in-Bihar-says-BJP-after-killing-of-journalist-in-Siwan/articleshow/52260338.cms, dated May 13th 2016
A one sentence extract from it:
"Senior reporter of a Hindi-daily 'Hindustan', Rajdev Ranjan, was killed in Bihar's Siwan district on Friday evening by unknown assailants near the railway station."
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Ravi: Now one does not have a clear picture of the motive here. I mean, was there some other enmity not related to the journalist's exposure of any corruption/crime, that was the cause?
But given what I have read and seen over the years I can make some generalizations, I think, which are given below:
Some states of North India which are economically challenged, like Bihar where the above incident happened, are particularly prone to Wild West days of the USA kind-of violence (even today).
But the brutal reality of most parts of India, especially rural and semi-urban India, even if it is economically better off parts of India like South India, is that those journalists who dare to expose corruption and other crimes of powerful dons and those connected with dons, could end up being killed. I guess most journalists in India would stay away from such investigative reporting, and leave it to the police and other law enforcement authorities to investigate. Some of the journalists who do try to step on the toes of powerful dons get beaten up (as a message to them that later it could be worse like being killed), after which they stop doing such investigative work.
I do not blame journalists who shy away from doing such investigative reporting of corruption and other criminal acts. I mean they too are human, and most have families to take care of. Why put their lives and so the well being of their families on the line? After all, the appropriate institutions which are funded by the government to handle these matters are the police and other law enforcement agencies, and not the media.
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Terry Reis Kennedy, a USA citizen who spends a lot of time in India, wrote over email (and was OK with public sharing):
This is true, Ravi, pretty much around the world. I was threatened by Boston Mafia that they could kill my children when I was working on a drug smuggling case................
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I (Ravi) responded back (slightly edited):
Oh Lord! That would have been terrifying! My God! This is the first time I am interacting directly with a person (investigative journalist) who received a threat to life (in your case, to your children, which makes it far worse). Hmm. You have led some tough life, Terry. No wonder you are so tough!
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It's a sorry state of affairs. While it is true that there are government funded law enforcement agencies to handle these matters, big problem there is that police cannot take any action without an FIR, as far as I know. And who will dare to file FIR against powerful dons. To make matter worse, sometime law enforcement agencies like police are hand-in-glove with the criminals, nexus with politicians and powerful "haves".
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My (Ravi) response to the above:
I tend to agree with your views, especially when the affected parties are the poor in India. However, there has been great improvement in the situation in India in the past few decades with respect to police nexus with criminals & politicians & powerful "haves". It is still there and quite undeniable in many places in the country. However, the nexus is not as blatant as it was earlier, and the police are more accountable to the public than in earlier decades.
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[I thank indiatimes.com and have presumed that they will not have any objections to me sharing the above one-sentence extract from their website on this post which is freely viewable by all, and does not have any financial profit motive whatsoever.]
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