Indian Journalists Union ( IJU) today condemns the arrest of DY365 TV channel correspondent from Dhubri, Assam Rajib Sharma at the midnight hour by Dhubri police resulting in shocked death of the journalist’s father.
IJU President and former member of Press Council of India Geetartha Pathak and IJU Secretary General and International Federation of Journalists (IFJ)’s Vice President Sabina Inderjit siad in a statement that arresting a journalist at midnight like a dreaded terrorist for the journalist’s reporting is sheer attack on freedom of press and freedom of expression.
Rajib Sharma , a correspondent of DY365 Assamese TV Channel from Dhuburi,I Assam was picked up from his hose at 2 am midnight on Thursday July 16 by Dhuburi police on the basis of an FIR filed by the Dhuburi Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Biswajit Roy. The journalist’s father was shocked at his son’s arrest and he died in the same night after a massive heart stroke. The Journalist currently is in bail which was granted to him for performing his father’s funeral.
The DFO in the FIR alleged that Sharma on July 8 demanded money from him and thretened that his tv channel will expose many irregularities done by the DFO
The DY365 tv channel recently has exposed some serous scandal relating timber smuggling and illegal saw mill licencing in the district. The death of the journalist’s father cast a pall gloom mixed with anger in the area . The local journalists alleged that the journalist was falsely implicated for his reportage exposing the illegal timber business and consequent deforestation of the district where the forest and local police were involved.
The IJU leaders demand the state government to investigate the timber scandal in the district instead of implicating journalists for their investigative public interest reports. IJU also demands compensation for the death of the reporters father.
IJU condemns arrest of Assam TV journalist Rajib Sharma, demands compensation for his father’s death
