5 journalists were booked for reporting discrimination against Dalit in Bijnor. The administration said that the report posed a danger to social harmony.
Lucknow| On 3rd of September 2019 journalist named Pawan Kumar Jaiswal shot a video of a mid-day meal served in primary school that showed the student being given only Chappatis and salt. The journalist is being charged with a criminal conspiracy among other penal code sections an offence punishable with death or life imprisonment. He has also been charged with defaming the state government. The police said that it is a complete conspiracy to malign the administration.
In this case, the UP government had earlier suspended three education department employee after the video went viral on social media sites.
On 7th September, 5 journalists were booked for reporting discrimination against Dalit in Bijnor. The administration said that the report posed a danger to social harmony creating caste tensions and danger. The journalists had covered a story of a Dalit family allegedly being prevented from drawing water from a hand pump by some people at Basi village in UP’s Bijnor.
In this case, a widow woman had complained to the police that some people thrashed her daughter when she went to draw water from a hand pump in Basi village. The issue was flagged by the Journalist.
However, the district administration assured to take back the cases against the journalist after an action committee of scribes lodged a protest against it.
Another case from Azamgarh was the district magistrate ordered a probe into the arrest of a journalist allegedly after he took photographs of some children mopping the floor in their school.
A journalist named Santosh Jaiswal was arrested for allegedly obstructing public servants from discharging their duty and extortion. Jaiswal was arrested on 6th September 2019 after he to photos of the school children mopping the floor.
He informed the police about an illegal practice but the principal of the school claimed that journalists demanded money from a school.
FIR against journalists doing their job is reflective of a disturbing trend in India. The latest instance of arrest and attacks just further links in this chain.
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