Call For Strong Legal Frame Work For Journalists’ Safety

Following a call given by the Indian Journalists Union (IJU), thousands of journalists across the country on Wednesday observed the ‘International Day against Impunity on crimes against Journalists’, by observing two minutes silence to commemorate the memory of journalists killed in the line of duty.

The United Nations has designated 2 November as the International Day for safety journalists and against impunity on crimes against them, and the Press Council of India (PCI) in a resolution in July 2015 decided to observe the same in the country. It called upon the News Rooms and News Bureaus in all the media organisations to observe two minutes silence in memory of the journalists killed in the line of their duty.

S N Sinha, President, Amar Devulapalli, Secretary-General of the Indian Journalists Union (IJU) and Sabina Inderjit, Vice-President, International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) in a statement expressed grave concern over increasing attacks on journalists in the country.

The IJU leaders called on the organisations of working journalists and editors to mobilise the support of all democratic sections of the society to achieve a strong legal frame work for the safety of journalists as recommended by the United Nations.