NCRB Has No Data On Attack On Journalists: I&B Minister. He’s Wrong. Govt Has Records of 189 Attacks Till 2016

 

 

Mumbai: “National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) has not published data on attacks in respect of separate categories of professionals, including journalists. However, information is being compiled.”

 

This was the reply by the minister of state for information and broadcasting Rajyavardhan Rathore to a question by Trinamool Congress leader Dinesh Trivedi on December 20, 2018.

 

The claim is false.

 

Fact: While the NCRB has not published data on attacks on Indians by profession, including journalists, according to this reply by minister of state for home affairs Hansraj Ahir to the Lok Sabha on December 18, 2018, the minister said cases were registered under sections 325, 326, 326A & 326B of the Indian Penal Code for attacks on journalists by various states and union territories.

 

(Section 325 deals with voluntarily causing grievous hurt while section 326 deals with causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapons or means. 326 A and B refer to the use of acid either voluntarily or attempting to cause permanent or partial damage to a person.)

 

As many as 114 attacks were recorded in 2014, 28 in 2015 and 47 in 2016.

 

Source : Lok Sabha

 

India had fallen two places to 138 out of 180 countries in the 2018 World Press Freedom Index, compiled annually by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), an international NGO, IndiaSpend reported on April 25, 2018.

 

Countries ranked lower than India on human development indices, such as Haiti (60), Niger (63) and Sierra Leone (79), fared better on the index, we reported.

 

Among BRICS nations, Russia (148) and China (176) fared worse, while among the neighbours, India fared better only than Pakistan (139) and Bangladesh (146).

 

As many as 70 journalists have been killed in India over 24 years to 2016, according to the Committee To Protect Journalists, a non-profit, IndiaSpend reported on September 6, 2017.

 

(Jasmin Nihalani, a student of journalism and mass communication, is an intern with IndiaSpend and FactChecker.)

 

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