India tops with 229 journo covid deaths of 1440 in world as GoI offers Rs 5 lakh to 67

Even as appreciating the Government of India (GoI) move to “offer” financial assistance to the families of Covid-19 victims among journalists to the tune of Rs 5 lakh each, Press Emblem Campaign (PEC), a Switzerland-based media rights body has urged that there is an urgent need to vaccinate all journalists on a priority basis and offer aid to all the victim families so that they can play their roles as frontline corona warriors after the doctors, nurses, other health and sanitation workers.
The GoI has offered Rs 5 lakh to to 67 families of journalists who died because of Covid-19 since March 2020. Several state governments have announced separate compensation to journalists. The Uttar Pradesh government has announced Rs 10 lakh to each of those who succumbed to the deadly disease. India has lost 229 journalists to the Covid disease, the highest among all other countries.
Noting this, PEC statement said, in all over 1,440 journalists around the world have died across the world due to Covid-19, expressing concern that India is at the top of the list of 76 corona affected countries, with 229 journo-casualties.
Other countries who have lost journalists because of the disease are Brazil (222 dead), Peru (161), Mexico (111), Colombia (64), Italy (56), Bangladesh (53), Ecuador (50), USA (49), Iran (32), United Kingdom (30), Argentina (28), Dominican Republic, Pakistan, Turkey (27 each), Russia (21), Venezuela (19), Bolivia (18), Panama (16), Spain, Ukraine (15 each), Egypt, Nepal (14 each), Honduras (11), Afghanistan, Nigeria, South Africa, France (9 each), etc.
"In May, at least 90 journalists succumbed to the virus infection in India, that is 3 per day. For the whole world, more than 180 journalists passed away due to Covid-19 in the month of May, that is 6 per day, a record number,” said Nava Thakuria, the country representative of PEC.
India lately lost journalists Mahesh Trivedi, Sagolsem Hemant, Basant Das, Sushil Sharma, R Jawahar, Junagari Ramesh, Prabudha Jagadev, Suresh Kumar Chaturvedi, HS Doreswamy, Vidyut P Mourya, Pradeep Kumar, Roshan Dias, Rajkumar Keswani, Choppadandi Mohan, Prakash Biyani, L Ramesh, Shivani Dua, among others.
PEC general secretary Blaise Lempen said, safety of media workers remains at risk in this crisis because they have to continue working on the ground, pointing out, India continues to be the worst affected country with the highest number of scribes died of novel corona virus infection aggravated aliments.

Comments

Dalit rights and political tensions: Why is Mevani at odds with Congress leadership?

While I have known Jignesh Mevani, one of the dozen-odd Congress MLAs from Gujarat, ever since my Gandhinagar days—when he was a young activist aligned with well-known human rights lawyer Mukul Sinha’s organisation, Jan Sangharsh Manch—he became famous following the July 2016 Una Dalit atrocity, in which seven members of a family were brutally assaulted by self-proclaimed cow vigilantes while skinning a dead cow, a traditional occupation among Dalits.

Powering pollution, heating homes: Why are Delhi residents opposing incineration-based waste management

While going through the 50-odd-page report Burning Waste, Warming Cities? Waste-to-Energy (WTE) Incineration and Urban Heat in Delhi , authored by Chythenyen Devika Kulasekaran of the well-known advocacy group Centre for Financial Accountability, I came across a reference to Sukhdev Vihar — a place where I lived for almost a decade before moving to Moscow in 1986 as the foreign correspondent of the daily Patriot and weekly Link .

Boeing 787 under scrutiny again after Ahmedabad crash: Whistleblower warnings resurface

A heart-wrenching tragedy has taken place in Ahmedabad. As widely reported, a Boeing 787 Dreamliner plane crashed shortly after taking off from the city’s airport, currently operated by India’s top tycoon, Gautam Adani. The aircraft was carrying 230 passengers and 12 crew members. As expected, the crash has led to an outpouring of grief across the country. At the same time, there have been demands for the resignation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, and the Civil Aviation Minister.

Ahmedabad's civic chaos: Drainage woes, waterlogging, and the illusion of Olympic dreams

In response to my blog on overflowing gutter lines at several spots in Ahmedabad's Vejalpur, a heavily populated area, a close acquaintance informed me that it's not just the middle-class housing societies that are affected by the nuisance. Preeti Das, who lives in a posh locality in what is fashionably called the SoBo area, tells me, "Things are worse in our society, Applewood."

Global NGO slams India for media clampdown during conflict, downplays Pakistan

A global civil rights group, Civicus has taken strong exception to how critical commentaries during the “recent conflict” with Pakistan were censored in India, with journalists getting “targeted”. I have no quarrel with the Civicus view, as the facts mentioned in it are all true.

Whither SCOPE? Twelve years on, Gujarat’s official English remains frozen in time

While writing my previous blog on how and why Narendra Modi went out of his way to promote English when he was Gujarat chief minister — despite opposition from people in the Sangh Parivar — I came across an interesting write-up by Aakar Patel, a well-known name among journalists and civil society circles.

Remembering Vijay Rupani: A quiet BJP leader who listened beyond party lines

Late evening on June 12, a senior sociologist of Indian origin, who lives in Vienna, asked me a pointed question: Of the 241 persons who died as a result of the devastating plane crash in Ahmedabad the other day, did I know anyone? I had no hesitation in telling her: former Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani, whom I described to her as "one of the more sensible persons in the BJP leadership."

Why India’s renewable energy sector struggles under 2,735 compliance hurdles

Recently, during a conversation with an industry representative, I was told how easy it is to set up a startup in Singapore compared to India. This gentleman, who had recently visited Singapore, explained that one of the key reasons Indians living in the Southeast Asian nation prefer establishing startups there is because the government is “extremely supportive” when it comes to obtaining clearances. “They don’t want to shift operations to India due to the large number of bureaucratic hurdles,” he remarked.

A conman, a demolition man: How 'prominent' scribes are defending Pritish Nandy

How to defend Pritish Nandy? That’s the big question some of his so-called fans seem to ponder, especially amidst sharp criticism of his alleged insensitivity during his journalistic career. One such incident involved the theft and publication of the birth certificate of Masaba Gupta, daughter of actor Neena Gupta, in the Illustrated Weekly of India, which Nandy was editing at the time. He reportedly did this to uncover the identity of Masaba’s father.

Search This Blog