Members of the South Asian Women in Media (SAWM) would like to express their strong condemnation of the shameful manhandling of two women journalists by personnel of the Delhi Police, covering a protest march by students and teachers of the Jawaharlal Nehru University in the Capital on March 23. One of them was a photo journalist, who was roughed up by women constables and had her camera confiscated. The other incident involved the groping of a journalist by a policeman. Such repression and harassment against women journalists going about their work, that has become a recurrent phenomenon, constitutes an assault on our democracy. We note that the Delhi Police has tendered an apology, without accepting responsibility for anything more than “mistaking media for protestors.” While welcoming the police’s announcement for a thorough enquiry,SAWM India calls upon the authorities to take prompt and exemplary action against the offenders.
Jyoti Malhotra, Indian Express, New Delhi
Nivedita Jha, indpendent journalist, Patna
Teresa Rehman, Thumbprint, Gauhati,
Sarada Lahangir, Zee Kalinga, Bhubaneswar
Madhumita Datta, ABP, Kolkata
Anuradha Bhasin, Rising Kashmir, J&K
Uma Sudhir, NDTV, Hyderabad
Ramya Kanan, The Hindu, Chennai
Shruti Ganapatye, Asian Age, Mumbai
Suhasini Haidar, The Hindu, New Delhi
Anita Katyal, independent journalist, New Delhi
Mannika Chopra, independent journalist, New Delhi
Maya Mirchandani, independent journalist, New Delhi
Smita Gupta, The Hindu, New Delhi
Nilova Roy Chowdhury, India Review and Analysis, New Delhi
Neha Dixit, independent journalist, New Delhi
Radhika Ramaseshan, independent journalist, New Delhi
Rashmi Saksena, The Hitavada, New Delhi
Seema Guha, independent journalist, New Delhi
Sunetra Chowdhury, NDTV, New Delhi
Shuma Raha, independent journalist, New Delhi
Aditi Phadnis, Business Standard, New Delhi
Pamela Philipose, The Wire, New Delhi
Chandrima Bhattacharyya, The Telegraph, Kolkata
Moupia Nandy, 24 Ghanta, Kolkata
Kamalika Sengupta, 24 Ghanta, Kolkata
Shabana Javed, ETV Urdu, Kolkata
Anwesha Banerjee, Ei Somoy, Kolkata
Sahana Nagchowdhury, indpendent journalist, Kolkata
Laxmi Sharma, independent journalist, Dakshin Dinajpur
Aafreen Haq, Akhbar e Mashriq, Kolkata
Shikha Mukherjee, independent journalist, Kolkata
Kasturi Ray, OTV, Bhubaneswar
Sumita Jaiswal, Dainik Jagran, Patna
Seetu Tiwari, independent journalist, Patna
Rinku Jha, Hindustan, Patna
Durba Ghosh, PTI, Gauhati
Bachi Karkaria, independent journalist, Mumbai
Stella Paul, independent journalist, Hyderabad
Aditi Iyer, The Hindu, Chennai
Nirupama Subramanian, Indian Express, Chandigarh
Swati Bhattacharjee, Ananda Bazar Patrika, Kolkata