PFUJ calls for end to Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists
November 02, 2025: PFUJ urges Pakistan’s federal and provincial governments to end Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists and ensure their safety and press freedom.
JournalismPakistan.com | Published 8 years ago
Join our WhatsApp channel
NEW DELHI - Police officials should identify and discipline the officers who assaulted dozens of journalists in Kolkata Monday, the Committee to Protect Journalists said.
Journalists at the scene said police assaulted dozens of reporters covering a protest, and then forcibly cleared a demonstration the journalists staged to protest their treatment.
Photographer Tanmoy Bhaduri reported that police assaulted more than 50 journalists covering a protest march to the West Bengal state secretariat organized by the Communist Party of India (Marxist).
“Around 1 pm, the police started beating up people near the Kolkata Press Club," Sukanta Mukherjee, a reporter with the ETV news channel, told CPJ. “They weren't distinguishing between journalists and agitators. They were just hitting people. So we decided to peacefully protest this police action at 2:30 pm by just standing and asking ‘why did you beat us up?’ Just then, one senior police officer ordered the force to assault us with batons.”
“A TV journalist on Mayo Road was doing a live phone-in and walking around the area,” Monideepa Banerjee, an editor at the NDTV news channel, told CPJ. “Some police officers who were sitting there overheard him and didn't like what he said, so they had an altercation with him. They pushed him around, and slapped him. At this point, other journalists noticed what was going on and decided to block the road — peacefully. There wasn’t much going on over there, and suddenly, out of the blue, the cops beat them up with batons.”
The English-language newspaper DNA reported that “many” journalists were hospitalized for injuries from police batons and tear gas. Photojournalist Tanmoy Bhaduri told CPJ he was unconscious for 10 minutes from tear gas inhalation.
“Beating journalists protesting their earlier unprovoked beating at the hands of police takes disregard for press freedom to new levels,” CPJ Asia Program Coordinator Steven Butler said from Washington, D.C. “The officer who gave the order to beat reporters in Kolkata should be disciplined, and police should be trained to protect, not assault journalists.”
Supratim Sarkar, a joint commissioner of the Kolkata Police, told CPJ by text message that “any incident of assault on journalists is undesirable and condemnable. An inquiry has been ordered to identify the police personnel who have allegedly manhandled journalists. Necessary departmental action will be initiated on identifying.”
Mukherjee, the ETV journalist, told CPJ that this was the second incident in a week in which police assaulted journalists in Kolkata. On May 16, a group of photojournalists was attacked while trying to cover a building fire in the city’s Park Street neighborhood, he said.
“Himadri Roy, my cameraman, and I were there covering the incident when a police officer pushed us aside. As a result, one of our microphones broke,” Mukherjee told CPJ. “A few minutes later, a man dressed in a purple T-shirt —whom we identified as the driver of a police van — also started pushing us. He said, ‘What I’ve done is a good thing.’” - Committee to Protect Journalists
November 02, 2025: PFUJ urges Pakistan’s federal and provincial governments to end Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists and ensure their safety and press freedom.
November 02, 2025: Impunity for crimes against journalists deepens worldwide as Pakistan reports a 60 percent surge in attacks and weak enforcement of safety laws.
November 01, 2025: Pakistan Press Foundation reports 137 attacks on journalists in 2025, highlighting rising threats, legal harassment, and censorship on the International Day to End Impunity.
November 01, 2025: A viral Samaa TV clip featuring MNA Sher Afzal Marwat’s crude remarks and Talat Hussain’s laughter raises questions about the declining ethics of Pakistani television.
October 31, 2025: Police foiled a plot to kill DawnNewsTV journalist Tahir Naseer in Rawalpindi after arresting suspects hired for Rs200,000. Naseer says threats followed his reporting.
October 31, 2025: CPJ calls on Pakistan to bring Imtiaz Mir’s killers to justice after the journalist was allegedly murdered by a banned militant group in Karachi.
October 30, 2025: The PFUJ has condemned a fabricated drug case against journalist Matiullah Jan, calling it an attempt to silence him and urging authorities to quash the charges immediately.
October 30, 2025: NewsOne TV remains on air but faces mass layoffs and delayed salaries, exposing Pakistan’s worsening media crisis and financial instability.
November 02, 2025 Independent outlet All About Macau to halt print and online operations amid rising pressure, financial strain, and legal threats, sparking press freedom concerns in the city.
November 01, 2025 Belarus court jails journalist Siarhei Chabotska for extremism and defaming the president, highlighting Minsk’s ongoing crackdown on press freedom.
November 01, 2025 Mexican journalist Miguel Angel Beltran was found murdered in Durango. CPJ urges authorities to ensure justice amid rising violence against journalists in Mexico.
November 01, 2025 UNESCO survey finds one-third of media lawyers cannot effectively defend journalists due to threats, limited resources, and lack of specialization.
October 31, 2025 Radio Free Asia, a US government-funded broadcaster covering tightly controlled Asian media environments, has suspended all news operations after federal funding dried up.