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April 12, 2002
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Friday
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Muharram 28, 1423
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Gujarat cops hit newsmen: RSF
By Our Correspondent
PARIS, April 11: Police in the Indian state of Gujarat attacked a group of more than 20 journalists last week, leaving many of them in a serious condition, the Reporters Sans Frontieres said in a statement on Thursday.
The RSF (Reporters Without Borders), an association for journalists’ rights, said it had sent a letter to Gordhan Zadaphia, the interior minister of Gujarat, asking him to thoroughly investigate the matter, and bring the guilty to justice.
In the letter, RSF Secretary-General Robert Menard notes that “the authorities of this state chose the most reprehensible way to act by preventing the press from doing its job,” and this “after accusing the media of exaggerating the extent of the recent wave of inter-community violence in Gujarat.”
According to the RSF, some 20 journalists and media professionals were attacked on Sunday (April 7) by police officers at Gandhi Ashram, a quarter of Ahmedabad.
The journalists, according to RSF Asia-Pacific desk officer Vincent Brossel, were covering peace demonstrations that were disrupted by members of Gujarat Yuva Morcha, the youth section of the BJP.
Harsh Shah and Harshyal Pandya, respectively photographer with the daily Indian Express and journalist with the private television station ETV, were, like Pranav Joshi, seriously wounded during this attack. Pranav Joshi was hospitalized and placed in intensive care.
As for the other journalists who were harmed by police during the incident, reports RSF, they included a photographer with the Times of India, Dhimant Purohit, correspondent for the Aaj Tak TV channel, Sanjeev Singh, NDTV reporter, Amit Dave, photographer with the Jansatta newspaper, Ashish Amin, reporter, Ketan Trivedi and Gautam Mehta, respectively journalist and photographer with the Gujarat Samachar newspaper.
When journalists decided to file a complaint against the deputy superintendent shortly after the incident, the Gujarat interior minister issued a communique denying that the police officers had ever attacked the press.
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