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Probe demanded in Indian journalist's death

October 9, 2015

India's Committee to Protect Journalists has called for a probe into the fatal shooting of a television journalist over the weekend. The journalist's death was the third in four months in Uttar Pradesh state.

https://p.dw.com/p/1GlKU
Indien Zeitungen
Image: Getty Images

The press freedom group called for Indian police to bring to justice those behind the death of Hemant Yadav, who was gunned down by unknown assailants on a motorbike on Saturday.

"Police must act quickly and decisively to investigate this case and bring his killers to justice," Bob Dietz, CPJ's Asia program coordinator, said in a statement. "Far too often, journalists' murders go unpunished in India, no matter the motive. It is time for India to address this tradition of impunity."

Yadav worked for the Hindi news channel TV 24. The AFP news agency quoted a police inspector as say the killing may have been an act of revenge. Yadav was active socially and took up the causes of locals, the inspector said.

Journalists in India investigating corruption, politicians, and misconduct are often harassed, threatened or even killed with impunity. The CPJ ranks India 14th on its Impunity Index, which highlights countries where journalists are killed and the murders walk free.

Reporters without Borders ranks the world's largest democracy 136 out of 180 nations.

Yadav is the third journalist in four months to be killed in Uttar Pradesh. In June, journalist Jagendra Singh died after he was allegedly set on fire during a police raid at his house.

He was reportedly highly critical of Ram Murti Singh Verma, a member of the ruling Samajwadi Party in the state, who he had investigated and accused on social media of illegal mining and land grabs.

Nobody has been arrested or charged in the murder.

In another case, a reporter for a local Hindi daily, Sanjay Pathak, was allegedly killed by two persons in August. Several other journalists in the state have also been attacked in recent months.

cw/jr (AFP, PTI)