CPJ seeks probe into attacks on scribes covering godman Gurmeet Singh

New York, Aug 29: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has urged the Indian government to ensure that scribes and their helpers are not prevented from doing their duties, and probe episodes in which anti-social elements take the law into their hands. "While we recognise that Indian authorities were facing a broad civil emergency when rioting broke out (in Haryana and Punjab) on Friday, the rights of journalists to report without fear of attacks must be protected," Steven Butler of CPJ said in a statement issued here yesterday. "Local authorities must ensure that attacks on the media are thoroughly investigated and the perpetrators held to account." CPJ is a city-based nonprofit body that works for the safeguarding of journalists’ rights worldwide. Butler, based in Washington, is the Asia programme coordinator of the CPJ. The allusion was to the violence in Haryana and other northern Indian states where nearly 40 people were killed and about 300 injured in the fallout of the conviction of godman Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh Insaan in rape cases. The guru was sentenced yesterday to 20 years in prison by a Central Bureau of Investigation court for raping two of his followers in 2002, according to news reports. He was also fined Rs 15 lakh. India Today TV principal correspondent Ashutosh Mishra and his cameraperson Pradeep Gupta were attacked while travelling in a car, Shiv Aroor, a consulting editor with the channel, said in a tweet. A video showed the car being attacked with sticks and rocks and Gupta in the rear seat was shown bleeding and holding his head. The cameraperson was later taken to hospital and was scheduled to undergo a surgery for a broken jaw. In Sirsa town, headquarters of the guru's organisation Dera Sacha Dauda, reporter with PTC, Punjabi news channel, Rakesh Kumar fractured his arm and the channel's camera person Shapinder Singh went missing for a few hours. "The camera person was traced at night," Sanjay Malhotra, the Haryana bureau chief of PTC, told CPJ. "His cellphone and equipment were destroyed but he managed to reach a relative's house and informed us that he was fine." Members of a mob attacked an engineer with NDTV. The outdoor broadcast van was burnt. A broadcast van belonging to Times Now was overturned, the reports suggested. Other channels, including RepublicTV and CNN-News18, also reported attacks on other news organisations. UNI