As the Covid-19 pandemic emerged as a severe health hazard to the media fraternity across the globe since March many more journalists start falling preys to the disaster in India as well. Thousands of journalists along with other media employees in the largest democracy in the world got infected with the novel corona virus as they continue playing the role of corona-warriors along with the doctors, nurses, sanitation workers, police personnel etc. The populous country has lost around 50 working journalists to
Covid-19 aggravated complications to emerges as the second most affected country. The worldwide media corona-casualties has risen to over 460 in 56 countries.
According to the Geneva (Switzerland) basedinternational media rights body Press Emblem Campaign (PEC), Peru tops the list with more than 90 casualties followed by India, Ecuador, Brazil, Bangladesh, Mexico, United States of America, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nepal, etc. Lately, a Haryana based senior journalist Rakesh Taneja (51) died of Covid-19 aggravated complications at a Faridabad hospital on 16 November night. He used to work for Zee News, AmarUjala, DainikBhaskar, etc and earned reputations while reporting on crime and legal beats. Earlier Orissa’s television scribe Prabir Kumar Pradhan (35) succumbed to the virus infection on 5 November.
Pradhan used to work for News18 (Odia) news channel and died in the hospital. A Tripura based video journalist Jitendra Debbarma (46) lost his battle against the corona infection on 20 October. Debbarma worked for a Kakborok language cable channel named Chini Khorang and succumbed to Covid-19 complications at Khumulwng hospital. Mysuru based journalist Pavan Hettur (35), who worked for Kannada daily Prajavani died of the virus infection on 18 October at a private hospital. Patna based photojournalist Krishna Mohan Sharma (63), who worked for Times of India, died of corona complications on 15 October while undergoing treatment at AIIMS, New Delhi. Same day, veteran cricket journalist & commentator Kishore Bhimani (81), died after contracting the virus at a hospital in Kolkata.
The robust Indian media family lost at least twelve journalists to corona-complications in September. Ludhiana based veteran journalist Ashwani Kapoor (70), who worked for highly circulated newspaper PunjabKesari, succumbed to Covid-19 at a private hospital on 29 September. Guwahati based news presenter in All India Radio, Golap Saikia (52) died with corona-infections on 26 September at a city-based private hospital. Patna’s senior journalist Arun Kumar Verma (68), who was associated with various Prasar Bharti outlets died during Covid-19 treatment on 22 September. Indore journalist Manoj Binwal (55), who was associated
with Hindi newspaper Prajatantra, died of the virus infection while undergoing treatment on 20 September. A day back, Agra’s journalist Ami Adhar Nidar (50), who worked for widely circulated DainikJagaran, passed away with the infection.
Jammu based scribe Anil Srivastava (68), who was associated with United News of India, succumbed to Covid-19 on 18 September at a government run hospital. Same day Jabalpur’s journalist Harish Choubey (60), who worked for popular Hindi newspaper DainikBhaskar, expired with the corona virus infection. Aurangabad based journalist Rahul Dolare (49) died on 14 September at a government hospital. Same day, Chennai’s popular journalist-actor Florent C Pereira (67) died of Covid-19. Punjab’s Abohar based journalist Naresh Bajaj (57), who was associated with SachKahoon newspaper, succumbed to corona-complications on 10 September. Ravinder Kumar (30) from Himachal Pradesh, who worked for DainikJagran, died of Covid-19 on 9 September.
Assam’s rural reporter Dhaneswar Rabha (35) died at Guwahati medical college hospital on 6 September. Rabha is the first scribe in the region to die of Covid-19. Next day, senior journalist Ashim Dutta (65) passed away with the infection at Silchar medical
college hospital. Months back, Dhanbad’s journalist Sanjiv Sinha, Gorakhpur’s photo journalist Rajiv Ketan, Mumbai’s senior film-journalist Shyam Sarma, Nellore’s scribe Narayanam Seshacharyulu, Pune’s television reporter Pandurang Raikar, Kanpur’s television journalist Neelanshu Shukla, Patiala’s photojournalist Jai Deep, Tirupati’s television reporter Madhusudan Reddy and video journalist M Parthasarathy succumbed to the virus infections.
The list also includes senior journalist Prakash Deshmukh from Mumbai, veteran journalist Ashok Churi from Palghar, television reporter Ramanathan & news videographer E Velmurugan from Chennai, news presenter Davinder Pal Singh from Chandigarh, television scribe Manoj Kumar from Hyderabad, print-journalist Pankaj Kulashrestha from Agra, Orissa’s journalists Simanchal Panda, K Ch Ratnam and Priyadarshi Patnaik. Kolkata’s photojournalist Ronny Roy became the first scribe in India to lose his battle against the virus infection. The increase of media corona-casualties in Indian newspapers, news channels and digital news outlets is tempted by the callous approach of editor-managements while engaging them to report the pandemic from the ground with little pre-cautions.
Besides the casualties, the pandemic crushed the media industry to a larger extent. Many owners stopped publishing newspapers and shifted to digital space. Some closed down their editions citing the reason of shrinking advertisement revenues and also cut salaries, layoff employees. The author is a journalist and PEC representative from India
