India: media workers intimidated, charged
Event- Country
- India
- Initial Date
- Jan 24, 2023
- Event Description
About the Human Rights Defenders: Mr. Akhilesh Sahu and Mr. Vijaylal Markam are journalists from Balrampur district in Chhattisgarh. Mr. Sahu works with the news portal Chhattisgarh Express News,and Mr. Markam freelances for portals like TP News and Khabar Bharat. Both journalists have extensively covered issues like corruption, pilferage and injustice in rural areas, and have faced reprisals in the past. Mr. Markam was arrested and jailed for eight months under fabricated charges before he was granted bail by the High Court in December 2022.
Details of the Incident: On January 23, 2023, journalists Mr. Akhilesh Sahu and Mr. Vijaylal Markam visited the Shankarpur Primary School in Balrampur district on a reporting assignment.They published a video report the same day which showed that students were sitting on the ground in front of the school building for their lessons, and the school building and toilets were locked.
In the report, the head teacher of the school Mrs. Sunita and another teacher Mr. Vijay failed to provide any answers regarding when the facilities would be available.
On January 24, 2023, at 5:30 PM, an FIR (20/2023) was registered against journalists Mr. Akhilesh Sahu and Mr. Vijaylal Markam at the Raghunath Nagar Police Station, under Sections 294 (obscene acts or words in public), 34 (common intention), 384 (extortion), 504 (Intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code.
The complainant in the case was Ms. Sunita Singh, the head teacher of Shankarpur primary school. She alleged that on January 23, when the journalists visited the school for the reporting assignment, they drove their car recklessly, parked in front of the school gate, abused and threatened her and demanded a ransom.
Following the publication of the news report on January 23, 2023, the husband of Ms. Sunita Singh and Tendu Patta Prabandhak (government official who oversees the procurement of tendu leaves) of Raghunath Nagar Mr. Fulsay Ayam called Mr. Sahu and abused the journalists for undertaking the reporting assignment. He also threatened to capture and assault the journalists on a busy road, in full public view.
Subsequently, the journalists Mr. Sahu and Markam released the audio recording of this phone onversation on social media, which brought much disrepute to tendu patta prabandhak Mr. Fulsay Ayam and head teacher Ms. Sunita Singh.
- Impact of Event
- 2
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Intimidation and Threats
- Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression
- Offline
- Right to healthy and safe environment
- Freedom of expression
- HRD
- Media Worker
- Perpetrator-Non-State
- Non-state
- Source
Case shared with FORUM-ASIA member People's Watch
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Event Location
Latitude: 23.609171961400474
Longitude: 83.61801630759656
- Event Location
- Summary for Publications
On 24 January 2023, Akhilesh Sahu and Vijaylal Markam, media workers, were accused of false charged and threatened with physical violence for reporting the poor management of a school by the head of the school and his husband in Balrampur District, India.