Reporters Without Borders (RSF) on Tuesday expressed its outrage at reports the police in India's capital New Delhi detained and beat a reporter who was carrying out his professional duties
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 20th October, 2020) Reporters Without Borders (RSF) on Tuesday expressed its outrage at reports the police in India's capital New Delhi detained and beat a reporter who was carrying out his professional duties.
A reporter for The Caravan magazine, Ahan Penkar, was covering a protest over the rape and murder of a teenager in the city's outskirts when police began to disperse the protest and detain people. According to Penkar's own account, published in The Caravan, he was targeted on order from an assistant commissioner. In the police station, Penkar claims to have been beaten and harassed despite claiming to be a journalist. The officers took Penkar's press card and phone and made every effort to delete all videos and images shot by Penkar from the protest.
"This behaviour by New Delhi police, who deliberately disregarded Ahan Penkar's status as a journalist, is absolutely intolerable ... the police involved in beating him must be punished," Daniel Bastard, the head of RSF's Asia-Pacific desk, said.
According to Bastard, this episode is the latest in a growing number of reports of police abuse of journalists or lax attitude to mob attacks on journalists.
The RSF's statement underlined that India ranked 142nd out of 180 countries in the 2020 World Press Freedom Index.
