GENEVA/GUWAHATI: As apprehended India emerges as the
second most Covid-19 affected nation in the world to lose 141
journalists where the global tally reaches 1248 scribes in 75
countries due to corona complications since March 2020, when the
pandemic hit the human race. Brazil with 187 media corona casualties
remains at the top of the victims’ list, where Peru (140 dead) is just
behind India.
Mexico reports 109 corona-victims among journalists till date,
followed by Italy, Bangladesh (52 each), Colombia (51), USA, Ecuador
(47 each), United Kingdom (28), Dominican Republic (27), Pakistan
(26), Turkey (24), Argentina, Iran, Russia (21 each), Venezuela (17),
Panama (16), Spain, Ukraine (15 each), Bolivia, Egypt (14 each),
Honduras (10), Afghanistan, Nigeria, South Africa, France (9 each),
Guatemala (8), Nepal, Nicaragua (7), Kenya, Paraguay, Uruguay (5
each), etc.
Press Emblem Campaign (PEC), which has been counting the name of
media-victims of the pandemic, offers condolences to families and
colleagues of the deceased. Moreover, the Switzerland based media
rights and safety body requests early vaccinations for journalists on
the frontlines. It also commented that the human cost of the pandemic
remains high where over 1200 journalists have lost their lives due to
novel corona virus aggravated ailments.
“Journalists are engaged in a profession which is particularly exposed
to the virus and it’s an unprecedented loss to the profession as a
number of them died for lack of adequate protective measures when
doing their job. But the media workers have an important role to play
in the fight against the virus. So their safety should be a priority
as they have to continue providing information from the ground, ” said
Blaise Lempen, secretary-general of PEC (www.pressemblem.ch/).
India lately lost a number of prominent journalists namely Bh
Ramakrishna, Arun Pandey, Ruchir Mishra, Subhransu Sekhar Mishra, PL
Razdan, Sumit Onka, Prabhu Joshi, Ram Naresh Tripathi, Raju Salvi,
Satya Prakash Aseem, Shashi Baliga, Pritiman Mohapatra, SK Vyas,
Anirban Bora, Kanu Priya, Kalyan Barooah, Adwaita Prasad Biswal,
Debendra Samantray, Ramendra Singh, etc to corona aggravated ailments
in different parts of the country.
“Casualty among media persons due to Covid-19 complications in India
must be higher than we have recorded. In many cases the media houses
avoid reporting their own victims or do it with lots of secrecy, ” said
Nava Thakuria, PEC’s country representative adding India is now losing
nearly four journalists every day and if the trend continues, our
country would top the list of corona-victims among journalists in the
world very soon.