‘The global furore currently being raised at the killing of journalists in troublespots such as Syria and Afghanistan sadly highlights the lack of attention bestowed upon a region where there has been a far higher toll’

One will meet them in the remotest corner of this region, armed with nothing else but a notebook and pen, in hot pursuit of a “story”. Some do not hesitate to take personal risks to ferret out information of vital importance to society. Their zeal and motivation should be emulated by those ostensibly responsible for taking that society on to the path of progress and development, particularly our bureaucrats.

I am speaking, of course, of the journalists of the Northeast. They are a breed apart, for they work in what is called “a conflict zone”. Unlike their brethren in, say Delhi, who work from the relative safety of air-conditioned editorial rooms and become nationally recognised faces besides earning cash and laurels, the media folks of this region have to get on with the job in the face of great odds.

Though they work in a dangerous profession, they are vulnerable and unprotected. Many of them, because of their “exposures”, are thorns in the flesh not only of politicians, but also the so-called guardians of the law. This precisely is the reason why the roster of journalists in the Northeast who have been killed or injured in line of duty is long.

Manipur, for instance, has been turbulent for quite some years, thereby giving rise to a number of media martyrs who have been caught in the crossfire between the militant groups and the armed forces. The death of some of them, like Konsam Rishikanta Singh of the Imphal Free Press on November 17, 2008, or of T. Brajamani Singh, editor of the English daily Manipur News, who was shot dead by unidentified gunmen on August 20, 2000, briefly touched the national consciousness, to peter out soon. But others like Khupkholiyan Jimte, editor of Lentai magazine, Yembem Megha, correspondent of North East Vision or R.K. Sanatomba, editor of Kangla Lan Pung remained within the regional periphery and that, too, for an unacceptably short time.

The roster of journalist victims who have been felled by bullets of miscreants in Assam is even longer. As reported in the media from time to time, no less than 23 of them have either been killed or reported missing in the last 25 years. The most well-known case is the murder of legendary journalist Parag Kumar Das, who was gunned down on May 16, 1996, in broad daylight when he was bringing his son from school.

Das, then the editor of Asomiya Pratidin, had been a firm crusader for civil rights in the backdrop of unlimited powers conferred on the armed forces in tackling insurgency, as also against the kind of anti-social behaviour indulged in by a section of surrendered militants. Coerced into action by the public outcry, the police made some arrests, but the actual perpetrator or perpetrators were never apprehended, tried and convicted. There was clear-cut miscarriage of justice, with evidence either tampered with or destroyed, and witnesses forced by unknown agencies to retract earlier statements.

Many of the journalists killed in Assam had been similarly caught in the crossfire between the insurgents, the state and surrendered militants. In fact, the very first killing had been insurgency-related. Way back in 1987, Punarmal Agarwalla, correspondent of The Assam Tribune, fell to the bullets fired by suspected Ulfa militants at Kampur. Today, how many of us even recall the name of this correspondent, let alone give him due credit for the courage he had displayed within an inimical environment?

The last journalist to have met a similar fate had been Bimala Prasad Talukdar, editor of the Swatantra Azad, who was shot dead in 2010 at Hojai. In between, we have a host of martyrs of the media, including Indra Kumar Haksam of Amar Asom and Dwijen Das of Ajir Batori, both abducted by unknown persons and presumed murdered. Jagjit Saikia of Amar Asom in Assam fell to a similar fate in the hands of insurgents in 2008. The death of Kamala Saikia, local correspondent of Ajir Asom at Sivasagar, on August 9, 1991, allegedly at the hands of Ulfa, had then created a stir akin to that after Parag Kumar Das’s death, but resulted in no conviction.

In 2009 Anil Majumdar, editor of Aji, was shot dead on the streets of Guwahati by presumed militants. Of course, the trouble in the Bodo-dominated area has claimed its share of slain journalists, one of these being Manik Deuri, a journalist based at Goreswar, who was allegedly killed at Diphu on April 26, 1996, by members of the insurgent outfit, the Bodo Liberation Tigers. Also, there were other insurgency-related deaths though not by bullet. For instance, in 1999 Jiten Sutiya, a journalist based at Sivasagar, was killed in a grenade explosion inside the superintendent of police’s office.

However, some of these bravehearts met their end pursuing socially beneficent stories other than insurgency, not hesitating to take on elements inimical to the welfare of the region and its people.

In 1998, Nurul Hoque, a local journalist of Hojai, was killed by suspected mafia. Another media man, Pabitra Narayan, who worked as the correspondent of The North-East Times, was shot dead at Sonari on August 19, 1995, presumably by timber smugglers. Another case, which raised considerable public attention, was the killing of Prahlad Goala, district correspondent of Asomiya Khabar at Golaghat, in 2006, after he had sent several stories exposing the tree-felling mafia of his area.

The global furore currently being raised at the killing of journalists in troublespots such as Syria and Afghanistan sadly highlights the lack of attention bestowed upon a region where there has been a far higher toll. Strangely enough, in almost all the cases in the Northeast, no one has so far been held accountable for what amounts to cold-blooded murder.

This shows that there is more than meets the eye in the law and order scenario, with the public perception being that there is a nexus between forces responsible for maintaining law and order, politicians and anti-social or insurgent elements.

Yet the killings and the lack of sustained public condemnation or official action have not cowed down the media of this region, for which it deserves admiration. Nor has it frightened stalwart journalists into muting their respective stances, however unpalatable these might be for certain segments in our society. It has to be acknowledged that, despite having a few black sheep among the journalistic fraternity, the media in the Northeast as a whole has been performing in an excellent way in keeping the public informed about the goings on in the region.

Above all, scribes in this region have displayed courage in facing the contradictions that beset a conflict-ridden region. Their fearless reportage within a hostile environment has set a benchmark for the rest of the nation to aspire towards. Apart from a few ignoble examples, the print media of the Northeast does not kowtow to the powers that be nor hesitates to bring the administration, including the police and army, to task. An anti-establishment stance, in the constructive and not negative sense, is the hallmark of a healthy media.

Such a healthy trend has been maintained by the media in this region in spite of the vulnerability of scribes and the constant stress they are subjected to. Field-reporting here is fraught with risks, yet journalists have little in the way of physical protection. Their identity as journalists is their only shield but, as the numerous killings show, in many cases this is not enough to protect them in a patently dangerous profession. The kind of impartiality shown by the print media in general is in a sense a handicap within a conflict-ridden environment, entailing that when confronted with danger a journalist in the Northeast can expect assistance neither from the state nor those opposed to it.

Notwithstanding the challenges and risks they are subjected to, journalists of this region are perhaps the most poorly paid in the nation. A comparison with the salaries of news reporters based in the nation’s capital and those in the Northeast will confirm this. Greater economic security will help alleviate familial concerns and prove to be an impetus to the newshounds of the Northeast to continue on their chosen path.