Journalists demand immediate enactment of Journalist Protection Act

Hundreds of journalists today staged a dharna at Jantar Mantar here to condemn the attacks on their colleagues, including the recent killing of senior reporter Jyotirmoy Dey, in different parts of the country.

The scribes who participated in the agitation under the banner of National Union of Journalists (India) and Delhi Journalist Association demanded immediate enactment of a Journalist Protection Act.

They also demanded that investigation of the attacks on their fellow colleagues should be carried out by senior police officers equal to the SP or ACP rank and the culprits must sternly be punished.

NUJ (I) secretary general Ras Bihari urged Union Home Minister P Chidambaram to ensure an adequate security cover to the journalists covering life-threatening events.

Delhi Journalist Association president Manoj Verma said the broad daylight killing of investigative journalist J Dey in Mumbai on June 11 highlighted the threat to working journalists.

After the dharna, the journalists also submitted a memorandum to President Pratibha Patil.