New DElhi, Sep 23 (TIWN): “The Guild demands that the Central Government take cognisance of the series of attacks on journalists and ask all state governments to take steps to provide adequate protection to journalists across the country,” it added.

The Editors Guild of India (EGI) on Thuresday strongly condemned the killing of Santanu Bhowmik, a reporter of a local TV channel in Tripura.

“He was brutally attacked by a mob and killed in Mandai about 35 kilometres from Agartala even though, it is reported, that police were present at the scene. The Guild demands that the Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar have the assailants swiftly brought to justice and also to take adequate precautions to ensure that such attacks on journalists do not occur in future in the state,” EGI president Raj Chengappa, general secretary Prakash Dubey and treasurer Kalyani Shankar said in a joint statement.

“Unfortunately, Bhowmik's killing is not an isolated incident. Only on 5th September, Gauri Lankesh, editor of Gauri Lankesh Patrika, was brutally murdered in front of her house in Bengaluru, Karnataka. Meanwhile, there are frequent reports of journalists receiving threat letters or being trolled viciously. There is a growing pattern to these attacks and journalists are increasingly becoming easy targets because of lax law enforcement agencies,” the statement said.

“The Guild demands that the Central Government take cognisance of the series of attacks on journalists and ask all state governments to take steps to provide adequate protection to journalists across the country,” it added.