Geneva: Press Emblem Campaign, the global media safety and rights body, expresses shock over the murder of an Indian journalist based in Bihar on Tuesday evening and demands a fair probe into the incident to identify the culprits for necessary legal actions. The victim, identified as Shivshankar Jha, sustained multiple knife injuries when he was attacked by miscreants on 25 June 2024 near his residence in Maripur village under the Muzaffarpur locality. Seriously wounded Shivshankar (40), who worked for several Hindi media outlets, was taken to a nearby hospital, but the attending doctors declared him dead. The family members claimed that the local liquor mafia was involved in the murder.

“Shivshankar Jha becomes the 2nd journalist to be killed this year in India and 57th victim across the world since 1 January. We express profound grief over the incident and demand a fair probe so that the culprits can be punished under the law. PEC will urge Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar to take initiatives for a proper investigation into the matter and duly compensate the bereaved family,” said Blaise Lempen, president of PEC (https://pressemblem.ch/pec-news.shtml).

PEC’s south Asia representative Nava Thakuria revealed that India earlier lost television journalist Ashutosh Shrivastava, who worked for Sudarshan News, and was shot dead in Uttar Pradesh on 13 May last. India’s immediate neighbor Pakistan witnessed the killing of seven media persons namely Khalil Afridi Jibran, Nasrullah Gadani, Kamran Dawar, Mehar Ashfaq Siyal, Maulana Mohammad Siddique Mengal, Jam Saghir Ahmad Lar and Tahira Nosheen Rana. Another neighbor Myanmar lost one scribe (Ko Myat Thu Tun) to military atrocities during this period.