Journalists’ Forum Assam (JFA) has welcome the initiative of the Press Council of India (PCI) to send a sub-committee to Guwahati for interaction with local journalists on the issue of safety to working journalists in Assam. The PCI team is scheduled to meet the journalists on 11 September next between 10:30 am to 1:30 pm in the local circuit house to examine the matters related to safety of journalists in the State.
The JFA argues that the media persons of northeast India, most of them without insurance cover are subjected to numerous threats from insurgents, surrendered militants, anti-insurgent government security agencies and even various so-called social organizations. Amazingly Assam scores highest in the list of casualties among all States in the trouble-torn region.
For records, Assam has lost over 20 editor-journalist-correspondents in the last 25 years. The trend started in 1987 with the killing of Punarmal Agarwala, a local correspondent of The Assam Tribune in Nagaon by militants belonged to the United Liberation Front of Assam. Four years later, the militants targeted a veteran freedom fighter-turned-journalist cum- teacher Kamala Saikia August 9, 1991 in Sivasagar.
The killing of journalists continued as the timber mafia murdered Pabitra Narayan at Sonari in 1995. The same year witnessed the slaughtering of Dipak Swargiary in Goreswar by miscreants. It was followed by the murder of Manik Deuri in Diphu in 1996 by suspected militants of NDFB.
Prominent human rights activist and journalist Parag Kumar Das was killed on May 17, 1996 by the surrendered militants belonged to ULFA. Next year, the unidentified gunmen killed Panja Ali at Kokrajhar in 1997. Nagaon-based local journalist Nurul Haque was murdered in 1998. The ULFA militants again killed a senior correspondent, Ratneswar Sarma Shastri at Barpeta in 1999. Later Dinesh Brahma and Indramohan Hakasam were assassinated in 2003. The timber mafia gunned down Prahlad Gowala in Golaghat in 2006. The year 2007 witnessed the killing of Bodosa Narzary in Kokrajhar. The following year, Mohammad Muslemuddin and Jagajit Saikia were gunned down in Hojai and Kokrajhar respectively. The editor of Aji, Anil Majumdar was shot dead in Guwahati by unidentified in 2009. It was followed by the killings of freelance journalist BP Talukder in Nagaon in 2010 and Raihanul Nayum in 2012.
“Though Assam has recorded highest number of casualties from the media in all these years, not a single perpetrator has been punished till date,” said a statement issued today by the JFA president Barua and its secretary Nava Thakuria adding that working in the conflict ridden Assam still remains a risky job for the uncompromising and committed working journalists.
Amid high security arrangements across the country, polling begins this morning at 7:30 am for the highly projected 13th Jatiya Sansad election in Bangladesh, where over 2000 candidates representing 50 political parties along with many independent contestants are in the fray. The Muslim majority nation has over 12.77 crore registered voters including 6.27 crore women and 1,232 third-genders, who are voting for electing 299 representatives (out of 300 seats in the national assembly). Over 42,000 polling centres will facilitate the electorates to exercise their franchise (through ballots in person) till 4:30 pm (on 12 February 2026). The election will be conducted...
As Bangladesh heads for 13th Parliamentary election and the referendum on July National Charter simultaneously on Thursday (12 February 2026), the interim government chief Professor Muhammad Yunus urged all participating candidates to rise above personal and party interests to prioritize greater interest of the Muslim majority nation regardless of the poll-outcomes. Addressing the nation of over 170 million people ahead of the much watched electoral exercises, Nobel peace laureate Dr Yunus commented that victory as well as defeat is an integral part of democracy and hence after the election, they should dedicate themselves to build a new, just, democratic, and inclusive...
Is it possible to have a quasi-judicial body like the Press Council of India to survive for weeks without its chairperson? Should the largest democracy on Earth put such an example where its government recognized autonomous media watchdog faces an existential crisis as the 15th council of PCI still devoid of a functioning head and 13 seats? How come a press council runs its business without filling these 13 seats, meant for millions of media professionals, for more than a year now, whereas the term of a council is limited to three years only? Many such pertinent questions emerge among media professionals in the south Asian nation, as the regular three-year term (as well as...
Amid an existential crisis in the Guwahati-based Assam Tribune group of newspapers, which worsened after the Covid-19 pandemic, a popular Assamese weekly newspaper lost its publication in the latter part of 2025. Asom Bani, once a mainstream weekly for Assamese readers for decades, stopped hitting the stands from September last year, as the management lost interest in continuing its printing every Friday. Even though the seven-decade-old Assamese-language weekly was lost from the media market, the management did not make any statement about Asom Bani’s fate. Prior to its departure, the weekly was merged with Dainik Asom, an acclaimed Assamese daily from the prestigious media house, as its...
Bangladesh, which recently witnessed turmoil following the demise of a young radical leader Sharif Osman Bin Hadi amid anti-India rhetoric, now gradually returns to normalcy, as the south Asian nation also prepares for its next general election scheduled for 12 February 2026. The highly sought after polls, as the sitting Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina faced an overthrow in the backdrop of a student-led mass uprising in July-August 2024, however misses the participation of Hasina’s party Awami League, which used to rule the Muslim majority country of 170 million people for several years.
The ousted premier along with thousands of her party men continue to stay in neighbouring...
It may be amazing but true, that the largest democracy on Earth continues waiting for a fully functioning government-sponsored media watchdog for more than a year now. Press Council of India (PCI), a quasi-judicial body, which was initiated to safeguard and nurture the freedom of press in the country, remains almost a non-functioning entity as the term of PCI’s 14th council expired on 5 October 2024. Since then various initiatives to constitute the statutory 15th council to carry forward its prescribed activities confronted different hurdles. Currently the PCI has its chairperson and secretary along with only five members representing Rajya Sabha, University Grants Commission, Bar...
An initial sadness and grief following the unforeseen death of Assam’s cultural icon in Singapore at only 53 have slowly turned into outrages with a sole demand for justice to Zubeen Garg, as millions of his fans and admirers got convinced that something wrong had happened to their prince of melody during an unplanned sea-yacht outing in the southeast Asian nation. The heart-breaking news that brought the India’s north-eastern State with 3.3 million people to a standstill turning its capital city into a sea of humans weeping, sobbing, crying and exclaiming why Zubeen was put to die in the islands nation, thousands kilometer away from his motherland, on 19 September 2025. The...
The heartbroken news arrived from Singapore in multiple media outlets, which baffled the people of Assam, but immediately in outrages among the young generation, who were born in eastern India and brought up with the melodious voice of iconic singer Zubeen Garg. The sadness and melancholy soon turned into outrages with a vital question, why Zubeen was taken to Singapore as he was not physically well for months. Millions of his fans were annoyed when they encountered some clippings of videos on social media, where the singing sensation was seen swimming in the seawater (without a life-jacket), whereas he was cautioned by the doctors in Guwahati to avoid the fire and water body. The...
Guwahati: Since 1 February 2005, Assam government has implemented the National Pension Scheme (NPS) for the government employees. All Assam Government NPS Employees’ Association terms it an anti-employee policy and a mockery in the name of pension. The Union government, instead of restoring the Old Pension Scheme (OPS), has taken initiatives to replace the NPS with a new one named Universal Pension Scheme (UPS).
The third biennial conference of the association, held on 24 August at Rupnagar in the city strongly opposed this move and demanded the reintroduction of the OPS. President Achyutananda Hazarika and general secretary Apurba Sharma announced that from next month...
The natural gas leakage from Bhatiapar crude oil well continues for 15 days, even though the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) along with an expert team from USA continue working for full dousing of the RDS-147A under Rudrasagar oilfield in Sivasagar district of eastern Assam. The blowout began on 12 June 2025 and uncontrolled leakage compelled nearly 350 families to leave their places for safety reasons. Besides the local villagers living near the old well, the high pressure gas flow impacted the surrounding environment heavily. Lately, the ONGC issued a statement claiming that ‘a significant progress in controlling the well at RDS 147A’ was made. It also added the...
Add new comment