India second highest scribe-losing nation to Covid-19, global tally reaches 1248

N.J. Thakuria, Geneva/Guwahati, 5 May 2021: As apprehended India emerges as the second most Covid-19 affected nation in the world to lose 141 journalists where the global tally reaches 1248 scribes in 75 countries due to corona complications since March 2020, when the
pandemic hit the human race. Brazil with 187 media corona casualties remains at the top of the victims’ list, where Peru (140 dead) is just behind India.

Mexico reports 109 corona-victims among journalists till date, followed by Italy, Bangladesh (52 each), Colombia (51), USA, Ecuador (47 each), United Kingdom (28), Dominican Republic (27), Pakistan(26), Turkey (24), Argentina, Iran, Russia (21 each), Venezuela (17),Panama (16), Spain, Ukraine (15 each), Bolivia, Egypt (14 each),Honduras (10), Afghanistan, Nigeria, South Africa, France (9 each),Guatemala (8), Nepal, Nicaragua (7), Kenya, Paraguay, Uruguay (5each), etc.

Press Emblem Campaign (PEC), which has been counting the name of media-victims of the pandemic, offers condolences to families and colleagues of the deceased. Moreover, the Switzerland based media rights and safety body requests early vaccinations for journalists on the frontlines.  It also commented that the human cost of the pandemic remains high where over 1200 journalists have lost their lives due to novel corona virus aggravated ailments.

“Journalists are engaged in a profession which is particularly exposed to the virus and it’s an unprecedented loss to the profession as a number of them died for lack of adequate protective measures when doing their job. But the media workers have an important role to play in the fight against the virus. So their safety should be a priority as they have to continue providing information from the ground,” said Blaise Lempen, secretary-general of PEC (www.pressemblem.ch/).

India lately lost a number of prominent journalists namely Bh Ramakrishna, Arun Pandey, Ruchir Mishra, Subhransu Sekhar Mishra, PL Razdan, Sumit Onka, Prabhu Joshi, Ram Naresh Tripathi, Raju Salvi, Satya Prakash Aseem, Shashi Baliga, Pritiman Mohapatra, SK Vyas, Anirban Bora, Kanu Priya, Kalyan Barooah, Adwaita Prasad Biswal, Debendra Samantray, Ramendra Singh, etc to corona aggravated ailments in different parts of the country.

“Casualty among media persons due to Covid-19 complications in India must be higher than we have recorded. In many cases the media houses avoid reporting their own victims or do it with lots of secrecy,” said Nava Thakuria, PEC’s country representative adding India is now losing nearly four journalists every day and if the trend continues, our country would top the list of corona-victims among journalists in the world very soon.