Siddique Kappan, journalist who was imprisoned by the UP state government for covering the Hathras rape and murder case. Kappan was chained to his bed in the jail where he was ill with Covid-19. Subsequently, the Supreme Court asked for him to be transferred to a hospital in Delhi, saying, "Even an undertrial is entitled to the right to life guaranteed by the Indian constitution. Photo The Leaflet.in
On 12 July 2021, the Editors Guild of India sent a public note to the press saying, that it is “deeply disturbed by the continuing trend of heavy-handedness by the state authorities in Uttar Pradesh with respect to journalists and media. The latest incident is that of an assault on a journalist by the Chief Development Officer (CDO), in the district of Unnao, UP, on July 10, 2021, when the former was covering polling for Block Pramukh elections. In a video that has gone viral on social media, Krishna Tiwari, a local journalist, is seen being beaten up by Divyanshu Patel (CDO), as well as reportedly some BJP workers.”
The “EGI finds this incident highly condemnable and actionable. This incident has come against the backdrop of increased persecution of journalists in the state of UP, as the administration has punished, penalized, and incarcerated journalists in an effort to intimidate them from freely reporting on crimes, state excesses, and the management of the pandemic. Siddique Kappan, the journalist who was arrested while reporting on the rape and murder of a Dalit woman in Hathras in October 2020, still remains in jail under the draconian UAPA, in spite of several appeals by the family and the civil society to afford him a fair trial and treatment.” The breach of peaces charges against Kappan have been dropped as reported by the Times of India on 16 June 2021 and according to the SDO of Mant, he has been discharged from the matter. Nevertheless Kappan still remains in jail.
“Even though the CDO has subsequently apologized to the journalist, this attitude of heavy-handedness by the administration is hurting the democratic rights of the media, which becomes all the more crucial given that the state goes into polls next year.
“EGI demands that strict action be taken against the official and that concrete steps be taken to improve the environment for independent journalism in the state.”
The statement is signed by Seema Mustafa, president Sanjay Kapoor, general secretary Anant Nath, treasurer
The Covid-19 pandemic led to the country-wide lockdown on 25 March 2020. It will be two years tomorrow as I write this. What have we learned in this time? Maybe the meaning of resilience since small companies like us have had to rely on our resources and the forbearance of our employees as we have struggled to produce our trade platforms.
The print and packaging industries have been fortunate, although the commercial printing industry is still to recover. We have learned more about the digital transformation that affects commercial printing and packaging. Ultimately digital will help print grow in a country where we are still far behind in our paper and print consumption and where digital is a leapfrog technology that will only increase the demand for print in the foreseeable future.
Web analytics show that we now have readership in North America and Europe amongst the 90 countries where our five platforms reach. Our traffic which more than doubled in 2020, has at times gone up by another 50% in 2021. And advertising which had fallen to pieces in 2020 and 2021, has started its return since January 2022.
As the economy approaches real growth with unevenness and shortages a given, we are looking forward to the PrintPack India exhibition in Greater Noida. We are again appointed to produce the Show Daily on all five days of the show from 26 to 30 May 2022.
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