Indian newspapers publish blank editorial sections in protest against journalist's killing

Senior Indian army officer arrested for journalist's murder

Local newspapers in India left their editorial space blank for November 23 edition to register protest against the killing of senior journalist Sudip Datta Bhowmik.

According to Indian Express, most of the news editorials printed blank spaces in solid blacks and whites while journalists associates across India observed ‘black day’ on Thursday. Newspapers including the Tripura Observer, Tripura Times and Bengali-language dailies such as Dainik Sambad, Syandan Patrika and Tripura Darpan kept their editorial column blank.



“As far as institutional protest is concerned, we have left our editorials page blank for today’s edition of our newspaper. Murder of two journalists within two months is a matter of serious concern,” the Editor of Tripura Times, Manas Paul told ANI.

Majority of the newspapers in Tripura leave the space for editorials blank in protest against killing of journalist Sudip Datta Bhowmik. pic.twitter.com/K1Y8PpGUsg

— ANI (@ANI) November 23, 2017

Bhaumik’s editor Subal Kumar Dey said on Wednesday the murder was linked to articles the reporter had written.

He was allegedly killed by a junior officer when he went to a paramilitary base in the northeastern state of Tripura on Tuesday while investigating allegations of financial fraud against a senior Indian army officer – who was arrested by the Indian police on November 23.

Police said Tapan Debbarma, the commandant of the Second Tripura State Rifles, was arrested Wednesday on charges he ordered his bodyguard to shoot the reporter. “He [Debbarma] was arrested yesterday and produced before the magistrate. He has been remanded to 10 days of police custody,” local police superintendent Pradeep Dey told AFP on Thursday. “His security guard Nandu Reang was arrested on Tuesday itself.”

Bhumik was the third journalist to be killed in as many months in India and newspapers in Tripura on Thursday carried blank editorial pages in protest.



In September, a reporter in the state was lynched by a mob during clashes between police and warring political factions. His mutilated body was found the next day.

Also in September gunmen shot dead renowned journalist Gauri Lankesh in the southern city of Bangalore. No arrests have been made in her killing, but some believe she was targeted for her outspoken criticism of Hindu nationalism.

The Committee to Protect Journalists says 41 reporters have been killed in India since the early 1990s, a figure that excludes the two latest deaths in Tripura.