Thakuria Navajyoti
Guwahati: The Covid-19 pandemic continues to take its toll as more
journalists are dying because of novel corona virus aggravated
complications across India. Lately Mysuru based senior journalist
Pavan Hettur (35), who worked for Kannada daily Prajavani succumbed to
the infection at a private hospital. He was admitted after testing
Covid-19 positive and passed away on 18 October 2020.
Days back Patna based photojournalist Krishna Mohan Sharma (63),
worked for Times of India, died of Covid-19 complications on 15
October while undergoing treatment at AIIMS, New Delhi. Same day,
senior cricket journalist & commentator Kishore Bhimani (81),
acknowledged as an illustrious son of Bengal, died at a Kolkata based
private hospital after contracting Covid-19.
As India has lost nearly 50 working journalists to the new-found
virus infection, Journalists’ Forum Assam (JFA) repeated its appeal
to every media person to be careful and cautious while reporting the
pandemic from the ground. JFA president Rupam Barua and secretary Nava
Thakuria, while terming the journalists as corona-warriors along with
the practicing doctors, nurses, sanitation workers, police personnel,
etc, expressed shock at the higher stake of loss compared to worldwide
media corona-casualties of around 400.
The robust Indian media family lost at least twelve journalists to
corona-complications within September. Ludhiana based veteran
journalist Ashwani Kapoor (70), who worked for highly circulated
newspaper PunjabKesari, succumbed to Covid-19 at a private hospital on
29 September. Guwahati based news presenter in All India Radio Golap
Saikia (52) died with corona-infections on 26 September at a
city-based private hospital.
Patna’s senior journalist Arun Kumar Verma (68), who was associated
with various Prasar Bharti outlets died during Covid-19 treatment on
22 September. Indore journalist Manoj Binwal (55), who was associated
with Hindi newspaper Prajatantra, died of the virus infection while
undergoing treatment on 20 September. A day back, Agra’s journalist
Ami Adhar Nidar (50), who worked for widely circulated DainikJagaran,
passed away with the infection.
Jammu based scribe Anil Srivastava (68), who was associated with
United News of India, succumbed to Covid-19 on 18 September at a
government run hospital. Same day Jabalpur’s journalist Harish
Choubey (60), who worked for popular Hindi newspaper DainikBhaskar,
expired with the corona virus infection. Aurangabad based journalist
Rahul Dolare (49) died on 14 September at a government hospital. Same
day, Chennai’s popular journalist-actor Florent C Pereira (67) died
of Covid-19.
Punjab’s Abohar based journalist Naresh Bajaj (57), who was
associated with SachKahoon newspaper, succumbed to the virus
complications on 10 September. Ravinder Kumar (30) from Himachal
Pradesh, who worked for DainikJagran, died of the virus infection on 9
September. Assam’s Udalguri based newspaper correspondent Dhaneswar
Rabha (35) died at Guwahati medical college hospital on 6 September.
Rabha is the first scribe in northeast India to succumb to Covid-19
complications. Next day, Barak valley’s senior journalist Ashim Dutta
(65) passed away at Silchar medical college hospital.
Months back, Dhanbad’s journalist Sanjiv Sinha, Gorakhpur’s photo
journalist Rajiv Ketan, Mumbai’s senior film-journalist Shyam Sarma,
Nellore’s scribe Narayanam Seshacharyulu, Pune’s television reporter
Pandurang Raikar, Kanpur’s television journalist Neelanshu Shukla,
Patiala’s photojournalist Jai Deep, Tirupati’s television reporter
Madhusudan Reddy and video journalist M Parthasarathy succumbed to the
virus infections.
The list also includes senior journalist Prakash Deshmukh from Mumbai,
veteran journalist Ashok Churi from Palghar, television reporter
Ramanathan & news videographer E Velmurugan from Chennai, news
presenter Davinder Pal Singh from Chandigarh, television scribe Manoj
Kumar from Hyderabad, print-journalist Pankaj Kulashrestha from Agra,
Orissa’s journalists Simanchal Panda, K Ch Ratnam and Priyadarshi
Patnaik. Kolkata’s photojournalist Ronny Roy became the first scribe
in India to lose his battle against the virus infection.
Expressing concern over hundreds of Guwahati-based media persons
contracting the virus, the JFA also appeals to media group
managements to come clean on their employees’ corona health status as
part of their social responsibility. The forum added that while news
channels and newspapers continue identifying other Covid-19 patients,
they collectively remain silent when their employees turn positive
(except a few infected scribes made personal revelations in social
media).
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