Attacks – Journalists

Police in Hyderabad and Delhi assaulted at least four journalists yesterday, as India began a nationwide lockdown to contain the spread of the coronavirus, according to news reports and journalists who spoke to CPJ. The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting issued a statement yesterday, reiterating that journalists are exempt from the lockdown and are free to do their work without any restriction.

At about 10:30 p.m. in Hyderabad, three police officers attacked Ravi Reddy, the Hyderabad bureau chief for The Hindu newspaper, when he asked police to allow him through a barricade on his way home from work, according to Reddy, who spoke to CPJ in a phone interview, and Newslaundry. When Reddy got out of his car to speak with the officers, one of them grabbed him by his neck and pushed him back into his car, and two others joined in and hit him, he said.

Police in Hyderabad also beat and insulted Mendu Srinivas, political bureau chief of Telugu-language daily Andhra Jyothy, and hit Mohammed Hussain, a reporter for the English news website Siasat, for alleged lockdown violations while they were returning from work, according to news reports and a tweet by Hussain.