Attacks – Journalists

On January 23, the channel sent Prathibha Priyadarshani Mukkera and camera person Bhanu Mudhiraj to cover a hunger strike by right-wing protesters in Hyderabad, in Telangana state, opposed to the admission of women to the shrine, Mukkerta told CPJ. “We were doing our job when some of the protesters recognized our logo. They started shouting [insults] at us,” she said. As the protesters became increasingly agitated, police intervened and asked the journalists to leave the scene, Mukkera told CPJ.

“We were returning back to our vehicle when a few men followed us and asked us ‘Why have you come when we didn’t call you?’ I tried to tell them I’m doing my job as a journalist when one of them pushed me and another started beating up my colleague,” she said. Mukkera told CPJ that her colleague was slapped multiple times by the protesters.