Nagpur Patrakar Club and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) organised a workshop on Safety Kit for journalists covering the upcoming Maharashtra state elections
Nagpur: The Nagpur Patrakar Club in collaboration with the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) today organised a workshop on Safety Kit for journalists covering the upcoming Maharashtra state elections.
The kit was released at the press club by Pradeep Maitra, President – Nagpur Press Club, SN Vinod, editor-in-chief – Nagpur Today and CPJ’s India Correspondent Kunal Majumder.
CPJ is an independent organization, headquartered in New York, that advocates for press freedom worldwide. It also reports and researches on issues related to journalist safety.
The safety kit has been developed by security experts at CPJ keeping in mind threats faced by journalists while covering elections. It touches on aspects of digital, physical and psychological safety and provides solutions to mitigate such issues.
During the discussion, Pradeep Maitra spoke about the security threats faced by journalists in the state and the pending Maharashtra Journalist Protection Bill. SN Vinod stressed on the need for journalists to be aware about their safety issue.
Kunal Majumder shared data from CPJ research. According to CPJ, the most dangerous beat for journalists worldwide is politics and nearly 88 percent of those arrested are local reporters. In India, five journalists were killed in 2018 and one was imprisoned. Majumder also discussed the details of the journalist kit and highlighted growing threats from the digital front from social media.