BeyondHeadlines Special Correspondent
Mumbai: A group of journalists organized candle light vigil today at the Mahatma Gandhi statue at MG Road to honour popular and respected journalist Jyotirmoy Dey, who was shot dead in broad day light in Mumbai on June 11. Dey was heading the crime bureau at English daily Mid-Day.Courtesy:
The smooth, soft and developed candlelight announced that Day would live on and inspire others of his tribe to be fearless. Many of those gathered knew Dey well. Some had only met him briefly. There were a large number of those who did not know him personally, but wanted to show that they cared for one of their own.
“I worked with Mid-Day. I used to edit his columns,” one of those present said. A placard she carried read, “You may silence journalists, but you cannot silence the truth.” Aditya Anand, editor of Bangalore edition of Mid-Day, said, “We are here because we knew Dey personally.”
“This is yet another case of one who chose not to take police protection, because that might have cut him off from his sources,” said Preety Srinivasan, a journalist from City Plus, who asserted that such violence had no place in a democracy. “It was a brutal killing, one that we should all protest,” said Om Prakash, a press photographer.
No one wanted to speculate about who might have been behind the brutal attack.
“Don’t ask me who killed him, was it D company or Chota Shakeel. I don’t know. He’s been doing what he was doing for the last two decades, and he was among the best in his field,” said a close friend of the slain journalist who did not wish to be named.
And are there fears of such attacks among the gathered journalists?
“I had a narrow escape in Chennai in 1999, I was nearly bumped off, on the road. It was the oil mafia. There was a perception of threat,” said Vijay Grover, chief of bureau, News X, adding that in Karnataka, reporting on the mining lobby could be fraught with risk. “The nexus between politicians and the mafia would work against journalists,” he said.
City Police Commissioner BG Jyotiprakash Mirji visited briefly to assure those present that such an incident would not occur in Bangalore.
