Bastar Journalist found murdered in Bijapur, Chhattisgarh
New Year has brought sad news for the Indian media fraternity as a young scribe, Mukesh Chandrakar of Bastar Junction YouTube Channel, was found murdered in Bijapur locality of Chhattisgarh State on Friday January 03, 2025
Geneva: New Year has brought sad news for the Indian media fraternity as a young scribe was found murdered in Bijapur locality of Chhattisgarh State on Friday January 03, 2025.
Local media persons informed that the body of journalist Mukesh Chandrakar was recovered from a newly constructed septic tank belonging to an influential contractor based in Chattanpara area.
Mukesh (30), who made daring media reports on corruption and insurgency in central India, went missing on 1 January 2025 following which his family members lodged a police complaint.
A seasoned journalist, Mukesh used to run a YouTube channel named "Bastar Junction" and enjoyed millions of views.
“It’s unfortunate that a young media person is seemingly targeted for his string reporting on powerful corrupt people. Incidentally, Mukesh Chandrakar becomes the first journalist to be killed this year across the world", PEC President Blaise Lempen said in a statement.
"We demand a fair probe to identify the culprits behind his killing and subsequent punishment under the law. Press Emblem Campaign (PEC) urges Chhattisgarh chief minister Vishnu Deo Sai to take personal interest to deliver justice to the bereaved scribe’s family as early as possible,” the PEC President said.
PEC’s South Asia representative Nava Thakuria informed that Mukesh worked in several media outlets including a satellite news channel. He made a mark in investigative journalism while reporting on misappropriation of funds in various government projects in his locality.
The courageous journalist also faced wrath from the ultra left insurgents, who remained active in Bastar district, and finally Mukesh established himself as a strong voice for the deprived section in the society.
Global casualty of media workers
The global casualty of media workers reached 179 in 2024 across 25 countries. India maintained the number of journo-murders within 4 which is one more than the casualty reported in 2023.
All the media victims reported last year from the central Indian region, where Uttar Pradesh witnessed the killing of two journalists (Ashutosh Srivastava and Dilip Saini), followed by Bihar (Shivshankar Jha) and Madhya Pradesh (Salman Ali Khan).
The PEC said December was a particularly dramatic month with 20 more journo-victims. The increase in 2024 compared with 2023 (140 media casualties) according to the same criteria is 28%, added the PEC statement adding that 116 media workers were killed in 2022, followed by 79 in 2021, 92 in 2020, 75 in 2019, etc.
The PEC said conflicts in the Middle East are responsible for more than half of the victims. They have claimed the lives of 91 journalists: at least 80 in the Gaza Strip, 6 in Lebanon, 4 in Syria and 1 in the West Bank.
In total, the hostilities in Gaza since 7 October 2023 have killed at least 161 media workers, an unprecedented toll for a conflict in such a short space of time, the PEC said.
As per the latest data released by the Gaza Health Ministry, more than 200 journalists have been killed since Oct 2023.
Journalists killed outside Middle East
In 2024, the war in Ukraine resulted in the deaths of 19 Ukrainian journalists (most of whom had joined the army) plus one foreigner (Ryan Evans of Reuters in Kramatorsk). To this must be added the death in custody in Russia on 10 October of Ukrainian journalist Victoria Rochtchina, making a total of 21 victims.
Outside the Middle East and Ukraine, Pakistan had the highest number of journalists killed, 12 since 1 January, a clear deterioration. Russia has 7 journalists killed (including three in Ukrainian territories occupied by Russia and one in Kursk). In Bangladesh, unrest in July left 7 journalists dead.
The situation remains very dangerous in Mexico, where 7 journalists have been killed. Hostilities in Sudan caused the death of 6 journalists. In Colombia, 4 media workers were killed, where 4 killed in India, 3 in Iraq and 3 in Myanmar (Burma).
Two people were killed in Somalia, two in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and two in Haiti. Cambodia, Chad, Ecuador, Honduras, Indonesia, Jamaica, Nepal and the Philippines, followed with one fatality in each country.
In ten years, the PEC has counted 1,159 victims, an average of 2.25 per week. Over the last five years, the most dangerous countries have been Gaza/West Bank (166), Ukraine (59), Mexico (55), Pakistan (36) and India (32).
By continent in 2024, the Middle East had the highest number of victims (92: Gaza, Lebanon, Syria , West Bank and Iraq), ahead of Asia (31). Europe follows (28: Ukraine and Russia), ahead of Latin America (17) and Africa (11).
In addition to the Middle East, there has been a deterioration in Asia from one year to the next (31 deaths compared with 12). On the positive side, there were fewer victims in Latin America in 2024 than in 2023 (16 compared with 20).
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