A total of 113 cases of grievous hurt and attack on journalists were reported from across the country last year, the government told Parliament today.
While the maximum cases of attack against media persons were reported from Uttar Pradesh at 63, the highest number of people arrested for these crimes, at 10, were reported to be from Madhya Pradesh during the same time period.
Minister of State for Home Haribhai Parathibhai Chaudhary, in a written reply to Lok Sabha, also said that the National Crime Records Bureau has started collecting data on attack on media persons under grievous hurt category since 2014.
"Data on murder of journalists is not maintained separately. As per available data, a total of 113 cases were registered and 30 persons were arrested under attack on media person (grievous hurt) during 2014," he said.
The data provided by the Minister said there were 22 cases registered by the police for attack on media in Bihar, 7 in Madhya Pradesh, 5 in Maharashtra, three each in Jharkhand and Gujarat, four in Andhra Pradesh and two each in Assam and Tripura, among others.
While six people were arrested for these crimes in Maharashtra, four each were apprehended in Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh respectively and three in Bihar among others.
Interestingly, the Minister's reply said no data was received from West Bengal in this regard.
No cases were registered in any of the seven Union Territories under this category.
Chaudhary added there was "no proposal" to set up a special task force to investigate the attack on journalists in the country while no report on "Safety of journalists" was received by it from the Press Council of India.
"The provisions of security to an individual is primarily the responsibility of the state government in whose jurisdiction such individual ordinarily resides...There is no separate categorisation of protectees for journalists/media persons, although individual journalists/media persons are also among those who apply for security cover," he said.
