More Indian scribes succumb to Covid-19, global tally reaching 1000
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T Navajyoti
Geneva/Guwahati: India continues to lose journalists in the Covid-19
pandemic even though the country has launched a massive vaccination
program covering over 75 million Indians till date. On the other hand,
global tally of casualties among media persons is reaching 1000.
According to the Switzerland based media watchdog and rights body
Press Emblem Campaign (PEC), at least 997 journalists succumbed to
Covid-19 complications in 73 countries till the first week of April
2021.
Brazil (140 dead) and Peru (137) continue to top of the list of most
affected countries followed by Mexico (93), India (60), Italy (51),
USA (46), Bangladesh (46), Ecuador (45), Colombia (39), United Kingdom
(28), Dominican Republic (27), Pakistan (25), Turkey (22), Panama
(16), Russia (15), Spain (15), Bolivia (14), Ukraine (14), etc, stated
PEC (www.pressemblem.ch/).
“Since the beginning of March 2020, the PEC started a corona-ticker to
pay tributes to the journalists killed by the Covid-19 around the
world. Media workers have an important role to play in the fight
against the novel corona virus, they have to inform about the spread
of Covid-19,” said Blaise Lempen, secretary-general of PEC.
Lempen, a journalist by profession, added that the safety of media
workers is particularly at risk in this crisis because they must
continue to provide information on the ground. A number of them died
for lack of adequate protective measures when doing their job. The PEC
team, while condoling their demises as corona-warriors, request early
vaccinations for journalists on the frontlines.
Lately India lost veteran journalist, author and academician Fatima
Zakaria (85) who succumbed to Covid-19 aggravated ailments on 6 April
2021 at a private Aurangabad hospital in Maharashtra. She used to work
for Mumbai’s Sunday Times, Bombay Times, etc. Honoured with
prestigious Padma Shri award, Ms Fatima was the wife of Maharashtra’s
former minister (also Islamic scholar) Dr Rafiq Zakaria and mother of
global media personality Fareed R. Zakaria.
“Earlier, another Mumbai based journalist Sabaji Mohan Palkar died of
Covid-19 on 4 April. The middle-aged journalist, who was associated
with Asian News International (a leading multimedia agency), worked as
a front-line activist,” said Nava Thakuria, PEC’s India representative
adding that Palkar was preceded by Uttar Pradesh scribe Pramod
Srivastava, who died on 27 March after hospitalization with corona
positive status.
Lately, India is witnessing an upcharge of novel corona virus with
daily infections to over 100,000 people, were Maharashtra, Punjab,
Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, UP, Delhi, etc, emerge as the
most affected Sates. Presently the country has over 8,43,470 active
Covid-19 cases. The billion plus nation has recorded over 13 million
patients since the pandemic’s outbreak last year with total number of
casualties at 1,66,175 till date.