'Attacks on journalists assault on democracy'

The attacks on journalists, including murders, across the country recently was today described as an assault on democracy and freedom of press by a journalist union which wanted to draw the attention of President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
"We consider these attacks as an attack on the democracy and freedom of the Press, as some political miscreants try to prevent the journalists to do their job," National Union of Journalists said in a statement here.
It came against the backdrop of the killing of TV journalist Hemant Singh Yadav (45) in Chandauli district of Uttar Pradesh on October 3, in the third murder of a scribe in the state within four months.

Apart from it, attacks on journalists have also become regular phenomena in different parts of the country, NUJ said.
The statement said that a part-time reporter for a local Hindi daily in Bareilly district, Sanjay Pathak, was killed allegedly by two persons in August. A freelance journalist Ajay Vidrohi was killed at Sitamarhi in Bihar on September 29, the statement added.
NUJ leader Ras Bihari sought an appointment with the President and the Prime Minister to take up the matter.