Journalist associations in Goa, India, claim that the police were bystanders to an assault on media personnel on Wednesday, the Indo-Asian News Service (IANS) reported. According to the report, two photojournalists were assaulted while trying to take pictures of violence in which two youths were fatally burned.

The Photo Journalists Association of Goa (PJAG) condemned the inaction of the authorities in an official statement, saying that Sagun Gawde and Sameer Bhat – both employed with local media organizations – were attacked in the presence of police personnel.

“The incident happened with the police looking on as the journalists were trying to shoot and record Adarsh factory at Balli being set on fire by a mob. Two UTAA (United Tribals Alliance Association) agitators were burnt alive in the fire. The police did not help the journalists but actually sheltered the goons assaulting the journalists,” Rajtilak Naik, president for the PJAG told IPI.

According to news reports, tribal demonstrators were demanding, among other things, proportionate reservation in government jobs. The Goa Union of Journalists, the largest group of journalists in the coastal Indian state, told IANS that the lack of action by the police was proof that they were “sheltering criminals who are suppressing freedom of media.”

“It is deplorable that the police, whose duty it is to provide protection to the journalists who were going about their professional duties and were in a position to intervene and stop the assailants, stood by idly when the journalists were being attacked,” Mr. N. Ravi, editor of The Hindu and a member of the IPI Executive Board stated. “Journalists covering clashes between two groups and riots often find themselves in very difficult situations and are under threat of attack by one group or another. In such situations, their free and independent functioning requires protection by the state machinery, particularly the police. Here, the conscious and deliberate denial of such protection hits at the very root of media freedom,” Ravi noted.

“While Gawde was manhandled, Bhat was restrained from shooting the sequence in which a mob was setting fire to the factory. The incident was very important considering two people were burnt in the fire,” Union president Pandurang Gaonkar told IANS.

Calling for police accountability in this matter, N. Ravi, who is also the Chairman of the IPI India National Committee, said: “We hope that the Chief Minister and the administrative authorities would look into the incidents and issue suitable standing instructions to the police to provide protection to journalists going about their professional duties.”