113 attacks against journalists in 2014, UP tops with 63: Government

New Delhi: A total of 113 cases of attacks on journalists in which they were grievously hurt were reported from across the country in 2014, the government said on Tuesday, adding Uttar Pradesh topped the list with 63 such cases.

Minister of State for Home Haribhai Parathibhai Chaudhary while giving this information in a written reply in Lok Sabha said the National Crime Records Bureau(NCRB) has started collecting data on attacks on media persons under grievous hurt category since 2014.

While the maximum cases of attack(63) against media persons were reported from Uttar Pradesh, the highest number of people arrested for these crimes, at 10, were reported from Madhya Pradesh during the same time period, he said.

"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," Chaudhary said.

The data provided by the Minister said there were 22 cases registered by the police for attacks on media in Bihar, seven in Madhya Pradesh, five 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 other actions. No cases were registered in any of the seven Union Territories under this category.

There was no data from West Bengal, the minister said. 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.