Another instance of attack on the media has been reported from Shaheen Bagh. This time the victims were Bhupendra Chaube of CNN News18 and the panellists on his show. The show was conducted at the site of the ongoing sit-in protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act in Shaheen Bagh. As the show was progressing, the crowd turned unruly and Chaube was forced to cut his short in order to ensure the safety of his guests.
@bhupendrachaube heckled today at Jamia protest by the protesters.. All guests including @gunjakapoor @live_pathikrit forced to leave the discussion in between because crowd went out of control. @CNNnews18 pic.twitter.com/3uqpcKKvpk
— Aamir Jawaid (@aamirjawaid88) February 3, 2020
Gunja Kapoor, who was one of the guests on Bhupendra Chaube’s show, thanked him for his handling of the situation. She also expressed her gratitude towards the team of CNN News18 for ensuring that the situation did not get out of hand despite the behaviour of the crowd.
Shout out to @bhupendrachaube Sir for handling the situation with such agility & composure. He cut short the show to ensure safety.
The crowd got out of hand – @CNNnews18 team ensured the situation didn’t get out of hand. https://t.co/YB9jpKOkg5
— Gunja Kapoor (@gunjakapoor) February 3, 2020
Journalists and media personnel have been attacked at Shaheen Bagh earlier as well. Bhupendra Chaube’s conduct appears to be much more praiseworthy than that of his counterpart in India Today, Rahul Kanwal. When Raghav Awasthi and Shantanu Gupta were attacked by the mob at Shaheen Bagh, Rahul Kanwal did not make an effort to effectively control the situation that he should have.
Journalist Deepak Chaurasia was attacked when he was reporting live from the site and so was the video journalist accompanying him. The camera of the channel was also destroyed. In Mumbai, in the Shaheen Bagh inspired anti-CAA protests in Nagpada, a journalist was attacked as well and his camera was broken.
