On Sunday (June 26), a female Republic Bangla journalist was manhandled by a Trinamool Congress (TMC) worker in Bhatpara city in the North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal.
The video of the incident was caught on camera wherein the TMC goon could be seen pushing and assaulting the female journalist. Reportedly, the man was miffed at Republic Bangla’s coverage of electoral malpractices in Bhatpara during elections.
The female journalist had spotted a woman who entered the polling booth without an ID card. On confronting her, the woman confessed that she was there to ‘watch over’ the polls. Soon after, the Trinamool Congress worker began heckling the journalist and then launched a full-blown attack.
The journalist held her ground even during the assault. She went back to the accused and confronted him with questions. The TMC goon was seen throwing her microphone on the ground on several occasions. But, that did not deter the journalist from asking the right questions.
By-elections were conducted on Sunday (June 26) in 6 Municipalities of West Bengal including Bhatpara (ward 3), Jhalda (ward 2), Panihati (ward 8), Chandannagar (ward 16), Dumdum (ward 4), and South Dumdum (ward 29).
TMC and their attack on free and fair reporting
In January last year, TMC MLA (Mainaguri) Ananta Deb Adhikari was booked for slapping a local journalist in the Jalpaiguri district of West Bengal. The journalist named Somnath Chakraborty reportedly drew the ire of the MLA after he published news about the MLA’s criticism of the Zilla Parishad.
The TMC MLA, however, denied the allegations and responded, “Everyone should read what the journalist had written and tell me whether it would make me angry or not”.
“The news was published at an event. The MLA confronted me for publishing ‘anti-government’ news and slapped me”, alleged Chakraborty during an interview with Republic TV. An FIR was by Chakraborty against the TMC legislator.
In December 2021, TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee tried to lure journalists using advertising money and asked them to publish only positive stories about the government.