Thursday, September 07, 2017

The fearless journalist-activist Gauri Lankesh...

In her breathless, high-pitched voice, Lankesh would usually ask her editor friend why his newspaper hadn't taken a stronger stand on an issue close to her heart. "If you big guys can't take a more robust stand, how are we going to do it?"

In the southern Indian city of Bangalore where she lived, Lankesh edited an eponymous weekly tabloid she inherited from her father in the local Kannada language. Financed entirely by subscriptions - part of an activist tabloid culture in the state of Karnataka, which shunned adverts - Gauri Lankesh Patrike was known for its feisty leftist views. It also reflected the editor's view and ideology.

Lankesh was a trenchant critic of the Hindu right-wing. She believed religious and majoritarian politics would tear India apart. When Malleshappa Kalburgi, a leading Indian scholar and a well-known rationalist thinker, was shot dead at his home in Dharwad following death threats from right-wing Hindu groups two years ago, she told a friend: "I don't care what happens to me, they even called me a slut. But I really worry for the country. These guys will break it up." Full story...

Related posts:
  1. Sri Lankans demand justice as journalists attacked...
  2. Turkey takes number of journalists in jail to record high globally...
  3. Indian author beaten up for publishing book titled 'God'
  4. Indian slum kids deliver their own tabloid newspaper...
  5. Janna Jihad, the youngest journalist in Palestine...

No comments:

Post a Comment