Bhubaneswar: Amidst the ongoing demand for a law for the protection of working journalists in Odisha, a woman scribe and her cameraman were allegedly thrashed and abused by some staff of a shopping mall in Bhubaneswar on Saturday.
The lady scribe, Swati Jena working for a web-channel was allegedly attacked when she had reportedly visited the mall to report on 'illegal collection of parking fees by the authorities of the shopping mall in Rasgulgarh area of the Smart City'.
“Some staff of the Esplanade shopping mall abused and attacked me and my camera-person when we had gone there to cover a story regarding illegal collection of parking fees,” said Jena.
Jena further alleged that the shopping mall staff, mostly security personnel, snatched and damaged their equipment. Based on the complaint field by Jena, Sahid Nagar police has registered a case and assured action on the basis of CCTV footage.
An employee of the concerned shopping mall said, “Such incident should not have happened and only after probe, everything will be cleared.”
Meanwhile, journalists today staged a dharna in front of Esplanade shopping mall demanding arrest of the mall staff who allegedly abused & thrashed a woman scribe and her video journalist.
It is pertinent to mention here that attack on journalists is not nothing new in Odisha. Earlier in April, supporters of a political party had allegedly attacked a journalist while covering the second phase polls at a booth in Kantamala of Boudh district.
A journalist a journalist of an electronic media was also reportedly attacked when he had gone to cover election newsnear Astaranga in Puri in the month of March this year.
On January 26, a scribe was allegedly thrashed by a group of youths inside a cinema hall in Bhubaneswar. The victim, identified as Kapilendra Pradhan, was attacked for opposing a group of students who were passing lewd comments on women.
On January 30, OTV journalist was attacked during coverage of a protest by students of Gada Sri Maa government high school in Paradip.