A group of women journalists has made an urgent appeal to editors and fellow journalists to ensure that Manipur stays in the news.
The letter, signed by 105 journalists from India, stresses that despite no let-up in the latest spiral of violence and bloodshed, the state has fallen off the front page.
“After more than two months of unprecedented civic strife and violence, events in this state have gone off the front pages. The incidents of violence were barbaric, with gross violation of human rights becoming routine,” the statement says.
“As of last week, more than 142 people have been killed in the violence, over 300 wounded and over 50,000 internally displaced. Despite this, both the state and central government have not taken adequate measures to quell the violence or address the grievances of the clashing communities,” it adds.
“In the last few days in Manipur a man has been beheaded in Langza village and a mentally ill woman killed in Imphal. Where is the coverage nationwide in mainstream media?” asks Hoihnu Hauzel, an independent journalist based in Gurgaon.
Hauzel, who is from Manipur, helped to draft the letter.
A woman and her son, a child, were burnt in an ambulance about a month ago. The feeling has settled in that it is business as usual in the northeastern state, says Hauzel. The media have fallen silent.
“The letter intends to break the silence, convey that someone is watching and that we are together,” said Hauzel, many of whose family members are in Manipur and are affected.
Media attention is also required on Manipur because much of the news coming from Imphal tends to be propaganda, she adds.
The letter points out that media coverage needs “to go beyond the ghastly reported beheading, burnings and shootings, to follow up with diligent fact-checking and contextualise reports of brutality and atrocities”.
The displaced have taken shelter in neighbouring states such as Mizoram and Assam. Their stories need to be told as well “to bring alive the consequences of this ethnic war”.
“It is inconceivable that any of this could happen in India’s heartland or southern states without reporters rushing there in droves or, the developments being lead coverage. There is little reporting of Manipur by mainstream TV channels,” the letter says.
“The Northeast has a long history of being invisible in the mainstream press,” it says.
Media houses must demand security for their reporters, the letter mentions. The government is not being pressured enough by the media to take action.
The full horror of the Manipur situation must be relentlessly documented and presented to the nation, the journalists said.