India is facing a second and worse wave of Covid-19 pandemic. At this time, the country requires journalism to tell the stories of courage, of loss and grief, of the state of preparedness and about the efforts being made by communities, individuals, civil society and government. Journalists are needed to document with rigour the gaps and lacunae in governance when it appears. At the same time, journalists need to be vigilant about...

-Press communiqué by Association for Democratic Reforms, dated 5th May, 2021 In a letter sent to Shri Sushil Chandra, Chief Election Commissioner and Shri Rajiv Kumar, Election Commissioner on 5th May, 2021, Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) has requested for extending facilities allowing migrant workers to vote from their current residences away from home constituencies, at a time when similar facility is being worked out for the Non-resident Indians (NRIs) by...

-TheLeaflet.in THE Delhi High Court Wednesday castigated the Central Government over its handling of the oxygen crisis in the city and across the country, caused by the second wave of Covid19. “It is the Centre’s responsibility to ensure supply of oxygen to hospitals running short of it. Protect fundamental rights of citizens by ensuring the supply of oxygen by whatever means”, said a bench of Justices Vipin Sanghi and Rekha Palli. “There is...

-The Hindu They were “harassed, abused and traumatised” and disparagingly called ‘coronavirus,’ says study A study commissioned by the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) on racial discrimination and hate crimes against people from the northeast States found that the “northeast India seamlessly fits [an] Indian’s imagination of a Chinese person”. The study found that 78% of the people from the region who were interviewed believed that physical appearance was the most...

-The Hindu Notes several instances of govt pressure on media outlets Washington DC: In its 2020 Human Rights Report, the U.S. State Department said the harassment and detention of journalists critical of the (Indian) government in their reporting and on social media, has continued, although the government generally respected the freedom of expression. It also said government’s requests for user data from Internet companies had increased “dramatically.” The report, which is submitted each...