On Monday, Indian journalist Sandeep Sharma was crushed by a truck while riding a scooter in Bhind district in the central state of Madhya Pradesh. The same day in the Bhojpur district in the eastern Bihar state, journalist Navin Nishchal and his colleague Vijay Singh were the victims of a deadly hit-and-run.

Sharma, a 35-year-old stringer for the News World channel had received threats after conducting an investigative report in July last year that uncovered corruption in the sand mining industry. "Sand mafias" are alleged to be involved with illegal sand extraction in cooperation with corrupt police forces.

The incident was vividly caught on CCTV camera. In the video, the scooter simply vanishes under the wheels of a truck moving at breakneck speed. India's Central Bureau of Investigation has been tasked with investigating Sharma's death.

"The illegal mining mafia is too strong. This investigation will be biased. Journalists continue to bear the brunt of threats and violence from the mafia," Vivek Sharma, Sandeep's friend told DW.

Nishchal and Singh worked for the Hindi newspaper Dainik Bhaskar. Police arrested Mohammad Harsu, a former village chief in the eastern state of Bihar who according to the Associated Press had argued with Nischal earlier in the day about his reporting.

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Not isolated incidents

The deaths are the latest in a disturbing trend of journalists meeting a frightening end while performing their duties in speaking truth to power.

The frequency in which journalists are being attacked, especially in rural India, also begs the question of why there are no safety mechanisms to protect them.

"Authorities must thoroughly investigate the killing of the journalists and determine if they were targeted because of their reporting," Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) Asia program coordinator Steven Butler, told DW.

"This tragic incident may well be a failure of local authorities to provide adequate security to a reporter who had received death threats," he added.

The CPJ ranks India 13th in its global impunity index, which highlights countries where the murders of journalists are least likely to be punished. The organization claims not a single journalist's murder in the country has been solved in the past 10 years.

#FreedomOfSpeech across the world Shammi Haque, blogger, Bangladesh "People in Bangladesh can't say what's on their mind. There is no freedom of speech at all and every day the situation is getting worse. I'm a social activist and blogger and my topics include religion. Islamists don't like this. They already killed six bloggers - my friends - so I decided to leave the country. I want to return but I don't know when and if it will be safe."

#FreedomOfSpeech across the world Anonymous (for security reasons), Venezuela "Freedom of speech is a concept that doesn't exist in my country, it would be kryptonite to a dictatorship. Journalists try not to criticize the government to avoid fines and to protect their own lives. Journalists are persecuted if they are critical and many journalists have left the country. The government owns around 80 percent of the media so social media is the only voice we have now."

#FreedomOfSpeech across the world Amukelani Mayimele, youth activist, South Africa "There is a big debate about freedom of speech in South Africa right now. Freedom of speech still exists, but there is currently an intervention by our national broadcasting association. They are trying to enact new laws of what can and can't be covered."

#FreedomOfSpeech across the world Rachid Boukhenfer, journalist, Morocco "In the last decade there has been more space for freedom of speech in Morocco. It's not something we've simply received, many people had to fight for it. We still need to enlarge it but also make optimum use of the space we already have. In a country that is in the process of becoming democratic, we need to develop as we go, because there is always something standing in the way."

#FreedomOfSpeech across the world Binta Coudy Dé, entrepreneur, Senegal "People in Senegal are not so free to express themselves. If you're not in the political field you have to be careful with what you say. As an entrepreneur, you can't be critical of the government, otherwise you won't get any funding."

#FreedomOfSpeech across the world Roman Dobrokhotov and Ekaterina Kuznetsova, journalists, Russia Roman: "In Russia you're censored by the government at around one million readers. My website is smaller and is registered in Latvia so we can avoid censorship. The only attention we get from the government is occasional attacks on our server." Ekaterina: "Freedom of speech doesn't exist in Russia. In Europe, people are free to criticize politicians. I hope things will change in Russia."

#FreedomOfSpeech across the world Anonymous (for security reasons), journalist, Syria "Freedom of speech has not existed in Syria for ages. In fact, people can't express their opinion about the Assad regime without asking. It's forbidden. They would be killed. If I were to post something critical on social media, I would not be living for very long."

#FreedomOfSpeech across the world Ayesha Hasan, journalist, Pakistan "In Pakistan, 'freedom of press' are three very dangerous words. It might cost you your career or your life. They say, 'with great freedom comes great responsibility.' Well, we have freedom but no responsibility. I even have to watch what I am saying right now. I was almost kidnapped once when reporting, so we had to drop the story. But we have very brave journalists in Pakistan."

#FreedomOfSpeech across the world Mohammed Al-Azzani, development worker, Yemen "In my country, freedom of speech is like a bear locked inside a cage and it needs to be let out. One and a half months ago, a 17-year-old boy was killed because of a Facebook post."

#FreedomOfSpeech across the world Rabaa Ben Doukhan, radio journalist, Tunisia "The only result of our revolution is freedom of speech. We are free to criticize our government now. When I ask others in the region about freedom of speech in their home countries, the difference is huge. People in Tunisia do speak out. There are many difficulties like corruption in my country, but thankfully, freedom of speech is not one of them anymore."

#FreedomOfSpeech across the world Khushal Asefi, radio manager, Afghanistan "Freedom of speech is a 'soft gun' in Afghanistan. It's the voice of the people that the government is afraid of. It's challenging but we are at a better level than our neighbors."

#FreedomOfSpeech across the world Salim Salim, journalist, Palestine "There's not a lot of freedom in Palestine for journalists. A big problem is that journalists can't travel freely. They need to complete an application to go here but they can't because Gaza is under siege. Journalists are arrested by Israel and by the Palestinian Authority. If they write an opinion on Facebook, they're arrested by the government. But it's still better than in Syria or Iraq."

#FreedomOfSpeech across the world A.N. (full name not revealed for security reasons), TV journalist, Kenya "We enjoy quite a bit of freedom of speech in Kenya, but there are hefty fines for defamatory statements against the government. You can't air your opinion of a leader without your impartiality as a journalist being called into question - even if you think what they're doing is wrong. That's too bad."

#FreedomOfSpeech across the world Ananya Azad, blogger, Bangladesh "In my country there is no freedom of speech. You can't say anything about Islam or criticize the government. Islamic fundamentalists have declared that if anyone criticizes Islam, they'll be killed. I'm a journalist and I was threatened by Islamist terrorists myself last year. They declared that I will be their next target and uploaded my photo on a hitlist, so I had to flee my country."

#FreedomOfSpeech across the world Boureima Salouka, sustainable development consultant, Burkina Faso "In my country we are free but we fight for our freedom. We pushed out our dictator and now we are free to express ourselves. But you have to work for your freedom. Freedom is a constant struggle." Author: Anne-Sophie Brändlin, Carl Nasman



Small-town journalists at a greater risk

Since 2015, as many as 142 attacks against journalists have been registered in rural India, according to the latest data available with the National Crime Records Bureau. As many as 70 journalists were killed in India between 1992 and 2016. Many of them were independent journalists who were murdered close to their home or their workplace.

"Just look at the number of photographers who were roughed up, their equipment smashed and female writers groped by the police while covering students protesting in the capital last week," Rajeev Tyagi, a veteran photographer, told DW.

Many attacks on journalists go unreported, as reporters often succumb to threats from local politicians, policemen, and self-appointed vigilantes.

The gunning down of high-profile journalist Gauri Lankesh in Bangalore last September reignited the debate over freedom of the press and freedom of speech in India. It demonstrated that killing and intimidation of journalists was not limited to one regime or region.

But despite public outrage, nothing has changed since then.

Read more: Indian journalists work in an 'atmosphere of intimidation'

Soon after Lankesh's murder, journalist Sajeev Gopalan was allegedly roughed up by police in front of his wife and daughter in the southern state of Kerala after he had reported unfavorably about them.

In another incident, Sudip Dutta Bhaumik, an investigative reporter at the Bengali-language daily Syandan Patrika, was shot dead in the northeastern state of Tripura. Another young TV reporter, Santanu Bhowmik, known for leftist leanings, was allegedly killed in an attack by tribal party cadres.

"All of them angered fanatical forces who have powerful backers and paid the price for speaking the truth. There has to be greater political commitment to protect free speech and freedom of the press," Brinda Karat, a Communist politician, told DW.

Read more: Press group calls for probe into killing of Indian journalist

India's deadliest regions for journalists

The central Indian state of Chhattisgarh, hit by a Maoist insurgency, and conflict-prone Kashmir especially have become dangerous places for those who question the government.

Last year, Somaru Nag and Santosh Yadav, both journalists who work for local newspapers were booked for sedition because police alleged that they worked as couriers for Maoists and published stories in their favor. Yadav had to spend 18 months in jail before he was released.

Read more: India struggles to fend off Maoist menace

Journalists are routinely targeted like in the case of Kamran Yusuf, a photojournalist from Kashmir, who was released on bail this month after spending more than six months in jail on charges of "waging war against India" and "stone throwing."

The International Federation of Journalists in a recent statement said journalists covering Kashmir have "walked the razor's edge," working under threats and intimidation from various actors in the conflict.

"It is not easy being an impartial reporter and working in hot spots around the country. One can get caught in this dirty cesspool where varied interests are at play. It is tough," S K Pandey, president of the Delhi Union of Journalists, told DW.

Besides journalists, people who use potent transparency laws to expose corruption have been targeted. More than 15 whistle-blowers have been murdered and countless others attacked in the past three years.

This has brought into sharp focus the obstacles hindering the successful implementation of India's landmark Right to Information Act, which is supposed to expose corruption in the government.

"The government has not implemented the Whistleblowers Protection Act. Instead Parliament's approval is being sought to dilute its enforcement," Venkatesh Nayak from Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative told DW.

"The need of the hour is to implement the law as enacted by parliament in February 2014 and set up systems that will enable journalists, RTI activists and anti-corruption crusaders to expose wrongdoing in government without fear," added Nayak.

In India, questioning authority is clearly extracting a price. Death may have become a consequence journalists, writers, and whistleblowers will now face for challenging powerful vested interests or for expressing dissent.

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