Click to play videoNew Delhi: As many as 15 Shiv Sena workers have been arrested in Mumbai and Pune for attacking employees and damaging property at the offices of IBN7 and IBN Lokmat in Mumbai and Pune after the two channels took a tough stand against intolerant politics in the state.
But this isn't the first time the media has been subject to intimidation from poltical and social groups. Zee, Star and Loksatta have been subject at various times to attacks from political as well as social groups.
February 2006: Zee Marathi staged a skit 'Kaka Mala Vachva', (Uncle, Protect Me) at an awards function. The skit took a dig at cousins Raj and Uddhav Thackeray and that was enough for Shiv Sena activists to smash the channel's office. Sena chief Bal Thackeray later congtratulated the attackers for remaining vigilant.
April 16, 2007: Protestors from the Hindu Rashtriya Sena attacked the office of Star News angered that the channel had aired the grievance of a couple - a 23-year-old Muslim boy and a 16-year-old Hindu girl who had eloped from Surat claiming that their parents were harassing them.
January 2008: Loksatta Editor and Senior journalist Kumar Ketkar attracted the ire of Shiv Sangram activists in Mumbai for criticising the Congress-NCP led government on the issue of installing a statue of Maratha king Chhatrapati Shivaji in the Arabian sea.
July 2008: Supporters of Asaram Bapu attacked journalists in Ahmedabad after the death of two children in Asaram Bapu's ashram at Motera was reported.
In all these attacks, people were detained and tough action promised, but as the latest attack on IBN lokmat shows, media freedom continues to be endangered.
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