Indian journalists, activists protest murder of newspaper publisher

BENGALURU, India (Reuters) - Indian journalists and rights activists protested on Wednesday against the murder of an outspoken publisher of a weekly tabloid amid growing concerns about freedom of the press at a time of rising nationalism and intolerance of dissent.

Gauri Lankesh, 55, the editor and publisher of the Kannada-language “Gauri Lankesh Patrike” newspaper, was shot dead on Tuesday by unidentified assailants near her home in the southern city of Bengaluru.

She had parked her car outside her gate and was walking to the main entrance of her home when the attackers fired at least seven rounds, killing her, police said.

The motive was not known.

Lankesh was a fierce advocate of secularism and opposed hardline Hindu groups associated with Prime Narendra Modi’s right-wing, nationalist ruling party.

Her weekly, with a circulation of more than 5,000, is regarded as influential in the state, read by policy makers and politicians.

A man touches the casket containing the body of Gauri Lankesh, a senior Indian journalist who according to police was shot dead outside her home on Tuesday by unidentified assailants, at Ravindra Kalakshetra in Bengaluru, India, September 6, 2017. REUTERS/Nivedita Bhattacharjee

Lankesh spent decades with various media outlets before taking over the newspaper started by her father.

Several journalist groups, including the Editors’ Guild, Press Club of India and Press Association, held protests in cities across India, calling her murder a “brutal assault on the freedom of the press”.

They said she was a critical, secular voice at a time when the country was being swept by a wave of right-wing, Hindu nationalism.

“She was an idealist and would take on the right-wing forces on several controversial issues,” said Y.P. Rajesh, an executive editor at the news website The Print and a long-time friend of Lankesh.

The U.S. embassy in New Delhi also condemned the killing.