Journalists in Chennai and from the Union Territory of Puduchery on Saturday staged a protest against the recent gang rape of a photojournalist in Mumbai.
Gathering at the Chennai Press Club in Chepauk here, journalists raised slogans condemning the incident, calling for security for women professionals and justice in the case.
The culprits must be apprehended immediately and bought to book, protesters demanded. Beginning on the premises of Press Club, they went in a procession to the main road and raised slogans there.
Participants were affiliated to the Network of Women in Media – Chennai, the Chennai Press Club, and the Tamil Nadu Press Photographers Association. A number of journalists who were not members also turned up to express solidarity. The incident of the 22-year old woman raped in Mumbai in the Shakti Mills compound, where she was on duty, had sent shockwaves across the country, representatives of the organisations said.
Women journalists who are engaged in such tasks on a daily basis will have to be given protection and it must be ensured that such incidents do not happen, they added.
The protesters condemned the Maharashtra government for not providing a safe environment for women working in the State, and said no further delay would be tolerated in taking the case forward.
All governments must also focus on ensuring that the cities, towns and villages are safe for women, they said.
