Assault on Journalist

The Network of Women in Media, India (NWMI) stands in solidarity with Mumbai-based independent journalist Priyanka Borpujari, who was assaulted and detained by the Bandra–Kurla Complex (BKC) police on 26 December 2017, while she was video-recording a slum demolition ordered by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Hans Bhugra Marg, Santa Cruz, Mumbai. Borpujari was released only after seven hours of detention, after her statement was recorded and she was charged under several sections of the Indian Penal Code, including “obstructing a government action” and “unlawful assembly.” Four other women, all residents of the slum, were also detained and charged under similar sections. 

A former International Women’s Media Foundation Elizabeth Neuffer Fellow, and a Fulbright Scholar with a decade of experience in journalism, Borpujari has been reporting on issues of human rights violations, forceful land grab, indigenous peoples’ rights, environment, health, and religion from different corners of India, as well as from Germany, El Salvador, and Indonesia.