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September 04, 2025 – India –
As India marks the eighth anniversary of Gauri Lankesh’s assassination, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is pressing the Karnataka state government to establish a fast-track court to close the prolonged but unresolved case. Lankesh—a fearless editor of the Kannada weekly Gauri Lankesh Patrike—was shot dead outside her home in Bengaluru on September 5, 2017, after vocally criticizing right-wing extremism.
Despite arrests, no one has been convicted of her killing. Seventeen suspects have been granted bail, and one remains at large. The trial, which finally began in 2022, continues its slow pace even as around 100 witnesses await their turn to testify.
CPJ Regional Director Beh Lih Yi described Lankesh’s murder as emblematic of a wider crisis: in both democracies and authoritarian regimes, murdering a journalist remains one of the most impunity-prone crimes. India, CPJ notes, must confront this culture of impunity and ensure that the trial’s conclusion delivers justice, not just due process.
To mark the anniversary, CPJ and the Bengaluru-based site The News Minute (TNM) convened a panel featuring Rollo Romig, author of I Am on the Hit List—a book exploring Lankesh’s murder and ideological suppression in South India; Lankesh’s friend and activist Shivsundar; and the widow of journalist Rajdev Ranjan, who himself was killed in 2016. The session, moderated by TNM Editor-in-Chief Dhanya Rajendran, spotlighted deeply concerning trial delays and called for a dedicated fast-track judicial mechanism.
Since 1992, at least 61 journalists have been killed in India for reasons tied to their work—yet legal accountability remains elusive. CPJ’s 2024 Global Impunity Index ranked India 13th among countries where killers of journalists are least likely to face justice—emphasizing the urgency of Lankesh’s case.
Reference –
https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/lessons-from-gauri-lankeshs-murder-trial/article70003822.ece
CPJ urges justice 8 years after Indian journalist Gauri Lankesh’s murder
